Creative shifts : empowering culture for sustainable living : executive summary

The accelerating environmental crisis driven by human activity, including global climate change and the alarming loss of biodiversity, poses a profound threat to global ecosystems and to human life and livelihoods. While much attention has been directed towards transformative measures in sectors such as energy and transport, the cultural and creative sectors (CCS) also hold significant, yet under-recognised, potential to contribute meaningfully to the sustainability agenda. With their proven capacity to foster public awareness, create emotional engagement and inspire behavioural change, culture, creativity and the arts warrant a more strategic and ambitious integration into climate action ef..

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Highlights from the first year in office : the von der Leyen Commission 2024-2029

On 1 December 2024, the second von der Leyen Commission took office with a clear commitment: to make Europe more independent, more competitive and more secure, as the world becomes more confrontational. In its first year, the Commission has worked to turn Europe into a continent where traditional and new industries thrive, while ensuring a good quality of life for our citizens. With the clean energy transition and the rapid rise of AI underway, we want Europe to seize these opportunities and strengthen its global leadership. We are expanding our trade partnerships, creating new opportunities for European companies big and small. And we are also supporting Europeans to develop better skills, ..

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Financial instruments in cohesion policy : a revolving use of funds materialised partially. Special report 24/2025

One of the advantages of financial instruments in cohesion policy over grants is that reflows can be used to support additional final recipients, leading to more efficient use of public financing. Our work concluded that only a limited reuse of reflows materialises during eligibility periods, partly due to acceptable reasons, such as the long-term nature of investments. After the eligibility period, reflows are generally reused for cohesion policy purposes, but with limitations. We found the legal framework on the reuse obligation insufficiently clear and unambiguous and found a lack of effective oversight by the Commission, leading to varying practices among member states’ managing author..

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