Football regulations: Some FIFA rules on international transfers of professional footballers are contrary to EU law. Those rules hinder the free movement of players and competition between clubs.
The European Artificial Intelligence (AI) Office kicks off the process for drawing-up of the first Code of Practice for general-purpose AI models, under the AI Act. Nearly 1,000 attendees including general-purpose AI model providers, downstream providers, industry, civil society, academia, and independent experts, take part in the online Plenary to help develop the Code of Practice.
These are the headlines of our weekly Insight EU Finance Monitoring, published last Friday night. We publish the headlines of our Insight EU Monitoring mails delayed by several days. To receive real-time monitoring emails, subscribe to our annual target group full-text services on the Insight EU Store page.
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) has been around since the 1950s, but its recent exponential growth can be attributed to two factors: first, the availability of larger datasets for training and second, increased computational power. It holds significant potential for the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), on the one hand by enabling automation of simple tasks, on the other hand, by offering new possibilities in legal research, translation, interpretation, enhancing accessibility and providing a modernised approach to accessing information.
The EU Commission has approved the acquisition of joint control of TBX NewCo Spain S.L.U. of Spain and TBX Upstream Seamless Pipes L.L.C. of the UAE by Tubacex S.A. of Spain and Mubadala Investment Company P.J.S.C. (‘Mubadala’) of the UAE. The transaction relates primarily to the manufacture of oil country tubes for the exploration and extraction of oil and gas.
EU Ministers responsible for the internal market and industry met in Brussels to hold three policy debates: on the future of EU competitiveness, the future of the state aid framework and SMEs reaping the benefits of the single market.
Vice-President Jourová will visit the ‘Citizen Lab’ at the University of Toronto to exchange with researchers on the threats of disinformation and foreign interference in the light of the European elections and upcoming US elections.
The informal meeting of Foreign Ministers of the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) took place in New York on 26 September 2024.
The transaction relates primarily to the healthcare software sector. The Commission concluded that the notified transaction would not raise competition concerns, given that the companies are not active in the same or vertically related markets.
The visit served to strengthen the close and historic ties between the Supreme Court of the United States and the Court of Justice of the European Union, continuing the regular meetings that have taken place since 1998.
Accordiing to the Court’s preliminary ruling, a price reduction announced in an advertisement must be calculated on the basis of the lowest price in the last 30 days.
The EU Commission is adopting a package of infringement decisions due to the absence of communication by Member States on measures transposing EU directives into national law. Member States concerned have two months to reply to the Commission’s “letters of formal notice” and complete their transposition. Otherwise, the Commission may decide to issue a “reasoned opinion” as next legal step to enforce EU laws.
“In the past 7 years, we have allocated more than €400 million to help the African Continental Free Trade Area take shape. By developing Regional Value Chains, we aim to foster a transition to a resilient, competitive, and economically integrated Africa. Our goal is to diminish the continent’s reliance on unprocessed goods and enhance its resilience against external shocks” – EU Commissioner Urpilainen.
According to the EU Court of Auditors (ECA), the EU Trust Fund for Africa is flexible, but still not properly focused on priorities. Its monitoring system lacks accuracy, leading to overstatement of achievements. And risks of human rights violations are not thoroughly addressed.
Today, the Commission adopted three reports on key strategies aimed at ending discrimination and building a Union of Equality: the EU Anti-racism Action Plan 2020-2025, the EU Roma Strategic Framework 2020–2030 and the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020–2025.
Today, the European Commission opened the 2024 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Transport call for proposals, making available €2.5 billion for projects to modernise the transport infrastructure on the EU’s trans-European transport network (TEN-T), as well as in Ukraine and Moldova.
Judgments of the General Court in Cases: T-446/21 Commission de régulation de l’énergie v ACER, T-472/21 RTE v ACER, T-476/21 TransnetBW v ACER, T-482/21 TenneT TSO and TenneT TSO BV v ACER, T-484/21 Polskie sieci elektroenergetyczne v ACER and T-485/21 BNetzA v ACER.
The EU Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of joint control of OnTower Austria GmbH, based in Austria, by Electricité de France S.A. and Vauban Infrastructure Partners S.C.A., both based in France. The transaction mainly concerns the telecommunications sector in Austria.
The rapid proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises significant value for industry, consumers, and broader society, but as with many technologies, new risks from these advancements in AI must be managed to realize it’s full potential.
The policy brief, written by EU Commission staff, explores market dynamics, emerging tendencies, and barriers to entry in these sectors. It suggests elements of a preliminary framework for the analysis of cases, such as theories of harm and efficiency gains. In particular, it looks at what types of anticompetitive concerns may emerge and at the possible tools to address them.
Today, the EU Commission has started two specification proceedings to assist Apple in complying with its interoperability obligations under the Digital Markets Act (‘DMA’). Under the DMA, Apple must provide free and effective interoperability to third party developers and businesses with hardware and software features controlled by Apple’s operating systems iOS and iPadOS.
Online accommodation reservation platforms: price parity clauses cannot, in principle, be classified as ‘ancillary restraints’ for the purposes of EU competition law.
The European Commission takes note of the withdrawal of the initial referral requests by seven Member States to review under Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation (‘EUMR’) the acquisition of certain assets of Inflection AI, Inc. (‘Inflection’) by Microsoft Corporation (‘Microsoft).
The Agency’s Biological Technologies Office seeks proposals for same-day awards up to $300K each with up to $4.5M total available; first-time submissions encouraged.
Durov is under investigation for ‘complicity in the administration of an online platform to allow an illicit transaction in an organised gang,’ facing a potential 10-year sentence and a €500,000 fine.
During a global operation, authorities from around the globe took down an encrypted communication platform used for criminal activities such as drug trafficking, homicide, corruption and money laundering. The wide scale operation, supported by Eurojust and Europol, led to over 50 arrests and the seizing of financial assets.
The EU General Court sets the amount of the fine at approximately € 238.7 million as opposed to the € 242 million imposed by the EU Commission.
The EU General Court annuls the Commission’s decision. It upholds the majority of the Commission’s findings but annuls the decision imposing a fine of almost €1.5 billion on Google, on the ground inter alia that it failed to take into consideration all the relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of the contract clauses that the Commission had deemed abusive.
Asylum policy: The designation of a third country as a safe country of origin must cover its entire territory. The national court examining the lawfulness of an administrative decision refusing to grant international protection must raise the failure to take account of the rules of EU law on the designation of a third country as a safe country of origin.
From 10 to 20 September 2024, over 450 participants from 19 NATO Allies and three partner-countries gathered in the Netherlands to test the ability of commercially available counter-drone systems to operate seamlessly together. Ukraine participated for the first time, alongside members of the private sector and research community.
In his opening statement, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi laid out the Agency’s key role in global affairs: “Through the IAEA’’s unique mandate, we have the responsibility of addressing issues that affect all of humanity. Our priorities include reinforcing and preventing the erosion of a non-proliferation regime that has underpinned international peace and security for more than half a century; the ever-more-present existential threat of climate change, and the ongoing injustice of poverty, disease and hunger.”
A high-level delegation of the European Commission will attend the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) next week in New York. The focus of EU engagement will be to tackle the unprecedented set of conflicts and crises across the world.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ursula von der Leyen discussed in detail the support for Ukraine’s energy sector, including necessary resources and strengthening the protection of critical infrastructure.
During a technical workshop, EU Commission staff and Moldovan authorities conducted a threat assessment and election readiness exercise with online platforms, Moldovan civil society organisations, fact-checkers and independent media. Several online platforms agreed on the implementation of a temporary escalation mechanism ahead of Moldova’s presidential elections and national referendum on 20 October 2024.
NATO Allies gathered for the REPMUS 24 exercise in Portugal to test the ability of autonomous systems to operate together and to increase Alliance understanding of new threats in the maritime environment. They are joined by representatives of partner countries and organisations, NATO commands, research institutions and industry.
Speaking at an event hosted by the German Marshall Fund on Thursday (19 September 2024), Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg shared five key lessons for NATO’s continued success following a decisive decade at the helm of NATO.
The European Commission today took a decisive step in reinforcing support for Ukraine by proposing a comprehensive financial assistance package, consisting of a Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism of up to €45 billion, and an exceptional Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) loan of up to €35 billion.
In their resolution, the MEPs recognise Edmundo González Urrutia as the country’s legitimate and democratically elected president, and María Corina Machado as the leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela. They strongly condemn the Venezuelan Government’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Mr González. Here are the views of several MEPs.
The resolution, adopted on Thursday 19 September with 425 votes in favour, 131 against and 63 abstentions, states that without lifting current restrictions, Ukraine cannot fully exercise its right to self-defence and remains exposed to attacks on its population and infrastructure.
Economic data published by China’s Bureau of Statistics very shortly before the start of the Plenum paint a very sobering picture of the state of China’s economy. While exports in June performed well, imports decreased in year-on-year terms, likely due to weak domestic demand.
The IEA and the EU presented today ten key energy actions to help safeguard Ukraine’s fragile energy security through the coming winter and beyond. 80% of Ukraine’s thermal plants have been destroyed, and a third of its hydropower capacity. “So this is where we will concentrate our repair efforts, with the aim of restoring 2.5 gigawatts of capacity this winter. That is approximately 15% of Ukraine’s needs” – EU Commission President von der Leyen.
The EU Commission has approved the acquisition of joint control of TBX NewCo Spain S.L.U. of Spain and TBX Upstream Seamless Pipes L.L.C. of the UAE by Tubacex S.A. of Spain and Mubadala Investment Company P.J.S.C. (‘Mubadala’) of the UAE. The transaction relates primarily to the manufacture of oil country tubes for the exploration and extraction of oil and gas.
In 2022, renewables overtook both heat and oil and petroleum products in final consumption by the services sector in the EU for the first time. Renewables and biofuels represented 8.0% of the final energy consumption, ahead of heat at 7.6%, and oil and petroleum products at 6.3%. In 2021, renewables and biofuels accounted for 7.3%, trailing both heat (7.6%) and oil and petroleum products (8.3%).
ITER’s fusion reaction will be housed in a massive double-walled vessel that will be hermetically sealed keeping away any dust, air, liquids and impurities. Inside this massive shell made of stainless steel, the blazing hot plasma will be ignited. Thanks to a set of powerful superconducting magnets that will embrace the vessel from top to bottom and all around, the plasma will float without touching its walls.
The EIB and Kyiv have signed a €50 million agreement to modernise the city’s metro rolling stock with energy-efficient coaches. The investment will help the Kyiv metro end its dependence on Russian-made spare parts, ensuring more resilient and reliable transport – essential for keeping the capital moving for both business operations and residents in their daily lives.
The latest Eurobarometer survey shows that Europeans are taking action to save energy and embrace clean energy. But they also want more support to keep their energy bills under control during the transition.
EU Commission President von der Leyen spoke at the Global Renewables Summit during the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and held a second speech on carbon pricing. Her appeal: “Let us fill the Global Pledges with life”.
Energy security: MOL and its joint venture partners have signed commercial agreements for the development of gas reserves in Azerbaijan, the oil and gas company said late Friday. Hungary’s MOL is the third-largest shareholder in the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field, after the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and BP, which operates the JV.
“We see continent-sized powers that are competing for resources, technology and spheres of influence. But in this world of great power competition, there is one voice that is calling on all humanity to unite and face the common challenge of climate change: This is the voice of the small island states” – EU Commission President von der Leyen.
“I am heartened to hear the many commitments made here today. This is such an important signal that underlines the broad global support for the Treaty of the High Seas. It reflects a common understanding that we must urgently address the challenges the Ocean are facing. Challenges that humankind has brought to bear” – EU Commissioner Hoekstra at the “High Ambition for the High Seas” UNGA event.
Keynote Speech via Video Message by Commissioner Stella Kyriakides at the SIOPE and CCI Europe Event: “Why Childhood Cancer should stay high on the EU agenda for 2024-2029”
The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Union on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
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. |