The European Parliament today agreed on the ambitious measures proposed by the Commission to tackle marine litter coming from the 10 single-use plastic products most often found on European beaches, as well as abandoned fishing gear and oxo-degradable plastics. The rules on Single-Use Plastics items and fishing gear, addressing the ten most found items on EU beaches place […]
Venezuela EU increases emergency assistance by €50 million!
As the social and economic crisis in Venezuela continues to worsen, the European Commission is allocating a further €50 million in emergency assistance to help Venezuelans most in need. Today’s announcement is also part of the EU’s commitment to mobilise further assistance as stated in the Montevideo Declaration of the International Contact Group. Total EU assistance […]
€250 million available to support healthy eating habits for European schoolchildren
Millions of children across the EU will receive milk, fruit and vegetables under the EU’s School Scheme in 2019/2020. This programme reached over 20 million children across the EU during the school year 2017/2018. The national budget allocations for the EU school fruit, vegetable and milk schemes for the 2019/2020 school year was adopted today. €145 million […]
European Parliament confirms that the 2017 EU budget was well-managed
The European Parliament today gave its final approval, known as ‘discharge’, to the way in which the European Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, managed and implemented the EU budget in 2017. The positive vote follows from the European Court of Auditors’ decision to give the EU annual accounts a clean bill of health for […]
Antitrust: Commission fines Nike €12.5 million for restricting cross-border sales of merchandising products
The European Commission has fined Nike €12.5 million for banning traders from selling licensed merchandise to other countries within the EEA. This restriction concerned merchandising products of some of Europe’s best-known football clubs and federations, for which Nike held the licence. Licensed merchandising products are extremely varied (e.g. mugs, bags, bedsheets, stationery, toys) but all […]
Brexit: European Council adopts decision extending the period under Article 50
The European Council (Article 50) has adopted a decision formalising the political agreement reached on 21 March 2019 on extending the period under Article 50. In accordance with the treaties, the decision was taken in agreement with the United Kingdom. Such an agreement was set out in a letter from the Permanent Representative of the […]
Brexit: Railway safety and connectivity with the UK
The EU is ensuring continuity of train services between the EU (France and Ireland) and the United Kingdom in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal. The Council today adopted a regulation on a temporary extension of the validity of certain authorisations, certificates and licences that are needed to run the […]
Epigenetic therapy! Switching off your own cancer genes
Cancer, particularly acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), is aggressive and also resistant to anti-cancer therapy, resulting in poor patient outcomes. Understanding how genes can be switched on and off without affecting their DNA sequence is paramount for the development of new anti-cancer therapies. AML is characterised by the abnormal proliferation of immature myeloid cells. The standard […]
€2 billion to fast forward the creation of the European Innovation Council
Ahead of the 21-22 March European Council discussion on innovation, industry and competitiveness, the Commission takes decisive steps to set up a European Innovation Council. Global competition is intensifying and Europe needs to deepen its innovation and risk-taking capability to compete on a market increasingly defined by new technologies. That is why the Juncker […]