Transatlantic News

Transatlantic News

Chapter News

Commission modernises EU customs procedures

The European Commission has adopted today a legal act to create a simpler, more modern and integrated EU customs system to support cross-border trade and provide for more EU-wide cooperation in customs matters. It builds on the Union Customs Code adopted in 2013, which sets out detailed rules for twenty-first century customs processes. Customs services play a central role in policing the EU’s external borders and in facilitating trade. The customs union is the operational arm of much of the...
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Opening a new Chapter for Data Protection

Today, as the European Data Protection Supervisor sent his recommendations to the EU co-legislators negotiating the final text of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), he launched a mobile app to compare the latest texts from the Commission, the Parliament and the Council more easily on tablets and smartphones. Giovanni Buttarelli, EDPS, said: “Privacy and data protection matter more than ever to people. For the first time in a generation the EU has an opportunity to modernise, harmonise and simplify...
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IMF Executive Board Consultation on Euro Area Policies

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation1 with the Euro Area. The recovery is strengthening, driven by rising domestic demand and supported by lower oil prices, the ECB’s quantitative easing under the expanded asset purchase program, and a weaker euro. The improving sentiment, rising inflation expectations, and easing credit conditions suggest that the recovery is likely to continue in the near term. In this context, euro area GDP is expected to accelerate from...
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ECB and partners sign memorandum of understanding on new €20 banknote

The European Central Bank today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with European industry associations, banknote equipment manufacturers and other partners. This strengthens the ECB’s Partnership Programme, which contributed to the smooth introduction of the new €10 banknote in 2014. The signatories of the MoU agree to do everything in their capacity to ensure that banknote handling machines, vending and ticketing machines and authentication devices will accept the new €20 banknote by 25 November 2015, the day the new notes...
Chapter News

Investment Plan for Europe: European Fund for Strategic Investments ready for take-off in autumn

Today the European Commission has put the final building blocks in place to kick-start investment in the real economy. A package of measures agreed today will ensure that the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) is up and running by early autumn 2015, keeping the ambitious timetable set by President Jean-Claude Juncker to implement the Investment Plan for Europe. The Commission has just published a Communication on the role of National Promotional Banks (NPBs) in supporting the Investment Plan for...
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EU Council Conclusions on Climate Diplomacy

1. Recalling its conclusions of July 2011 and June 2013 and the Foreign Affairs Council discussion of January 2015 which endorsed the Climate Diplomacy Action Plan, the Council adopted the following conclusions: 2. Climate change, as underlined by the latest scientific findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is a decisive global challenge which, if not urgently managed, will put at risk not only the environment but also world economic prosperity, poverty reduction, sustainable development and, more broadly,...
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EU Council Conclusions on Energy Diplomacy

1. The Communication "A Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy" of 25 February 2015 and the European Council Conclusions of 19-20 March 2015 recognised the importance of the external dimension of the Energy Union. The objectives of the Energy Union can only be met if the external and the internal dimensions of energy policy, in particular a fully functioning Internal Energy Market, are mutually reinforcing. 2. EU policy objectives defined in the EU...
Chapter News

Eurogroup statement on Greece

The Eurogroup welcomes the successful completion of the relevant national procedures related to the decision to grant in principle a 3-year ESM stability support to Greece, and especially the recent swift legislative steps taken by the Greek parliament as a first step towards rebuilding trust.  Following a formal decision taken by the ESM Board of Governors, the institutions were entrusted with the task of swiftly negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) detailing the policy conditionality attached to the financial assistance...

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