European Union

The EU's updated 2030 climate-target plan, due to be presented by the European Commission, have been criticised for including land and forest carbon sinks in its emissions-reduction goal. Green groups describe it as an "accounting trick".

Sustainability is a balancing act. This goes for every sector, but none more so than the livestock sector, one of Europe’s key focus areas in the EU Green Deal. Roxane Feller is the Secretary-General of AnimalhealthEurope. Repeating comments by Germany’s...

European Council President Charles Michel visited the Moria Camp on the Greek island of Lesbos and underlined the European solidarity for the migrants, for the people of Lesbos and for all the aid workers.

A son arrivée en Grèce, le président Michel est intervenu lors d'un rencontre avec la presse, en compagnie du premier ministre Mitsotakis.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo vowed Tuesday (15 September) that Washington would prevent Iran from purchasing "Chinese tanks and Russian air defence systems" as the end to a UN arms embargo against Tehran approaches.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will give her first State of the European Union address later on Wednesday (16 September). Stay tuned for live coverage and analysis of the speech.

The European Parliament on Tuesday (15 September) voted in favour of including greenhouse gas emissions from the maritime sector in the European Union's carbon market from 2022, throwing its weight behind EU plans to make ships pay for their pollution.

Held every year in September, the annual week-long session of the UN General Assembly in New York is the milestone of global politics. This year’s session, opening on 22 September, is special for two reasons. But it is also likely to be a missed opportunity.

French President Emmanuel Macron defended 5G technology in his speech to a French startup gathering on Monday (14 September), providing a clear answer to a moratorium on the rollout of the super-fast broadband network wanted by leftist and green parties.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, MEPs will take stock of the von der Leyen Commission’s achievements to date on Wednesday from 9.15.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, MEPs will take stock of the von der Leyen Commission’s achievements to date on Wednesday from 9.15.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has taken a stand in support of EU net neutrality rules in a case probing 'zero-tariff' deals, which give preferential treatment to the use of certain popular web applications, such as Spotify, Netflix and Facebook.

The EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) of offering free pollution permits needs to be reviewed and aligned more closely with climate policy if the bloc wants to reap its full benefits, the European Court of Auditors said on Tuesday (15 September).

The French government intends to allocate €100 million to develop the country's plant-based protein production. The decision, however, is based more on commercial rather than environmental concerns. EURACTIV France reports.

The EU has reached a critical junction in its relations with Turkey, its chief diplomat, Josep Borrel, said on Tuesday (15 September), urging Ankara to back down from conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean and uphold basic human rights in the country.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded Europe that its piecemeal approach to investing in the digitisation of health systems comes at a cost, but not all countries and policymakers have yet learned the lesson, the chairman of the European Connected Health Alliance told EURACTIV.

EDA is part of a new EU research project launched today by the European Commission under the HORIZON 2020 programme which aims to develop secure satellite communications for EU governments and institutions. Called ENTRUSTED (‘European Networking for satellite Telecommunication Roadmap for the governmental Users requiring Secure, inTeroperable, innovativE and standardiseD services’), the project will run until February 2023.

Under the leadership of the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA) and with a budget of €3 million, ENTRUSTED will identify needs and requirements of secure satellite communication end-users. The project will contribute to the formulation of assumptions and guidelines, in terms of user-orientated activities, for the future EU GOVSATCOM programme aimed at creating independent, autonomous and secure satellite communication system for EU Member States and agencies. 

With its wide SatCom expertise based on two SatCom services delivering projects and a Project Team Satellite Communication, EDA has been called to be part of the consortium of EU Member States and EU Agencies implementing the project. The Agency will contribute to all work packages with a focus on user needs, requirements and use cases definition, surveying the state-of-the-art of existing secure SatCom user technologies and definition of a research and development (R&D) roadmap.

Over the coming 30 months, ENTRUSTED will develop a common understanding of governmental user needs for secure SATCOM systems, elaborate a set of user requirements for the future EU GOVSATCOM programme and analyse available and planned secure SATCOM capabilities and solutions offered by commercial operators and governments. It will also assess the need for European standardisation for secure SATCOM user equipment and services and identify the main research and innovation actions to be taken at national and EU levels with regard to secure SATCOM user technologies. A set of recommendations to the European Commission will be issued at the end of the project.  
 

More information:

• ENTRUSTED project
• EDA GovSatCom factsheet
• EDA video on GovSatCom

 

German chancellor Angela Merkel and interior minister Horst Seehofer have agreed that Germany will accept an additional 1,500 migrants and asylum-seekers currently held on the Greek islands, Deutsche Welle writes. Initially, Germany announced it would take 100 to 150 children from the destroyed Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. That led to criticism Berlin was not doing enough.

Despite the objections of prominent members of the Conservative Party, a government bill in favour of new single market legislation passed its first reading in the House of Commons on Monday with a comfortable majority. The government wants to prevent controls of goods passing between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK provided for in the 2019 agreement. Does this mean a no-deal Brexit is unavoidable?