Tag: European Commission

The press release issued by the European Commission on 25 November 2022.

I expressed to President Zelenskyy the EU’s full solidarity with Ukraine as it suffers at the hands of Putin’s deliberate and barbaric bombing of the country’s civilian infrastructure. I strongly condemn these attacks. Russia must be held accountable for what constitute war crimes.

We are intensifying our efforts and working with partners to provide the emergency support Ukraine needs to restore and maintain power and heating for the civilian population.

Through the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre, the Commission is currently preparing the delivery to Ukraine as quickly as possible of the following large donations by Member States and directly from the Commission’s rescEU reserve:

• 200 medium-sized transformers and a large autotransformer from Lithuania.
• a medium-sized autotransformer from Latvia.
• 40 heavy generators from the rescEU reserve located in Romania. Each of these generators can provide uninterrupted power to a small to medium sized hospital

The European Commission is additionally working on a new energy rescEU hub in Poland to allow donations from third parties and help with their delivery to Ukraine in a coordinated fashion, particularly with our G7 partners.

We have also reached out to relevant companies in various countries to request vital high voltage equipment, including further autotransformers, and are coordinating with partners to transport them rapidly to Ukraine.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 23 November 2022.

Today, the Commission launched the call for proposals for 2023 under the Erasmus+ programme. With an annual budget of €4.2 billion, Erasmus+ is increasing its support for inclusion, active citizenship and democratic participation, and green and digital transformations in the EU and internationally.

Erasmus+ flagship feature being mobility, next year, the programme will continue to support the movement of school pupils, higher education and vocational education and training (VET) students, adult learners, young people in non-formal learning programmes, educators and staff across borders and towards a European educational and training experience. As of 2023, the programme will feature a new action to support sport coaches through their participation in mobility projects, extending opportunities for cross-European cooperation and learning directly to local grassroots sport organisations and their staff.

The programme will rise to the challenges we expect to face in 2023 by providing meaningful support to learners and educational staff fleeing the war in Ukraine, continuing to strive for a more inclusive programme, and building on the legacy of the European Year of Youth.

Erasmus+ support is aimed at activities feeding into programme priorities in the fields of schools, higher and adult education, VET, as well as youth and sport. Based on open calls for project applications, any public or private body active in the fields of education, training, youth and sport can apply for funding, with the help of Erasmus+ national agencies based in all EU Member States and third countries associated to the programme, and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency.

The entire Erasmus+ programme focuses on four key priorities, among which inclusion and diversity. Organisations and participants with fewer opportunities themselves are at the heart of this priority. The programme therefore keeps on supporting participants’ inclusion mechanisms and dedicated resources to remove any barriers to their participation.

Also in 2023, following up on the European Year of Youth, the programme will continue to ensure that the voices of the youth are heard in the European Union and beyond, especially through an increase in youth activities funded through the Erasmus+. In addition to encouraging across all the different educational sectors projects that seek to support the green transition, the programme continues to strive for carbon-neutrality by promoting sustainable transport modes and more environmentally responsible behaviors.

Furthermore, the programme will keep supporting the youth dimension in existing initiatives and policies. At the same time, project and activities under the Erasmus+ 2023 call will continue feeding into the EU’s commitment to upskilling and reskilling, thereby providing a valuable contribution to the proposal to make 2023 the European Year of Skills.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 22 November 2022.

Today, the Commission has launched the 2023 European Semester cycle of economic policy coordination. The package draws upon the Autumn 2022 Economic Forecast which showed that after a strong first half of the year, the EU economy has now entered a much more challenging phase. While swift and well-coordinated policy action during the COVID-19 pandemic is paying off, the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine confronts the EU with multiple and complex challenges. Historically high energy prices, high inflation rates, supply shortages, increased debt levels and rising borrowing costs are affecting business activity and eroding households’ purchasing power.

These challenges call for coordinated action to secure adequate and affordable energy supply, safeguard economic and financial stability, and protect vulnerable households and companies while preserving the sustainability of public finances. At the same time, rapid action is needed to boost potential growth and quality job creation and deliver on the green and digital transitions. Economic policy coordination through the European Semester will help Member States achieve these objectives by setting priorities and providing clear and well-coordinated policy guidance for the year to come.

Annual Sustainable Growth Survey

This year’s Annual Sustainable Growth Survey puts forward an ambitious agenda to further strengthen coordinated EU policy responses to mitigate the negative impacts of energy shocks in the short term. At the same time, it is crucial to continue increasing social and economic resilience and fostering sustainable and inclusive growth in the medium term, while maintaining flexibility to tackle new challenges. This approach is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which are an integral part of the European Semester.

The four priorities under the European Semester remain: promoting environmental sustainability, productivity, fairness and macroeconomic stability, with a view to fostering competitive sustainability.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility, with a budget of €723.8 billion in grants and loans, is continuing to provide a steady stream of investments in European businesses, infrastructure, and skills, and is supporting an ambitious reform agenda until 2026. As of today, the Commission has endorsed 26 national Recovery and Resilience Plans, all of which have been approved by the Council. So far, payments disbursed under the Facility amount to over €135 billion.

REPowerEU, the EU’s plan to rapidly phase out the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, will mobilise additional resources to increase the resilience of EU energy systems and prevent energy poverty through targeted investments and reforms.

Opinions on the draft budgetary plans of euro area Member States
The Commission assessed the consistency of the draft budgetary plans for 2023 with the Council Recommendations of July 2022. They take into account the continued application in 2023 of the general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact.

Under the fiscal recommendations for 2023, low and medium-debt Member States should ensure that the growth of nationally financed primary current expenditure is in line with an overall neutral policy stance. High-debt Member States were recommended to ensure prudent fiscal policy, in particular by limiting the growth of nationally financed primary current expenditure below medium-term potential output growth.

The Commission invites Belgium, Portugal, Austria, Lithuania, Germany, Estonia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Slovakia to take the necessary measures within the national budgetary process to ensure that their 2023 budgets are fully in line with the Council’s Recommendations.

Given that Croatia will join the euro area on 1 January 2023, the Commission welcomes its decision to present a draft budgetary plan for the first time.

Euro area recommendation

This recommendation presents tailored advice to euro area Member States for the period 2023–2024 on those topics that affect the functioning of the euro area as a whole.

Euro area Member States should:

• Continue to coordinate fiscal policies to support the timely return of inflation to the European Central Bank’s 2% medium-term target;
• Sustain a high level of public investment to foster social and economic resilience and support the green and digital transitions;
• Ensure that support provided to households and companies that come under financial stress because of the energy crisis is cost-effective, temporary, and targeted to vulnerable ones, in particular SMEs. In that respect, the recommendation suggests setting up a two-tier energy pricing system that ensures incentives for energy savings, replacing broad-based price measures. Under this system, vulnerable consumers could benefit from regulated prices.
• Foster wage developments that protect wage earners’ purchasing power, while limiting second-round effects on inflation. Develop and adapt social support system as needed.

• Further improve active labour market policies and address skills shortages.
• Ensure the effective involvement of social partners in policy-making and strengthen social dialogue.

• Further improve the business environment and preserve macro-financial stability.

Alert Mechanism Report

The Alert Mechanism Report is a screening exercise to detect risks of potential macroeconomic imbalances. It identifies Member States for which in-depth reviews are needed to assess whether they are affected by imbalances requiring policy action.

This year’s Alert Mechanism Report concludes that in-depth reviews are warranted for 17 Member States: Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden (which were subject to an in-depth review in the previous annual cycle of Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure surveillance), as well as Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Slovakia (which were not subject to an in-depth review in 2021/2022).

Proposal for a Joint Employment Report

The proposal for the Joint Employment Report (JER) confirms that the EU labour market has fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, showing a strong performance and surpassing pre-pandemic employment levels since the third quarter of 2021. Despite strong growth, young people, women, and vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities or with a migrant background, need further support to join the job market. Policies to help workers get in-demand skills need to be strengthened to mitigate the risks of high labour and skills shortages and to support job-to-job transitions in changing labour markets, especially against the background of the green and digital transitions. Promoting just labour market transitions is important to reach the 2030 EU headline targets on employment and skills, which are integrated into the JER.

Price increases since 2021, accelerated by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, have put pressure on both the EU economy and households. Real GDP growth slowed down in the spring of 2022 and household income in real terms decreased for the first time since the COVID‑19 pandemic. In this context, collective bargaining and fair and adequate minimum wages are powerful tools to preserve the purchasing power of wages while promoting employment. To complement this, action should be taken to improve the coverage and adequacy of minimum income protection. This will also contribute to the 2030 EU headline targets on employment and poverty reduction.

Post-programme surveillance reports

Post-programme surveillance assesses the repayment capacity of Member States that have benefited from financial assistance programmes. The post-programme surveillance reports for Ireland, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Portugal conclude that all five Member States retain the capacity to repay their debt.

Today’s post-programme surveillance report for Greece is the first one prepared for the country, following the end of the enhanced surveillance framework in August 2022. The report finds that Greece has taken the necessary actions to fulfil its commitments, despite the challenging circumstances due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This report could serve as a basis for the Eurogroup to decide on the release of a final tranche of policy-contingent debt measures agreed in June 2018.

Next steps

The Commission invites the Eurogroup and the Council to discuss the documents presented today and to endorse the guidance offered. The Commission also looks forward to engaging in a constructive dialogue with the European Parliament on the contents of this package and as well as on each of the subsequent steps in the European Semester cycle.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 22 November 2022.

Today, the Commission has continued its response to the ongoing energy crisis by proposing a Market Correction Mechanism to protect EU businesses and households from episodes of excessively high gas prices in the EU. This complements measures to reduce gas demand and ensure security of supply through diversification of energy supplies. The new mechanism aims to reduce the volatility on European gas markets while safeguarding the security of gas supply.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and weaponisation of energy supplies, natural gas prices have seen unprecedented price peaks across the EU, reaching all-time highs in the second half of August this year. The extreme price spike over almost two weeks in August was highly damaging for the European economy, with contagion effects on electricity prices and an increase in overall inflation. The Commission is proposing to prevent the repetition of such episodes with a temporary and well-targeted instrument to automatically intervene on the gas markets in case of extreme gas price hikes. 

A safety ceiling on gas prices

The proposed instrument consists of a safety price ceiling of €275 on the month-ahead TTF derivatives. The Title Transfer Facility (TTF), which is the EU’s most commonly used gas price benchmark, plays a key role in the European wholesale gas market. The mechanism would be triggered automatically when both of the following conditions are met:

• the front-month TTF derivate settlement price exceeds €275 for two weeks;
• TTF prices are €58 higher than the LNG reference price for 10 consecutive trading days within the two weeks.

When these conditions are met, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) will immediately publish a market correction notice in the Official Journal of the European Union and inform the Commission, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Central Bank (ECB). The following day, the price correction mechanism will enter into force and orders for front-month TTF derivatives exceeding the safety price ceiling will not be accepted. The mechanism can be activated as of 1 January 2023. 

Safeguards to ensure security of supply and market stability

The proposed Council Regulation contains safeguards to avoid disruption to the energy and financial markets. To help avoid security of supply problems, the price ceiling is limited to only one futures product (TTF month-ahead products) so that market operators will still be able to meet demand requests and procure gas on the spot market and over-the-counter. To ensure gas demand does not increase, the proposal requires Member States to notify within two weeks from the activation of the Market Correction Mechanism which measures they have taken to reduce gas and electricity consumption. Once today’s proposal for a Market Correction Mechanism is adopted in Council, the Commission will also propose to declare an EU-alert under the Save Gas for a Safe Winter regulation that was adopted in July, triggering mandatory gas savings to ensure demand reduction. In addition, there will be constant monitoring by ESMA, ECB, the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), the Gas Coordination Group and the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSO-G).

To react to possible unintended negative consequences of the price limit, the proposal foresees that the mechanism can be suspended immediately at any time. This can happen:

• Automatically, with a deactivation, when its operation is no longer justified by the situation on the natural gas market, namely when the gap between the TTF price and the LNG price is no longer met during 10 consecutive trading days.
• By a Commission suspension decision when risks to the Union’s security of supply, to demand reduction efforts, to intra-EU flows of gas, or financial stability are identified.

There is also a possibility for the Commission to prevent the activation of the mechanism in case relevant authorities, including the ECB, warn of such risks materialising.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 21 November 2022.

At the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference which ended on Sunday morning in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the European Commission showed ambition and flexibility to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees within reach. After a difficult week of negotiations, a strong and united European effort helped secure a hard-fought deal to keep the targets of the Paris Agreement alive. The EU’s bridge-building also helped to put in place balanced new funding arrangements, with an expanded donor base, to help vulnerable communities to face loss and damage caused by climate change.

On mitigation, Parties agreed that limiting global warming to 1.5C requires rapid, deep and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions, reducing them by 43 percent by 2030 relative to the 2019 level. They also recognised that this requires accelerated action in this critical decade, and reiterated the call from the Glasgow Climate Pact for nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to be updated as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal, by the end of 2023. They also affirmed that the Glasgow Climate Pact will guide a new Mitigation Work Programme to encourage Parties to align their targets and actions towards net zero.

On loss and damage, the Parties decided to establish new funding arrangements for assisting developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. This includes a new fund with a focus on addressing loss and damage, to be established by a transitional committee which would also look into expanding sources of funding.

The Implementation COP

The final COP27 outcomes today complement the many bilateral and multilateral agreements secured by the Commission in the past two weeks. President von der Leyen participated in the Leaders’ Summit at the beginning of COP27 and signed Partnerships with Kazakhstan on raw materials, batteries and renewable hydrogen and with Namibia on sustainable raw materials and renewable hydrogen, and announced with Egyptian president El-Sisi a Strategic Partnership on Renewable Hydrogen, which was signed by Executive Vice-President Timmermans and Commissioner Kadri Simson. President von der Leyen also launched Forest and Climate Partnerships with Congo, Guyana, Mongolia, Zambia and Uganda. The importance of nature to the interconnected climate and biodiversity crises will also be a key focus of the upcoming COP15 on Biodiversity, which takes place in Montreal, Canada in December.

At an event to take stock of the Global Methane Pledge launched by the EU and US one year ago, Mr Timmermans welcomed the growing support for this initiative, which is now backed by over 150 countries. Executive Vice-President Timmermans also announced a new Team Europe Initiative to provide over €1 billion of financing for helping Africa to adapt to climate change. During COP27 the EU also welcomed and endorsed South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Investment Plan, and signed a new Just Energy Transition Partnership with Indonesia at the G20 in Bali.

President Ursula von der Leyen said on the outcome of COP27: “COP27 has confirmed that the world will not backtrack on the Paris Agreement, and is an important step towards climate justice. However science is clear that much more is needed to keep the planet liveable. What is equally clear is that the EU played a key role in Sharm el-Sheikh and will not relent on its domestic and international climate action. I thank Executive Vice-President Timmermans and our negotiating team for working night and day to unblock the difficult talks, and avoiding a breakdown of the UNFCCC process that will remain critical. Our negotiating team was able to build trust with our partners around the world, by staying strong on mitigation and showing flexibility on funding for the loss and damage caused by climate change.”

The press release issued by the European Commission on 17 November 2022.

Today, the EU celebrates the fifth anniversary of the European Pillar of Social Rights, at the first European Employment & Social Rights Forum, taking stock of progress made, and looking ahead to what comes next.

Five years have passed after the proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights at the Gothenburg Social Summit in 2017 by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. Since then, this commitment has been reaffirmed at the 2021 Porto Social Summit by EU leaders, social partners and civil society organisations. The Commission has put forward more than 130 initiatives to implement the Pillar in the Member States and deliver a social Europe that is fair, inclusive and full of opportunities.

These initiatives range from pay transparency and equality between women and men, minimum wages and investment in skills, to combatting child poverty, minimum income, and protecting workers’ safety and health.

After a strong socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pillar’s principles remain highly relevant in the current context, where many households are struggling to make ends meet, faced with increased prices exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Delivering on the European Pillar of Social Rights

In March 2021, the Commission presented the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan. To date, the large majority of the measures set out in the plan have already either been adopted or launched by the Commission. The Pillar’s 5^th anniversary was celebrated at the first European Employment & Social Rights Forum in Brussels with, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Commissioner Schmit, and many other distinguished guests.

EU governments have endorsed the EU 2030 social targets included in the Pillar Action Plan and presented their national contributions to reaching these targets. Combined, Member States’ commitments set the EU firmly on the path to achieving or even exceeding the EU-wide targets. The national targets are the outcome of an intensive consultation process by Member States, including internal consultations with key social actors like social partners, non-governmental organisations and local authorities.

The three EU-wide targets, to be achieved by 2030, are:

1. At least 78% of people aged 20 to 64 should be in employment.
2. At least 60% of all adults should participate in training every year.
3. The number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion should be reduced by at least 15 million, including at least 5 million children, compared to 2019.

Examples of initiatives taken to implement the Pillar – structured around its three main chapters on the labour market, working conditions and social inclusion – are:

Equal opportunities and access to the labour market

• The Pact for Skills is a unique platform of cooperation that brings together public and private organisations like businesses, training providers and chambers of commerce, committing to concrete training offers for workers across Europe. It has 1,000 members now, and it has already gathered pledges to help train 6 million people. The Pact is a central element of the European Skills Agenda.
• Member States have adopted Council Recommendations on Micro-credentials and on Individual Learning Accounts. The Commission has also proposed to make 2023 the European Year of Skills, giving a fresh impetus for investment in skills across the EU.
• Existing inequalities are addressed in the European Gender Equality Strategy and several other initiatives, including tackling women’s underrepresentation in the labour market and the gender pay gap with the proposal on pay transparency, new rules on gender balance on corporate boards and the new Directive on work-life balance for working parents.
• Furthermore, to strengthen the Union of Equality, the Commission put forward an Anti-Racism Action Plan 2020-2025, an LGBTIQ Equality Strategy, and an EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation and the first-ever EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.
•  The Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030 and the European Accessibility Act contribute to ensuring that persons with disabilities enjoy social inclusion and economic autonomy through employment, for example with the Disability Employment Package.
• To boost youth employment, the Commission presented a Youth Employment Support package in July 2020. This included an update of the Youth Guarantee, a Recommendation to make vocational education and training more modern, attractive, and flexible, and a renewed impetus for apprenticeships.

Fair working conditions

• The Directive for adequate minimum wages in the EU already entered into force and aims to ensure that work pays. The Directive creates a framework to improve the adequacy of minimum wages in countries with statutory minimum wages. It also aims to promote collective bargaining as well as better enforcement and monitoring in all Member States.
• The Commission proposal for a directive to improve the working conditions in platform work will ensure that people working through digital labour platforms can enjoy the labour rights and social benefits to which they are entitled. It will also support the sustainable growth of these platforms in the EU.
• EU strategic framework on health and safety at work 2021-2027 sets out the key actions needed to improve workers’ health and safety over the coming years. For instance, to effectively reduce exposure to asbestos, which can cause cancer, the Commission proposed to revise the Asbestos at Work Directive and introduce an even stricter occupational exposure limit to asbestos.

Social protection and inclusion

• The proposal for a Council Recommendation on adequate minimum income ensuring active inclusion calls on Member States to modernise their minimum income schemes to make them more effective, lifting people out of poverty, while promoting the labour market integration of those who can work. The Council has also adopted the Recommendation on ensuring a fair transition to climate neutrality.
• The European Care Strategy seeks to ensure quality, affordable and accessible care services across the EU and improve the situation for both care receivers and care givers. It includes proposals for Council Recommendations on the revision of the Barcelona targets on early childhood education and care, and on access to affordable high-quality long-term care.
• Member States adopted the Commission’s proposal for a European Child Guarantee. It aims to give children free and effective access to key services and promote equal opportunities for children at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The Commission also created the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness, which brings together Member States, cities and civil society to facilitate mutual learning, improve evidence and monitoring, and strengthen cooperation to combat homelessness throughout the EU.

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

Schengen is the largest area of free movement in the world. 3,5 million people crossing borders every day – for work, studies, pleasure. One third of the EU population lives in border regions. Every year there are 24 million business trips, and travellers make 1.25 billion journeys in the area yearly.

420 millions across the continent are connected in the area of free movement.

Schengen is one of the biggest achievements of the EU. Those connections grow the internal market, they grow economies. Schengen grows people’s standard of living – pure and simple.

22 MS and 4 associated countries are in Schengen. Now it is time to include three more.

So today I present a Communication on a stronger Schengen with full participation of Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia.

It is high time to say welcome!
It is high time to say

Добре дошли!(Bulgarian)
Dobrodošli! (Croatian)
Bine ați venit! (Romanian)

Schengen is Europe.
These three Member States deserve to feel fully European.

To have the privilege of being a member you are bound by the Concil acquis. Which includes conditions, such as:

• Effective management of external borders
• Uniform Schengen visas
• Cooperation with law enforcement in other countries
• Connection to information systems, such as Schengen Information System

All this in order to maintain security within the area and in line with fundamental rights.

Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia had strongly proven that they have met all these conditions.

They have the tools, structures, and procedures in place to manage external borders, including possible security threats.
They have highly trained and dedicated staff, state of the art infrastructure and knowhow.

Bulgaria and Romania invited a fact-finding mission last month with 17 experts from MS together with experts from the Commission, and from our agencies Frontex, Europol and Fundamental Rights Agency. They assessed the developments of the legal framework, governance, and tools to manage effectively the Schengen area.

This was an answer to some remaining questions from some Member States. This mission, not only reported very positively, but also reaffirmed the two countries readiness to join Schengen. They have reinforced the application of the acquis.

For Croatia I would like to emphasize that, already last year, it was the first Member State to set up an Independent Monitoring Mechanism to guarantee the protection of fundamental rights at external borders.

Only two weeks ago the Croatian Government signed an agreement to renew and reinforce this mechanism.

The wait has been long, I should say too long. Expectations are high, rightly so – from authorities and at least from citizens.
The European Parliament has adopted several resolutions to support enlargement. Overwhelmingly voting to support.

Now, the Czech Presidency plan to have it on the agenda on the Home Affairs Council on 8 December.

This will be a truly European decision. Schengen has survived the turbulence of recent years.
These challenges have been surmounted because of a shared European spirit.
And this spirit must continue – in our modern world.

Because today Schengen is something very different from when it was created. We will soon introduce interconnected large scale IT systems, VISA information System, Schengen information system, we have Europol, we have Frontex.

And this is needed: we must have smart, strong, and interconnected control at our external borders.

And intensive cooperation between law enforcement agencies and authorities.

Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia are ready join, and I should say the European Union is ready to welcome.

I expect MS to take this important, historical, positive decision. A moment of great pride, for the citizens of these countries.

And most importantly a decision in all our interests.

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

The Commission calls upon the Council to take the necessary decisions without any further delay to allow Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia to fully participate in the Schengen area. In a Communication adopted today, the Commission takes stock of the three Member States’ strong record of achievements in the application of the Schengen rules.

For years, these Member States have significantly contributed to the well-functioning of the Schengen area, including during the time of the pandemic and more recently when faced with the unprecedented consequences of the war in Ukraine. While the three countries are already bound in part by the Schengen rules, the internal border controls with these Member States have not been lifted and therefore they do not enjoy the full benefits that come with being part of the Schengen area without internal border controls. Becoming fully part of the Schengen area is a requirement for these Member States and they should therefore be permitted to do so given that they fulfil the conditions.

An enlarged Schengen area without internal border controls will make Europe safer – through reinforced protection of our common external borders and effective police cooperation – more prosperous – by eliminating time lost at borders and facilitating people and business contacts – and more attractive – by significantly expanding the world’s largest common area without internal border controls.

Bulgaria has put in place a strong border management with efficient border surveillance and systematic border checks. Fight against cross-border crime is prioritised through international police cooperation, including with Europol. The Schengen Information System is well-established. Bulgaria also demonstrated that it has the necessary structures in place to ensure respect for fundamental rights, guaranteeing access to international protection, respecting the principle of non-refoulement.

Romania has high-quality and strong border management, including border surveillance and systematic border checks, and international police cooperation. Fight against irregular migration and trafficking in human beings are two priorities where Romania is active. The Schengen Information System is well established. Concerning the respect for fundamental rights, Romania has effective structures in place to guarantee access to international protection respecting the principle of non-refoulement.

Bulgaria and Romania successfully completed the Schengen evaluation process in 2011. The Council recognised the completion of the evaluation process in two separate Council Conclusions, but no Council decision on the lifting of internal borders has been taken for more than 11 years. Given the time passed since 2011, as well as with a view to strengthen mutual trust and in acknowledgement of the development of the Schengen rules since 2011, Bulgaria and Romania issued a Joint Declaration in the Council in March 2022. Bulgaria and Romania invited a team of experts on a voluntary basis under the coordination of the Commission to look into the application of the latest developments of the Schengen rules.

This voluntary fact-finding mission, which took place in October 2022, confirmed that Bulgaria and Romania have not only continued implementing the new rules and tools, but that they have also substantially reinforced the overall application of the Schengen architecture in all its dimensions. Moreover, these two countries proved to have a model track record of implementation of the Schengen rules.

In December 2021, the Council confirmed that Croatia had fulfilled the conditions required to join the Schengen area without internal border controls. The evaluation process took place from 2016 to 2020. It included a successful targeted verification visit in 2020 to verify the implementation of actions in external border management. Croatia has made considerable efforts to ensure that controls of external borders comply with fundamental rights obligations. In particular, Croatia set up an Independent Monitoring Mechanism in June 2021, which provides for independent human rights monitoring of border-related operations involving migrants and asylum-seekers. The Mechanism directly involves Croatian stakeholders and is guided by an independent Advisory Board. Croatia was the first Member State to put in place such a mechanism. A new agreement extending and reinforcing the Independent Monitoring Mechanism was signed on 4 November 2022. This new agreement fully reflects all the recommendations issued by the Advisory Board on 27 October 2022.

Next steps

Under the steer of the Czech Presidency, on 8 December the Justice and Home Affairs Council will vote on the full participation of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia to the Schengen area without internal border controls.

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

Today a landmark new set of EU rules for a safer and more accountable online environment enters into force with the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA applies to all digital services that connect consumers to goods, services, or content. It creates comprehensive new obligations for online platforms to reduce harms and counter risks online, introduces strong protections for users’ rights online, and places digital platforms under a unique new transparency and accountability framework. Designed as a single, uniform set of rules for the EU, these rules will give users new protections and businesses legal certainty across the whole single market. The DSA is a first-of-a-kind regulatory toolbox globally and sets an international benchmark for a regulatory approach to online intermediaries.

New responsibilities for digital services

The DSA introduces a comprehensive new set of rules for online intermediary services on how they have to design their services and procedures. The new rules include new responsibilities to limit the spread of illegal content and illegal products online, increase the protection of minors, give users more choice and better information. The obligations of different online players match their role, size and impact in the online ecosystem; an overview is available here.

All online intermediaries will have to comply with wide-ranging new transparency obligations to increase accountability and oversight, for example with new flagging mechanism for illegal content. But a special regime is introduced for platforms with more than 45 million users: for such very large online platforms or search engines, further obligations include wide-ranging annual assessments of the risks for online harms on their services – for example with regard to exposure to illegal goods or content or the dissemination of disinformation. Under the DSA, suitable risk mitigation measures will have to be put in place, and subject to independent auditing of their services and mitigation measures.

Smaller platforms and start-ups will benefit from a reduced set of obligations, special exemptions from certain rules, and most crucial increased legal clarity and certainty for operating across the whole EU’s single market.

Enhanced safeguards for fundamental rights online

The new rules protect users’ fundamental rights in the EU also in the online environment. New protections for the freedom of expression will limit arbitrary content moderation decisions by platforms, and offer new ways for users to take informed action against the platform when their content is moderated: for example, users of online platforms will now have multiple means of challenging content moderation decisions, including when these decisions are based on platforms’ terms and conditions. Users can complain directly to the platform, choose an out-of-court dispute settlement body or seek redress before Courts.

New rules also require platforms’ terms to be presented in a clear and concise manner and to respect users’ fundamental rights.

Very large online platforms and search engines will in addition have to undertake a comprehensive assessment of risks to fundamental rights, including the freedom of expression, the protection of personal data, and freedom and pluralism of the media online as well as the rights of the child.

New supervisory powers for the Commission

The DSA creates an unprecedented level of public oversight of online platforms across the Union, both at national and EU level. The Commission has powers to directly supervise VLOPs and VLOSEs, companies which individually reach more than 10% of the EU population, approximately 45 million people. Additionally, each Member State will have to designate a Digital Services Coordinator, who will supervise other entities in scope of the DSA as well as VLOPs and VLOSEs for non-systemic issues. The national coordinators and the European Commission will cooperate through a European Board of Digital Services. This EU-wide cooperation mechanism will be established between national regulators and the Commission.

The Commission is setting up a European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT) to support its supervisory role with in-house and external multidisciplinary knowledge. The Centre will provide support with assessments as to whether the functioning of algorithmic systems are in line with the risk management obligations that the DSA establishes for VLOPs and VLOSEs to ensure a safe, predictable and trusted online environment.

Next Steps

Following the entry into force of the DSA today, online platforms will have 3 months to report the number of active end users (17 February 2023) on their websites. The Commission is also inviting all online platforms to notify to it the published numbers. Based on these user numbers, the Commission will make an assessment as to whether a platform should be designated a very large online platform or search engine. Following such a designation decision by the Commission, the entity in question will have 4 months to comply with the obligations under the DSA, including carrying out and providing to the Commission the first annual risk assessment exercise. EU Member States will need to empower their Digital Services Coordinators by 17 February 2024, the general date of entry in application of the DSA, when the DSA is fully applicable for all entities in its scope.

The press release issued by the European Commission on 15 November 2022.

The European Commission has today issued a further €8.5 billion, of which €6 billion through a NextGenerationEU green bond for its recovery programme and €2.5 billion to support Ukraine under the emergency MFA programme put forward following Russia’s war of aggression against the country. The NextGenerationEU green bond has a 10-year maturity, due on 4 February 2033, and the MFA bond a 30-year maturity, due on 4 March 2053.

With today’s green bond, the Commission has issued a total of €35.5 billion of NextGenerationEU green bonds to finance green projects under EU Member States’ Recovery and Resilience plans.

Overall, the Commission has issued a total of €96.5 billion in long-term funding under NextGenerationEU in 2022 and €167.5 billion since the start of the programme in June 2021. Of this total, €46.5 billion have been issued since July 2022. This represents 93% of the Commission’s NextGenerationEU funding target for the second half of the year, with further transactions planned to year end as per the funding plan published in June 2022.

As regards the proceeds from the 30-year bond, they will be used to finance the latest instalment of macro-financial assistance (MFA) loans to Ukraine. So far in 2022, the Commission has raised €6.7 billion to finance MFA loans to Ukraine. Today’s transaction follows the disbursement of €1.2 billion in the first half of the year, €1 billion in August and €2 billion in October. A further €500 million is foreseen before year-end.

For 2023, once approved, the up to €18 billion support package the Commission proposed on 9 November 2022 will provide further highly concessional loans, to be disbursed in regular instalments. If the legislative package proposed on 09 November is adopted, the Commission will borrow on capital markets using the systems and processes that it uses to finance NextGenerationEU.

On this basis, the Commission has so far paid out nearly €136.55 billion under the Recovery and Resilience Facility and, as of end-June, over €15 billion under other EU programmes which benefit from NextGenerationEU financing. The Commission will continue to use the funds raised to support Europe’s post-pandemic recovery, financing Member States under the Recovery and Resilience Facility as well as via other EU programmes.

Background

The European Commission is borrowing on international capital markets on behalf of the European Union and disbursing the funds to Member States and third countries under various borrowing programmes.

Its largest programme is NextGenerationEU, of up to around €800 billion, which seeks to support Europe’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic through investments in sustainability, digital solutions and resilience.

Under its MFA programme, the Commission provides loans to countries outside of the European Union. Ukraine has been by far the largest beneficiary of this programme in 2022.

Today’s bond syndication 10-year bond The 10-year bond carries a coupon of 2.75% and came at a re-offer yield of 2.82% providing a spread of 1 bp to mid-swaps, which is equivalent to +72.4 bps over the 10-year Bund due in August 2032 and to 23 bps over the 10-year OAT due in November 2032. The final order book was €42 billion. 30-year bond The 30-year bond carries a coupon of 3.000% and came at a re-offer yield of 3.065% providing a spread of +74 bps to mid-swaps, which is equivalent to 101.9 bps over the 30-year Bund due in August 2052 and to 17.6 bps to the 30-year OAT due in May 2053. The final order book was €29 billion. The joint lead managers of this transaction were Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs Bank Europe, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Morgan Stanley Europe and UniCredit Bank.

 

10-year bond:

Investor type
Bank Treasuries	46.4 %
Fund Managers	24.9 %
Central Banks / Official Institutions	16.4 %
Insurance and Pension Funds	6.5 %
Banks	4.6 %
Hedge Funds	1.2 %
TOTAL	100%

 

Geography
Benelux	19.2 %
Germany	16.7 %
France	14.3 %
UK	13.2 %
Southern Europe	8.8 %
Nordics	8.0 %
Italy	7.6 %
Asia	6.2 %
Austria	2.8 %
Switzerland	2.1 %
Rest of World	0.6 %
Other Europe	0.5 %
TOTAL	100%

 

30-year bond:         

Investor type
Fund Managers	33.7 %
Bank Treasuries	32.8 %
Insurance and Pension Funds	17.0 %
Central Banks / Official Institutions	8.9 %
Banks	5.9 %
Hedge Funds	1.7 %
TOTAL	100%

 

Geography
Germany	21.6 %
UK	18.2 %
France	15.0 %
Southern Europe	13.3 %
Benelux	13.1 %
Italy	7.5 %
Nordics	4.4 %
Switzerland	2.4 %
Rest of World	2.1 %
Other Europe	1.3 %
Austria	1.1 %
TOTAL	100%