For the best ideas for Europe's future, why not ask the next generation? In May 7,000 young Europeans gathered in Strasbourg for the second European Youth Event (EYE) during which they discussed how to best tackle the many challenges facing Europe. Fifty of the best ideas have been collected in a report, which was presented to Parliament on 6 September. Some of the ideas will be forwarded to parliamentary committees, which starting 11 October will discuss them with the...

Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President and I are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference. We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by the Commission Vice-President, Mr Dombrovskis. Based on our regular economic and monetary analyses, we decided to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged. We continue to expect them to remain at present or lower levels for an extended period of time, and well past the...

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today at your Annual Meetings. A few months ago I spoke to Guntram (Wolf) about this event and about a possible topic for my remarks. There are elections coming up in France, Germany and my country, the Netherlands. At the same time, the polls - not to mention the outcome of the Brexit referendum - highlight the appeal of populists all over Europe. My remarks today will focus on what...

Delivering on the Security Union: Commission proposes EU certification system for airport security equipment and to promote a more competitive EU security industry The European Commission is today proposing to establish a single EU certification procedure for aviation security screening equipment to enhance the competitiveness of the EU security industry, as previously announced on 20 April when setting out the way forward towards the achievement of an effective and genuine EU Security Union. The introduction of an EU certificate will...

Population, living conditions, health, education & training, labour market, economy & finance, trade, industry & services, research & communication, transport, agriculture, environment and energy: the 2016 edition of the Eurostat publication “The EU in the world” compares the European Union (EU) with the 15 non-EU G-20 countries across thirteen statistical fields using a range of European and international statistics. Full text available on EUROSTAT website Compliments of the European Commission

Parliament will evaluate Commissioner-designate Sir Julian King for the portfolio of the Security Union during its plenary session in Strasbourg. The Civil Liberties Committee will first hold a public hearing with the candidate on Monday 12 September in the evening. The full House will take a vote on Thursday. Julian King's candidacy was put forward by the UK Government following the resignation of Lord Jonathan Hill, who held the Financial Services portfolio. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced last month that...

The European Commission has concluded that Ireland granted undue tax benefits of up to €13 billion to Apple. This is illegal under EU state aid rules, because it allowed Apple to pay substantially less tax than other businesses. Ireland must now recover the illegal aid. Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Member States cannot give tax benefits to selected companies – this is illegal under EU state aid rules. The Commission's investigation concluded that Ireland granted illegal...