A provisional agreement to open up the EU market for domestic passenger rail transport and to ensure equal conditions for railway companies was reached by European Parliament and Council negotiators on Tuesday evening. It aims to boost the quality of services offered to passengers and to improve the performance of the rail sector.  The new rules would boost competition in two ways. First, railway companies should have access to the EU domestic passenger rail market from 1 January 2019 “in...

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Entering the second day of its inaugural forum on financing for development follow-up, the Economic and Social Council held three round tables and a panel discussion today focused on the global framework for financing sustainable development, domestic and international public resources, global infrastructure forum, and private business and finance. The first round table explored early actions taken towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and identified obstacles to policy action.  Among other issues, panellists focused on measures undertaken by...

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European Agenda on Security: Paving the way towards a Security Union The Commission is today setting out the way forward towards the achievement of an effective and genuine EU Security Union – building on the European Agenda on Security presented on 28 April 2015. Whilst responsibility for security lies primarily with Member States, transnational threats such as terrorism cannot be addressed effectively without a common European approach. The necessary tools, infrastructure and environment are being built at European level for...

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The European Commission has informed Google of its preliminary view that the company has, in breach of EU antitrust rules, abused its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators. The Commission's preliminary view is that Google has implemented a strategy on mobile devices to preserve and strengthen its dominance in general internet search. First, the practices mean that Google Search is pre-installed and set as the default, or exclusive, search service on most Android...

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Delivering on its Strategy to create a Digital Single Market, the Commission today unveiled its plans to help European industry, SMEs, researchers and public authorities make the most of new technologies. The European Commission today presented a set of measures to support and link up national initiatives for the digitisation of industry and related services across all sectors and to boost investment through strategic partnerships and networks. The Commission also proposes concrete measures to speed up the development of common...

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Athens, 18 April 2016 Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you very much for participating at this event. I am also very glad to see the deputy Prime Minister here, especially Members of the European Parliament and especially Greek entrepreneurs and representatives of the private sector. I was told that you have already been briefed by our colleagues from the EIB how EFSI functions at the moment. So, I will not repeat what has already been said but I have...

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The inaugural Global Infrastructure Forum 2016 convening here today brings together for the first time the leaders of the multilateral development banks (MDBs) - African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank Group, Islamic Development Bank, New Development Bank, and the World Bank Group – as well as development partners and representatives of the G20, G24, and G77, to enhance multilateral collaborative mechanisms to improve infrastructure...

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