France

The pension reform successfully passes its last test! 
On the 14th of April, the highest French Court gave its verdict, the law reforming the pension system in France is legally based and conducted. Therefore E. Macron promulgated the law 2 hours later. 

The constitutional control was the final chance for the syndicates and the opponents to win this battle. As expected, riots exploded as the verdict was shared and the syndicates declined the invitation of the president at the Elysée to discuss about “the after”. 

Following this decision, Macron addressed a speech to the country. Acknowledging people’s anger, but justifying his actions by imperative needs, for the economy and the pension system, concluding it was the most effective decision. However, he didn’t speak any further about the reform, he called for relief in the next few days. He then mentioned the different challenges he wanted to work on, one of them concerning the health system. He aims to offer access to the 600 K chronically ill patients, to a referent doctor, and to unclog the hospital’s emergencies. 

Riots are still taking place in all of France, tensions are so to be expected, and this is for quite a time. 

Endometriosis, menstrual leaves, when the French public and private sector mobilizes for women’s health.  
All the city’s female employees, in Saint-Ouen – a municipality near Paris – announced it was adopted, a plan allowing them to take 2 days off work per month without salary deductions as long as they have a note from their doctor. This is a first for a local authority in France but was followed by Carrefour, a pioneer in food retailing. Indeed, the giant announced 12 days of extra leave for women who experience a medical condition that can cause excessive period pain. They will also give three days’ leave to women who suffer a miscarriage. 

Some good news, which is in line with the Spanish recent policy. 

The law reforming the pension successfully passes its last test! 
On the 14th of April, the highest French Court gave its verdict, the law reforming the pension system in France is legally based and conducted. Therefore E. Macron promulgated the law 2 hours later. 

The constitutional control was the final chance for the syndicates and the opponents to win this battle. As expected, riots exploded as the verdict was shared and the syndicates declined the invitation of the president at the Elysée to discuss about “the after”. 

Following this decision, Macron addressed a speech to the country. Acknowledging people’s anger, but justifying his actions by imperative needs, for the economy and the pension system, concluding it was the most effective decision. However, he didn’t speak any further about the reform, he called for relief in the next few days. He then mentioned the different challenges he wanted to work on, one of them concerning the health system. He aims to offer access to the 600 K chronically ill patients, to a referent doctor, and to unclog the hospital’s emergencies. 

Riots are still taking place in all of France, tensions are so to be expected, and this is for quite a time. 

Endometriosis, menstrual leaves, when the French public and private sector mobilizes for women’s health.  
All the city’s female employees, in Saint-Ouen – a municipality near Paris – announced it was adopted, a plan allowing them to take 2 days off work per month without salary deductions as long as they have a note from their doctor. This is a first for a local authority in France but was followed by Carrefour, a pioneer in food retailing. Indeed, the giant announced 12 days of extra leave for women who experience a medical condition that can cause excessive period pain. They will also give three days’ leave to women who suffer a miscarriage. 

Enforcement of the ceiling of remuneration for temporary physicians: are France’s public hospitals on the edge of massive shortages of practitioners?
Since 2016, temporary physicians’ wages in public establishments cannot exceed a gross €1,170 remuneration for a 24-hour shift. In 2021, because this law was not respected, the Parliament adopted a bill that reinforces the controls. Because of the COVID-19 crisis, this measure only entered into force on April 3rd of 2023.

For months, the medical community warned the Government: the National Union of Hospital Locum Physicians (SNMRH) stated that 107 units in 69 hospitals are under immediate threat. At the beginning of the month, Health Minister François Braun (who was himself head of an emergency department in a public hospital) denounced some “downward slides” of unregulated temporary work. His ministry pointed out the ethical issue of important wage differences within units, the necessity of having stable medical staff, and the sake of public finances. Dr. Braun stated that no service would close in April 2023 they would do everything to maintain healthcare service continuity in May 2023 and onwards.

This entry into force starts in a bad state. At the last minute, the health ministry transitorily raised the ceiling to €1,390. Some regions already activated a clause allowing them to circumvent this ceiling in case of “particular difficulties in terms of recruitment”.

Beyond this battle of figures, how many hospitals will have to deal with units functioning in fail-soft mode or shut down emergency departments in the next days, weeks, or months? Will we witness a shift of physicians towards private establishments in which this ceiling doesn’t apply? Will this measure last? Wait and see.

UK 

Sunak under investigation
Prime Minister Sunak has come under fire this week for failing to declare his billionaire wife’s capital and interest in childcare agency Koru Kids that was booted by the Spring Budget.

The Spring Budget announced in mid-March had great emphasis on childcare support to enable parents, particularly mothers, to get back to work after giving a break. The Budget expanded free childcare provision, boosting capacity at childcare agencies such as Koru Kids. 

With elections coming up soon, the latest Koru Kids scandal might further damage the already fragile image of the Conservative Party.

Germany 

Germany is challenging path to carbon-neutral heating
On April 19th the German Minister of Economy Robert Habeck (The Greens) and the Minister of Construction Klara Geywitz (SPD) presented a draft for the renewal of the law on energy in buildings (GEG). The ministers want to initiate the “heating turn”, meaning the end of heating systems based on fossil fuels so that until 2044 all heating systems are carbon neutral. According to the draft, from 2024 newly installed heating systems cannot be powered by fossil fuels anymore. Alternatives to fossil energy are for example heat pumps, district heating, electric heating, or solar thermal systems. New gas heaters are only allowed to be installed if 50 % of the gas they run on is eco gas (e. g. hydrogen, biomethane) by 2030 and a share of 65% of eco gas by 2035. These changes could cost German households up to 9.16 billion euros annually until 2028. The government will financially support the transition with a share of 30%. 

According to a survey by the news channel Ntv, 78% of Germans are against the plans of the traffic light coalition. Representatives of the oppositional CDU criticized the plans as one-sided towards the heat pumps because the requirements for other technologies are set too high. Surprisingly, Christian Lindner, head of the FDP and Minister of Finance, also criticized the proposal even though he agreed on the draft in the first place. He stated his agreement was given knowing that the fractions of the parliament would intensively confer and make necessary changes. However, Greenpeace Germany called the draft a “milestone” and long “overdue”.

An important week for Germanys diplomacy
One day after Emmanuel Macron surprised everyone with his China-friendly statements regarding Taiwan politics, Annalena Baerbock, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, met her Chinese colleague Qin Gang and the highest-ranked Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in China. She emphasized Europe’s unity by saying “It is for sure, that we as Europeans stand side by side”. On the following G7 summit she made her point on China even clearer stating she would defend the international law “with everything, we have”. Olaf Scholz supported Baerbock and advocated for “de-risking” regarding China, meaning reducing one-sided economic dependencies without economic “de-coupling”. But not every politician in Germany was happy about the dealings with China. Conservatives of the SPD (which Olaf Scholz counts too) released a statement that criticizes Baerbock saying “We should not publicly insult our partners”.

Spain 

Green light to the start of the amendment of the law of the ‘Solo Si es Si’
This Tuesday, March 7, the Congress approved to start the procedure of the PSOE’s reform on the ‘only yes is yes’ law, which was registered last February 6 after a week of negotiations between the Government partners. The legislative proposal registered alone by the PSOE would modify the law on sexual freedom (or the ‘only yes is yes’ law), which was approved at the end of August 2022. The norm, among other issues, equated to the crimes of sexual abuse and sexual assault. The PSOE proposes to maintain a single crime, that of sexual assault, but differentiating between whether there was violence or not. This implies that some minimum penalties are increased. 

Dry Spring in Spain
Spain is going through a period of extensive and prolonged drought. This is a fact supported by the data and evidenced by a look at the sky, the rivers, and the fields.

The hydrological year 2021-2022 has been the third driest since records have been kept, in the last 61 years. The accumulated rainfall in Spain from October 1, 2021, to last September 30 was 25% below normal. And that is the average because there are large areas where the precipitation deficit hovered around or exceeded 50%.

A reform to regulate new forms of smoking.
In recent years the ‘boom’ of new tobacco products, with or without nicotine, has made necessary a reform of Royal Decree 579/2017 regulating certain aspects relating to the manufacture, presentation, and marketing of these and related products. Therefore, the Ministry of Health has now opened a public consultation to receive contributions from citizens and organizations to adapt the current regulations to the increased supply of new related products present in the market, such as electronic cigarettes, and reduce the consumption of them, as well as the exposure of the general population to them.

Belgium 

Belgian GPs Freezing Out New Patients 
A survey conducted at the request of Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) found over half of GPs in Belgium are limiting their new patient intake due to a very high workload. When asked about their ideal work week, GPs indicated that they would prefer to work 38-to-40-hour weeks. This does not hold up to reality, however. On average, GPs in Belgium work between 50 and 64 hours per week, while nearly one in five says they work more than 64 hours in a week.  

As a result of this high workload, many GPs have decided to set up certain requirements for accepting new patients, such as living in the area or being related to an existing patient. One-fifth of GPs has even implemented a complete patient freeze, which will have residual effects on the efficiency and accessibility of care.  

In order to ease the workload of GPs and ensure all patients have easy access to a local GP, Minister Vandenbroucke will consider these results when setting the federal doctors’ quota for 2029. This theme of overworked healthcare professionals is not new, however. In January of this year, a protest was held in Brussels by doctors, nurses, and clinicians against the underfunding of social security services.  

Netherlands

Treasury, climate, asylum; these are the ticking time bombs for the cabinet
In politics at The Hague, no less than four-time bombs are ticking that can cause irreparable damage to the government coalition governing the country: empty state coffers, more asylum seekers than the system can handle, the lingering nitrogen deadlock, and the long-awaited climate plans. Do these issues lead to a fall from the cabinet or do the protagonists manage to get out?

Firstly, the cabinet is negotiating the gap in the budget this week. A few billion extra are needed for rising interest rates, for additional asylum measures, for ‘Groningen’, and for the climate. The Spring Memorandum, which amends the current budget, should be finished next week, so tensions are mounting. D66 Finance Minister Kaag has recently been going around all ministries to see if there was money to be raised. If that doesn’t yield enough, interventions are needed. 

The proportions
Two major coalition parties D66 and CDA are opposed to the opening of the coalition agreement on the theme of nitrogen proposed by the CDA: a hot topic for ‘climate party’ D66. That explosive subject will be discussed again soon, and the question is whether that ends well. Minister Jetten (D66) wants to complete his comprehensive plans at the same time as the Spring Memorandum, and the Dutch Spring budget so that they can be calculated and implemented on time to meet the climate targets. Those climate goals are the main reason that D66 is (still) in the cabinet, but finishing the plans is not easy, because everything has become negotiable again now that ‘nitrogen’ has started to shift.

Fly tax and meat tax
Minister Jetten’s (D66) proposals for more expensive fuel and higher purchase tax for petrol cars – part of the climate package – immediately encountered resistance. Saddling the citizen with expensive gasoline, especially ‘car party’ VVD is heavy on the stomach. Additionally, regarding air tax and meat tax, the D66 minister thinks the other liberal coalition party is in front of him. Lastly, he mentioned the climate plans of the coalition, stating that electrifying the Dutch fleet must be faster

Moral lower limit
The asylum seekers are reported to be a remaining problem since thousands more asylum seekers have entered the country, exceeding expectations. The influx was already greater than the Dutch system could handle, it turned out last year when hundreds of asylum seekers had to sleep outside. Meanwhile, the coalition is still seriously divided on this too.

Roughly speaking, VVD and CDA face D66 and CU. Where Rutte (as VVD leader) promised his party colleagues last autumn that he will substantially reduce the influx. While D66 and especially the Christian Union especially do not want to go through a moral lower limit, as they see it.

‘No Christmas holidays’
Finally, there is the tricky issue of Groningen. The government is working on compensation for gas extraction, but no concrete plans have been presented to the Groningen residents. Additionally, after the May recess that starts tomorrow, Prime Minister Rutte will await another debate on the parliamentary committee of Inquiry’s report on earthquake damage.

The NOS reports that thus several threats can shake the stability of the coalition and long-term security is in doubt. Thus, a fall of the cabinet is considered in various ministries. Emails are circulating considering a busy summer ‘and perhaps not a Christmas holiday’ for officials due to a cabinet change.

Greece 

Government and academic act on mental health and addiction
On 19 April the Ministry of Health and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens signed five programming agreements as part of the integrated plan for the development of Mental Health structures and actions throughout the territory, which is foreseen in the National Mental Health Action Plan. These include actions to upgrade the skills of healthcare workers and the wider availability of psychological support.

(Another) Greek MEP under scrutiny
The Greek MEP Alexis Georgoulis (GUE), member of the leading opposition party SYRIZA, is under scrutiny since Monday after allegations concerning the crimes of rape and causing bodily harm. On Monday afternoon, the request to lift the MEP’s immunity became known, and from that point onwards the developments were rapid. The victim made her first public statement, noting that she filed the complaint already in 2020, and Georgoulis responded through a joint statement by his three lawyers which denies any involvement. Meanwhile, however, the case has caused an “earthquake” in the domestic political universe, as the Greek elections approach, with SYRIZA removing its MEP from the party while at the same time implying that the allegation is politically driven to harm the party’s reputation

Canada 

Federal workers go on strike 
Following the failure to reach an agreement with the government, more than 155,000 federal workers went on strike this Wednesday. This marks the largest strike in more than three decades in the country. Federal workers demand fairer contracts, especially for wages to keep up with inflation, as well as better work-life balance and more workplace inclusivity. This strike is expected to impact the processing of taxes, immigration applications, passports, and overall government services. 

GSK buys Canadian drug developer BELLUS Health 
GSK signed an agreement to acquire the Canadian biopharmaceutical company BELLUS Health for $2bn. With this purchase, GSK further invests into respiratory therapies as BELLUS has been developing a camlipixant drug, aimed at treating adult patients with refractory chronic cough.