The European Court of Justice ruled last Thursday in favor of José Cánovas Pardo, S.L., a farmer from Murcia who exploits a protected mandarin variety whose property rights belong to the King of Morocco since 2004. Following an application lodged by Nadorcott Protection SARL on 22 August 1995 with the Community Plant Variety Office (‘the CPVO’), […]
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Increased data sharing would help in the fight against smuggling of migrants
Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement cooperation agency, supports EU Member States in combating migrant smuggling. Part of this role involves serving as an information exchange hub. However, Europol faces continuous challenges in gaining access to all relevant criminal databases, and in making full use of external information sources. This is the conclusion of a […]
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Commission proposes bespoke arrangements to benefit Northern Ireland
The European Commission has today proposed bespoke arrangements to respond to the difficulties that people in Northern Ireland have been experiencing because of Brexit, by further facilitating the movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. This follows extensive discussions over the past months with the UK government, as well as outreach by […]
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NextGenerationEU: European Commission successfully issues first green bond to finance the sustainable recovery
The European Commission has issued the first NextGenerationEU green bond, thus raising €12 billion to be used exclusively for green and sustainable investments across the EU. This represents the world’s largest green bond issuance ever. With NextGenerationEU green bonds, the EU is set to become the world’s largest green bond issuer by far, providing a […]
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1.2 million to help 300 redundant workers in the Basque metal sector
Today, the Commission proposes to support 300 former workers in the metal sector in the Basque region in Spain, who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The proposed €1.2 million from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF) will help these workers find new jobs through further education or training, or […]
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COVID-19 evolution in America during September
This news shows an analysis of the evolution of COVID-19 in America with the data provided by the Johns Hopkins University. September has ended with an increase of 6.38% of COVID-19 diagnosed cases (89,964,588), and a growth of 4.62% (2,214,867) in deaths by the aforementioned disease. In August these numbers were 83,799,880 diagnosed cases and 2,103,067 deaths by […]
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The CJEU rules that the financing regime of the social discount rate for electricity companies in Spain is unfair
The CJEU has decided that the criterion chosen by the national legislator to distinguish between the companies that must assume, to a greater or lesser extent, the cost of the social bonus is not objectively justified. The financing regime of the social bonus results in more than 99% of the cost of this bonus falling […]
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The renewed EU commitment to the fight against human trafficking must bring tangible results
The EESC broadly supports the new EU Strategy against trafficking in human beings 2021-2025, but also calls attention to the need of the social dimension to be incorporated into the policy. The new EU strategy on the fight to uproot trafficking displays a gap in terms of victims’ rights and social dimension. Trafficked people suffer […]
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Spanish police arrests 5 Jihadists on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack
With the active support of Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre, the Spanish National Police (Policía Nacional) has arrested in Barcelona and Madrid five suspected members of an Islamic State cell. The suspects – all Algerian nationals, are believed to have been preparing a terrorist attack. The police swooped on the members of this terrorist cell after […]
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