Register of Policies - September 2024
1/ Proposal for a new Council Recommendation on smoke- and aerosol-free environments
This long-awaited recommendation considers that exposure to tobacco smoke constitutes an important health risk, and that, with the exception of its complete elimination, there is no effective system of protection (i.e. smoking areas, ventilation, air renewal). Accordingly, the aim is to fully protect EU citizens from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. Firstly, all tobacco products emitting smoke or aerosols are covered, including electronic cigarettes). Secondly, indoor and outdoor non-smoking areas are considerably extended (e.g. on public transport, at train, bus and tramway stops, on rooftops and balconies, in parks and public playgrounds, or in universities). In addition, €80 million from the Horizon program and an additional €16 million from the EU4Health program will be allocated to tobacco and nicotine control and addiction prevention.
EU law: COM(2024) 55 final
2/ Proposal for a Regulation establishing the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism and providing exceptional macro-financial assistance to Ukraine
Since February 2022, €210 billion worth of Russian assets have been frozen. Two years later, in May 2024, the Council decided to use them to support Ukraine's war efforts, economy and reconstruction. This meets Ukraine's projected $38 billion increase in financing needs for 2025. The Commission's proposal is built around two tools: the Loan Cooperation Mechanism and Multifinancial Assistance (MFA). The former provides for loans of €45 billion from frozen Russian assets, to help repay MFA and other loans granted by G7 partners. The second amounts to €35 billion from the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) loans, to be repaid over a maximum period of 45 years.
EU law: COM(2024) 426 final
3/ Implementing Regulations imposing anti-dumping duties on imports of diverse products
Following on from its work in 2023 on trade defence measures, the Commission has continued to protect European businesses from unfair competition throughout 2024. When the European Commission identifies a non-European company exporting a product at a price lower than that of its domestic market (dumping), it conducts an investigation and implements anti-dumping measures to counter it. In September 2024, several Chinese companies producing certain products have been added to the list, such as oxalic acid (Regulation (EU) 2024/2211), electric bicycles (Regulation (EU) 2024/2206), or some alkyl phosphate esters (Regulation (EU) 2024/2415).
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