The Joint Research Centre (JRC) coordinated and contributed to two of the ten chapters of the 2016 Scientific Assessment Report of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which was officially launched in Brussels at the end of May. The main findings of the report show that air quality in Europe have improved significantly over the past 30 years thanks mainly to policy-driven reductions in air pollution. Nonetheless, air pollution is still the main environmental cause of premature deaths in Europe (due mainly to high concentrations of fine particles and ground-level ozone), and ecosystem biodiversity is threatened due to nitrogen deposition. The aim of this assessment is to serve as a basis for considering new directions for policy development and for identifying policy-relevant research questions.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/

Researchers and innovators from Armenia will now have full access to Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation funding programme, under the same conditions as their counterparts from EU Member States and other associated countries. Thanks to this agreement, its research institutes, universities and individual researchers will now have access to all opportunities offered by Horizon 2020 in diverse areas, from fundamental science to demonstration projects, on an equal footing with researchers and organisations from EU Member States and other countries associated to the programme.
Source: http://europa.eu/

The European Commission presented a proposal for the European Union to ratify the Paris Agreement, a legally binding deal to tackle climate change.

This proposal follows the successful conclusion of the COP21 in Paris, as well as the Commission´s full assessment of the Paris Agreement presented in March 2016. The Paris Agreement is an opportunity for achieving broader sustainable development goals, as well the EU’s priorities of investment, competitiveness, circular economy, research, innovation and energy’s transition. Chemistry will be playing a major role in providing solutions to reach the Paris Agreement targets.

Source: http://europa.eu/

Nihonium (Nh), Moscovium (Mc), Tennessine (Ts), and Oganesson (Og) are the names proposed for the four new additions to the periodic table. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Inorganic Chemistry Division has reviewed these proposals and recommends them for approval. A five-month public review is now set, expiring 8 November 2016, prior to the formal approval by the IUPAC Council.
Source: http://iupac.org/

EuCheMS was selected for the European Commission  High-Level Advisory Group “Open Science Policy Platform”. The group, in which EuCheMS will be represented by Prof. Wolfram Koch, was recently announced by European Commissioner Carlos Moedas at the Competitiveness Council in Brussels.
The mandate of this group, composed by 25 stakeholders, is, among other, to advise the Commission on how to further develop and practically implement open science policy, in line with the priority of Commissioner Moedas to radically improve the quality and impact of European science; and to support policy formulation by helping to identify the issues to be addressed and providing recommendations on the policy actions required.
Source: http://www.euchems.eu/