Chapter News

Chapter News, Trade & TTIP Related

Report on the 10th Round of Negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

The Commission today made public the report on the 10th round of negotiations for a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which took place from 13-17 July 2015 in Brussels. The text is now available online. This publication is part of the Commission’s transparency initiative and in line with the commitment to publish more information about the negotiations, along with legal proposals, position papers and other material. Other new documents released today include a paper for cooperation on textiles,...

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European Commission to fund 3,3 million euros for project devised by NMusic

Aware that obtaining and analyzing Big Data is one of the greatest assets in an increasingly competitive and global market, NMusic defied a group of prestigious partners with know-how to take a part of the STREAMLINE project. This project intends to develop a tool that can make European companies and institutes more competitive by gathering, processing, optimizing data, and producing the most reliable analytics in real time. The challenge was raised by NMusic from a need identified a few years back...

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First quarter of 2015 Household real income per capita up in both euro area and EU28 Real consumption per capita also up in euro area and EU28

In the euro area, in real terms, household income per capita increased by 0.9% in the first quarter of 2015, after an increase of 0.1% in the previous quarter. Household real consumption per capita increased by 0.8% in the first quarter of 2015, after an increase of 0.2% in the previous quarter. Full text available on EUROSTAT website.

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Safety net measures for dairy, fruit and vegetables to be extended

Safety net measures for the European dairy, fruit and vegetables sectors will be extended into 2016. The European Commission is currently finalising the last details with a view to formally adopting the relevant legal decisions in the coming weeks as a matter of formality. The European Commission is aware of the challenges faced by European producers and to support them. For the fruit and vegetables sector, the foreseen measures may enter into force as of next week, while for the...

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Press Briefing with the IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde

Participants: Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, IMF & Gerry Rice, Director, Communications Department, IMF MR. RICE: Good morning, everyone. And welcome to this Press Briefing here, at the International Monetary Fund. Delighted to welcome you this morning, and we looked at this as an opportunity to give you the chance to ask some questions to the Managing Director of the IMF, Madam Christine Lagarde. Good morning, Madam Lagarde. MS. LAGARDE: Good morning, Gerry. MR. RICE: Who with us this morning. And also it's...

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Chapter News

Commission launches the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region

Today the Commission officially launched the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP), the fourth EU macro-regional strategy. More than70 million citizens will reap the benefits of a closer cooperation between regions and countries in terms of research and innovation, SME support, mobility, tourism, environmental protection and energy resources management. This macro-regional strategy concerns seven countries; five Member States - Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia - and two non-EU countries - Liechtenstein and Switzerland - overall involving 48 regions. Commissioner...

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Commission modernises EU customs procedures

The European Commission has adopted today a legal act to create a simpler, more modern and integrated EU customs system to support cross-border trade and provide for more EU-wide cooperation in customs matters. It builds on the Union Customs Code adopted in 2013, which sets out detailed rules for twenty-first century customs processes. Customs services play a central role in policing the EU’s external borders and in facilitating trade. The customs union is the operational arm of much of the...

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Opening a new Chapter for Data Protection

Today, as the European Data Protection Supervisor sent his recommendations to the EU co-legislators negotiating the final text of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), he launched a mobile app to compare the latest texts from the Commission, the Parliament and the Council more easily on tablets and smartphones. Giovanni Buttarelli, EDPS, said: “Privacy and data protection matter more than ever to people. For the first time in a generation the EU has an opportunity to modernise, harmonise and simplify...

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IMF Executive Board Consultation on Euro Area Policies

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation1 with the Euro Area. The recovery is strengthening, driven by rising domestic demand and supported by lower oil prices, the ECB’s quantitative easing under the expanded asset purchase program, and a weaker euro. The improving sentiment, rising inflation expectations, and easing credit conditions suggest that the recovery is likely to continue in the near term. In this context, euro area GDP is expected to accelerate from...

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Chapter News, News

ECB and partners sign memorandum of understanding on new €20 banknote

The European Central Bank today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with European industry associations, banknote equipment manufacturers and other partners. This strengthens the ECB’s Partnership Programme, which contributed to the smooth introduction of the new €10 banknote in 2014. The signatories of the MoU agree to do everything in their capacity to ensure that banknote handling machines, vending and ticketing machines and authentication devices will accept the new €20 banknote by 25 November 2015, the day the new notes...

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