MEPs and the Polish Presidency of the Council reached an informal agreement on Tuesday to extend the EU’s 2022 gas storage scheme until 31 December 2027, as it would otherwise have expired at the end of 2025. The provision is designed to ensure gas supply security ahead of the winter season. MEPs and Council also […]
New agreement to improve consultation of workers in international affairs.
Parliament and Council negotiators have reached a provisional agreement to improve the functioning of European Works Councils and strengthen their role. European Works Councils (EWCs) represent EU workers in large multinational companies that operate in at least two EU or European Economic Area countries. They are designed to ensure that workers receive proper information and […]
Protecting children from unsafe toys
The agreed draft legislation comes in response to a number of emerging challenges, such as risks relating to digital toys and the surge in online shopping. On 10 April evening, Parliament and Council negotiators reached a provisional agreement on new EU toy safety rules to enhance the protection of children’s health and development. The deal […]
Council establishes position for the progressive launch of a new digital border management system
The Council today set out a general approach on a Regulation that would allow Member States to gradually introduce, over a period of six months, the digital Entry/Exit System (EES) for border management. The Regulation allows Member States to start taking advantage of the system and gives border authorities and the transport sector more time […]
The Council adopts recommendations for countries with excessive deficit
The Council adopted recommendations for seven countries to correct their excessive deficit situation within a set time period: Belgium, France, Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Romania. The recommendations contain a corrective budgetary path, expressed in numerical terms, and a deadline, for each member state. These are in line with each member states’ objectives, expressed in […]
Council sets budget expenditure paths for 21 Member States
The Council moved a step closer to implementing the EU’s new fiscal rules by adopting today recommendations approving the first national medium-term fiscal-structural plans and setting out net expenditure paths for 21 Member States. The national medium-term fiscal-structural plans are a cornerstone of the new economic governance framework. They set out Member States’ fiscal paths, […]
Council adopts new rules for more efficient urban waste water treatment
The Council gave the final green light for a revised EU directive on urban wastewater treatment. The revised directive extends the scope to smaller agglomerations, covers more pollutants, including micropollutants, and contributes to energy neutrality. The new rules are one of the key deliverables under the EU’s zero-pollution action plan. More agglomerations and more pollutants […]
Greenlight to use super-computing for AI development
The Council has today adopted an amendment to the regulation on the European High-Performance Computing (EuroHPC) joint undertaking to expand its objectives to include the development and operation of ‘AI factories’. AI factories are entities which provide an AI supercomputing service infrastructure. The amended regulation will make the EU’s supercomputing capacity further available for innovative […]
Final green light to the nature restoration law
EU environment ministers met in Luxembourg and reached a general approach on the green claims directive, the soil monitoring directive and the revised waste framework directive. They formally adopted the nature restoration law. Nature restoration law Today, the Council formally adopted the – first of its kind – regulation on nature restoration. This law aims […]