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On 21 February 2023, the European Commission published a 'fisheries and oceans' package, including an action plan for reconciling marine protection and fisheries. With this plan, the Commission is hoping to achieve more consistent implementation of EU environmental and fisheries policies. The main aim is to make fishing practices more sustainable by improving gear selectivity and reducing impacts on sensitive species (such as dolphins) and the seabed. On seabeds, the Commission is calling for a ban ...

In line with the EU-India Strategic Partnership of 2004 and the EU approach to global health, the EU and India have long-standing cooperation on health. The focus is on health research and innovation, public health and health security, as well as regulatory convergence. Often called the 'world's pharmacy', India significantly shapes global health outcomes due to its health diplomacy and its large share of the global population. While interests converge in numerous health-related areas, intellectual ...

Road safety has improved significantly in the EU, with the number of road fatalities falling by more than 60 % in the last 20 years. However, improvements in road safety have fallen short of the EU goals of decreasing the number of road deaths by 50 % between 2001 and 2010, and by an additional 50 % between 2011 and 2020. Directive (EU) 2015/413 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road safety-related traffic offences – the Cross-border Enforcement (CBE) Directive – is one of the ...

Energy is a major cost item in EU fisheries and aquaculture. The recent energy crisis has hit the seafood sector hard, notably because of increased marine diesel prices, exposing one of the sector's major vulnerabilities: its high dependency on fossil fuels. A move towards alternative energy sources would not only address this vulnerability but also contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal and the EU's ambition to become climate neutral. On 21 February 2023, the European Commission ...

Restrictive monetary policy dampens inflation effectively, but it also raises stress in financial markets. This happens through revaluations of financial assets on banks’ balance sheets and through dampened economic activity. Moreover, apart from the positive effect of exiting negative interest rates, banks’ net interest margin is generally negatively affected by interest rate hikes. With most of the disinflationary impact of higher interest rates yet to materialise, monetary policy should allow ...

The EU's effort-sharing legislation covers greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in sectors not included in the EU emissions trading system. A wide range of sources – such as fuels used for road transport, energy used for heating and cooling in buildings, animal digestion and fertilisers used in agriculture, waste treatment, and small industries – account for these emissions. To cut the emissions in these sectors, the EU Effort-sharing Regulation (ESR) establishes collective and national binding targets ...

This briefing focuses on policy measures benefiting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have been enshrined in the national recovery and resilience plans (NRRPs). Member States drew up their recovery plans in order to take advantage of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) recovery instrument and its Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), designed to support recovery from the pandemic while fostering the green and digital transitions. The RRF is structured around six pillars representing key ...

More than 3 years after the entry into application of the Geo-blocking Regulation (GBR) and more than 2 years after the publication of the Commission report on the first short-term review of the GBR, the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) decided to draft a report to establish the extent to which implementation of the GBR had contributed to the integration of the internal market and thereby to better deals for consumers and more opportunities for ...

Companies can play a key role in building a sustainable economy and society. At the same time, their global value chains can pose risks to human rights and the environment. A growing number of EU companies have taken initiatives to deploy due diligence processes, often using existing voluntary international standards on responsible business conduct. Some Member States have meanwhile started developing their own legal frameworks on corporate due diligence. To avoid fragmentation, and give businesses ...

The crypto-asset sector, while still relatively new, has already changed the world of payments and investment forever. The fast-changing, mobile nature of the sector and its growing market prominence poses challenges, however, for tax authorities, which are not always able to track the capital gains made from trading crypto-assets. On 8 December 2022, the European Commission proposed to set up a reporting framework which would require crypto-asset service providers to report transactions made by ...