Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem spoke to press and public representatives following the group's April 7 meeting: "Good afternoon and welcome to this press conference, here after the Eurogroup in Valletta. I want, first of all, to thank the Maltese hosts for the excellent organisation and the wonderful venue for today's discussions. Today in the Eurogroup, we welcomed Danièle Nouy of the ECB Supervisory Board and Elke Koenig of the Single Resolution Board. They joined us to speak about their work,...

The Commission welcomes the adoption of its proposal for two Regulations on medical devices which establish a modernised and more robust EU legislative framework to ensure better protection of public health and patient safety. The new Regulations on medical and in-vitro diagnostic medical devices proposed by the Commission in 2012 will help to ensure that all medical devices - from heart valves to sticking plasters to artificial hips – are safe and perform well. To address this, the new rules...

When travelling in the EU, consumers will be able to call, send SMS or surf on their mobile at the same price they pay at home. Today the European Parliament voted on how to regulate wholesale roaming markets, formally approving the agreement on wholesale caps reached between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission at the beginning of the year. This political agreement was the final step to make roam like at home work as of 15 June 2017, as foreseen in the Telecom Single...

New rules allowing the US National Security Agency (NSA) to share private data with other US agencies without court oversight, recent revelations about surveillance activities by a US electronic communications service provider and vacancies on US oversight bodies are among the concerns raised by MEPs in a resolution passed on Thursday. In the resolution, adopted by 306 votes to 240, with 40 abstentions, MEPs call on the EU Commission to conduct a proper assessment and ensure that the EU-US “Privacy...

The Board of the European Investment Bank approved a total of EUR 4.1 billion of new financing today. This includes investment to improve sustainable transport, healthcare, education and corporate research, as well as support for lending to small companies by local financial partners across Europe and around the world. “At a time of economic and political uncertainty the time is right to consider how to strengthen the role of multilateral banks such as the EIB.” said Werner Hoyer, President of...

The Council today adopted a directive aimed at strengthening shareholders' engagement in big European companies. The directive will encourage transparent and active engagement by shareholders of listed companies by reviewing the current Shareholders' Rights Directive (2007/36/EC). The financial crisis revealed that shareholders in many cases supported managers' excessive short-term risk taking. The revised directive is intended to redress this situation and contribute to the sustainability of companies, which will result in growth and job creation. The new directive establishes specific requirements in...

Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) play a pivotal role in the European business landscape by bridging industry and academia and by adding value across the entire innovation value chain. However there is a need to optimise and complement RTOs’ traditional business model and funding strategies with new additional business models and funding strategies to allow them to successfully navigate through a changing funding landscape and make full use of existing business opportunities. This is the result of a study...