The tendency to impose trade-restricting measures remains strong among the EU's commercial partners, fuelling continuing uncertainty in the world economy. These are the main findings of the European Commission's annual report on protectionism published today 17 November. "I regret to see that many countries still consider protectionism a valid policy tool. This goes clearly against the G20's commitment to abstain from imposing trade restrictions and to remove existing ones. Protectionism damages global value chains; trade openness is what we need...

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Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in both the United States and European Union stand to gain significantly from the implementation of an ambitious Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership. Using data from a targeted survey and interviews conducted with SME executives on both sides of the Atlantic, the report "TTIP: Big Opportunities for Small Business" cites three core challenges for SMEs as they begin exporting: a lack of clarity on how to get started, problems finding the right clients, and a...

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Watch live webcast from ESA mission control, when Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft dispatches the Philae lander to make the first-ever touchdown on a comet. Official hashtag: #CometLanding The mission’s lander, Philae, will be deployed on 12 November at 08:35 GMT/09:35 CET from a distance of 22.5 km from the centre of the comet. It will land about seven hours later, with confirmation expected to arrive at Earth at around 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET. Rosetta launched in 2004 and arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014....

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Mario Draghi, President of the ECB | Frankfurt am Main, 6 November 2014 Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President and I are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by the Commission Vice-President, Mr Dombrovskis. Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, and in line with our forward guidance, we decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. Following up...

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TTIP is clearly going to be a prominent issue but it faces serious opposition in some EU countries, especially on the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and other matters such as GMOs. What, if anything, can and should the US do to address that opposition? "The fundamental reason the United States and the EU agreed to pursue the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to build on what is already a very successful trade and investment relationship – with bilateral...

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The Commission, assisted by the European Environment Agency, today releases its annual Progress Report assessing the headway on climate action. According to latest estimates, EU greenhouse gas emissions in 2013 fell by 1.8% compared to 2012 and reached the lowest levels since 1990. So not only is the EU well on track to reach the 2020 target, it is also well on track to overachieve it. The Progress Report also for the first time provides data on the use of...

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The European Commission's autumn forecast projects weak economic growth for the rest of this year in both the EU and the euro area. Real GDP growth is expected to reach 1.3% in the EU and 0.8% in the euro area for 2014 as a whole. MORE INFORMATION: Speech by Vice-President Jyrki Katainen and Commissioner Pierre Moscovici DOCUMENT. European Economic Forecast - Autumn 2014 Autumn Economic Forecast – powerpoint presentation More information on the Autumn forecast 2014

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Today the Juncker Commission is officially starting its term of office that will run until 31 October 2019. On this occasion, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: "Thanks to the democratic support of European citizens, the European Parliament and Heads of State and government, today the new Commission takes office. Now it's time to roll up the sleeves and get down to work. Europe's challenges cannot wait. As of today, my team and I will work hard to deliver Europe...

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More than 200 organisations and 400 cyber-security professionals from 29 European countries are testing their readiness to counter cyber-attacks in a day-long simulation, organised by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). In Cyber Europe 2014 experts from the public and private sectors including cyber security agencies, national Computer Emergency Response Teams, ministries, telecoms companies, energy companies, financial institutions and internet service providers are testing their procedures and capabilities against in a life-like, large-scale cyber-security scenario. #CyberEurope2014 is the largest...

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