Exposure to pyrrolizidine alkaloids in food, in particular for frequent and high consumers of tea and herbal infusions, is a possible long-term concern for human health due to their potential carcinogenicity, say EFSA’s experts.

The consumption of food supplements based on pyrrolizidine alkaloid-producing plants could also result in exposure levels causing short-term toxicity resulting in adverse health effects.

EFSA has updated its 2011 advice on the risks for human and animal health from pyrrolizidine alkaloids, a large group of toxins produced by different plant species that can unintentionally enter the food chain.

The European Commission requested the updated risk assessment, which takes account of exposure estimates using more recent data on the levels of these toxins in honey, tea, herbal infusions and food supplements.

In 2011 EFSA concluded there were possible long-term health concerns for toddlers and children who are high consumers of honey, the only food category for which sufficient data were then available.

EFSA’s experts identified 17 pyrrolizidine alkaloids in food and feed that should continue to be monitored and recommended further studies on the toxicity and carcinogenicity of those most commonly found in food.

President Werner Hoyer is going to lead the European Investment Bank (EIB) for another six-year term, starting at the 1^st of January 2018. He was reappointed today by the Board of Governors of the EIB, consisting of the Economy and Finance ministers of the 28 EU Member States.

Werner Hoyer started his tenure as President of the EU bank on 1 January 2012, and is also the Chairman of the EIB’s Board of Directors. Over the last five and a half years he has overseen a huge expansion and transformation of the Luxembourg-based bank, with the EIB Group’s annual financing increasing from EUR 55bn to EUR 84bn since 2012. The annual investment supported by this financing increased from EUR 169bn to EUR 287bn over the same period.

This increase in business was partly triggered by the Investment Plan for Europe – the Juncker Plan. Jean-Claude Juncker and Werner Hoyer worked in close cooperation to develop this concept, which has made a strong contribution to growth and job creation in the EU since its inception. Under the Juncker Plan, the EIB Group has approved EUR 44bn in financing so far, supporting EUR 225bn in investment across the EU.

“It has been a privilege to serve as President of the EU bank in these challenging times, financing thousands of projects that have improved millions of people’s lives. We have helped EU countries hit hardest by the eurozone debt crisis, lent our financial muscle to the efforts of the EU to stabilise Ukraine and begun to address the root causes of migration in Northern Africa”, said Werner Hoyer. “New challenges lie ahead for us, not least coping with the loss of the United Kingdom as member of the EU bank. But I’m sure the ingenuity and expertise of the 3 000-strong EIB staff will help us to find solutions to these challenges. We will continue to deliver EU policies in the Union and worldwide.”

Before joining the EIB, Werner Hoyer was a member of the German Bundestag for the liberal party FDP for 25 years, specialising in foreign and security policy as well as European and budget affairs. He was also the Minister of State (Deputy Foreign Minister) at the German Foreign Office. He held various positions during his long, distinguished political career, among them General Secretary of the FDP, Whip of the FDP Parliamentary Group and President of the European Liberal Democratic Reform Party.

CV

Background information:

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union’s bank. The EIB is the long-term lending institution of the EU and is the only bank owned by and representing the interests of the European Union Member States. It makes long-term finance available for sound investment in order to contribute towards EU policy goals. The EIB works closely with other EU institutions to implement EU policy.

As the largest multilateral borrower and lender by volume, the EIB provides finance and expertise for sound and sustainable investment projects which contribute to furthering EU policy objectives. More than 90% of EIB activity is focused on Europe but it also supports the EU’s external and development policies.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager has reached an agreement in principle with the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, on the design of the alternative package proposed by the UK authorities for Royal Bank of Scotland (“RBS”).

This alternative package would replace RBS’s commitment to divest its UK retail and SME banking operations, Williams & Glyn (also known as “Rainbow”), as required as part of RBS’s restructuring plan submitted in 2009 and amended in 2014. The objective of this alternative package is to remedy the distortion in the UK’s SME banking market resulting from the state aid to RBS, with greater speed and certainty than would the divestment of Williams & Glyn. Today’s agreement in principle follows intensive and constructive contacts between the Commission and the UK authorities.

In April 2017, the Commission opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether the alternative package proposed by the UK authorities is an appropriate replacement for the original commitment to divest Williams & Glyn.

The Commission can only accept modifications to existing commitments by Member States and aided banks that were given to obtain approval for restructuring aid (such as the one leading to the existing RBS restructuring decision), if the new commitments can be considered equivalent to those originally provided.

In this context, the opening of the in-depth investigation also gave interested parties the possibility to submit to the Commission their views on the new commitments. The UK authorities considered the feedback and proposed some enhancements to the package:

• RBS will provide more financing and set up an independent fund that grants funds to challenger banks to increase their small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) banking capabilities. The funding will be more targeted in order to increase challenger banks’ chances of driving competition.
• RBS will commit more financing to support the switching of a higher number of clients. In particular, the package targets a transfer of a 3% market share in the UK SME banking market from RBS to challenger banks. Challenger banks will receive “dowries” that they can use to incentivise SMEs to switch their business current accounts, funding to facilitate the switching of related loans and funding to cover customers’ switching costs.

The Commission considers that, in combination with the elements brought forward by the UK authorities in the initial proposal, the improved package is considered sufficient to replace the divestment commitment. The improved alternative package will increase competition in the UK SME banking market going forward.

The United Kingdom will proceed to notify the improved alternative package to the Commission. On this basis, the Commission will adopt its formal decision under EU State aid rules.

Background

RBS is one of Europe’s largest financial services groups and had a balance sheet of £799 billion at the end of 2016. During the financial crisis, in late 2008, RBS was on the verge of collapse and has benefitted from the following state aid measures:

• a recapitalisation of £45.5bn and an (eventually unused) five year contingent recapitalisation of £8bn
• an impaired asset measure covering excess loss (which was terminated with RBS not having received any payments from the State, but instead paid a cumulative fee of £2.5bn for the participation) and
• guarantees and other liquidity measures (now fully repaid).

These aid measures resulted in the nationalisation of RBS (the UK Government currently holds 71.3% of RBS shares) and were accompanied by the restructuring of RBS approved by the Commission in 2009 and amended in 2014.

As part of this restructuring, the UK committed RBS would undertake a significant balance sheet and risk reduction. RBS has already delivered on those commitments to ensure the bank’s long-term viability, in line with the Commission decision. It also delivered on all its other divestment commitments (sale of RBS insurance, transaction business, commodity trading, US banking subsidiary), which were made to ensure adequate own contribution by the bank to the financing of the restructuring of the core UK banking operations and to limit the distortion of competition. The divestment of Williams & Glyn, to be completed by end-2017 is the last outstanding commitment, with the objective to mitigate the distortion of competition in the UK SME banking market.

25/07/2017 – Business, taxation and competition / Consumer affairs and public health / Economy and the euro