The European Central Bank (ECB) has bought €80 billion worth of public and private debt since March 2015 in order to boost growth and push interest rates down. The bond buying programme has led to the bank being criticised for overstepping its mandate, but today the German constitutional court ruled that it wasn't. ECB President Mario Draghi is expected to discuss the strategy known as quantative easing during his meeting with Parliament's economic committee today from 15.00 CET. The ECB...

Read more

On 21 June 2016, the Council agreed on a draft directive addressing tax avoidance practices commonly used by large companies. The directive is part of a January 2016 package of Commission proposals to strengthen rules against corporate tax avoidance. The package builds on 2015 OECD recommendations to address tax base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). The directive addresses situations where corporate groups take advantage ofdisparities between national tax systems in order to reduce their overall tax liability. Corporate taxpayers may benefit from...

Read more

The Council adopted conclusions on food and nutrition security. Substantial progress has been made to improve global food security, as the global hunger index shows that the level of hunger has fallen by 27% since 2000. However the total number of people chronically undernourished is still at 795 million. The Council expresses the need to keep global food and nutrition security at the forefront of the EU development cooperation agenda and to further improve EU and member states coordination...

Read more

Which priorities are crucial to strengthening innovation and industry in Europe? This is the key question at the European conference on Industrial Technologies, which is being held in Amsterdam from 22 to 24 June. A European agenda for competitive European industry During the conference, over 160 speakers will share their vision and insights on developments in manufacturing, materials, nanotechnology, biotechnology and digitalisation in Europe. The focus will be on developing the European policy agenda for the transition to a competitive European...

Read more

The Council adopted the thematic part of the EU annual report on human rights and democracy in the world in 2015. The report underlines that 2015 has been a year of challenges for the EU and the international community at large, it describes the EU human rights approach to conflicts and crisis, how the EU addresses the main human rights and democracy challenges worldwide, and how human rights are mainstreamed throughout EU external policies, including trade and development cooperation. Read the...

Read more

President Obama believes in the need to transition to a cleaner, more reliable, and affordable 21st century power grid. Under his leadership, transformations in how we produce and consume electricity are decreasing carbon pollution, scaling up renewable energy, and generating savings on consumers’ energy bills. Since 2009, renewable energy generation has increased at a record pace, while costs have decreased dramatically.  Building on this progress, smart electricity market reforms, enhanced transparency, and flexible energy resources such as storage and...

Read more

Demand for food is set to rise by 70% due to the global population growing to 9.6 billion by 2050. Feeding them all will be a serious challenge. In reports adopted during last week's plenary, MEPs stressed the need to invest in agricultural technology, while still reducing agriculture's ecological impact. They also looked into how farmers in Africa could be helped. According to the UN's World Food Programme 795 million people in the world do not have enough food...

Read more

The European Commission welcomes the agreement on the reform of Money Market Funds (MMFs) that was reached today at the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) of the Council. The agreement marks a further step in the completion of the post-crisis reform agenda and paves the way for trilogues with the European Parliament. The Commission adopted its proposal for a regulatory framework of MMFs in September 2013 in order to address their potential impact on the financial system. MMFs are a key part...

Read more

Brussels, 15 June 2016 Mr Chairman, Honourable Members, Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for the invitation and putting the social and economic dimension of the Energy Union on your agenda. President Juncker and this Commission made the deliberate choice to organise the Energy Union project around a project team. The reason for this is that a true Energy Union requires more than the coordination of energy policies. We are witnessing the beginning of a true energy transition because of our climate goals and...

Read more

The European Development Days is a two day event in Brussels on 15-16 June to generate new ideas, take action and shape the future with world leaders, young leaders and hundreds of speakers, civil society organisations and international organisations. Tomorrow the "European Development Days 2016'' (EDDs) will officially open its doors to a record number of over 6,000 development professionals from around 150 countries who will attend what has become Europe’s leading forum on global development and cooperation. Commissioner for International...

Read more