Newsletter November 2020

The main element of the EU’s Recovery Plan (NextGenerationEU) is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (€672.5 billion), which is made up of loans and grants that will be given to Member States to mitigate the pandemic’s impact and to help build more sustainable and resilient economies and societies. Member States are in the process of designing their draft recovery and resilience plans, which have to be submitted to the European Commission by April 2021 in…
The latest economic forecast published by the European Commission, released this month, is characterised by great uncertainty in growth projections as a result of the resurgence of COVID-19. The EU economy is expected to contract by 7.4% in 2020, and then to grow by 4.1% in 2021 and by 3% in 2022, although growth figures will vary widely between countries as a result of differences in the spread of the virus, policy responses (including containment…

The European Commission has launched a new complaints system for reporting market access barriers as well as violations of sustainable development commitments in trade agreements. This comes amid a focus within the Commission on stepping up the enforcement of trade policy, and follows the appointment of the first Chief Trade Enforcement Officer in July. Complaints can be sent by companies, trade and business associations, civil society organisations, EU citizens or Member States. They must include…
In order to ensure that the Single Market delivers benefits for its citizens, the Commission adopted in November the New Consumer Agenda for the period 2020-2025, which sets a vision for EU consumer policy and tries to address consumers’ needs in the context of COVID-19. The Agenda covers five key areas: the green transition, the digital transition, redress and enforcement of consumer rights, specific needs of certain consumer groups, and international cooperation. Prior to drafting…

As part of its Green Deal ambition to become carbon-neutral by 2050, the EU has published its strategy on offshore renewable energy. Offshore renewable energy includes a variety of clean energy sources like wind, wave and tidal energy, which have the potential to become a cornerstone of the EU’s clean energy transition. It is a priority to invest in these technologies, and to develop the necessary infrastructure, regulatory framework, and research and innovation. In the…
On 4 November, boot Düsseldorf held a digital media conference where the upcoming edition of boot was presented, and which included various discussions with stakeholders from the recreational boating industry. Following introductory remarks from Stephan Keller (mayor of Düsseldorf) and Wolfram Diener (CEO of Messe Düsseldorf), boot Project Director Petros Michelidakis took the floor to describe the seventeen exhibition halls that visitors will be able to explore in January. He also described the stringent safety…

On 20 November, EBI had the pleasure of participating in the End-of-Life Issues and Strategies conference organised by WindEurope, the voice of the wind energy industry in Europe. As part of the panel “Wind turbines’ sustainability and circularity”, EBI Secretary-General Philip Easthill delivered a presentation where he explained the current state of circularity in the recreational boating industry and what steps are needed to make the industry more circular. The main materials used in boat…
On 3 November, EBI co-chaired together with DG MARE the second meeting of the Stakeholders’ Working Group for end-of-life recreational boats. This group, which is made up of a number of organisations from the boating sector, Member State authorities and the European Commission, plans to meet every few months until 2022 with the aim of establishing a roadmap that addresses the issue of dealing with end-of-life recreational boats. The stock of such boats is expected…

In its latest statement, the European Tourism Manifesto (an alliance of travel and tourism organisations in Europe, among them EBI) put together a list of concrete investment ideas for Member States to adopt as part of their national recovery and investment plans. These ideas are aimed at enabling travel and tourism to generate jobs and growth and to contribute to the green and digital transitions, in line with EU policy objectives. The tourism sector, which…

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