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The New EU-Commission Has Been Approved

The European Parliament approved on 27 November 2019 the new European Commission headed by Ursula von der Leyen (461 to 157 vote of confidence, 89 abstained). Von der Leyen only needed a simple majority to secure confirmation as commission president. On 1 December, the new Commission started working. The new legislative period from 2019-2024 is already announced to bring perceptible changes into European Politics.

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Second Stakeholder Consultation Meeting at DG Grow

The aim of the preparatory study is to analyse the hand dryers product group for the creation of EU sustainable product measures namely Ecodesign and Energy Labelling. The study will investigate the potential for the environmental improvement of hand dryers, including aspects relevant to the circular economy. During this process, there were forseen two stakeholder consultations. The first took place in January this year.

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Green Taxonomy

The European Commission is currently finalising a proposal – to be published by the end of 2019 – for a so-called “Green taxonomy“. Once developed, the taxonomy will be used by national and EU regulators to shape the requirements regarding financial products traded as “green”. Actors of financial markets will use the taxonomy to disclose how the environmental sustainability of investment was defined. To qualify as green, investments will need to contribute substantively to at least one of the six EU environmental objectives and will need to fulfill a catalogue of requirements.

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Global Handwashing Day

October 15th is Global Handwashing Day: This year’s theme is “Clean Hands for All.” It follows the push to leave no one behind in the Sustainable Development Agenda. Inequalities in handwashing facilities and effective handwashing promotion programs can put individuals at higher risk for diseases that impact their health, education, and economic outcomes (https://globalhandwashing.org).

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The European Green Deal

Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen promised to deliver a European Green Deal in her first 100 days, including a continent-wide “Climate Law” to enshrine the goal of climate neutrality by 2050 into law, in order to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Her plan is not only quite ambitious and urgent at the same time, but it also has the potential to grow the EU’s economy in the long run. The hand dryer market will benefit from new investments in innovation and research as well as from an update of EU’s industrial policy.

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