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10 February 2021


Hello, and welcome to the news and tools delivery from EDJNet.

The clash between the EU and AstraZeneca over delayed vaccines has revealed a stack of questionable contracts signed with Big Pharma. Problems include manufacturers’ ambiguous delivery dates, but lawyers investigating the deals show that companies have a clear advantage over the EU. VoxEurop's Stefano Valentino investigates.

In this edition, we further sit down with economist and Science Po lecturer Eloi Laurent to discuss the need to marry social justice activism with ecological sustainability. We also take a look at the last part of OBC Transeuropa's multi-part investigation on CO2 emissions and the energy sector, with an analysis of why EU disincentives against emissions are not working very effectively.

We hope you'll enjoy the reading!

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EDJNet stories

Covid-19 vaccine contracts: EU has hands tied, experts say

  • The EU and AstraZeneca have reached a truce of sorts after their early spat, but Commission has few options but to rely on the goodwill by AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
  • The EU and the member states have placed themselves in a weak position, taking high-margin financial risks and a less demanding attitude toward suppliers.
  • Legal experts agree that the contracts favour pharmaceutical companies, allowing them to unilaterally revise delivery dates so long as they're making their "best reasonable effort".
Read the article >
 

CO2: the EU disincentives are not working

Ornaldo Gjergji | OBC Transeuropa

The EU Emission Trading System, the EU’s main mechanism to disincentivise CO2 emissions, seems not to have had the desired results. Major industrial groups, often with the support of their own governments, profit from systemic weaknesses while continuing to produce energy using fossil fuels.
 

Mine tailing dams: the giants we ignore at our peril

Marco Ranocchiari | OBC Transeuropa
 

Tailing ponds are among the largest and most dangerous structures engineered by humanity, but their operation is virtually unknown to those who don’t live in their vicinity. Europe is no less at risk from incidents than the rest of the world.
 

"An alliance between social justice and ecological sustainability must take over"

Catherine André | Alternatives Economiques

 
The Covid-19 pandemic is a cruel reminder that ecosystem vitality and human health are closely linked. For Eloi Laurent, "the best economic policy is a good health policy and the best health policy is a good environmental policy. We see that there is no trade-off between economy and environment."
 

Biometric IDs and health passports: safety at the expense of personal freedom

Andreas Vou | VoxEurop

Digital IDs and health passports are being talked up as the only way to return to normal amid COVID-19 but open the door to an unprecedented central surveillance system and an end to personal autonomy through coercion. And while they are being pitched as optional, those who opt out face exclusion from the most fundamental freedoms.

All our articles can be freely republished or reused. Some are available in Croatian, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, and Romanian. Interested? Write to us!

From our partners


From the European Data News Hub

 

Time to wear a better mask, experts say

As new, more transmissible variants of the coronavirus spread, experts say it’s time to consider using a medical-grade respirator, or wearing a surgical and cloth mask together.
 

Euthanasia: Where it's legal in Europe

Portugal’s parliament has recently passed a law allowing medically assisted dying, putting the Catholic-majority country on course to become the fourth in Europe to legalise euthanasia. Before coming into force the bill must first be signed into law by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, a staunch Catholic and conservative who was re-elected only last weekend. Here is a round-up of the situation in Europe.

Tools and Tips

The Stats Monitor

The Stats Monitor is a tool we developed in order to make it easier for journalists to track and use newly released data.

  • The Stats Monitor offers ready-made visualizations of data, which are constantly updated. They can be easily adapted to fit the journalist’s needs
  • The Stats Monitor analyzes new data in order to spot interesting trends and outliers, so as to help journalists to find newsworthy material in them
  • At any moment, any user can consult the latest data visualizations and newsleads.

Useful Data


Sourcing daily COVID-19 cases and deaths

In December 2020, the ECDC decided to stop publishing daily new cases and deaths per country. The Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) publishes data every day, however they use the cumulative number of cases and deaths by country.

EDJNet's partners at Deutsche Welle wrote a script that converts the cumulative case numbers back to daily case numbers. This dataset of daily case numbers is then appended to the last continuous one published by the ECDC, containing daily reported cases and deaths by country reaching back to the beginning of 2020.

If you are interested in this dataset, please get in touch with data-team[at]dw.com

Eurocontrol Daily Traffic Variation

Commercial aviation has been hugely impacted by the Covid-19 crisis in Europe as a whole, with some notable differences among countries and regions. Eurocontrol, the agency that manages air traffic over Europe, provides a daily updated overview of the commercial aviation traffic in Europe. You can filter by country, airport and carrier.


 

From the data journalism community


Computation+Journalism conference

Journalists interested in the intersection of computation and journalism can participate in this event. Northeastern University's Computation+Journalism Symposium (C+J) will be held online on 19 February, in partnership with the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. This year's theme is "Data journalism in an expanded field."
 

Environmental Journalism contest

Journalists who have completed environmental reporting can submit their work to the Society of Environmental Journalists. The awards honor journalists in 10 categories, including feature story, investigative reporting, explanatory reporting and book. You can find more information here. The deadline is on 1st March.
 

Louise Weiss prize for European journalism – 2020 edition

Ok, it's not entirely #DDJ, and it addresses only to stories published in French, but if you fit the requirements, it might be worth submitting: the Louise Weiss prize for European journalism rewards journalistic reports and analysis (also data-driven), including podcast, video and multimedia features, on any media, on European issues published in French in 2020. Deadline for submitting (via email or the online form) is 8 March. More info here.

You are free to reuse and republish all the content available on EDJNet. If you’d like to know more, check our terms of use or contact us (info@europeandatajournalism.eu).

For more news and features from EDJNet visit our site and join the conversation on our social networks:
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