During the visit of the College to Bratislava, Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has offered the Slovak Government the full support of the Commission as the country launches its first-ever Presidency of the Council of the European Union. In his joint press conference with the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, which followed today's meeting in Bratislava between the College of Commissioners and the Slovak Government, President Juncker welcomed the priorities of the Slovak Presidency, which are "in total harmony" with the...

The Commission has today adopted a proposal to further reinforce EU rules on anti-money laundering to counter terrorist financing and increase transparency about who really owns companies and trusts. The Juncker Commission has made the fight against tax avoidance, money laundering and terrorism financing one of its priorities. The changes proposed today will tackle new means of terrorist financing, increase transparency to combat money laundering and help strengthen the fight against tax avoidance. This Commission proposal is the first initiative to...

Slovakia takes over the helm of the Council of the EU from the Netherlands on 1 July. Over the next six months the country wants to strengthen the EU's economy, modernise and deepen the common market in the areas of energy and digital economy and work on a sustainable migration and asylum policy. In addition it will have to deal with the new situation in the wake of the UK referendum. Read what Slovak MEPs from Parliament’s three main...

A revamped EU legal framework, applicable as of 3 July, will ensure even more efficient, transparent and trustworthy European financial markets. This new rulebook, will increase investor protection and confidence by allowing deeper and more integrated financial markets, and contribute to the creation of the Capital Markets Union. The new framework will strengthen the fight against market abuse across commodity and related derivative markets, explicitly ban the manipulation of benchmarks, such as LIBOR, and reinforce the investigative and sanctioning powers...

US and EU negotiators have agreed on changes to the Privacy Shield deal, the new transatlantic data transfer framework. Under the new deal, companies are required to delete personal data that is no longer used for its intended purpose, and third-party services will find it more difficult to access the data from companies who have signed on to the agreement. EU member states still need to approve the deal, which would take effect in July. However, Privacy Shield is...

Today, the United States, Canada, and Mexico joined together at the North American Leaders Summit to set an historic goal -- to achieve 50 percent clean power across North America by 2025, through cooperation on permitting new transmission lines, commitments to procure clean energy for our federal facilities, and cutting waste through increased efficiency.  Here's what you need to know: Growing clean power also grows the economy. The plan will support more than one million jobs, on average, over the next decade....

The European Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF) have launched a new initiative to help SMEs in the cultural and creative sectors access credit. The €121 million which will be invested by the EU in this financial instrument until the end of 2020 is expected to leverage more than €600 million worth of bank loans over the next 6 years. Why is it needed? The creative and cultural sectors employ more than 7 million people in the EU and account...

The Commission has today proposed the 2017 draft EU Budget of €134.9 billion in payments focusing on the two main policy priorities for Europe: supporting the ongoing recovery of the European economy and addressing the security and humanitarian challenges in our neighbourhood. Increased funding will go to investments in growth, jobs and competitiveness in the European Union as well as to securing the necessary resources to protect the external borders of the EU, to reinforce security inside and outside...