With Croatia’s accession to the European Union, the EU welcomed its 28th Member State. On October 16, the EU reaffirmed its commitment to a “Europe whole and free” with the release of the European Commission’s 2014 enlargement strategy and its annual report on countries that are either candidates or potential candidates to join the European Union. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, recommended granting formal EU candidate status to Albania and repeated its call to open accession negotiations with...

Read more

On 21–24 October, during a plenary session of the EP in Strasbourg, Vytautas Leškevičius, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, will present the Lithuanian Presidency's midterm results to the EP Conference of Committee Chairs. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Algimantas Rimkūnas, Vice-Minister of Finance, will participate in the plenary session's debates and voting on the EP changes to the EU Council’s position regarding the draft general budget for the financial year 2014. Vice-Minister Leškevičius will also speak during...

Read more

Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper have today reached a political agreement on the key elements of a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) after months of intense negotiations between EU Trade Commissioner De Gucht and Canadian trade Minister Ed Fast. It will be the first free trade agreement between the European Union and a G8 country. Boosting our trade relations with Canada will generate new opportunities for growth and the creation of jobs in...

Read more

The SSM, one of the components of the banking union, will supervise credit institutions in the euro area and in those non-eurozone countries that choose to participate. The single supervisory mechanism The SSM is designed to strengthen supervision of the financial services sector. It will detect weaknesses early on and make sure action is taken to strengthen ailing financial institutions. It is also designed to help break the connection between the member states' budgets and some of their banks. A functioning SSM...

Read more

European Commission - MEMO/13/899  Brussels 15/10/2013 President Barroso said: “It is good news that the Council has given the final sign-off to the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the first leg of our Banking Union. The Commission is ready to help in any way with the European Central Bank's intensive preparations to ensure the SSM begins its work next year. Now it is urgent to put the second leg in place by agreeing the single resolution mechanism and fund and the single rule...

Read more

EU finance ministers have on October 15 in Luxembourg approved legislation setting up the Single Supervisory Mechanism and exchanged views on backstop arrangements for bank resolution funds, including in the context of upcoming asset quality review and stress test exercises to be undertaken next year. “The decision on the Single Supervisory Mechanism is particularly important. It will set up one of the pillars of the Banking Union and will certainly add to the credibility of the European financial system,” said...

Read more

The European Parliament’s Committees on Legal Affairs (JURI) and Women’s Rights & Gender Equality (FEMM) have today voted (40 for, 9 against and 2 abstentions) to support a proposal by the European Commission to address the gender imbalance on company boards in Europe. With this vote, the European Parliament (which decides with the Council of Ministers on an equal footing on this proposal), paves the way for further progress of the draft law in the EU legislative process. The vote...

Read more

The European Commission today welcomed the decision by the UN Assembly responsible for International Civil Aviation (ICAO) to decide on a global mechanism to tackle emissions from aviation. The Assembly has agreed to develop by 2016 a global market based mechanism to tackle emissions, which can come into force in 2020. The market based mechanism will be accompanied by a series of technical and operational measures to reduce emissions. With this deal, the aviation industry becomes the first international transport...

Read more

“Online security requires your participation.” That is the EU’s message to citizens about cyber security. Information and communications technology is the bedrock of today’s society and the global economy. Many vital services that deal with commerce, health, safety, and security depend on digital systems, and disruptions caused by either deliberate attacks or even simple technical failures could result in major social and economic damage. By designating October as European Cyber Security Month, the EU draws citizens’ attention to cyber security,...

Read more

Speech by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the Conference "A New Era for EU-US Trade" - Confederation of Danish Industry, Copenhagen Mr. Dybvad, Karsten Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you for that kind welcome. And let me thank the Confederation of Danish Industry for organising this conference. It’s a pleasure to be with you to talk about a topic that is close to my heart: The transatlantic relationship. Some may ask why the Secretary General of NATO should kick off a discussion...

Read more