Tag: 2022

The press release issued by the European Commission on 19 December 2022.

A new Eurobarometer survey released today shows that the large majority of EU citizens are positive about recent EU actions to tackle the energy crisis. In particular, More than 8 in ten EU citizens (82%) agree that the EU should continue to take actions to reduce its dependency on Russian fossil fuels. An overwhelming majority of respondents (83%) think that Russia’s war against Ukraine makes it more urgent to invest in renewable energy. 87% of them believe that it is crucial to protect critical infrastructure such as pipelines and internet cables, while 83% also agree that the price of electricity should not depend on the price of gas.

Respondents massively say (85%) that rising energy prices have had an impact on their purchasing power. 56% agree that recent price increases are mainly due to Russia’s aggressive behaviour and 38% disagree.

49% of respondents think that measures taken by the EU to improve the economic situation will have a positive impact, 18% that they will have a negative impact and 22% that they will have no impact.

Respondents themselves have already taken action or would be ready to do so in order to cut down on their energy consumption and energy bills, notably turning off lights when they leave a room for a while (77%), unplugging electronic appliances when not in use (62%) and reducing room temperature (58%).

Measures taken by the EU as a response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine continue to get a robust support among citizens. European citizens massively approve the provision of humanitarian support (88%), followed by welcoming people fleeing the war (82%). Seven out of ten respondents approve economic sanctions against the Russian government, companies and individuals (71%) as well as financial support to Ukraine (70%). A majority of citizens also approve banning state-owned Russian media (63%) and financing the purchase and supply of military equipment to Ukraine (59%).

The press release issued by the European Commission on 19 December 2022.

Today, under the European Partnership for Integration, the Commission and five European Social and Economic Partners – ETUC, BusinessEurope, SGI Europe, SMEUnited and Eurochambres – renewed their commitment to integrate more effectively refugees and other migrants into the EU labour market.

In a joint statement released today, the Commission and the Social and Economic Partners reaffirm the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach to facilitate an early and smooth integration into the labour market. Such an approach benefits both migrants and the host country, through targeted measures in a coordinated manner.

Support for Ukraine

Participants highlighted the need for coordinated support for people fleeing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The Commission adopted a Recommendation on the recognition of qualifications for people fleeing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 5 April 2022. The Commission also issued guidance for access to the labour market, vocational education and training and adult learning of people fleeing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The guidance underlines the importance of avoiding exploitation and undeclared work with the support of the European Labour Authority. On 10 October 2022, the Commission launched an EU Talent Pool pilot initiative that seeks to help beneficiaries of temporary protection find employment and integrate in the EU labour market, taking into account the specific needs of the applicants. The signatories exchanged lessons learnt from their experiences when it comes to labour market integration to support displaced persons from Ukraine and other third-country nationals and discussed further actions and projects.

Provide equal opportunities on the EU labour market

In the run up to the 2023 European Year of Skills, the signatories agree on the need to make the assessment, recognition and validation of skills and qualifications easier. This will improve the matching of skills with vacancies. Such an approach will allow migrants and refugees to find work at the level of their qualifications and employers to make full use of migrants’ potential to fill in labour shortages. Moreover, they will continue facilitating integration into the EU labour market and promoting equal opportunities, including through close cooperation on the implementation of the EU Talent Pool Pilot for beneficiaries of temporary protection. The Commission will continue to work with the Social and Economic Partners to roll out the Talent Pool and Talent Partnerships with key partner countries, with a view to improving legal pathways for third-country nationals to the EU. The signatories will work on raising awareness and sharing best practice in the use of EU funding for labour market integration. In line with the Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-27, the Commission will support projects that foster multi-stakeholder initiatives through a call for proposals on migrant integration under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) thematic facility.

Next Steps

Starting in early 2023, the partners and the Commission will meet at least twice a year at working level, taking stock of relevant projects and other actions. They will also meet at political level as appropriate.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 19 December 2022.

The European Commission has today announced that it intends to issue up to €80 billion of long-term EU-Bonds in the first half of 2023 under its unified funding approach. Under this approach, the Commission – on behalf of the EU – will henceforth issue only “EU-Bonds” rather than separately denominated bonds for individual programmes such as SURE and Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA).

The programmes to be financed through the unified funding approach in the first half of next year are the NextGenerationEU recovery programme and the new Macro-Financial Assistance + programme for Ukraine. The former will account for some €70 billion, and the latter for around €10 billion.

The unified funding approach will allow the instruments developed for NextGenerationEU to be used in the same way for other lending programmes. All of these programmes can be funded in a flexible manner, relying on the proceeds of a single scheme of EU-Bills and EU-Bonds transactions.

The Commission will continue to finance the green component of the Recovery and Resilience Facility at the heart of NextGenerationEU through clearly and separately designated NextGenerationEU green bond issuances. In this way, investors will remain able to verify that proceeds from the NextGenerationEU green bonds are matched to eligible green bond expenditures in accordance with the NextGenerationEU green bond framework.

The benefits of the new approach

Thanks to the new approach, the Commission will be able to plan, execute and communicate all issuances in an agile and coherent way, via a single EU-Bond label. It will also make use of the full range of its funding instruments and funding techniques to cover its funding needs, thus obtaining the most advantageous terms possible at that time.

These attractive conditions will be passed on to the beneficiaries of its funding programmes.

Finally, the single-branded EU bonds will also be easier to buy, sell and substitute in investor’s portfolios. This will help make EU securities more liquid, and improve their pricing and trading in the secondary market.

Boosting secondary market liquidity

Moving from policy-by-policy issuance towards a unified funding approach will make EU securities more fungible and liquid. To further boost the liquidity of EU-Bonds, the Commission will:

• Prepare, with the banks included in the Primary Dealer Network, a framework for providing investors with pricing quotes on EU securities. These quotes will be displayed through the trading platforms used by financial professionals. Preparation will start in early 2023 with a view to introducing these new quoting commitments from summer 2023.
• In addition, the Commission will start building a repo facility to support market participants in trading its bonds. Through the repo facility, the Commission will make available its securities on a temporary basis, thus helping EU Primary Dealers to provide liquidity in EU-Bonds. This repo facility will be implemented by early 2024.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 19 December 2022.

Today, the Commission proposed to strengthen the rules that prevent and combat trafficking in human beings. Every year over 7000 people become victims of human trafficking in the EU. That figure can be expected to be much higher as many victims remain undetected. The yearly cost of trafficking in human beings in the EU reaches EUR 2.7 billion. The majority of victims are women and girls, but the share of male victims is also on the rise particularly for labour exploitation.

Forms of exploitation have evolved in recent years, with the crime increasingly taking an online dimension. This calls for new action at EU level, as traffickers benefit from opportunities to recruit, control, transport and exploit victims, as well as move profits and reach out to users in the EU and beyond.

The updated rules will provide stronger tools for law enforcement and judicial authorities to investigate and prosecute new forms of exploitation. For example, by making sure that knowingly using the services provided by victims of trafficking constitutes a criminal offence. The Commission’s proposal put forward mandatory sanctions against companies for trafficking offences and not only individuals. It also aims to improve procedures for early identification and support for victims in Member States, particularly through the creation of a European Referral Mechanism.

In particular, the updated rules will include:

• Forced marriage and illegal adoption among the types of exploitation the definition of the Directive covers. This will require Member States to criminalise such conduct in their national criminal law as human trafficking;
• Explicit reference to human trafficking offences committed or facilitated through information and communication technologies, including internet and social media;
• Mandatory sanctions for legal persons held accountable for trafficking offences. This covers excluding them from public benefits or by temporarily or permanently closing the establishments where the trafficking offence occurred;
• Formal National Referral Mechanisms to improve early identification and referral for assistance and support for victims, which will create the basis for a European Referral Mechanism by the appointment of national focal points;
• Stepping up demand reduction by making it a criminal offence for people who knowingly use services provided by victims of trafficking;
• EU-wide annual data collection on trafficking in human beings to be published by Eurostat.

Next steps

It is now up to the European Parliament and the Council to examine the proposal. Once adopted, Member States will have to transpose the new rules into their national law.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 19 December 2022.

The European Commission has today adopted a notice which extends to 31 December 2025 the current arrangements for the movement of veterinary medicines from Great Britain to Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and Northern Ireland. This will ensure the continuity of supplies of veterinary medicinal products, in particular to Northern Ireland.

The Commission recognises the key importance of veterinary medicines for food safety, animal health and welfare, and public health. It has been listening carefully to the concerns expressed by relevant authorities and stakeholders – particularly those from Northern Ireland – in the area of veterinary medicines. The Commission has therefore acted today to provide additional time to businesses to adapt their supply chains.

Today’s notice includes an Action Plan, with clear milestones, that requires authorities to identify the precise veterinary medicinal products at risk, and to provide information about the measures they, or the relevant operators, are taking to comply with EU rules on veterinary medicinal products.

Background

The UK’s decision to leave the EU means that EU pharmaceutical rules no longer apply in the UK. Under the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, these rules apply in Northern Ireland. This has created difficulties for many EU or Northern Ireland established operators which relied on the supply of veterinary medicinal products from or through parts of the UK, other than Northern Ireland.

To ensure the continuity of supply of veterinary medicinal products and allow operators sufficient time to adapt their supply chains, the Commission adopted on 25 January 2021 a notice providing for flexibility in the application of EU rules until 31 December 2021. At the end of 2021, it was clear that the situation remained challenging for market operators. Therefore, on 29 December 2021, a further extension was granted until 31 December 2022.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 16 December 2022.

The Commission welcomes the Council’s adoption of a ninth package of hard-hitting sanctions against Russia for its aggression against Ukraine. This responds to Russia’s continued escalation and illegal war against Ukraine, in particular as Russia is deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, seeking to paralyse the country at the beginning of the winter.

Today’s package comes on top of the full EU import ban on Russian seaborne crude oil, and of the global oil price cap agreed with G7 partners, both of which apply from 5 December.

Specifically, this package contains the following elements:

Additional listings

The EU has added almost 200 additional individuals and entities to our list of persons subject to a freezing of their assets. This includes the Russian armed forces, as well as individual officers and defence industrial companies, members of the State Duma and Federation Council, ministers, Russian proxy authorities in occupied areas of Ukraine and political parties, among others. This list covers key figures involved in in Russia’s brutal and deliberate missile strikes against civilians, in the kidnapping of Ukrainian children to Russia, and in the theft of Ukrainian agricultural products.

Additional EU export bans

New export restrictions have been introduced on sensitive dual-use and advanced technologies that contribute to Russia’s military capabilities and technological enhancement. This includes drone engines, camouflage gear, additional chemical/biological equipment, riot control agents and additional electronic components found in Russian military systems on the battlefield.

Moreover, the most severe export restrictions are extended to 168 additional Russian entities closely linked to the Russian military-industrial complex in an effort to cut off their access to sensitive dual-use and advanced technology items. This brings the total number of entities sanctioned to 410. This decision has been done in close collaboration with our partners and includes military end-users working in various sectors such as aeronautics.

New export bans will extend to additional industrial goods and technology, such as toy/hobby drones, complex generator devices, laptop computers and computing components, printed circuits, radio navigational systems, radio remote control apparatus, aircraft engines and parts of engines, cameras and lenses.

An even wider array of business services can no longer be provided to Russia with the introduction of bans on market research and public opinion polling services, technical testing and analysis services, and advertising services.

Additional transactions bans for Russian banks

Three additional Russian banks have been sanctioned, including a full transaction ban on the Russian Regional Development Bank to further paralyse Putin’s cash machines.

Additional bans on Russian media outlets

Four additional Russian channels have been sanctioned in the EU.

Cutting Russia’s access to drones

The direct exports of drone engines to Russia and the export to any third countries, such as Iran, where there is a suspicion that they will be used in Russia is now restricted.

Additional economic measures against the Russian energy and mining sectors

In addition to the already existing investment ban in the energy sector in Russia, new EU investments in the Russian mining sector will also be prohibited, with the exception of certain raw materials.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 16 December 2022.

Exactly three months after President von der Leyen‘s announcement in her 2022 State of the Union Address, the European Commission and the Government of Ukraine have signed a €100 million support package for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of schooling facilities damaged in Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine. Support will reach Ukraine through the EU’s humanitarian partners and partly as budget support to the Government of Ukraine.

The European Commission has allocated around €14 million from an ongoing contract with the Polish Development Bank “Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego” to purchase school buses and bring Ukrainian children safely to school. The Commission has also launched an EU-wide solidarity campaign to donate school buses for Ukraine, channelled through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. Overall, around 240 buses are now on the way from the EU and its member states. More are coming.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said: “Russia’s targeted attacks against civilian infrastructure, especially as winter grips the country, are a deliberate crime against millions of innocent people. And they are a gross violation of international law. The EU’s top priority is to bring back as soon as possible Ukrainian children back to school. Today we are delivering on our promise to support the rehabilitation of schools damaged and destroyed by Russia’s brutal war. And by early 2023, we will also deliver school buses for Ukraine so children can actually travel to school in the best possible conditions. The future of Ukraine begins with its children back in schools.”

First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska said: “I am grateful to the European Commission, and President Ursula von der Leyen in particular, for supporting the restoration of Ukrainian schools.  Today, less than a third of children in Ukraine have possibility to regularly attend a school.  The rest have to study online or in a hybrid format. Due to constant shelling and blackouts, it becomes increasingly difficult.  For my Foundation, the restoration of the educational process is a priority. Education of our children today is our contribution to the common European future.”

The €100 million assistance package includes:

• €34 million in humanitarian aid, out of which €20 million channelled through the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and €14 million through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This support will focus on light and medium repairs including repairs of windows, roofs, doors, sanitation and heating facilities, as well as providing classroom equipment in learning spaces and bomb shelters.
•  €66 million to be provided directly to the Ukrainian government as budget support.

The Commission will work together with the Ukrainian government and the Olena Zelenska Foundation. The Commission expects to disburse the €66 million of budget support in the next few weeks. UNOPS and UNDP have started the damage assessment of the facilities to rehabilitate on the ground. A majority of the educational facilities that will benefit from this grant are expected to be repaired, between December 2022 and September 2023, in time for the start of the next school year.

In the case of the €14 million EU grant for school buses Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego will work with its partner on the ground, the Solidarity Fund Poland, to procure the buses in early 2023.

Background

Russian strikes have damaged or destroyed over 2,800 education institutions so far, impacting 5.7 million school-aged children. Many simply do not have a classroom to go to. Online education does not always work, with limited power nor access to appropriate IT equipment. To ensure continuity of education, the rehabilitation of school buildings and the provision of school buses have become a top priority for the EU. The Commission acted very quickly to ensure funding so that these children have the possibility to return to in-person education as soon as possible in the best possible conditions.

Support to education in emergencies

The EU has been providing humanitarian support to Ukraine in emergency education since the beginning of the war. This support aims to prevent and reduce disruption in education of crisis-affected children by promoting access to safe quality education. Through our humanitarian partners, we provide needed materials, supplies and capacity building of teachers, offering psycho-social support and life-saving messages to children and education staff. EU humanitarian aid also supports the light and medium rehabilitation of educational facilities and the establishment of digital learning centres. Through its Crisis Response Actions, the EU has been supporting the use by Ukrainian children of the Ukrainian government’s ‘All-Ukrainian Schools Online Platform’ and the needs for safe physical learning spaces and materials for children.

Support for Ukraine in the field of education

The European Commission is mobilising its instruments to support the education systems of the EU Member States receiving people that have fled Ukraine. The Commission also supports displaced students and staff, as well as those staying in Ukraine. This is done through information provision, coordination of national efforts, current European funding instruments to address immediate needs, and through new funding and policy instruments to provide medium term support. The Commission has also set up an EU Education Solidarity Group for Ukraine supporting the countries who are hosting Ukrainian school-age children by pooling available expertise in Member States and providing guidance through the existing tools and mechanisms.

Education and training intended for displaced parents, pupils, schools and teachers, as well as those wanting to contribute to solidarity efforts in EU Member States includes links to online educational resources in Ukrainian, advice on integrating displaced children in national education systems, teaching and language support, fast track practices on the integration of teachers that have fled Ukraine into national education systems, and guidance on psycho-social support.

The Commission has allowed for flexibility under the 2022 Erasmus+ programme in support of students and staff from Ukraine. Under the 2023 Erasmus+ calls, launched in November 2022, the Erasmus+ international actions – in particular the international credit mobility, the capacity-building projects and the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters – will continue to be open to students, staff and higher education institutions from Ukraine. A special competitive call of €5 million was furthermore launched to support the development of an open education digital environment for Ukraine.