European Commission

“UTILITY giants E.On and Gaz De France (GDF) Suez were fined a total of almost £1bn by the European Commission’s competition regulators yesterday”

“Germany’s E.On and France’s GDF Suez were fined €553m (£477m) each”

“after it emerged that they had agreed in 1975 not to compete with each other when they began to import gas through a Russian pipeline”

“They maintained the market-sharing agreement after European gas markets were liberalised, and only abandoned it definitely in 2005”

“mobilise up to €2bn for connectivity projects”

“The European Commission is weighing whether ChatGPT's search function should be designated a very large online search engine, a status triggered once a service passes 45 million monthly users in the …”

“The Commission would develop harmonised technical guidelines within two years of the regulation entering into force.”

“Brussels has outlined a €125.2 billion pot covering security, defence industry and space”

“The European Commission has said the rules would apply to companies with more than 1,000 employees and a worldwide turnover above 450 million euro, thresholds that capture a significant share of tran…”

“The European Commission has awarded a minimum €1.8 bn contract to Belgian start‑up Aerospacelab to manufacture up to 264 of the 348 satellites for the Iris2 programme.”

“The Commission estimates that packaging accounts for roughly 8% of dietary PFAS exposure”

“Without the PPWR, the Commission projects that packaging waste would grow another 19% by 2030”

“expected to go live in 2027”

“The European Commission has warned that prolonged shortages could push fuel prices above the €1.80 per litre threshold”

“Data centres already account for 2.5% of EU electricity consumption, according to figures released in the Commission's Strategic Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in the Energy Sector, published on 3…”

“That share is expected to more than double over the next four years.”

“In Ireland, data centres already consume more than 20% of metered electricity, a preview of what other member states may face.”

“the Commission confirmed on Thursday that it is not among the 40 unnamed organisations Anthropic has granted early access to”

“can levy fines up to €35 million or 7% of global turnover, whichever is higher”

“Its total headcount stands at roughly 140; the safety unit responsible for the most advanced models numbers 36”

“Under the AI Act simplification package launched in November 2025, the office would gain 38 additional posts”

“The Commission competes with private-sector salaries that can exceed €300,000 for senior AI researchers”

“The EU AI Office is less than two years old”

“A 37-strong Brussels team can now impose fines of up to €15 million or 3% of global turnover on OpenAI, Anthropic and other frontier model providers that fail to mitigate systemic risks”

“The Commission withdrew that proposal last week as part of its 2025 work programme simplification drive.”

“The European Commission projects 1.3 percent growth in 2025.”

“since 2015”

“The digital euro, a central bank digital currency under development since 2021, received a draft legislative framework from the European Commission in June 2023.”

“The European Commission on Thursday revised its eurozone growth forecast for 2026 down to 0.9% from 1.2% in November, with 2027 growth seen at 1.2% versus 1.4% previously”

“The European Commission has proposed legislation to phase out all Russian oil and gas imports by 2028.”

“just under €2 trillion, about 1.26 % of the bloc's average gross national income, a sizeable rise from the €1.2 trillion allocated to 2021‑2027.”

“the share devoted to agriculture and regional development, two pillars that currently absorb roughly one‑third and 35 % of the EU budget respectively.”

“The EU added 62 gigawatts of solar and 18 gigawatts of wind in 2025, record annual figures, bringing total renewable capacity to over 600 gigawatts.”

“The revised Energy Efficiency Directive sets a binding 11.7 percent reduction in final energy consumption by 2030 relative to the 2020 reference scenario.”

“The act will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enters into force 20 days later.”

“The European Parliament and the Council of the EU now have two months to object.”

“New asylum rules allowing offshore processing and child detention become operational on 12 June”

“the Commission readies first formal meeting with Afghan authorities since 2021”

“The European Commission's Directorate‑General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement has indicated that successful repatriation could strengthen Moldova's accession case, which is slated for formal negoti…”

“with a 60-day compliance deadline.”

“on 27 May”

“four months to comply”

“data centre electricity use is on track to more than double by 2030.”

“postponement of risk‑management, data‑governance and human‑oversight requirements for high‑risk AI systems ... from August 2025 to August 2027.”

“SMEs spend an average of 2.3 per cent of annual turnover on digital compliance, compared with 0.8 per cent for large enterprises”

“micro‑enterprises (fewer than ten employees) would be exempt from technical documentation requirements for high‑risk AI entirely; small enterprises (fewer than fifty) would submit simplified dossiers…”

“The DSA, which entered into force in November 2022 and became fully applicable in February 2024”

“very large online platforms and very large online search engines, services with more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU”

“The DMA, applicable since May 2023”

“The Commission has so far designated six gatekeepers: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft”

“The Commission's first three formal DSA investigations opened in 2024 concerned AliExpress, Temu and TikTok”

“A fourth, opened in October 2024, targets X”

“Under the DMA, the Commission opened non‑compliance investigations in March 2024 against Alphabet, Apple and Meta”

“the EU's own anti‑coercion instrument, which entered into force in December 2023”

“the Commission this week outlined a strategy to create up to five AI gigafactories”

“In March, the Commission issued preliminary findings against Apple and Alphabet”

“European Commission's €890 million fine on Google for alleged DMA breaches.”

“The European Commission responded to the legislative package by unblocking €10 billion in post-pandemic recovery funds that had been withheld from Budapest over rule-of-law concerns.”

“The European Commission will unveil rules on Wednesday allowing member states to cover up to half of wholesale power costs for heavy industry, validating German plans and opening the door for nuclear…”

“European Commission's draft rules on direct payments would limit the biggest recipients to €100,000 a year”

“15% rate, still triple the 4.8% average that applied before”

“both sectors remain at 0% for now”

“Nearly 80% of European defence spending already goes to US contractors”

“wine and spirits will face the 15% rate”

“Public debt, at 24.1% of GDP in 2024, is the second lowest in the European Union after Estonia and far beneath the 60% treaty ceiling”

“overreliance on fossil fuels, coal and lignite still generate roughly 40% of electricity”

“The negotiation framework covers 35 policy chapters, each requiring unanimous agreement among the 27 member states to open and to close.”

“transfer €1.4 billion”

“The European Commission estimates it will save European firms over €4 billion annually in tariff duties.”

“Russian LNG flows rose 18% in 2024”

“France increased purchases by 81%”

“mobilised €200 billion for AI investment.”

“The Commission's own work programme for 2025, 2026 listed a 'Child Online Protection' initiative for Q3 2025”

“If a regulation is adopted in 2026, platforms would likely receive a 12-to-18-month implementation period, pushing effective compliance into 2028.”

“the European Commission fined Meta €797 million for breaching antitrust rules by imposing unfair trading conditions on advertising service providers through its Facebook Marketplace service.”

“Google has paid more than €8 billion across three separate antitrust decisions since 2017 covering its shopping service, Android operating system and AdSense advertising business.”

“Apple was fined €1.8 billion in March 2024 for preventing music streaming developers from informing users of cheaper subscription options outside the App Store.”

“Meta itself was fined €390 million in 2023 for GDPR violations related to the legal basis for behavioural advertising.”

“The Commission's enforcement has accelerated since the Digital Markets Act entered into force in 2023, designating six firms, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft, as gatekeepers su…”

“the Anti-Coercion Instrument, which entered into force in 2023 and allows the EU to retaliate against economic pressure from third countries.”

“Fines under the DMA can reach 10 per cent of global annual turnover for a first breach and 20 per cent for repeated infringements.”

“For Meta, 10 per cent of 2023 revenue would be roughly $13 billion.”

“According to its analysis, €500 billion will be needed over the next ten years to close capability gaps, replenish stockpiles sent to Ukraine, and develop a credible industrial base”

“The figure amounts to roughly €50 billion per year, or about 0.3% of EU GDP”

“European Commission's move on 17 July to ease the trajectory of its main carbon‑pricing scheme”

“The file could take 12 to 18 months to conclude.”

“The Commission used the term gold-plating 20 times in its announcement.”

“the Commission has tabled 10 omnibus proposals that reopen existing laws to strip out provisions deemed overly burdensome.”

“plans a horizontal regulatory deep cleaning over the next two years across 12 priority areas.”

“The €37.7 billion annual savings figure is an aggregate estimate derived from the Commission's own regulatory fitness and performance (REFIT) programme.”

“The timing coincides with the enforcement of the European Union's AI Act, which entered into force on 2 August.”

“A 37-strong Brussels team can now impose fines of up to €15 million or 3% of global turnover on OpenAI, Anthropic and other frontier model providers that fail to mitigate systemic risks.”

“The AI Act's enforcement regime takes effect on 2 August, giving the Commission authority to demand model access and impose fines up to 3% of turnover, weeks after an autonomous agent breached Huggin…”

“The penalty targets preferential treatment of Google's own shopping and hotel services in search results and anti-steering restrictions on the Play Store, with a 60-day compliance deadline.”

“Anthropic's decision to block foreign users from its most advanced models has sharpened European resolve to build independent AI infrastructure, with a Franco-German research centre and Mistral's €12…”

“The European Commission will present a Tech Sovereignty Package on 27 May that would limit member states' use of US cloud providers for financial, judicial and health data, requiring sovereign Europe…”

“From Sunday, companies must watermark and label synthetic content that looks authentic, while existing systems have four months to comply.”

“On 6 March 2025, the European Commission approved an €800bn defence mobilisation plan coupled with a proposal for €150bn in EU‑backed loans”

“The European Commission placed France under an excessive deficit procedure in July 2024.”

“The European Commission, for its part, projects 1.3% eurozone growth in 2025”

“the European Commission provides a substantial annual grant, 12.5 million euro for the 2021-2027 period, according to the college's own financial reporting”

“spent an extra €24 billion on energy imports”

“The European Commission's €1.76 trillion proposal for the 2028-2035 Multiannual Financial Framework, unveiled last July”

“Funding for the Common Agricultural Policy and for regional cohesion, the two largest budget lines, together accounting for roughly 60 per cent of current spending”

“one-year grace period”

“withdrawn a proposed regulation on sustainable pesticide use, which aimed to cut chemical pesticide use by half by 2030.”

“the sector that accounts for roughly 11 percent of EU greenhouse gases”

“The European Commission has proposed delaying the EU Deforestation Regulation for a second consecutive year, confirming that the bloc's flagship environmental supply-chain law will not take effect be…”

“the executive had written to the Council of the EU and the European Parliament requesting a further 12-month extension”

“The regulation, adopted in 2023, requires operators and traders placing cocoa, coffee, cattle, palm oil, rubber, soya and wood on the EU market to prove the products were not produced on land defores…”

“Non-compliance carries fines of up to 4 percent of annual EU turnover.”

“the information system, known as the EUDR registry, must ingest, validate and risk-score due-diligence statements from an estimated 180,000 operators.”

“For large companies, the new deadline would be 30 December 2026; for micro and small enterprises, 30 June 2027.”

“The EU's own consumption footprint, the deforestation embedded in its imports, accounts for roughly 16 percent of global tropical deforestation linked to international trade, according to a 2023 Comm…”

“The law was originally scheduled to apply from 30 December 2024.”

“The Commission's own impact assessment acknowledged that millions of smallholders in producer countries would need support to generate the required geolocation data.”

“The EUDR requires the Commission to classify producer countries by deforestation risk by 30 June 2025.”

“The Commission's letters to the Council of the EU and the European Parliament were sent on 23 September.”

“The EUDR page on the Commission's environment directorate still lists the 30 December 2025 date, unchanged since the first postponement.”

“data centre electricity use is on track to more than double by 2030”