The extraordinary Economic and Financial Council of Ministers will start on Wednesday 2 May at 10.00 hrs. Proposal for a Directive on Capital requirements (CRD IV) On 21 July 2011, the Commission tabled a proposal aimed at strengthening the resilience of the EU banking sector while ensuring that banks continue to finance economic activity and growth (IP/11/915). The EU was the first jurisdiction in the world to publish its legislative proposal faithfully implementing the Basel III agreements that all G20 members have...

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Climate scientists will launch a mission on May 4 to investigate the relationship between atmospheric chemistry and climate change from an airship above the skies of Europe. The European Commission-funded research project PEGASOS (Pan-European Gas AeroSOL Climate Interaction Study) involves twenty-six partners from fifteen EU member states. The project team will leave from Friedrichshafen in Germany and over 20 weeks fly across Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and France to measure the chemistry of the air. The...

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Euro area annual inflation is expected to be 2.6% in April 2012 according to a flash estimate issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. It was 2.7% in March. Computation of flash estimates Euro area inflation is measured by the Monetary Union Index of Consumer Prices (MUICP). To compute the MUICP flash estimates, Eurostat uses early price information relating to the reference month from Member States for which data are available4 as well as early information about...

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In 2011, the government deficit1 of both the euro area2 (EA17) and the EU27 decreased in absolute terms compared with 2010, while the government debt1 rose in both zones. In the euro area the government deficit to GDP ratio decreased from 6.2% in 20103 to 4.1% in 2011, and in the EU27 from 6.5% to 4.5%. In the euro area the government debt to GDP ratio increased from 85.3% at the end of 2010 to 87.2% at the end of...

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Brussels, Tuesday 24 April 2012 Today, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) adopted his Opinion on the proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The Opinion shows that the lack of precision of the Agreement about the measures to be deployed to tackle infringements of intellectual property rights ('IP rights') on the Internet may have unacceptable side effects on fundamental rights of individuals, if they are not implemented properly. It underlines that many...

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University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, 23 April 2012 Prime Minister, Rector, ladies and gentlemen, dear students, It is a real pleasure to be here for this debate with you today. It is indeed my second time in the University of Copenhagen. Copenhagen is not only the oldest university in Denmark but also one of the most respected academic institutions in Europe. A university which sums up much of what is best about Europe, a sense of enquiry, the search for excellence, and an...

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At a meeting of the Standing Committee yesterday on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH), Member States endorsed a Commission proposal on the establishment of a European Union list of permitted flavouring substances and a transitional measure on other flavourings. While flavourings have a long history of safe use in a wide variety of food, consumers and companies currently face divergent national provisions. These two new pieces of legislation, which will enter into force once the comitology procedure will...

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EU Commission welcomes Parliament’s endorsement of risk-sharing instruments for Member States worst hit by the financial crisis, to contribute to investment and job creation Brussels, 19 April 2012 - The European Parliament has today approved the Commission’s proposal enabling the use of cohesion policy allocations still available to back-up guarantees and loans by financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB). EU funds will be used to create so-called “risk-sharing instruments”. The measure is intended to address the serious...

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On 26 April, the Commission will organise a conference in Brussels on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, in association with the Danish EU Presidency. This Conference follows on from a Commission Public Hearing in June 2011 and a public consultation on the application of Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of intellectual property rights. It is expected to provide further valuable stakeholder input on intellectual property policy, in the context of a review of the Directive by the Commission. Over...

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Brussels, 13 April 2012 Entrepreneurship education is being increasingly promoted in most European countries, according to a new report published by the European Commission. Eight countries (Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Wales and the Flemish part of Belgium) have launched specific strategies to promote entrepreneurship education, while 13 others (Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey) include it as part of their national lifelong learning, youth or growth strategies. Half of European...

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