Brussels, 1 March 2012 Serbia is granted EU candidate status -- The European Council today agreed to grant Serbia the status of candidate country, following a recommendation by the General Affairs Council on 28 February. It endorsed the Council's conclusions, which confirmed that Serbia has continued to show credible commitment and achieved further progress in the implementation of agreements reached in the dialogue with Kosovo, including on integrated border management. The Council noted that an agreement has been reached on...

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EU leaders in Brussels today signed a fiscal pact which commits the signatory countries to rein in public spending and run low levels of government debt. The Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance has governments pledging to keep their deficits down to less than 0.5 percent of their gross domestic product. It was signed by 25 countries of the European Union. "The restoration of confidence in the future of the Eurozone will lead to economic growth and jobs," said President of...

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EU heads of state or government today unanimously re-elected Herman Van Rompuy as president of the European Council for a second term of two and a half years, from 1 June 2012 to 30 November 2014. Herman Van Rompuy was also designated as president of the Euro Summit for the same term of office. He is the first full-time president of the European Council, following the creation of the post on 1 December 2009 under the Treaty of Lisbon. He has...

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Brussels, 1 March 2012 Today, the European Commission completed the fifth review of the EU-IMF supported financial assistance programme for Ireland. In this context, the Commission authorises the disbursement of €5.8 billion to the country, bringing total EU funding to Ireland to €32.2 billion since the launch of the programme in late 2010. The joint review by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund took place in Dublin 10-19 January 2012. It concluded that programme implementation...

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Brussels, 28 February 2012 In February, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) rose for the second month in a row in both the EU and the euro area. The ESI rose by 1.1 points in the EU and by 1.0 point in the euro area, to 93.9 and 94.4, respectively. The improvement was broad-based across all sectors except for services, where a decrease in confidence partly offset the rebound observed in January. Among the largest Member States Poland (+1.7) reported the...

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Ambassador João Vale de Almeida, Head of the European Union Delegation to the United States, will be sharing his insights in 140 characters or less with the launch of his official Twitter account. Follow @ValedeAlmeidaEU to interact with the Ambassador and get his comments on the European Union and the EU-US relationship. "Social media has become a powerful tool in public diplomacy," said Ambassador Vale de Almeida. "I look forward to using Twitter as another way to reach out to the...

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Brussels, 23 February 2012 The unexpected stalling of the recovery in late 2011 is set to extend into the first two quarters of 2012. However, modest growth is predicted to return in the second half of the year. On an annual basis, real GDP in 2012 is now forecast to remain unchanged in the EU (0.0%) and to contract by 0.3% in the euro area. Uncertainty remains high and developments across countries are uneven. The inflation forecast for 2012 has...

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On February 24th, the White House announced two important steps to promote consumer privacy rights online and to give users more control over how their personal information is handled.  First, the White House released a comprehensive roadmap for online privacy protection centered on a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights and robust enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission.  Second, industry has stepped up to the plate by promising to use the "Do Not Track" technology in most major Web browsers to make...

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Finance Ministers of the Eurogroup agreed in Brussels last night on a second financial assistance program for Greece, which they stated "provides a comprehensive blueprint for putting the public finances and the economy of Greece back on a sustainable footing and hence for safeguarding financial stability in Greece and in the euro area as a whole." Euro area Member States will provide through the EFSF and with an expected IMF contribution up to 130 billion euro until 2014, along...

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Flash Consumer Confidence Indicator In February 2012, the DG ECFIN flash estimate of the consumer confidence indicator improved in both the EU (up to -20.1 from -20.8 in January 2012) and the euro area (up to -20.2 from -20.7 in January 2012). Economic sentiment increases in both the EU and the euro area In January, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) rose by 1.2 points in the EU and by 0.6 points in the euro area, to 92.8 and 93.4, respectively -...

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