EC forecasts that factors external to the EU economy will affect growth
On 10 July, the European Commission released its Summer 2019 Economic Forecast. It expects that growth in the euro area in 2019 will remain unchanged at 1.2%, while the forecast for 2020 has been lowered slightly to 1.4% following the more moderate pace expected for the rest of this year (spring forecast: 1.5%). The GDP forecast for the EU remains unchanged at 1.4% in 2019 and 1.6% in 2020. For the UK, GDP growth is forecast to be 1.3% in 2019 and to remain stable at 1.3% in 2020.
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Airbnb changes the way it presents accommodation offers
On 10 July, the European Commission announced that as a result of negotiations with Airbnb, the platform has improved and fully clarified the way it presents accommodation offers to consumers, which is now in line with the standards set in EU consumer law.
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EU and U.S. reach a milestone in trade talks on mutual recognition of pharmaceuticals
On 11 July, the European Union and the United States agreed a key element of the Joint Statement by Presidents Juncker and Trump in July 2018. The statement commited both sides to reduce barriers and increase trade in a range of sectors, including pharmaceuticals. The recognition by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Slovakia, the last outstanding EU member state, marks the full implementation of the EU-U.S. Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) for inspections of manufacturing sites for human medicines in their respective territories. This will make it faster and less costly for both sides to bring medicines to the market.
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European Commission fines Sanrio €6.2 million for restricting cross-border sales of merchandising products featuring Hello Kitty characters
On 9 July, the European Commission fined Sanrio €6.2 million for banning traders from selling licensed merchandise to other countries within the EEA. This restriction concerned products featuring Hello Kitty or other characters owned by Sanrio. The Commission investigation found that Sanrio's non-exclusive licensing agreements breached EU competition rules. Sanrio Company, Ltd. is a Japanese company that designs, licenses, produces and sells products featuring Hello Kitty, an anthropomorphic cat girl also known by her full name Kitty White, and other popular characters such as My Melody, Little Twin Stars, Keroppi or Chococat. Through its subsidiary Mister Men Limited, Sanrio also holds the intellectual property rights to the “Mr. Men” and “Little Miss” series.
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European technology allows fast and secure transfer of data from space to Earth
On 10 July, the European External Action Service and the European Commission hosted a live demonstration of the European Data Relay System (EDRS), also known as 'Space data highway'. The system is the world's first laser-link in the sky, based on cutting-edge European laser technology. It allows transferring large volume of data, in particular images, from satellites in space to the Earth in quasi real-time. The system is a public–private partnership between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus, and benefits from €90 million of EU funding from the Copernicus Earth Observation programme and through ESA in the 2015-2020 period. Thanks to the system, Copernicus images will be made available up to 7 times faster than now.
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All this week's key European Commission announcements can be found here
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