the European Chips Act enters into force. It puts in place a comprehensive set of measures to ensure the EU’s security of supply, resilience and technological leadership in semiconductor technologies and applications. Semiconductors are the essential building blocks of digital and digitised products. From smartphones and cars, through critical applications and infrastructures for healthcare, energy, defence, communications […]
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Green transition: new EU rules to protect consumers
The Council and the Parliament have reached a provisional political agreement on the directive to empower consumers for the green transition. The proposal aims at enhancing consumers’ rights by amending the unfair commercial practices directive (UCPD) and the consumer rights directive (CRD) and adapting them for the green transition. Today’s agreement maintains the main objectives […]
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European Commission proposes new measures to boost SME competitiveness and resilience
On 12th September, the Commission is presenting a series of initiatives to address the needs of Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the current economic environment. Representing 99% of Europe’s businesses, SMEs are essential drivers of Europe’s green and digital transitions, but continue to face unpredictability and volatility as a result of a number of […]
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Summer 2023 Economic Forecast
The EU economy continues to grow, albeit with reduced momentum. The forecast revises growth in the EU economy down to 0.8% in 2023, from 1% projected in the Spring Forecast, and 1.4% in 2024, from 1.7%. It also revises growth in the euro area down to 0.8% in 2023 (from 1.1%) and 1.3% in 2024 […]
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EU’s Trade Defence in 2022 report
The 2022 report on the EU’s trade defence activities, adopted today, shows that the European Commission has continued to be active and assertive in defending EU producers against unfair trade practices in 2022 by robustly applying the legislation and ensuring that measures are effective. The Commission has also acted to make sure that third countries […]
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Commission steps up protection of children from unsafe toys
The Commission proposed a Toy Safety Regulation revising the current rules to protect children from potential risks in toys. Toys put on the EU market are already among the safest ones in the world. The proposed rules will further improve this protection, in particular from harmful chemicals. They also aim at reducing the high number […]
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Commission opens investigation into possible anticompetitive practices by Microsoft regarding Teams
The European Commission has opened a formal investigation to assess whether Microsoft may have breached EU competition rules by tying or bundling its communication and collaboration product Teams to its popular suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Microsoft is a global technology company offering productivity and business software, cloud computing and personal computing. Teams is a cloud-based communication and collaboration […]
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ECB raises interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to curb inflation
Inflation continues to decline but is still expected to remain too high for too long. The Governing Council is determined to ensure that inflation returns to its 2% medium-term target in a timely manner. It therefore today decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. The rate increase today reflects […]
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Enhancing EU resilience: A step forward to identify critical entities for key sectors
The Commission has adopted a list of essential services in the eleven sectors covered by the Critical Entities Resilience Directive (CER), which entered into force on 16 January 2023. Critical entities provide essential services in upholding key societal functions, supporting the economy, ensuring public health and safety, and preserving the environment. Member States will have to identify the […]
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