European Union

Humans have been labelled an “indoor species” because of the amount of time we spend indoors. That is why there is a fresh drive to increase the healthy environment of the buildings where we spend the second biggest portion of our time: our places of work.

French EU Datathon finalist Open Food Facts plans to expand to other member states in a bid to overcome the language barrier and improve food information within the European union, vice-president Pierre Slamich told EURACTIV.com.

As Poland readies itself to welcome the world in December, the man tasked with organising the COP24 Katowice summit told EURACTIV how preparations are going for what is likely to be make-or-break climate talks for the Paris Agreement.

Whether it relates to electricity prices charged to customers, the calculation of grid availability across borders, or the EU’s law-making process itself, the quest for transparency has emerged as a cross-cutting theme in Europe’s ongoing power market reform.

The EU issued a declaration on the situation in Nicaragua, which remains of serious concern, five months after the outbreak of social protests.

The Council agreed to allow member states – as a means of preventing VAT fraud – to temporarily apply a generalised reversal of VAT liability.

The Council agreed on adjustments to the EU's VAT rules to fix specific issues pending the introduction of a new VAT system.

The Council adopts a regulation aimed at improving controls on cash entering or leaving the Union.

The Council adopted measures to strengthen administrative cooperation in order to better prevent VAT fraud.

The Council agreed a proposal allowing member states to apply reduced VAT rates to electronic publications, contributing to the digital single market plan.

The Council removed Palau from the list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, bringing the names on the list down to six. It also found Liechtenstein and Peru compliant with commitments on tax cooperation.

Finland's youthful-looking former prime minister Alexander Stubb wants to defend liberal values as the lead candidate of the centre-right EPP - as the campaign gears up for next May's election.

A high-level EU conference on ‘The European Defence Fund (EDF) – Driving factor for defence research and innovation’ took place today in Vienna. The event, which gathered some 500 defence policy makers, industry representatives, researchers and other stakeholders, was organized by the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union with the support of European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA). 

The conference was opened by Austria’s Defence Minister Mario Kunasek, followed by video messages delivered by European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen and Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska (Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs). Key note speeches were delivered by European Parliament Vice President and rapporteur on the European Defence Fund), Prof. Zdzisław Krasnodębski, EU Military Committee Chairman General Mikhail Kostarakos, as well as EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq.  Successive panels then analysed and debated the European Commission’s EDF proposal, the interaction and consistency between research and capability development, as well as the future design of financial instruments tailored for the needs and challenges of the European defence sector. EDA Deputy Chief Executive Olli Ruutu and EDA’s European Synergies & Innovation (ESI) Director, Denis Roger, were among the panelists participating in these debates. 

In his opening speech, Minister Kunasek stressed the importance for Europe to have an “innovative and competitive European defence industry”. “We therefore require new ways of cooperation between Armed Forces, entreprises, industry and the research community in order to find scientific, technological and capability-based solutions, and to activate value chains that help us strengthen our security and defence competence”, he stated.  

EDA Chief Executive Domecq, in his speech, insisted on the need to ensure coherence and consistency between the EDF and the other EU defence initiatives, especially the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) and the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). On top of that, the baseline for all three initiatives should be the 2018 Capability Development Plan (CDP). “Even if we ensure that all three initiatives – CARD, PESCO, EDF - are smoothly coordinated and harmonised, there is one element which is indispensable for coherent capability development at European level, and that is common priority setting, which must be the baseline for CARD, PESCO and EDF”, he said.

In the research domain, common priority setting is ensured by the Overarching Strategic Research Agenda (OSRA) which links capability priorities and defence research activities. “What the CDP is for capability development, the OSRA is for research. Before the end of the year, we will, for the first time, have adopted agreed research priorities stemming from the CDP 2018, that can be used for not only ad-hoc research activities among Member States but also for the Research Window of the EDF projects and other funding instruments such as H2020, Horizon Europe, ESIF, COSME, and more”, Mr Domecq announced.

It is important that the EDF takes into account the experiences from the EDIDP discussions, as well as the lessons learned from the implementation of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research and the previous Pilot Project, the EDA Chief Executive said.  If the Defence Fund is capability driven, focused on the agreed priorities and coherent with the other defence initiatives, “then it has a great potential added value in the development of European defence capabilities and incentivizing cooperation”, Mr Domecq concluded.
 

More information:

• Conference website

 

 

Many of you reading today’s Brief will be sat in Strasbourg, perhaps enjoying a Flammkuche with a cool Kronenbourg, but make the most of it because the monthly jaunt to the Alsace capital could be coming to an end.

Denmark announced on Tuesday (2 October) that it will ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines by 2030 and hopes to have 1 million electric and hybrid cars on the roads by then.

The Ecofin Council “broadly” supported on Tuesday (2 October) the European Commission’s proposal to transfer more powers to the European Banking Authority to investigate alleged cases of money laundering in the EU.

Denmark's centre-right government aims to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and of hybrid cars from 2035, prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told the parliament, Folketinget, on Tuesday. "This will mean that in 2030 there will be more than one million hybrid, electric or equivalent green cars in Denmark," he said. A concrete legal proposal will be presented to parliament next week.

Europe's gas industry wants renewable fuels completely accounted for in updated car CO2 rules. But the MEP charged with helming the legislation's revision hopes to shield her report from industry attacks ahead of a crucial vote on Wednesday (3 October).

Worker-starved Germany will ease immigration rules to attract foreign jobseekers, including giving well-integrated irregular migrants in employment a shot at staying, ministers said Tuesday (2 October).

Russia must halt its covert development of a banned cruise missile system or the United States will seek to destroy it before it becomes operational, Washington's envoy to NATO on Tuesday (2 October) told reporters in Brussels.