On 7 November, the higher education institutions forming the initial European Universities came together for the first time to explore the benefits and opportunities created by the EU initiative.
The event, organised by the European Commission, was held in Brussels and attended by ministers, representatives of the 17 European Universities, students and academics, with the aim of providing an open forum for discussions about the importance of revolutionising the European higher education.

The European economy is now in its seventh consecutive year of growth and is forecast to continue expanding in 2020 and 2021, but at the same time it is heading towards a protracted period of more subdued growth and muted inflation, according to the European Commission's Autumn Economic Forecast presented on Thursday.

Today, the Commission is launching a new application round for DiscoverEU travel passes, which allows participants to travel across Europe, learn about its cultural heritage, whilst developing their own knowledge and skills. All 18-year-olds in the European Union have until 28 November 2019 to apply for the opportunity to discover Europe between 1 April and 31 October 2020.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) would provide €17m in financing to QEV Technologies to support its research and development (R&D) activities. The Spanish technology and engineering company develops electric drive systems for small urban transport vehicles, electric vehicles, fast charging systems and electric racing technologies.

The European Commission has received 609 requests for support under the Structural Reform Support Programme (SRSP) for next year. The requests come from 27 Member States, extend across a range of sectors, and have an estimated total cost of €243.5m.

The European Commission published on Tuesday its 2020 call for proposals for the Erasmus+ programme as 2020 is the last year of the current EU programme for mobility and cooperation in education, training, youth and sport.

A new European Commission was due to take the reins in Brussels today, but a series of political setbacks have meant that a new administration is not starting for, at least, another month. The outgoing team at the European Commission will thus stay in office for longer, but with restricted powers.

A phone, a laptop and an espresso machine in an empty office, this was the start of the euro area's crisis-fighting institution - the Luxembourg-based European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Now it has a staff of 180 experts and has provided €295bn in rescue loans to five countries.

Incoming European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has formally backed France and Hungary's new nominees for her team of top officials, in an effort to overcome several hurdles that have pushed back her entry into office by at least a month, dpa reported.

The Commission published last Tuesday the first annual self-assessment reports by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Twitter and 7 European trade associations under the Code of Practice on Disinformation. The reports by the Code signatories set out the progress made over the past year in the fight against online disinformation, the EU press service reported. The self-regulatory code was launched in October 2018 and is an important pillar of the Action Plan against Disinformation.