The Emissions Trading System (ETS) is the EU’s flagship climate policy and it is sinking fast. The stated aim is to put a price on carbon, providing a financial incentive for companies to cut their pollution and, ...

The economic crisis is leading to a rise in the number of people being trafficked for sex, hard labour or organ donation, the EU commission said Monday (15 April,) but the vast majority of member states have failed to ...

In the lead-up to an inter ministerial meeting between EU and India next week, European trade negotiators continue to pressure India and other developing countries to accept so-called “free trade” agreements that favour ...

MEPs and ministers have agreed groundbreaking rules requiring oil and mineral companies to report payments made to third world governments. The new rules agreed on Tuesday (9 April) will require extractive firms to ...

EU officials will meet Tuesday evening (9 April) for what are expected to be the final talks on radical new rules cracking down on corruption between extractive companies and third world governments. Under the deal ...

Leading academics across Europe are signing an online petition to support the European Commission’s draft data protection regulation in protest at industry lobbying to weaken it. “They decided they had to do something ...

Any non-food product sold in the EU must be traceable and labelled with the name and address of its manufacturer. The rules are part of a larger safety and market surveillance package put forward on Wednesday (13 ...

Disagreement among top officials and legal worries have come close to killing a high-profile EU gender quota law. The latest version of the bill - drafted by justice commissioner Vivianne Reding - is to force publicly- ...

EUobserver's list of lobby companies based in Brussels or nearby was put together by trawling through industry registries and speaking to contacts in the sector. The financial figures are annual turnover or EBITDA ( ...

The European Commission has started banging the drum for new €50bn pot of money that it says will reinvigorate Europe's economy amid fears that penny-counting member states will give it the chop. With just weeks to go ...

The European Commission wants the European Investment Bank and member states to back stimulus measures on public works and infrastructure projects in a bid to kick-start the European economy. In a paper released earlier ...

Music is everywhere, and the digital age has only increased its presence. Today, (11 July) I am proposing a modernised system of collective rights management that will use the single market – the EU's most powerful ...

EU ministers will gather in Brussels on Tuesday (12 June) for a crucial vote on the general approach for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The developments of these last few weeks indicate that the ...

It killed 695,000 people in the EU last year. But despite restaurant bans and gruesome health labels, the number of smokers is hardly going down. A European Commission survey published for the UN's international anti- ...

EU foreign ministers have "warned" Israel they will take a tougher approach to exports originating in illegal settlements on Palestinian land. The ministers in a statement on Monday (14 May) detailing Israel's long-term ...

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales tells EUobserver why entrepreneurs do better in America: in the US, you can start your own business in five minutes. In Greece, it can take up to 10 months.

To encourage innovation in Europe, policy-makers should just keep out of the way, Wikipedia-founder Jimmy Wales has said. "I agree with the idea of streamlining and simplification. The only thing is that I would be much ...

As the EU continues to struggle with the effects of the economic crisis, the importance of investing in innovation and research is increasingly been emphasized. But how much money is enough and where should it be spent? ...

The efforts of the EU to turn the old continent into an “innovation union” are largely unknown to business leaders, according to a survey released on Tuesday (8 May) by global accounting firm Ernst & Young. Not more ...

Industry leaders, academics and MEPs have all warmly welcomed a recent proposal for a new, seven-year EU fund for research and innovation - if only because it is nothing like its predecessor. “The change is clear. The ...

Opponents of Acta, the controversial anti-counterfeiting treaty up for vote in the European Parliament in July, say, among other things, that it would stifle innovation. Advocates say the exact opposite. According to ...

Europe is facing an “innovation emergency”, according to the European Commission. But researchers and industry leaders - and the facts - paint a less gloomy picture. The first time EU research commissioner Maire ...

Barbara van Dyck, a young bio-engineer from Belgium, will on Tuesday (8 May) appear before a judge in the Flemish town of Dendermonde to refute the public prosecutor’s allegations of conspiracy, destruction of property ...

When Argentine President Cristina Fernandez announced she was ordering the partial nationalisation of oil company YPF (Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales) - owned by the Spanish oil company Repsol (16 April) - she reaped ...

Most member states and EU institutions are keen to draw a new veil of secrecy over how they appoint top officials and enforce EU law. The rights of journalists, NGOs and average people to get access to internal EU ...

The battle for the future of the music publishing industry is set to run until the summer after the European Commission revealed its plan to delay judgment on the take-over of British music publishing giant EMI until ...

The European Commission on Wednesday (14 March) launched plans to re-writer EU rules on state aid for cinema this year. Member States across the EU provide around €3bn per year in support for film production, with the ...

Early investors in Zenicor, a Swedish medical technology company founded in 2003, are probably congratulating themselves on their foresight. "Over the last three years, we have had an annual growth of more than 50 ...

The European Commission on Wednesday (7 December) held its first in a round of consultation meetings about the future of the European media industry. But despite requests from journalists to join the discussion, they ...

Branching off the main Goma-Bukavu road on the shores of Lake Kivu, an earthy track climbs high into the mountains of Africa's Great Rift Valley, switchbacking incessantly through the lush green landscape before ...

The EU commission on Wednesday (19 October) proposed that "project bonds" worth €230 million be kicked off next year instead of in 2014, so as to help investments in transport, energy and broadband connections as ...