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Strong coverage of education in this year’s European Semester Spring package

Education is featured prominently throughout the package, which acknowledges the importance of human capital and skills development for productivity, competitiveness, and the green and digital transitions. The European Commission published its European Semester Spring package, including 27 country reports and country specific recommendations, 18 of which concern education. Country reports The reports outline key economic, …

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Commission seeks input from industry on the use of artificial intelligence in finance

The Commission has launched a targeted consultation and a workshop series to seek input from stakeholders on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in finance. The initiatives cover use cases, benefits, barriers, risks and stakeholder needs. The consultation and workshops target all financial stakeholders. The input received will enable the Commission to provide guidance to …

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The 2024 EU Prize for Citizens Science goes to three projects addressing marine pollution, agricultural biodiversity, and mental health

The winners of the EU 2024 Prize for Citizen Science were announced on June 12th. Citizen science – the general public engagement in scientific research activities – contributes to a vibrant civil society and is getting increasingly popular with Europeans. Out of the 288 applications, three citizen science initiatives received the main prizes and 27 …

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Commission secures access for Member States to 665,000 doses of zoonotic influenza vaccines to prevent avian flu

The Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) as part of its mandate on preparedness, has signed on behalf of participating Member States, a joint procurement framework contract for the supply of up to 665,000 pre-pandemic vaccine doses of the up-to-date Zoonotic Influenza Vaccine Seqirus, as well as an option for a further 40 million doses …

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EU Justice Scoreboard 2024 shows that perception of judicial independence has improved

The European Commission has published the twelfth edition of the EU Justice Scoreboard, an annual overview providing comparative data on the efficiency, quality, and independence of justice systems among the EU Member States. Compared to last year, the public’s perception of judicial independence has improved, also in countries that had experienced systemic challenges. This year’s Scoreboard …

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EU law on combatting violence against women enters into force

The first ever EU rules on combating violence against women and domestic violence entered into force. Violence against women and domestic violence affect an estimated one in three of the 228 million women in the EU. By criminalising certain forms of violence against women across the EU, including online, and strengthening victims’ access to justice, protection and support, …

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New EU rules make high-value datasets available to fuel artificial intelligence and data-driven innovation

New EU rules on making more public datasets available for reuse have started applying. These so-called ‘high-value datasets’ contain information on six thematic areas laid out in the Open Data Directive: geospatial, earth observation and environment, meteorological, statistics, companies and mobility. The new rules have the potential to generate important societal and economic benefits by …

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Commission seeks feedback on draft targeted amendments to rules on small amounts of State aid to the agricultural sector

The European Commission has launched today a public consultation inviting all interested parties to comment on draft targeted amendments to the rules on small amounts of aid to the agricultural sector (‘Agricultural de minimis Regulation‘). All interested parties can respond to the public consultation until 21 July 2024. The proposed amendment The Agricultural de minimis Regulation exempts small amounts from State …

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