Main news from Brussels this week
date: 17/05/2019
Cheaper calls to other EU countries as of 15 May
As of 15 May, a new maximum price applies for all international calls and text messages within the EU. As a result, consumers calling from their country to another EU country will pay a maximum amount of €0.19 (£0.17) cents per minute (+VAT) and €0.06 (£0.05) per text message (+VAT). Following the end of roaming charges in June 2017, these new price caps for international calls and text messages in the EU are part of the EU-wide overhaul of telecoms rules to strengthen coordination of electronic communications.
Additional €100 million for research and student mobility programmes in 2019
Following on the agreement between the European Parliament and the Council on the EU's 2019 budget, on 15 May the European Commission added €100 million (£88 million) to the EU's flagship programmes Horizon 2020 and Erasmus +. This additional money will help strengthen the EU response to key challenges such as climate change and further adapting the education sector to the needs of the labour market. €80 million (£70 million) will go to climate-related research under Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme. The remaining €20 million (£18 million) will support the EU's programme for education, training, youth and sport in Europe, Erasmus+.
European Commission registers ‘Save the bees!' initiative'
On 15 May, the European Commission decided to register a European Citizens' Initiative entitled ‘Save the bees! Protection of biodiversity and improvement of habitats for insects in Europe'. The organisers call on the Commission to 'adopt legislation to maintain and improve habitats for insects as indicators of an undamaged environment'. The Citizens' Initiative focuses on the creation of mandatory targets: make the promotion of biodiversity an overall objective of the common agricultural policy; dramatically cut the use of pesticides, ban harmful pesticides without exception and reform eligibility criteria; promote structural diversity in agricultural landscapes; reduce nutrients (e.g. Natura 2000); establish conservation areas; intensify research and monitoring and improve education.
New tool to help EU countries crack down on VAT fraud and recoup billions
A new system launched on 15 May will allow member states to rapidly exchange and jointly process VAT data, leading to earlier detection of suspicious VAT fraud networks. The start of the Transaction Network Analysis (TNA) tool comes as recent media investigations once again laid bare the huge costs of VAT fraud to public finances. It is estimated that this criminal activity leads to a gap in EU public finances to the tune of €50 billion (£44 billion) a year with organised crime gangs profiting at the expense of honest taxpayers. This new instrument is part of the Commission's sustained effort to put in place a modern and fraud-proof VAT system across the EU.
All this week's key European Commission announcements can be found here