rom 15 June 2017 on, using your mobile phone anywhere in the EU will cost you the same as at home. The long-awaited end to roaming charges within the EU was agreed upon by the Council of the EU and the European Parliament two years ago. The Parliament played a

ne important European Union objective is to achieve macroeconomic and political stability in its neighborhood by ‘developing a zone of shared stability, security, and prosperity’ through a set of policies that help to bring candidate, potential candidate, and neighborhood countries closer to the EU. One of these policies is macro-financial

n 2016, the Commission put forward new strategic connectivity objectives for 2025 as part of its digital single market strategy. These should prepare Europe for the roll-out of the next generation of broadband infrastructure with gigabit speeds, including both fixed and mobile internet access (5G). Once available, from 2020 onward,

he Commission proposed a draft budget for 2018 of €161 billion in commitments to stimulate the creation of more jobs, especially for young people, and to boost growth and strategic investments. Building on the actions already undertaken in previous years, next year's EU budget will continue dealing effectively with the migration

EU will mark the 60th anniversary of the EU and has to look forward at how it will carve a vision for its own future at 27. The White Paper sets out the main challenges and opportunities for Europe in the coming decade. It presents five scenarios for how the

Key findings The past year saw the continuation of accession negotiations with the EU. The parliamentary elections of October 2016 were conducted under a substantially revised legal framework and, overall, in a more participatory and transparent manner. In December 2015, Montenegro received an invitation to join NATO, which is an important

oney Market Funds (MMFs) are a type of collective fund that invest in short-term debt and provide financing for financial institutions, corporations and governments. During the financial crisis their liquidity and stability were challenged which prompted discussion on how to make them more shock-resistant. In 2013 the Commission proposed a regulation

eginning in 2010, the sovereign debt crisis exposed weaknesses in the economic and monetary union (EMU), the integration process that brought about the creation of the euro. Member States and EU institutions have taken a number of measures to tackle these shortcomings, including stricter rules on economic governance and setting

urodac is a biometric database in which Member States are required to enter the fingerprint data of asylum-seekers in order to identify where they entered the EU. Established in 2000 and reviewed in 2013, its main purpose is to facilitate the application of the Dublin Regulation. The 2013 revision broadened

he Beyond GDP approach considers GDP (gross domestic product) insufficient to capture the multidimensional nature of progress and promotes the use of alternative indicators in policy. Although commonly used as an indicator of well-being, GDP is a measure of economic performance, reflecting production expressed in monetary terms. It does not account

dvances in information and communication technologies, the increasing use of electronic devices and networks, and the digitization of production processes mean that vast quantities of data are generated daily by economic and social activities. This ‘big data’ can be transmitted, collected, aggregated and analyzed to provide insights into processes and

rasmus Plus (Erasmus+) was launched in 2014 as a single programme in the field of education, training, youth and sport under the multiannual financial framework (MFF) package for 2014-2020. It brings together previous programmes and introduces sport as a new area of activity. A single programme has made it possible