​As reported in our previous update, on 22nd October 2020 the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland ruled that access to abortion care on the grounds of “severe and irreversible foetal defect or incurable illness.

In the past few months the refugee crisis has remained one of the biggest political and social challenges facing Greece.

​On 15th September 2020, the Romanian government extended the state of alert for 30 days due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

​Due to the growing infection rates of COVID-19, from 10th October 2020, public gatherings in Poland were restricted to a maximum of 150 participants.

On 30th September 2020, the European Commission released its first (in the future annual) report, the “2020 Rule of Law Report”, on the state of democracy of its member states.

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In an attempt to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lithuanian government announced a national lockdown on 16th March 2020.

Belgium has been without a fully functioning government since December 2018. In May 2019 a general election was held but as the political landscape is very fragmented the parties were not able to form a coalition (see previous update).

Catalan independence campaigners are suspected to have been targeted by government services using spyware, which is allegedly only sold to governments for the purpose of surveilling criminals and terrorists.

Georgiana Gheorghe, executive director of APADOR-CH, expressed her deep concern regarding the lack of clarity surrounding the law on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing, as previously reported by the Monitor.