World
Digitisation fronts new Commission strategy to boost EU single market
Efforts to promote digitisation of the single market underpin a new strategy to breathe life into the project set to be presented by EU Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné on Wednesday, according to a draft seen by Euronews.
The plan sets out six pillars for improvement of the single market and refers to the context of a global trade crisis.
The Commission wants to remove ten “terrible” market barriers that currently “negatively impact trade and investment”, boost European services markets that bring the highest economic value, relieve the burden on SMEs, digitize administration, and push member states to address administrative barriers on national level.
A separate Single Market Omnibus proposal set to be published on Wednesday alongside the strategy will be designed to cut red tape for SMEs and mid-cap firms, promising to shift the sector “from a document to a data-based single market”.
Fragmented IT systems, and a lack of data exchanges make it difficult for businesses to comply with regulatory requirements, the Commission text claims, stressing the need to move from “exchanging paper documents towards exchanging digital data.”
It proposes making a so-called Digital Product Passport (DPP) compulsory and allowing companies to disclose and share product information – including conformity documentation, manuals, safety and technical information – across all new and revised product legislation.
The first DPP, for batteries, is expected to become operational in 2027 under the plan and the tool will be rolled out to other product categories. This will “result in swift cost reduction for both economic operators and authorities,” the text says.
Further digitisation efforts include promoting digital invoicing, which currently has a low uptake across the bloc. The Commission will table a proposal late next year for it to become the mandatory standard for public procurement.
The strategy also envisages modernising the current framework of product rules determining what may be placed on the market, which it says need “improvement”, through planned reforms slated for the second quarter of next year.
A spokesperson for European consumer group BEUC told Euronews that current rules don’t adequately address “the many challenges brought by e-commerce”, resulting in unsafe products entering the EU market via online marketplaces.
High-level political meeting to target services
The strategy will target promotion of services across the single market and the document stresses regulations in member states which it claims currently restrict access to around 5,700 services activities.
It proposes addressing this by harmonising authorisation and certification schemes for providers of services across the single market, and through new rules to make it easier for highly skilled workers to temporarily provide services cross-border. The European social security pass will also be deployed and enable the digital verification of social security rights.
In addition, a legislative proposal will target territorial supply constraints imposed by large manufacturers which hinder retailers buying products in one member state from reselling in another.
The strategy proposes that member states’ governments appoint so-called “Sherpas for the Single Market” to operate within in their prime minister’s or president’s office, to take charge of promoting the application of the rulebook.
To strengthen an existing Single Market Enforcement Taskforce – a group which brings member states’ authorities together with and the Commission – the EU executive proposes staging an annual high-level political meeting of EU ministers, the national “sherpas” of the single market, as well as Séjourné to provide strategic and political guidance to the taskforce. A first high-level political meeting should take place at the end of the year.
The omnibus package presented Wednesday should also improve standardisation which remains too slow according to the EU executive by allowing the Commission to establish common specifications. The aim is also to strengthen the EU’s role as a global standard-setter. A review of the standards regulation will also be announced.
EU lawmaker Sophia Kircher (Austria/EPP) told Euronews that services and capital market sectors are currently suffering from the lack of harmonisation. “National differences in regulations slow down our SMEs in particular when they want to operate across borders,” Kircher said.
World
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World
Landlords allegedly posting ‘Muslim-only’ apartment ads in violation of country’s equality act: report
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Some landlords in England are apparently advertising “Muslim-only” apartments online, according to a local media report.
An investigation by The Telegraph found that alleged listings posted in London on Facebook, Gumtree and Telegram feature phrases such as “only for Muslims,” “for 2 Muslim boys or 2 Muslim girls,” and “Muslims preferred.”
Other ads appeal to Punjabi and Gujarati speakers, while some job vacancies on the platforms are advertised for men only.
Some listings specify “Hindu only,” in addition to posts that likely use religious subtext by stating: “The house should be alcohol and smoke-free.”
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On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” “one double room is available for Muslims,” and “suitable for Punjabi boy.” A Meta spokesman told Fox News Digital that Facebook then removed the company’s page “for violating the platform’s policies on discriminatory practices.”
Apartment buildings in Westminster, London, U.K. (John Keeble/Getty Images)
The ads run afoul of Britain’s Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination based on religion or belief, race and other protected characteristics.
“These adverts are disgusting and anti-British. It goes without saying that there would be a national outrage if the tables were turned,” Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s economic spokesman, told The Telegraph. “All forms of racism are unacceptable, and no religious group should get a special exemption to discriminate in this way.”
Houses and properties line Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, London, U.K. Some landlords in the city are illegally advertising for “Muslim only” tenants across the city, an investigation by The Telegraph has found. (Richard Baker/In Pictures via Getty Images)
One landlord told The Telegraph to “go away” when asked about an ad for a “Muslims only” room for $1,150, and whether it was available to renters of other faiths.
A spokesperson for Gumtree told the newspaper that the company has clear policies in place that prohibit unlawful discrimination.
On Facebook, a company called Roshan Properties posted dozens of listings stating “prefer Muslim boy,” (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“We take reports of inappropriate listings very seriously,” the spokesperson said. “The ads referenced appear to relate to private rooms within shared homes, where existing occupants may express preferences about who they live with. This is different from renting out an entire property, which is subject to stricter rules under the Equality Act.”
Telegram did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
World
Is Europe too late to the metal recycling game?
Europe’s critical raw materials crisis has a partial answer sitting in the waste stream — but the continent has been too slow to see it.
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Dorota Włoch, CEO of Eneris Surowce, was direct: recycling is no longer optional.
Unlike plastics, metals can be recovered and reused indefinitely, making urban mining — the recovery of raw materials from existing products and waste — increasingly valuable, particularly for batteries.
“From recycling, we recover metallic aluminium and so-called black mass, which is a concentrate of metals, mainly cobalt-nickel. These are some of the most valuable battery metals. And batteries are crucial today, not only in the automotive sector, but also in storing energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar,” she said.
‘Europe is 25 years late’
Włoch put the scale of the problem plainly. “Deposits are critical — any machine can be bought, but natural resources are not. They are non-transferable and non-renewable. If we use them, they simply disappear,” she said.
Europe’s belated recognition of that reality has cost it dearly.
“The regulation of critical raw materials came 25 years after other regions of the world had invested heavily in deposits. Europe was too passive. Today we are catching up, but the regulations are often so demanding that countries like Poland have difficulty implementing them.”
Who benefits most from extraction?
Poland holds significant reserves of raw materials critical to the modern economy, such as copper, coking coal, nickel, platinum group metals, helium, rhenium, lead and silver.
But the minerals needed most for the energy transition, such as lithium, cobalt and graphite, exist only in limited quantities, forcing imports.
Arkadiusz Kustra, dean of the faculty of civil engineering and resource management at AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, told a panel at the European Economic Congress that awareness of the full supply chain, and who profits from it, was now essential.
He pointed to Serbia as a case study.
“Serbia has lithium deposits and is already in talks with Mercedes or Stellantis,” he said. Belgrade is using that leverage to attract investment in battery factories and car plants, keeping more of the value chain at home.
The goal, Kustra argued, should be regional supply chains that retain added value locally.
“You can earn the least at the beginning and the most from the end customer,” he said.
The bigger obstacle is Chinese dominance.
“Margins in critical raw materials largely go to the Chinese, who control more than 90% of processing and trading, even though they do not own most of the deposits,” he said.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo — among the world’s most resource-rich countries — Chinese entities control around 90% of deposits.
The panel also pointed to growing interest in new supply partnerships, with Poland eyeing assets in the Congo region and the Americas.
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