Spotlight on holidays in Europe
August is the peak holiday month for people living in the EU. According to data from recent years, more than three out of four outbound trips from the EU have a main destination in another EU Member State.
It appears Europe is an attractive destination for its residents and there are good reasons, other than proximity, for that. Europe offers to travellers a vast diversity of landscapes, traditions, lifestyles, cultural points of interest and historical and natural monuments to explore. Thanks to the EU, enjoying all this diversity within its Member States has become quite seamless and much easier.
The days of long queues and delays at the borders are long gone but this is far from being the only thing. Travellers throughout the EU enjoy enhanced and consistent consumer and passenger rights;
EU citizens can drive their vehicles, enjoy their insurance coverage, use their mobile phones and enjoy a number of other benefits throughout the EU at no extra cost. And, perish the thought, in case of an emergency they have a single European emergency phone number, available everywhere in the EU, to call free of charge: 112.
In this holiday-themed edition of the Publications Office newsletter you will find useful general and legal publications of interest to any holiday maker in Europe. As always, you will also find a selection of some of the most interesting EU publications on several other topics, including research.
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Helpful tips and a map of Europe
Europe is a continent with so much for the traveller to discover and explore. Thanks to the EU, you can cross many borders hassle-free, your pet can travel with you, you have easy access to healthcare should you need it and the euro makes it easier to shop around for bargains. Check out this ‘Europe in a nutshell’ brochure for more information, helpful tips and a map of Europe.
Available in English, French, German, Italian, Maltese, Polish and Romanian |
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Your gateway to free movement in Europe
Schengen, a village in southern Luxembourg where the territories of the initial contracting parties of the Schengen Agreement meet, has become a synonym for the abolition of internal border controls and for free movement in Europe. Read this publication to find out more about your rights to move freely within the internal borders of the EU.
Available in all the official languages of the EU except Irish |
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Help and advice for consumers in Europe
Do you buy your airline tickets or book foreign hotels online? Do you go abroad for your holidays? Do you buy things while you are there? Do you rent a car in another country? If you do and if you live and travel in the EU, Iceland or Norway, then these tips are for you. They sum up your rights when making cross-border travel purchases.
Available in all the official languages of the EU except Irish. Also in Icelandic and Norwegian. |
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Summaries of EU legislation
This is the summary of EU legislation that aims to introduce a high, uniform level of consumer protection in relation to contracts for travel packages and linked travel arrangements, taking into account the increasing use of internet booking.
Available in all the official languages of the EU |
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Report
For many people in the EU, holidays revolve around bathing water — whether it is snorkelling in the turquoise waters of the Aegean Sea or swimming in a Scandinavian lake. This last edition of the bathing water quality report based on sampling from last year, gives a good indication of the places where the quality of bathing water is expected to be good for the 2018 bathing season.
Available in English, French and German |
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The European Atlas of the Sea is a user-friendly application for anyone interested in Europe's seas and coasts. It offers predefined layers with information on tourism, the environment, nature and sea transportation that render it a great tool for holiday planning.
Available in English, Estonian, French and German |
Research |
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Special results magazine
In 1999, the advent of blogging gave birth to what we’ve all come to know as the Web 2.0. From consumers of content generated by a very limited number of sources, internet users became creators of this content. The amount of information available ballooned. It didn’t take long before businesses and experts realised that the amount of data generated online, although almost impossible to manage, had huge potential for business intelligence. Learn more about this exciting topic in this issue of research*eu.
Available in English |
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Results pack on antibiotic resistance
One of the greatest challenges facing modern medicine is the unrestrained use of antibiotics, leading to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the growth of superbugs like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that have become highly resistant to antibiotics. Official figures show that annually, AMR is currently responsible for around 25 000 deaths in the EU and costs EUR 1.5 billion in healthcare expenditure and productivity losses. This CORDIS Results Pack features 13 EU-funded projects that are spearheading AMR research.
Available in English |
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What purpose does the EU serve? Why and how was it set up? How does it work? What has it already achieved for its citizens, and what new challenges does it face today? In a globalised world, can the EU compete successfully with other major economies while maintaining its social standards? How can immigration be managed? What will Europe’s role be on the world stage in the years ahead? Where will the EU’s boundaries be drawn? And what future is there for the euro? These are just some of the questions explored by EU expert Pascal Fontaine in this latest edition of his popular booklet .
Available in all the official languages of the EU |
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Spring 2018
Last year, the European economy registered its strongest growth in a decade. Fundamental conditions for growth remain favourable with consumers benefitting from rising real wages and strong job creation. The number of employed persons in the euro area and the EU is higher than ever. However, the weakness of recent indicators points to a cooling of activity and raises the question of whether beyond temporary factors in the first quarter there are more stringent limitations on growth.
Available in English |
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Study
The ‘cost of non-Europe’ study series brings together work in progress on a long-term project to identify and analyse the 'cost of non-Europe' in a number of policy fields. This concept, first pioneered by the European Parliament in the 1980s, is used to quantify the potential efficiency gains in today's European economy through pursuing a series of policy initiatives recently advocated by the Parliament.
Available in English |
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Best practices in EU member states - Study
This paper analyses the legal framework on large carnivores – brown bear (Ursus arctos), Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), wolf (Canis lupus)and wolverine (Gulo gulo) - and their current management within the EU. It further presents the best coexistence methods obtained from research and EU-funded projects and concludes with a general review and recommendations.
Available in English |
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Every Member State has a different — sometimes highly complex – government structure. This brochure aims to give you a general overview of the local and regional government structures in EU Member States, providing the terms in all 24 official EU languages. So if you are an expatriate and wish to find out how the German ‘Kreisfreie Stadt’ or the Greek ‘Demos’ would be better translated in your language, then have a look at this very interesting work.
Available: terms in the original language with translations in all the official languages of the EU. Explanatory texts in English, French and German. |
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In-depth analysis - Study
Blockchain technology is of increasing interest to citizens, businesses and legislators across the European Union. This report is aimed at providing a point of entry for those curious about blockchain technology, so as to stimulate interest and provoke discussion around its potential impact. A general introduction is followed by a closer look at eight areas in which blockchain has been described as having a substantial potential impact. For each of these, an explanation is given of how the technology could be developed in that particular area, the possible impacts this development might have, and what potential policy issues are to be anticipated.
Available in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish |
Our news: EU Datathon 2018 competition — 72 application proposals received, 16 shortlisted!
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Seventy-two very interesting app proposals were received by the deadline of 15 July. We wish to thank all of the participants! Congratulations to the 16 teams that have been shortlisted. The winners will be selected on 2 October during the final conference of the event in Brussels.
To learn more or follow the #EUdatathon2018 competition, organised by the Publications Office please visit: https://publications.europa.eu/eudatathon
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