The European Commission approved on Wednesday its seventh Advanced Purchase Agreement (APA) with a pharmaceutical company to ensure access to a potential vaccine against Covid-19 in Q4 of 2021 and in 2022, EC Press service reported. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen stressed that the new contract would further strengthens the EU broad vaccine portfolio.

Western Balkan countries, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine continue to meet the visa liberalisation requirements and made progress in addressing last year's recommendations. That is the conclusion of the 4th report on the monitoring of the EU visa-free regime with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, as well as Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the US to swiftly lift its wide-reaching coronavirus entry ban for arrivals from Europe, dpa reported. "We insist comparable rules be applied to arrivals in both directions," she told German media RND in comments published on Wednesday.

The EC has opened an investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Kustomer by Facebook under the EU Merger Regulation. The deal would reduce competition in the market for the supply of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. As a result of its combination with Kustomer, Facebook may foreclose access to its business-to-consumer (‘B2C') over-the-top (‘OTT') messaging channels, namely WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram, the EC said in a statement.

The EC published four new calls for proposals, represent close to €12 million in EU funding, that aim to stimulate a lively and diverse public sphere and promoting citizens' access to reliable information across the EU. All financed projects will operate with full editorial independence, stressed the EC.

The European Commission on Monday adopted decisions ensuring that Covid-19 certificates issued by the Vatican City State and San Marino will be considered equivalent to the EU Digital Covid Certificate, EC Press service reported. This means that both countries will be connected to the EU's system and that Covid certificates issued by the Vatican and San Marino will be accepted in the EU under the same conditions as the EU Digital Covid Certificate.

Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, will travel to Lithuania on Sunday, 1 August, to meet with senior government officials to discuss the situation at the external border with Belarus. They will also talk about any additional European support needed for border and migration management or diplomatic outreach, in line with the principles of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, EC announced.

The European Commission provides financial support to six Member States through the Mobility Package of the Emergency Support Instrument amounting to over €14 million, for the transport of Covid-19 vaccination-related equipment and Covid-19 therapeutics. This comes on top of the €150 million already made available for the transport of essential medical items since last year, EC announced.

The European Commission publishes on Thursday the reports by Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Microsoft and Google on measures taken in June to combat coronavirus disinformation. The current signatories and the Commission are also calling on new companies to join the Code of Practice on disinformation as it will help broaden its impact and make it more effective. EC Press service reported.

The European Commission on Tuesday signed a joint procurement framework contract with the pharmaceutical company Glaxo Smith Kline for the supply of sotrovimab (VIR-7831), an investigational monoclonal antibody therapy, developed in collaboration with VIR biotechnology, EC Press service reported on Wednesday. It is part of the first portfolio of five promising therapeutics announced by the Commission in June 2021, and is currently under rolling review by the European Medicines Agency.