The pickup in global growth anticipated in the April World Economic Outlook remains on track, with global output projected to grow by 3.5 percent in 2017 and 3.6 percent in 2018. The unchanged global growth projections mask somewhat different contributions at the country level. U.S. growth projections are lower than in April, primarily reflecting the assumption that fiscal policy will be less expansionary going forward than previously anticipated. Growth has been revised up for Japan and especially the euro area, where...

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The European Commission is launching today an EU-wide public consultation on how to make the EU food supply chain fairer. Farmers, citizens and other interested parties are invited to share their views on the functioning of the food supply chain through an online consultation that runs until 17 November. There are indications that the added value in the food supply chain is not adequately distributed across all levels of the chain due, for instance, to differences in bargaining power between smaller...

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Are you interested in the re-evaluation of food additives? Then there are two good reasons to come to Parma this autumn. On 24 November, EFSA will host a one-day workshop on the status of the EU re-evaluation programme of food additives. The day before, observers will have the opportunity to attend the open plenary of the Authority’s Scientific Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS). Representatives from EU bodies, international organisations, national authorities, NGOs, industry, research and...

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18 July 2017 – The United Nations refugee agency today appealed for about $421.2 million to help improve protection of refugees and migrants crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, and to back European countries working to assist asylum seekers. “We need to provide meaningful and viable alternatives to these movements or the deaths and the suffering will continue to mount,” said the Special Envoy to the Central Mediterranean Situation at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR), Vincent Cochetel. In...

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Patients who suffer from the most aggressive type of brain cancer, glioblastoma, will soon have broader access to a new form of treatment thanks to financing by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB and German medical device company MagForce signed a financing agreement which will allow the company to borrow up to EUR 35 million over the coming three years, subject to achieving a set of agreed performance criteria. The transaction with MagForce was made possible by the European...

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The global financial crisis began 10 years ago and led to the European Union’s worst recession in its six-decade history. The crisis did not start in Europe but EU institutions and Member States needed to act resolutely to counter its impact and address the shortcomings of the initial set-up of the Economic and Monetary Union. Decisive action has paid off: today, the EU economy is expanding for the fifth year in a row. Unemployment is at its lowest since...

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Alexander Stubb has been appointed Vice-President and Member of the Management Committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB). He takes up his duties today, succeeding Jan Vapaavuori, who had tendered his resignation in June. Mr Stubb, a Finnish national, was appointed by the EIB’s Board of Governors on a proposal from the Finance Minister of the Republic of Finland and with the agreement of the shareholder constituency formed also by Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden. In the Bank’s Management Committee,...

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In the wake of Donald Trump signing off on stricter US sanctions against Russia, the Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his satisfaction, in principle, over the softening of the bill after the EU had expressed its concerns. "I stated at the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy, and at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, that if the Americans proceeded , we would be ready to react adequately in a matter of days. As a result, a significant proportion of the...

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