The Commission is today proposing an ambitious and sustainable legal migration policy. As part of the comprehensive approach to migration set out in the Pact on Migration and Asylum, the Commission is proposing legal, operational and policy initiatives that will benefit the EU's economy, strengthen cooperation with non-EU countries and improve overall migration management in the long term. The set of proposals also includes specific actions to facilitate integration of those fleeing Russia's invasion of Ukraine into the EU's...

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Today, the Commission is proposing the digitalisation of the Schengen visa process, replacing the visa sticker, and introducing the possibility to submit visa applications online through the European online visa platform. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum set the objective to fully digitalise visa procedures by 2025. It is an opportunity to effectively improve the visa application process by reducing the costs and the burden on Member States as well as the applicants, while also improving the security...

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As businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits reopen and employees return to in‑person offices, many pandemic safety measures are being modified. But if your company checked employees’ or customers’ vaccine status or collected other COVID-related information, have you considered what to do with the data now? Businesses that maintain that information or that developed apps or other products to facilitate its collection can pass along an important pointer to others planning to enter the burgeoning health app marketplace: Sensitive health...

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The Commission welcomes the swift political agreement reached today between the European Parliament and EU Member States on the proposal on the Digital Services Act (DSA), proposed by the Commission in December 2020. The DSA sets out an unprecedented new standard for the accountability of online platforms regarding illegal and harmful content. It will provide better protection for internet users and their fundamental rights, as well as define a single set of rules in the internal market, helping smaller...

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1 Introduction The recent increase in energy prices raises the question of the extent to which households will reduce their consumption in response. With the global economy in the process of recovering from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the prices of many commodities – including oil and gas – have soared over the last year or so. Since demand for energy is inelastic in the short run, those large price increases imply significant declines in households’ purchasing power, which will need...

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Keynote speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the Peterson Institute for International Economics | Washington, D.C., 22 April 2022 | It is a pleasure to be in Washington to speak with you today. The economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may mark a defining moment for globalisation in the 21st century. Russia’s unprovoked aggression has triggered a fundamental reassessment of economic relations and dependencies in our globalised economy. And in a post-invasion world, it has become increasingly untenable...

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The European Commission takes note of the decision by Kingspan and European Architectural Systems (i.e. the parent company of Trimo) to terminate their proposed agreement according to which Kingspan intended to acquire sole control over Trimo. This marks the end of the Commission's investigation into this transaction. Kingspan, based in Ireland, is a manufacturer of insulating panels, including mineral fibre sandwich panels, and other building materials and solutions. Trimo, based in Slovenia, is active mainly in the manufacture of...

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Thank you Adam for this introduction. It is a pleasure to be in D.C. and to be at the Peterson Institute for the first time in person, even if unfortunately the audience is still virtual. It is right to remain prudent – and to remind ourselves that the pandemic is not yet over. One step at a time! It is now almost two months since Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine. Two months of indiscriminate killings, bombings of civilian...

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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has decided to postpone the publication of sizes large in scale compared to the standard market size (LIS) and the size specific to the instrument (SSTI) as well as the May quarterly bonds liquidity assessment. The amended regulatory technical standards (RTS 2) and the move to stage 3, will enter into force on 3 May 2022. ESMA, to ensure that the transparency calculations at the application date set...

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