Biden-Harris Administration Launches NSTC Workforce Center of Excellence with Expected $250 Million Investment. The plans include an anticipated $11.5 million for the first workforce development awardees to address critical U.S. job and skill gaps across semiconductor research, design, manufacturing, and production.
Today, the Commission is presenting three initiatives to advance transnational cooperation between higher education institutions, with the ultimate goal of creating a European degree. A voluntary European degree would benefit students and the higher education community by boosting learning mobility within the EU and by enhancing students’ transversal skills. It would help meet labour market demand and make graduates more attractive for future employers while, at the same time, attracting
The reforms will cover a wide range of areas impacting citizens’ lives in the EU, ranging from the application of Artificial Intelligence in businesses and public administrations, the implementation of the Green Deal Industrial Plan and other reforms.
EU Council has adopted a decision inviting member states to ratify the International Labour Organization’s convention on violence and harassment (ILO convention 190). Violence and harassment in the workplace is a widespread and persistent phenomenon around the world: more than one in five people have experienced violence and harassment at work, whether physical, psychological or sexual, with women being particularly at risk.
The Commission published today a Flash Eurobarometer conducted at the regional level, showing that EU citizens look positively at the economic situation and the quality of life in their region. Over eight out of ten Europeans (82%) say that the quality of life in their region is good. At the same time, 65% of Europeans say that the current situation of the economy of their region is good.
The development measures of the employment and economic development services (TE services), the Finnish Immigration Service and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment reduced the processing time of residence permits for employed persons to an average of 41 days in February 2024 from the previous year’s figure of 77 days. A faster processing time for favourable decisions is particularly significant. In February 2024, the average processing time was 23
In 2021, the number of businesses in the EU’s health and social work sector amounted to 2.3 million, representing 7.4% of all the enterprises active in the EU’s business economy.
Sweden is a leading donor of development assistance, but meeting the funding needs for a green and digital transition requires closer cooperation between development assistance and trade, greater mobilisation of private capital and harnessing the business sector’s innovation capacity. A current example of this is Sweden’s partnership with Bangladesh, which HRH Crown Princess Victoria visited together with Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell on 18–21 March.
To mark this occasion, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, is attending a conference on reading promotion (25-26 March 2024). Hosted in Leuven, Belgium, the event will focus on tackling young people’s declining reading skills and habits. It will bring together representatives from ministries of culture and education from the 40 Creative Europe countries with the book, education and NGO sectors.
These results highlight the importance of skills development, in line with the European Year of Skills. They come in the same week when the Commission presented an Action Plan to tackle skills and labour shortages to boost the EU’s competitiveness, social and economic resilience. The Pact for Skills is a flagship initiative of the European Skills Agenda. It mobilises all relevant partners – including industry, social partners, training and education
In 2023, European enterprises continued to seek to drive the EU’s green and digital transitions, and their task was made more difficult by high energy costs, an increasing regulatory burden and continuing geo-political uncertainty. Furthermore, they have felt the effects of reduced consumer demand for private goods and services in a context of increased financing costs linked to higher interest rates and increasing demand for affordable and accessible services of
The EU’s 2014 Quality Framework for Traineeships set out 21 quality principles to ensure high-quality learning and working conditions. In its 2023 evaluation of this Council Recommendation, the Commission found that it had a positive impact on the quality of traineeships in the EU. However, the Commission’s evaluation also found room for improvement and both the Conference on the Future of Europe and the European Parliament called on the Commission
Today, the Commission has presented an action plan to tackle labour and skills shortages and proposes to work together with Member States and social partners to address these issues over the coming months and years. The action plan is part of the EU’s strategy to boost its competitiveness and enhance its economic and social resilience. For almost a decade, labour and skills shortages have been increasing in all Member States.
Three health Team Europe Initiatives (TEIs) were launched today during the high-level event on the European Union (EU) – African Union (AU) partnership on Global Health for equitable access, in Brussels. The TEIs will strengthen health security, support Public Health Institutes in Africa, and boost digital health. On this occasion a Team Europe Initiative on Social Protection was also launched. The Team Europe Initiative on Sustainable Health Security will strengthen
PHSMs refer to non-pharmaceutical measures implemented in community settings to abate the spread of infectious disease. These constituted the primary public health response during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, notably before medical countermeasures including vaccines became widely available. In future pandemics PHSMs may again be relied upon to reduce disease transmission and mitigate detrimental health impacts.
During the meeting, the foreign minister and Pope signed an agreement for NOK 30 million over two years for IOM’s work in North Africa. This agreement is part of a Nordic collaboration with IOM and the EU to help find lasting solutions for the many migrants in countries in North Africa. The support also goes to local communities hosting large groups of refugees, internally displaced persons and migrants. In addition,
The white paper on public health and living conditions in the Sámi population builds on the white paper on Public Health published in 2023. Norway’s general public health policy also applies to the Sámi population. Other important starting points for this white paper were the white paper Escalation Plan for Mental Health (in Norwegian) published last year and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report.
President Ursula von der Leyen and President of the Swiss Confederation Viola Amherd launched today the negotiations on a broad package of measures to deepen and expand the EU-Switzerland relationship. The two mandates authorise the EU Commission and Switzerland to negotiate a package as outlined in the Common Understanding, endorsed by the Swiss Federal Council and the European Commission in November 2023.
Lessons learned from cohesion implementation between 2014 and 2020 should be reflected in the new cohesion policy after the current programming period, insist MEPs. Although in the 2014-2020 period the EU cohesion funds have been used to finance measures and initiatives to fight consecutive crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russian aggression of Ukraine, its positive impacts were felt across the EU contributing to support for SMEs and
In his “This is Europe” address to the European Parliament, Prime of Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo focussed on three key factors for the coming years. First, strategic competitiveness, which is important as Europe’s productivity is falling behind that of key competitors. To thrive in a global landscape, Europe needs a fully functioning internal market, investments in innovation and skills, and a more effective use of its budget, said Mr
On Tuesday, Parliament gave its consent to the Council decision inviting member states to ratify the International Labour Organisation’s Violence and Harassment Convention. Across the world, more than one in five people in employment has experienced violence and harassment at work, whether physical, psychological, or sexual. Women are disproportionately affected: one in three women in the EU has experienced a form of physical and/or sexual violence, of which about a
We and use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your experience on our website. We may store and/or access information on a device and process personal data, such as your IP address and browsing data, for personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development. Additionally, we may utilize precise geolocation data and identification through device scanning.
Please note that your consent will be valid across all our subdomains. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the “Consent Preferences” button at the bottom of your screen. We respect your choices and are committed to providing you with a transparent and secure browsing experience.
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| __stripe_mid | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. | |
| __stripe_sid | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. | |
| _abck | This cookie is used to detect and defend when a client attempt to replay a cookie.This cookie manages the interaction with online bots and takes the appropriate actions. | |
| _wpfuuid | This cookie is used by the WPForms WordPress plugin. The cookie is used to allows the paid version of the plugin to connect entries by the same user and is used for some additional features like the Form Abandonment addon. | |
| ASP.NET_SessionId | Issued by Microsoft's ASP.NET Application, this cookie stores session data during a user's website visit. | |
| AWSALBCORS | This cookie is managed by Amazon Web Services and is used for load balancing. | |
| bm_sz | This cookie is set by the provider Akamai Bot Manager. This cookie is used to manage the interaction with the online bots. It also helps in fraud preventions | |
| cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". | |
| cookielawinfo-checbox-functional | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". | |
| cookielawinfo-checbox-others | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. | |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". | |
| cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". | |
| elementor | This cookie is used by the website's WordPress theme. It allows the website owner to implement or change the website's content in real-time. | |
| JSESSIONID | Used by sites written in JSP. General purpose platform session cookies that are used to maintain users' state across page requests. | |
| viewed_cookie_policy | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. | |
| _ga_4L7PKQPHHV | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. | |
| _ga_T50H0MNN9J | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. | |
| _gat_gtag_UA_12289088_5 | Set by Google to distinguish users. | |
| _gcl_au | Provided by Google Tag Manager to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services. | |
| _gid | Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. |
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| test_cookie | The test_cookie is set by doubleclick.net and is used to determine if the user's browser supports cookies. |
| Cookie | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|
| _mcid | No description available. | |
| _swa_u | This cookie is set by the provider Sitewit.com. This cookie is used for statistical report and analysis. | |
| ak_bmsc | No description available. | |
| AWSALB | AWSALB is a cookie generated by the Application load balancer in the Amazon Web Services. It works slightly different from AWSELB. | |
| ec_store_chameleon_font | No description available. | |
| FCCDCF | No description available. | |
| issuem_lp | No description available. | |
| lp_us_his | No description | |
| m | No description available. |