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The 71st Berlin International Film Festival has kicked off today, this year in its digital edition due to the coronavirus pandemic. The prestigious nominations include nine EU-supported films and series three of which compete for the highest prize - the Golden Bear: Memory Box by Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Nebenan (Next Door) by Daniel Brühl, and Természetes fény (Natural Light) by Dénes Nagy. The EU supported the development and co-production of these nine titles with an investment of over €750 000 that was awarded through the Creative Europe MEDIA programme.

The Berlinale Film Festival has kicked off today with a digital edition of the Industry Event, where Creative Europe MEDIA will partake with a virtual stand, a European Film Forum, side events and films in competition.

BETTEReHEALTH, funded under Horizon Europe and started in January 2021, aims at mapping and identifying human, technical and public policy factors that are barriers or enablers for eHealth implementation in low and lower middle income countries in Africa. BETTEReHEALTH will coordinate and support the deployment of sustainable eHealth solutions to derive strategies and policies for more successful use of eHealth, and thus better health.

Thanks to the Roaming Regulation roaming charges ended on 15 June 2017 and Europeans travelling within the EU countries can Roam Like at Home and pay domestic prices for roaming calls, SMS and data. As the current Roaming Regulation is in place until 30 June 2022, the Commission has reviewed the regime to prolong it beyond that date and enhance benefits for EU citizens. The Commission is proposing a new Roaming Regulation aimed at extending the rules for 10 years and enhancing its benefits for the citizens.

Today two Slovenian hospitals received two of the first robots purchased by the Commission to disinfect patient rooms, thus helping reduce and contain the spread of coronavirus. A further 29 disinfection robots are deployed to hospitals in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. These robots can disinfect a standard size patient room in as quickly as 10 minutes by using ultraviolet light and disinfect over 18 rooms in one charge.

The EU’s health and long-term care workforce will need to grow by 11 million workers between 2018 and 2030 to meet the demands of an ageing population, according to a JRC report.

The EU Observatory for the Online Platform Economy, which informs the policy work of the Commission, by providing independent views on some of the key questions that have arisen in connection to the platform economy is today publishing the final reports from the expert group following stakeholder feedback and reactions on the progress reports which were published for consultation in July 2020.

The Commission has published the new reports by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, TikTok and Mozilla, signatories of the Code of Practice on Disinformation. They provide an overview of the evolution of the measures taken in January 2021.

This infographic highlights the key outputs from the work carried out and collaboration within the EIP on AHA Action Groups.

To ensure that citizens can continue to enjoy roaming without additional charges when travelling in the EU, the Commission has proposed a new Roaming Regulation. At a time when non-essential travel is discouraged, this is an important action in preparing a brighter future. The new regulation will prolong the current rules that are due to expire in 2022, for another 10 years.