The European Commission will allocate €185.9 million in 2024 to fund promotion activities for sustainable and high-quality EU agri-food products at home and abroad. The 2024 promotion policy work programme adopted by the Commission aims to develop new market opportunities, while taking into account the political priorities, analysis of projected exports to existing and emerging […]
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Mexico and the European Union hold the 11th High-Level Dialogue on Human Rights in Mexico City
On November 17th, Mexico and the European Union held the 11th High Level Dialogue on Human Rights in Mexico City. The Dialogue addressed an extensive array of human rights issues in Mexico and the European Union, including gender equality and the care agenda, femicides, combating gender-based and domestic violence, migrant rights, xenophobia, enforced disappearances, torture prevention, […]
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Spain, together with Italy, was the largest wine exporter in the European Union in 2022
In 2022, sold production of wine (including sparkling wine, port and grape must) in the EU amounted to 16.1 billion (bn) litres. The top three wine producers accounted for 83% of EU production. Italy and Spain each contributed nearly 5.0 bn litres, representing together 62% of the total sold production in the EU, while France produced 3.4 […]
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Agreement to update the EU Cybersecurity Regulation
To enhance EU’s cyber resilience by enabling the future adoption of European certification schemes for ‘managed security services’, member states’ representatives (Coreper) reached a common position on the proposed targeted amendment of the EU’s cybersecurity act (CSA) of 2019. ‘Managed security services’, provided to customers by specialised companies, are crucial for the prevention, detection, response, and recovery from cybersecurity […]
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European Commission proposes new measures on skills and talent to tackle labour shortages
The Commission presented a series of new initiatives in a Skills and Talent Mobility package to make the EU more attractive to talent from outside EU, and to facilitate mobility within. Skills shortages persist across the EU, in a range of sectors, and at various skills’ levels. The EU’s drive to fill labour shortages in […]
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Autumn 2023 Economic Forecast for Spain
Following strong real GDP growth this year of 2.4%, economic activity is expected to slow down in 2024 to 1.7%. Headline inflation is projected to keep moderating over the forecast horizon, although upside risks persist. Based on unchanged policies, the general government deficit is set to remain slightly above 3% of GDP in 2024 despite […]
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Commission opens access to EU supercomputers to speed up artificial intelligence development
The Commission and the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) committed to open and widen access to the EU’s world-class supercomputing resources for European artificial intelligence (AI) start-ups, SMEs and the broader AI community as part of the EU AI Start-Up Initiative. To support the further development and scalability of AI models, access to […]
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Member States fail to reach qualified majority to renew or refuse glyphosate approval
Following an earlier vote in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed on 13 October, in which member states also failed to reach the majority needed to renew or reject the proposal, the European Commission has now decided to propose that the proposal should be rejected. Member States did not reach the required […]
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Commission refers Spain to the Court of Justice of the EU for failure to fully transpose the directive on reconciliation of work and family life
The European Commission has decided to refer Belgium, Ireland and Spain to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to notify national measures fully transposing EU rights on Work-Life Balance for parents and carers (Directive (EU) 2019/158). The Work-Life Balance Directive, adopted in 2019, is an important legislation which aims to enable working parents to better […]
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