Today, as part of its work to create a future-proof and crisis-resilient regulatory framework for the pharmaceutical sector, the Commission has published a public consultation on the revision of the EU's pharmaceutical legislation. This is the latest step towards an ambitious reform as announced in the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, adopted in November 2020. Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: "Today we take an important step for the reform of EU's pharmaceutical legislation by the end of next year. A...

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Vaccination is the most effective response to the COVID pandemic. The United States and the EU are technological leaders in advanced vaccine platforms, given decades of investments in research and development. It is vital that we aggressively pursue an agenda to vaccinate the world. Coordinated U.S. and EU leadership will help expand supply, deliver in a more coordinated and efficient manner, and manage constraints to supply chains. This will showcase the force of a Transatlantic partnership in facilitating global vaccination...

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From 26 September to 1 October, EU Executive Vice-Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis will be in the United States, where they will meet senior U.S. officials and participate in the first-ever meeting of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC). Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis will first travel to Washington, D.C., where he is speaking at an event on transatlantic cooperation organised by the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.(link is external) Executive Vice-President Vestager will first be in Los Angeles on Tuesday for a keynote at...

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Introductory statement by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, at the Hearing of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament (by videoconference) | Frankfurt am Main, 27 September 2021 | Madam Chair, Honourable members of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, Ladies and gentlemen, It is a pleasure to be with you again today for the third regular hearing of the year. In my confirmatory hearing before this Committee back in September 2019, I set out a goal: to ensure...

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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, today launches a consultation on proposals for improvements to the MiFID II framework on best execution reports. These proposals aim at ensuring effective and consistent regulation and supervision and enhancing investor protection. ESMA’s proposals include technical changes to:  the reporting obligations for execution venues: aimed at simplifying the reporting requirements by reducing the granularity and volume of data to be reported; and moving to a set of seven indicators aimed...

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At the UN High-Level Dialogue on Energy this week in New York, Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans and Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson presented three Energy Compacts, in partnership with the International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency. In their roles as Energy Access Champion and Just Transition Champion in this UN process respectively, the Executive Vice-President and the Commissioner highlighted the EU's willingness to lead the global efforts to reach universal energy access by 2030 and...

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Speech by Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, at the 8th Conference on the Banking Union, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main | Many thanks for your kind introduction and for having me here today at this 8th Conference on the Banking Union. I am especially happy to be here, for this is the first time since I joined the European Central Bank last December that I am...

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Today, the Commission takes legal action against 19 Member States failing to deliver the benefits of EU digital legislation in the area of audio-visual media and telecommunications. These Member States are required to transpose into their national laws two new sets of rules, without further delay: the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive and the European Electronic Communications Code, and inform the Commission about this transposition. Both Directives are crucial for the EU's digital transition, after having been commonly agreed by Member States, and...

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Today, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission celebrate the launch of an annual ‘EU organic day'. The three institutions signed a joint declaration establishing from now on each 23 September as EU organic day. This follows up on the Action Plan for the development of organic production, adopted by the Commission on 25 March 2021, which announced the creation of such a day to raise awareness of organic production. At the signing and launch ceremony, Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said: “Today we celebrate organic...

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The European American Chamber of Commerce (EACC) conducted a survey between September 13 and 17, 2021 to better understand how the EU/US travel ban in place since Spring 2020 has impacted companies engaged in transatlantic business. The survey was conducted by EACC’s local chapters on both sides of the Atlantic. 132 responses were received with 38.6 % characterized as professional services firms, 21.2% as manufacturers, 9.1 % as financial services and the rest as Transportation/Logistics, Education, Travel/Hospitality and Other. Nearly 90% of respondents...

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