More than 17,000 European arrest warrants issued to swiftly surrender serious criminals
On 18 September, the European Commission released key statistics on the European arrest warrant. With 16,636 warrants issued in 2016 and 17,491 in 2017, the European arrest warrant is the most used EU instrument of judicial cooperation in criminal matters since its launch in 2004. In 2017, a total of over 7,000 people suspected of serious crime and terrorism were handed over between authorities of different EU member states. The procedure takes 15 days on average if a person agrees to surrender and 40 days if they do not consent. The duration of surrender procedures varies greatly between EU countries, but even so, it has significantly decreased.
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EU invests €210 million to help bring innovative projects to market
On 17 September, the European Commission announced that it will invest a total of €210 million in 108 innovative projects to help bring their products to market faster. The funding is provided through the pilot phase of the European Innovation Council (EIC), which supports innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists with bright ideas and the ambition to scale-up internationally. The selected projects include a hybrid simulation platform for neurosurgery, a technology replicating the rain process to supply sustainable drinking water, an anti-metastatic cancer vaccine, a technology to map air quality with high-spatial resolution and many more. They will receive funding under two strands - the EIC Accelerator and the Fast Track to Innovation. The European Innovation Council pilot has a budget of €3 billion and runs from 2018 to 2020 under the EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. From now on, the EIC Accelerator will allow for optional equity investment in addition to a grant. Innovative companies can apply only for a grant or for up to €17.5 million in combined grant and equity financing to scale up quickly and effectively.
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Commission clears E.ON's acquisition of Innogy, subject to conditions
On 17 September, the European Commission approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition by E.ON of Innogy's distribution and consumer solutions business as well as certain of its electricity generation assets. The approval is conditional on full compliance with a commitments package offered by E.ON. E.ON and RWE, which controls Innogy, are both energy companies based in Germany. They are active across the energy supply chain, from generation and wholesale to distribution and retail supply of electricity and gas. They are each active in several member states but their activities mostly overlap in Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and the UK. The decision follows an in-depth investigation of E.ON's proposed acquisition of Innogy's distribution and consumer solutions business as well as certain electricity generation assets of Innogy.
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EU tax transparency tools prove effective in the fight against tax evasion and tax avoidance
EU tax transparency rules on the automatic exchange of information between member states are delivering added value when it comes to countries' ability to crack down on tax avoidance, according to an evaluation published on 16 September by the Commission. The report provides a first snapshot of the commonly agreed legislation underpinning the obligatory automatic exchange of tax information on non-financial income and assets of some 16 million taxpayers within Europe, of information exchanges on financial accounts, as well as on the tax rulings that member states provide multinational companies. For example, in 2017 member states exchanged information on almost 18,000 tax rulings given to multinationals. The evaluation shows that member states now receive considerably more information that can help fight tax fraud, evasion and avoidance and are still in the process of finding the most efficient ways to use the data, to evaluate the added value and deterrent effects. The Commission continues to encourage all EU countries to make full use of their access to the wealth of useful tax information now available through these new channels. Since new rules started to apply from 1 January 2013 even more tax data - such as on the corporate tax revenues paid by big companies in each country – is now exchanged between member states. These exchanges are too recent to be analysed in this study.
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All this week's key European Commission announcements can be found here
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