In a critical step towards mandating a common charger across the EU, Members of the European Parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee (IMCO) agreed on their position for a single charger for mobile phones and other small electronic devices, such as tablets, e-book readers, smart cameras and wearable electronics at their meeting on Wednesday. The Parliament’s internal position largely backs the September 2021 proposal put forward by the European Commission and must now be negotiated with the EU Member...

A European consortium comprising Portuguese developer Madoqua Renewables, Dutch energy transition project developer and consultancy Power2X and Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has announced plans to build a €1bn ($1.08bn) industrial-scale complex for the production of green hydrogen and ammonia in Sines, Portugal. The Portuguese government placed Sines, which is home to the country’s largest deepwater port, at the centre of the national EN-H2 hydrogen strategy, approved in 2020. Dubbed the MadoquaPower2X, the project will use renewable energy and 500MW...

This article is part of Portolano Cavallo’s “INFORM@Life Sciences” Newsletter. Click here to subscribe | The Italian version of this article has been published on March 17, 2022 on AboutPharma.com, within Portolano Cavallo's bi-monthly column on the new Clinical Trials Regulation EU 536/2014. On February 16, 2022, more than two years later than planned, the Ministerial Decree of November 30, 2021, containing measures to facilitate and support the development of nonprofit clinical trials of medicinal products and observational studies, as well as to...

Initially published on Elvinger's website here | On 6 April 2022, the European Commission ("EC") adopted the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation ("SFDR") Regulatory Technical Standards in the form of a delegated regulation ("RTS"). As previously announced, the EC decided to consolidate all 13 SFDR RTS into one single delegated act, which is expected to apply from 1 January 2023. The RTS should provide the asset management industry and EU regulators with much needed certainty when preparing for compliance. In the Explanatory Memorandum...

In this week’s Roar we’re covering several angles of the supply chain mess that is China, air cargo as the hero we didn’t know we needed, and the internet of things (IOT) technology as one long-term solution. As supply chain professionals, we are acutely aware of how the present lockdowns in China (which impact regions producing 40% of GDP) will have far-reaching implications on an already tenuous global economy. With the situation in Ukraine not helping matters, it’s discouraging that...

Arguably the most important data next week is the flash PMI. It is not available for all countries, but for those generally large G10 economies, the preliminary estimate is often sufficiently close to the final reading to steal its thunder. Moreover, and this applies to high-frequency data more broadly, given the overshoot of inflation in most counties, with some exceptions, notably in Asia, central banks appear to be on set courses.  The near-term data are interesting if you are into...

Law of 1 April 2022 amending Articles L. 414-3 and L. 414-9 of the Labour Code The law of 1 April 2022, which enshrines in law the staff delegation's involvement in remote work arrangements, was published on 12 April 2022 and will come into force on 16 April 2022. With the pandemic and since the advent of lockdown, teleworking has become established as a new type of working arrangement. To regulate this practice, which will remain even beyond the end of the...