EU energy ministers to redefine rules for fossil fuel project funding June 11, 2021 Energy ministers from the European Union have gathered in Luxembourg today to discuss EU support for natural gas projects, even though the European Commission has urged fossil fuel funding to end to reach net zero. The EU’s “TEN-E” rules can label energy ventures as Projects of Common Interest (PCI), which offers them certain EU funds [...]
Brussels to break down Northern Ireland barrier to UK medicines, sources say June 4, 2021 Brussels is eyeing Northern Ireland’s barriers to British medicine supplies, looking to remove them in a bid to ease Brexit border negotiations, according to reports. The Northern Ireland Protocol has been wreaking havoc on negotiations, but the European Union is expected to offer an ‘olive branch’ in London on Wednesday, The Telegraph first reported. [...]
EU will allow UK tourists with vaccine as Johnson says no holidays to Spain or France May 21, 2021 EU will allow UK tourists with vaccine as Johnson says no holidays to amber list countries Spain and France
EU slaps £319m fine on UBS, Nomura and UniCredit for bond cartels May 20, 2021 European Union antitrust regulators charged UBS, UniCredit and Nomura with a fine of £319m for their connections with a European government bond trading cartel. The sizable fines are the most recent punishment of the financial industry for its alleged involvement in foreign exchange cartels, Euribor and Libor benchmark cartels, and bonds cartels. The European Commission [...]
Amazon wins €250m in EU back tax battle May 12, 2021 In a fight over back taxes, Amazon will not have to pay €250m to the city of Luxembourg, Europe’s second-highest court heard today. The General Court said that the online retail giant had not received a selective advantage. “The Commission did not prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of [...]
Germany hits back at US patent waiver proposal for Covid-19 vaccines May 7, 2021 Germany has rejected the Covid-19 vaccine patent proposal today, urging that production capacity is key to boosting vaccine output. The country’s health minister said the primary challenge to increasing production volumes of vaccines is quickly and effectively transferring technology. “The main issue is not patent protection but production capacity,” Jens Spahn, said at a news [...]
The EU will sign a post-Brexit deal on financial services, PwC boss predicts, because it ‘needs London’ April 26, 2021 The EU will grant the City of London access to its capital markets and agree a post-Brexit deal on financial services because it “needs London”, PwC has predicted. The financial services sector was left out of the post-Brexit trade deal agreed between the two sides last year, but the Big Four firm is predicting the [...]
EU sets out plans to curb facial recognition in Big Brother crackdown April 21, 2021 The EU has set out plans to regulate the use of “risky” artificial intelligence (AI) such as facial recognition with hefty fines for companies that breach the rules. The draft rules, published by the European Commission today, mark the first international efforts to curb the use of technology that critics warn could be used by [...]
EU ‘will not renew’ Covid vaccine contracts with Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson April 14, 2021 The European Commission will not renew Covid vaccine contracts with Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson beyond their current expiry dates, according to Italian media reports. The EU will instead prioritise contracts with pharmaceutical companies that produce mRNA vaccines such as Moderna and Pfizer, Italian newspaper La Stampa reported. “The European Commission, in agreement with the [...]
EU turns to Pfizer for more Covid jabs amid fresh vaccine shortage April 14, 2021 The EU has ordered an extra 50m doses of the Pfizer/Biontech Covid vaccine following Johnson & Johnson’s surprise announcement yesterday that jab deliveries to Europe face significant delays. European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen said this afternoon that the bloc will bring forward an order of 50m doses of the vaccine which had been [...]