The European Union is facing new security threats amid growing uncertainty about the reliability of some of its allies. As a consequence it has embarked on a general scale-up of its defence capabilities. A European defence action plan has been agreed and a European Defence Fund created to provide financial support, ranging from the research phase to the acquisition phase of military equipment and technologies. The present legislative proposal for EDIDP, which would be part of that fund, is destined to provide the European defence industry with financial support during the development phase of new products and technologies in areas selected at European level. Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) decided to open trilogue negotiations; these have been ongoing since 15 March 2018.

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Crowdfunding, an open call to the wider public for raising money online, can help ensure that both individuals and companies get access to finance, especially in the early growth stages of their projects or business. Currently, different legislative frameworks are in force in the Member States of the EU, which results in cross-border investments remaining limited and service providers not scaling up their operations. To remedy this the Commission published recently two legislative proposals.

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Iran, Syria, North Korea, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are among nearly 30 countries to be targeted by EU sanctions, among other things for nuclear weapons programmes, violations of democracy and human rights. Sanctions can be very painful for targeted countries, but do not always succeed in changing their behaviour.

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Ten years has passed since the app economy was launched. Since then the apps evolved to play an increasingly important role in the life of citizens and became crucial to the success of many industries. Growing connectivity and availability of portable devices ensure that this trend will continue.

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The EU lawmakers have reached a provisional agreement on new civil aviation safety rules. The reform introduces risk and performance-based rules, includes the first-ever EU rules for civil drones, extends the European Aviation Safety Agency's mandate and provides for using existing resources more efficiently. The provisional agreement now needs to be confirmed by European Parliament in plenary.

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Despite significant progress for some social groups in the area of work-life balance, there has been a general trend of decline since 2011, and progress amongst Member States has been uneven. Attempting to compensate for the 2015 withdrawal of the proposal for an extended maternity leave directive, this proposed directive contains proposals for paternity, parental and carers' leave. It is complemented with non-legislative measures. Both the Council and the stakeholders are divided over the level of ambition and the implementation of the proposed measures. The EP (EMPL) that has been insisting on work-life balance measures over the years, is going to consider its draft report in the spring of 2018.

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Developing organic production is an EU policy objective. While the EU organic market is constantly expanding, only 6 % of total EU agricultural area is used for organic cultivation, and the difference between EU demand and production is covered by growing imports. To overcome the regulatory obstacles to the development of the sector and increase consumer confidence in the EU organic logo, the Commission adopted a proposal in March 2014 for a regulation on organic production and labelling of organic products, repealing the current framework dating from 2007. Following a series of trilogue meetings, the Maltese Presidency and the European Parliament reached a preliminary agreement on 28 June 2017. The Council's Special Committee on Agriculture endorsed the agreement, which the Parliament's Agriculture Committee subsequently approved on 22 November 2017. The full Parliament and Council now need to approve the text before the new regulation can enter into force.

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Galileo and the European geostationary navigation overlay service (EGNOS) are two satellite navigation systems under civil control. Galileo shall guarantee to Europe an independent access to a reliable satellite signal, being at the same time more accurate than existing concurrence. The aim of EGNOS is to monitor, correct and improve the accuracy of current open signals (GPS, GLONASS) on a limited territory. Galileo and EGNOS were conceived in close cooperation with the European Space Agency. They are first infrastructures owned by the European Union. The EU allocated more than €7 billion from MFF 2014-2020 in order to reach the full operational capacity by the end of 2020.

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On 7 July 2017, a special United Nations (UN) conference adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Will this lead to the abolition of nuclear weapons, as supporters of the Treaty hope, or in fact weaken the global disarmament and non-proliferation regime, as opponents fear?

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In the European Union (EU), responsibility for counter-terrorism lies primarily with Member States. However, the role of the EU itself in counter-terrorism has grown significantly in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks that have hit Europe in the post-'9/11' era. The cross-border aspects of the terrorist threat call for a coordinated EU approach. Moreover, the assumption that there is a connection between development and stability, as well as internal and external security, has come to shape the EU's actions beyond its own borders. In the context of terrorism, the EU has an extensive toolkit of human and financial resources that support third countries in managing or mitigating terrorist threats. A key element of EU action is capacity-building in partner countries, to ensure local ownership, a sustainable assistance model and the full use of local expertise for challenges that are geographically distinct.

Source: © European Union - EP