Flash and Facts

12 April 2019

We must strongly denounce the anti-vaccination hysteria

Some believe that there is no need to vaccinate their children. In light of this, the health authorities must be very vigilant in face of people making individual decisions that are potentially ...

2204

29 March 2019

Water: a Source of Life, but also a Source of Conflict

Three in ten people -2.1billion- do not have access to safe drinking water and six in ten people -4.5 billion- have no safe sanitation facilities (Re.UN World Water Report 2019 -Fig.2015). The UN ...

2506

29 March 2019

Europe needs to be less naive in the face of increased global competition

We are witnessing an important shift in Europe’s competition policy towards foreign direct investment. EU’s authorities are prepared to take all necessary measures to strengthen control ...

2136

15 March 2019

Tackling Climate Change will depend on the Efforts of each and every one of us

The fight against climate change will obviously require global solidarity. But behind the fine words, we need to raise individual awareness. It is easy to blame the international institutions, the ...

2619

15 March 2019

Why do Autocratic Leaders go abroad for Medical Treatment?

This debate has been re-launched during the hospitalisation of Algeria’s President Bouteflika in the Swiss city of Geneva. The Pt Bouteflika suffered a stroke in 2013 and had also been ...

2144

28 February 2019

On Earth and in Space: « Our Waste products »

Waste generation rates are rising across the world. With rapid population growth, annual waste generation is expected to increase by 70% from 2016 levels to 3.40 billion tonnes in 2050 (Re: World ...

3309

28 February 2019

Europe is lagging behind in the race for technological Supremacy

Today, the US is forging ahead in key areas of the tech sector, and China is not far behind. Of course, most governments in the EU are aware of the technological challenges facing European firms. ...

2204

15 February 2019

The growing Threat posed by Cyber Attacks against Critical Infrastructure

All democratic States must urgently step up their efforts to counter cyber attacks against critical infrastructure facilities. We have no doubt that in some parts of the world state and non-state ...

2435

15 February 2019

The need to improve Transparency to combat non-democratic Regimes

A large number of NGO’s are doing sterling work. We particularly welcome the reports produced by Transparency International (TI) and Freedom House. The latest corruption perception index (TI ...

2245

29 January 2019

Walls are going up all over the World

The facts stand: we build more and more protective walls in our increasingly connected and global world. In a politically sensitive context that affects in particular Europe, national governments ...

2369