2023-07-13 12:36:05
“This week in the European Parliament is all regarding entrepreneurship. This is important, because in these challenging times the economy needs targeted support to ensure that the European Union remains competitive in the future. This includes actively removing bureaucratic hurdles, better access to funding and the focus on European competitiveness,” says Angelika Winzig, head of the ÖVP delegation in the European Parliament. “Commission President von der Leyen has announced that she will reduce the bureaucracy for our companies by 25 percent. But I miss that in the current legislative proposals, which unfortunately often have exactly the opposite effect, namely even more bureaucratic hurdles. The so-called one-in-one out approach, which stipulates that for each new regulation another one is deleted, must finally be applied. But that can only be the first step,” demands Winzig. “In a survey from 2022, European SMEs were more pessimistic than ever before. A sticking point here is clearly access to finance. Here it is important to increase the participation of SMEs in calls for finance such as Horizon Europe and our entrepreneurs But access to alternative forms of financing must also be made easier,” says Winzig, head of the non-partisan working group for SMEs in the EU Parliament.
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#Tiny #Focusing #entrepreneurship
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German government agrees on investment package for microelectronics industry | FEEI – Association of Electro
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
2023-07-13 11:12:10
FEEI is pleased regarding the clear commitment to strengthening globally relevant key technologies – research and production in microelectronics will be strengthened
Vienna (OTS) – At the invitation of Chancellor Karl Nehammer, representatives of the Federal Government and the microelectronics industry met on July 13 for a summit in the Federal Chancellery. The top-class group discussed the current situation and future developments in domestic microelectronics and agreed on an important investment program.
Indispensable key technology
The key technology microelectronics enables almost all fields of application of our daily life, ensures the maintenance of critical infrastructure and is a lever for innovative and sustainable solutions to achieve climate goals. It leads to enormous added value, enables strategic autonomy in global competition, thus ensuring security, stability and prosperity and makes a massive contribution to greater sustainability.
Microelectronics hotspot Austria
In the last few decades, Austria has achieved a leading European position in microelectronics. A study commissioned by Joanneum Research and an AIT study show that Austria is Europe’s number 1 in the field of electronic components, measured in terms of total added value, total employment and research & development. This leading position needs to be strengthened in order to continue to be able to keep up as an attractive business location in both European and global competition.
Massive global competition
“We are in an enormous global competition,” says FEEI chairman Wolfgang Hesoun. “The USA, China and Taiwan have been investing massively in the development and expansion of their own microelectronics industry for years. Recently it became known that Japan is also upgrading the sector with a multi-billion takeover. It is high time for Europe to keep up with well-known investments – on the basis of a pan-European strategy in order to avoid intra-European distortions of competition. Building on existing programs such as IPCEI Microelectronics II, Europe has set up another important instrument to strengthen European microelectronics with the EU Chips Act.”
Association: important decision at the right time
“The EU Parliament recently passed the Chips Act and thus sent an important signal at the right time. The mechanisms agreed in the Chips Act stipulate that further investments by domestic companies must be financed in the individual member states. Co-financing by the federal government is therefore decisive for Austria’s top companies,” says Sabine Herlitschka, Deputy Chairman of the FEEI. We cannot afford to lose our hard-earned top position, Austria’s competitiveness is at stake. “The chip crisis of the past few years has clearly shown how important and forward-looking research, development and production are for Austria and Europe. In this way, investments in microelectronics secure and create jobs with highly attractive job opportunities and thus social prosperity. Microelectronics is the basis for up to 50 percent of global gross domestic product, and the number of people employed in these key technologies has risen by over 15 percent to more than 72,000 in recent years. I am all the more pleased that the Austrian federal government is also united behind this important project and is promoting the business location and the industry along the entire value chain with a strong investment boost!”
Questions & contact:
FEEI – Association of the Electrical and Electronics Industry
MMag. Katrin Prüller-Nussbaumer
communication line
+43/1/588 39-61
[email protected]
www.feei.at
1689247082
#German #government #agrees #investment #package #microelectronics #industry #FEEI #Association #Electro
Greta Thunberg’s Bold Gesture in the EU Parliament Sparks Debate: The Controversial Renaturation Law
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
2023-07-12 20:51:29
Greta Thunberg does not shy away from attention when it comes to the climate. In the EU Parliament, she celebrated a vote with a clear gesture.
Things got hot in the EU Parliament, the deputies got excited regarding the renaturation law, and there was bitter resistance from the right-wing factions. When this was up for voting on Wednesday, a well-known climate activist also watched over the process: Greta Thunberg was sitting in the spectator stand. She commented on the acceptance of the law with a clear gesture, apparently directed at the opponents: she gave them the middle finger with both hands.
Photographs show her sitting in the stands with another young woman and laughing. The 20-year-old’s companion gave her two thumbs up. Thunberg is currently facing another protest in Sweden. She is said to have disobeyed police instructions during a protest in Malmö. You face a fine.
Narrow majority for renaturation law
In Parliament, she left it at the stinky finger gesture. She had previously appealed to MPs. “Our message to politicians is to choose nature and people instead of profit and greed,” she told the European Parliament.
The EU Parliament voted in favor of the renaturation law once morest massive opposition from conservative and right-wing MPs. However, a narrow majority of MPs voted in Strasbourg on Wednesday for a significantly weakened draft of the nature conservation law. Nevertheless, environmentalists welcomed the decision as groundbreaking. The farmers’ association, on the other hand, fears burdens for farmers.
The draft law envisages that endangered ecosystems in the EU will be restored in the coming decades. By 2030, renaturation measures are to be introduced for at least 20 percent of the surfaces and sea areas in the EU. Restrictions on the use of pesticides are also planned. However, a number of requirements, such as the re-irrigation of drained moors, were relaxed by Parliament.
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#Activist #comments #law #Parliament
FPÖ – Mayer: “Details of the procurement of the corona vaccine are deliberately concealed!” Liberal Parliament Club
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
2023-07-12 15:26:45
“The report passed by the COVID special committee is unsatisfactory for the FPÖ, since the role of EU Commission President von der Leyen in procuring vaccines has not been clarified”
Vienna (OTS) – “The details of the EU procurement of the corona vaccine are apparently deliberately being concealed,” said the Liberal MEP Georg Mayer as part of the report on the COVID special committee in the European Parliament that was passed today. He found that Parliament was being duped in the process. “The NGO Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) suspects that this even happens in an interaction between Parliament President Metsola and Commission President von der Leyen – both from the EPP,” said the Styrian MEP
“The special committee set up in May last year was initially denied access to the unredacted vaccine contracts. Then, last autumn, only a small and unofficial so-called vaccine contact group of members of parliament was shown the unredacted contracts in a secure reading room, but they were not allowed to say anything regarding them for confidentiality reasons,” said Mayer.
He also criticized Pfizer’s direct influence in view of the documents regarding vaccine procurement. “In the last phase, the COVID Committee then received a questionnaire from the newly created EU authority for public health emergency response, HERA, which CEOs reported said that answering the questions might speed up access to the unredacted documents. The questions revolved around why one wanted to have access to the unredacted contracts and then what one intended to do with the information. The piquant thing regarding it: This questionnaire was written by Pfizer, i.e. the contractor for the bulk of the vaccine procured by the EU,” says Mayer.
He emphasized that EU Commission chief von der Leyen had dealt with the largest vaccine tranche worth around 35 billion euros directly with Pfizer boss Bourla. “Ms. von der Leyen has since refused to release her communication on this matter. Here there is a reasonable suspicion that something was not right. It would be all the more important to publish the unredacted contracts,” said the liberal MEP.
Mayer is unsatisfied with the report of the COVID special committee that was passed in plenary today. “The wording now contained in the report, that the Commission may publish the unredacted contracts if it is “legally possible”, only cements the current status – and that means concealing and continuing to keep the full wording of the contract secret,” stressed Mayer. He demands full transparency in vaccine procurement and that Commission President von der Leyen disclose her role in the controversial vaccine deal. “Here, private interests are put before the interests of the public, which has a right to know exactly what the terms of the billion-dollar vaccine procurement deal were and what role von der Leyen played in it,” said the liberal MEP.
Questions & contact:
Liberal Parliament Club
01/ 40 110 – 7012
[email protected]
1689175982
#FPÖ #Mayer #Details #procurement #corona #vaccine #deliberately #concealed #Liberal #Parliament #Club