Chapter News

Boosting Offshore Renewable Energy for a Climate Neutral Europe

To help meet the EU's goal of climate neutrality by 2050, the European Commission today presents the EU Strategy on Offshore Renewable Energy. The Strategy proposes to increase Europe's offshore wind capacity from its current level of 12 GW to at least 60 GW by 2030 and to 300 GW by 2050. The Commission aims to complement this with 40 GW of ocean energy and other emerging technologies such as floating wind and solar by 2050. This ambitious growth will be based on the vast potential across all...

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Chapter News

European Commission needs to scale up antitrust and merger control to fit a more globalised world

The European Commission, the enforcer of EU competition rules, has generally made good use of its powers in antitrust proceedings and merger control, and addressed competition concerns with its decisions. But according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) published today, it has not yet fully addressed the complex new enforcement challenges in digital markets, the ever-increasing amount of data to be analysed or the limitations of existing enforcement tools. The auditors also found that...

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COVID-19 News, Member News

EIB | BioNTech moves to head of pack in fight against coronavirus

EU financing for COVID-19 vaccine helps German firm close in on a solution with highly effective trial results When Özlem Türeci and her husband, Uğur Şahin, announced that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by their company, BioNTech, had excellent results in its latest tests, the couple took a short break from their round-the-clock research schedule. But only long enough to drink a cup of tea. “It was oolong tea to be precise,” Türeci says. “We both like it and it’s easy to...

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Chapter News

REACT-EU: additional support of €47.5 billion agreed to address impact of COVID-19

Eligible expenses as of 1 February 2020, with projects selected for support up to the end of 2023 Civil society, regional and local authorities involved EP introduces stronger focus on those hit hardest by the crisis EU institutions reached a provisional agreement on deploying additional EU resources and measures to mitigate the immediate effects of the COVID-19 crisis. On 18 November, European Parliament and Council concluded negotiations on providing assistance to foster crisis repair in response to the COVID-19 pandemic...

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Chapter News

European Semester Autumn Package: Supporting a sustainable and inclusive recovery amid high uncertainty

The European Commission today presented its autumn economic policy package, including the Opinions on euro area Draft Budgetary Plans (DBPs) for 2021 and policy recommendations for the euro area. This is the second step in the 2021 European Semester cycle, which started in September with the publication of the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (ASGS) with the concept of competitive sustainability at its heart. The ASGS also provided strategic guidance for Member States in drafting their Recovery and Resilience Plans and set...

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Member News

Vistra | Why Legal Entity Rationalisations Are More Important Than Ever

Survey shows 61 percent of companies are engaged in or considering a legal entity rationalisation. A 2020 survey conducted by CFO Research and Vistra found that 61 percent of respondents were engaged in or considering conducting a legal entity rationalisation. Some may find that number surprising, but there are good reasons so many companies are undertaking rationalisations. In this podcast, CFO Magazine’s Nick Ciavatta interviews Charlotte Hultman and Ed Novak about why legal entity rationalisations are so popular, and why they’ll...

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Chapter News, COVID-19 News

Coronavirus: EU Commission approves contract with CureVac to ensure access to a potential vaccine

Today, the European Commission approved a fifth contract with the European pharmaceutical company CureVac, which provides for the initial purchase of 225 million doses on behalf of all EU Member States, plus an option to request up to a further 180 million doses, to be supplied once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19. Today's contract with CureVac enlarges the already broad portfolio of vaccines to be produced in Europe, including the contracts signed with AstraZeneca, Sanofi-GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica...

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Chapter News, COVID-19 News

EU Commission disburses €14 billion under SURE to nine Member States

The European Commission has disbursed €14 billion to nine EU countries in the second installment of financial support to Member States under the SURE instrument. As part of today's operations, Croatia has received €510 million, Cyprus €250 million, Greece €2 billion, Italy an additional €6.5 billion, Latvia €120 million, Lithuania €300 million, Malta €120 million, Slovenia €200 million and Spain an additional €4 billion. This support, in the form of loans granted on favourable terms, will assist these Member States...

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Chapter News

ECB | The euro area financial sector in the pandemic crisis

Keynote speech by Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the ECB, at the 23rd EURO FINANCE WEEK | Frankfurt am Main, 16 November 2020 I am honoured to open the 23rd Euro Finance Week. My remarks today will focus on two main issues. First, I will provide an overview of the current economic situation in the euro area, and focus on how the pandemic has amplified existing vulnerabilities in the financial system. And second, I will highlight the important role that financial...

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COVID-19 News, Member News

H&K | COVID-19 Vaccinations Are Coming, But What Will the PREP Act Immunize?

Highlights: Due to the recent announcements of successful trials for a COVID-19 vaccine, healthcare providers are asking about the extent to which the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) will protect them against liability under state and federal law. There is limited case law addressing the applicability of the PREP Act, but the bottom line of the few cases that have examined the question is that the PREP Act is likely to preempt state claims relating to...

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