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Hungary and Poland lose EU funding fight

Hungary and Poland have lost their court challenge to an EU rule that allows billions of euros of funding to be conditional on democratic standards.

The European Union's highest court has ruled that the EU can reduce funding for member states found to have flouted democratic values. Judges at the European Court of Justice dismissed a challenge by Poland and Hungary, which argued that what's known as the conditionality mechanism has no legal basis. We hear from German Green MEP Daniel Freund. Two of the world's biggest lager makers, Carlsberg and Heineken, have warned that inflation in the manufacturing process is driving up brewers' costs and will make a pint more expensive. And there's also supply chain issues and staff shortages. So how worried should beer drinkers be? We hear from journalist Melissa Cole, author of The Ultimate Book of Craft Beer. Have US pharmaceutical companies created a web of disinformation to boost their profits? That's the accusation of Dr John Abramson, a family physician and faculty member at Harvard Medical School as laid out in his new book about Big Pharma, 'Sickening' - Dr Abramson explains further. And in France, a long list of covid rules are being dropped – and clubs can reopen right away. We hear from Parisian DJ, Francois X. (Picture of a judges' gavel on a flag of the European Union. Picture credit: Getty images).

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27 minutes

Last on

Wed 16 Feb 2022 15:32GMT

Broadcast

  • Wed 16 Feb 2022 15:32GMT