European Union

The Council approved conclusions highlighting the strategic importance of water for sustainable development, reaffirming the EU’s diplomatic engagement on water as a tool for peace, security and stability, and calling for increased emphasis on the issue of water in the EU’s external action and in the UN agendas in line with SDG 6.

The EU issued a declaration Union strongly condemning the Russian Federation’s conduct of a kinetic direct-ascent anti-satellite weapon test against its own satellite, COSMOS 1408, resulting in its destruction by a missile, as a clear act of irresponsible behaviour in outer space.

Council adopts regulation establishing joint undertakings under Horizon Europe.

The Council approved conclusions recognising the key role of EU public sector expertise as a form of international technical cooperation. Such cooperation may - among others - take the form of administrative and technical cooperation measures, as well as institution building through tools such as Twinning and TAIEX.

Press briefing ahead of the upcoming General Affairs Council will take place on 22 November 2021 at 10.30.

Written by Jaan Soone.

In December 2019 the European Commission published a communication on the Green Deal, in which it outlined its priorities to transform the EU into a resource-efficient and competitive economy and to meet the EU’s climate commitments.

Subsequently, in line with the Green Deal, the European Climate Law was adopted in July 2021, setting in law the EU target for 2030 of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 % compared with 1990 levels. To deliver the targets agreed in the European Climate Law, the Commission adopted a set of legislative proposals known as the ‘Fit for 55’ package on 14 July 2021. To speed up emissions reductions in transport, the package includes proposals to tighten the emissions trading scheme and widen its scope, proposals to increase the use of alternative fuels in aviation and shipping, stricter CO2 emissions standards for road vehicles, and a proposal to amend the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive (AFID) and transform it into a regulation.

This briefing provides a snapshot of the current state of play in alternative fuels recharging and refuelling points, and in the number of alternative fuel vehicles in circulation in EU countries. Since the adoption of the AFID in 2014, infrastructure deployment for the various alternative fuels in road transport has grown, however differences persist between Member States. Similarly, the uptake of alternatively fuelled vehicles differs between Member States, and petrol and diesel engines continue to dominate vehicle fleets. Nonetheless, the market for electric vehicles has strongly matured, and the market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has also developed. The market for natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicles is mature and has seen slow growth, but vehicles have remained concentrated in a few Member States. The briefing also summarises recent projections for future take-up of these vehicles.

See also the EPRS ‘EU Legislation in progress’ briefing on the revision of the Directive on the Deployment of Alternative Fuels Infrastructure (AFID).

Read the complete briefing on ‘Alternative fuel vehicle infrastructure and fleets: State of play‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

EU and UK officials stressed on Friday (19 November) the need to build on new 'momentum' in the talks on the controversial Northern Ireland protocol, after a week in which the threat of a trade war appeared to recede.

Due to rising COVID-19 cases, the Conference of Presidents decided to approve the President’s proposal to reintroduce remote participation and voting for MEPs as of 22 November.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Due to rising COVID-19 cases, the Conference of Presidents decided to approve the President’s proposal to reintroduce remote participation and voting for MEPs as of 22 November.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Yes, we know. We’ve teased you time and time again with the promise of a #FinalCAPdown. But this time, it’s the real deal. After months and months of discussions, reversals, late-night talks and last-minute deals and not one, not two,...

Perhaps it was just too good to be true. After a few months of relative normality, trips to the cinema, beers with friends and eating out, we are back to restrictions. In Austria’s case, a full lockdown.

As the heads of Gaia-X, a much-publicised European tech project, praised progress in developing a federated cloud and data ecosystem at the Gaia-X summit concluded on Friday (19. November), one of Europe’s biggest cloud providers has already jumped ship.

EURACTIV’s Digital Brief brings you a weekly update on all things digital in the EU.

Apple has vehemently been opposing sideloading provisions in the DMA, which would allow alternative ways for downloading apps on their operating system. Damien Geradin, legal counsel for the Coalition for App Faireness responds point by point to Apple’s argument, making the case...

The question of how COVID vaccines donated by wealthy countries are classified and priced could artificially raise the European Union’s development aid figures by billions of euros, EURACTIV understands.

The European Space Agency has taken a giant leap in launching the Matoshinhos Manifesto that will accelerate the use of space in Europe and tackle the urgent and unprecedented challenges faced by Europe and its citizens. Today, as a resolution, it was unanimously approved by the Council of Ministers, ushering in what it is hoped will be a new era for exploration and discovery.

This week, EURACTIV talks about what to expect from the final CAP vote in Strasbourg next week, we take a look at the EU's recently unveiled soil strategy.

EDA’s prototype Tactical Personnel Recovery Mission Simulator (TPRMS) was officially inaugurated on 18 November in Italy after achieving Initial Operational Capability (IOC). The new simulator marks a significant achievement for the European Personnel Recovery community as no such capability currently exists with Europe.  

An inauguration ceremony was organised at Italian Air Base Poggio-Renatico, the host organisation of the TPRMS. The formal opening was followed by a live immersion experience within the TPRMS where participants had the opportunity to engage in an immersive virtual reality simulation of Personnel Recovery (PR) missions. 

TPRMS from concept to capability

The TPRMS project was launched in April 2019 as a proof-of-concept demonstrator with an objective to test and evaluate a technical solution that uses Virtual Reality (VR) technology and simulation-based software that when put together can quickly and easily create a customisable and highly realistic operational environment. The simulator which can create conditions from across the globe offers an opportunity for PR forces to rehearse PR Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) in a risk-free environment. 

The development of TPRMS is conducted within a four-year timeframe (2019-2022) and is run jointly and co-financed by the European Defence Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defence, which is acting as the project Lead Nation and Host Nation through its Air Forces.  

TPRMS also aims to demonstrate that such a capability provides at an affordable cost an immersive style of training that allows joint PR forces to hone their skills in a risk free environment that still offers a rigorous, realistic and repetitive PR training. EDA’s TPRMS project is a first step towards the creation of a European common approach in training joint PR forces through simulation and as a key enabler to the joint PR training process.  

EDA Chief Executive, Jiří Šedivý said: “The TPRMS project demonstrates EDA’s enduring engagement in supporting its Member States efforts in aiming to find affordable and well-proven technical solutions that can contribute to overcome existing capability gaps for training within the EU, in this case in the PR area”.  

Project Team Personnel Recovery Meeting 

The event was organised back-to-back with EDA’s  40TH Project Team Personnel Recovery (PT PR) meeting and was attended by PR experts from seven EU Member States (Czech Republic, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania) and three international organisations with expertise in Personnel Recovery (the European Personnel Recovery Centre/EPRC, the Joint Air Power Coordination Centre/JAPCC and the Air Operations Centre of Excellence/CASPOA). 

 

A new feed additive intended to reduce methane emissions from enteric fermentation of dairy cows has been considered efficacious by the EU's food safety agency (EFSA).

EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowksi has said support for small and medium sized farmers is a red line for the approval of member states’ CAP strategic plans, promising to oppose plans which restrict access to funding for these farmers.