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The European Union's data protection authorities have approved Amazon Web Services (AWS) data processing agreement (DPA), giving European businesses and governments the all-clear to use Amazons datacentres.

Werner Vogels, chief technology officer at Amazon.com, said: Providing customers with a DPA that has been approved by the EU data protection authorities is another way in which we are giving them assurances that they will receive the highest levels of data protection."

The agreement means organisations will be able to run applications and host data in 11 AWS regions around the globe, including two in the EU Ireland (Dublin) and Germany (Frankfurt).

Amazon said the approval means AWSs customers will be able to replicate EU data to other AWS datacentres outside the European Economic Area. As such, organisations can now move data, in accordance with European laws, to any AWS infrastructure region around the world.

The European data authorities' Article 29 working party said: The EU data protection authorities have analysed the arrangement proposed by Amazon Web Services and have concluded that the revised data processing addendum is in line with standard contractual clause 2010/87/EU and should not be considered as ad-hoc clauses.

This means customers can sign the AWS data processing addendum with model clauses without the need for authorisation from data protection authorities, as would be necessary for contract clauses intended to address EU privacy rules that have not been approved, known as 'ad-hoc' clauses.

Antanas Guoga, Member of the European Parliament, said: I believe the Article 29 working party's decision to approve the data processing agreement put forward by Amazon Web Services is a step in the right direction. I am pleased to see that AWS puts an emphasis on the protection of European customer data. I hope this decision will also help to drive further innovation in the cloud computing sector across the EU.

Oil company Shell is among the big users of AWS in Europe.

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AWS gets EU approval for data replication outside of Europe

NEW DELHI: The European Union could be the biggest source of advanced technology to India and the number one platform to get the country integrated into the global economic chain, its envoy to India Joao Cravinho said ahead of Narendra Modi's maiden trip to Europe as Prime Minister

The PM is due to visit Europe from April 9 to 14. Even as the India-EU Summit at Brussels earlier proposed during Modi's Europe tour has been postponed, the regional body is upbeat about the future of ties between the two entities. Cravinho said that Europe is very much on the radar of the new government in India which will complete one year in May.

"EU is today the biggest source of investment to India and the biggest trading partner of Delhi as a bloc. Besides, it can be the biggest source of advanced and high technology to India which comes with investments," Cravinho told ET.

While French investments in India touched $19 billion last year, Germany has been the eighth largest foreign direct investor in India since 2000. German FDI in India between 1991 and September 2014 was valued at $7.57 billion. There are more than 1,600 Indo-German collaborations and over 600 Indo-German joint ventures in operation. Hannover Fair, where India is the partner and which Modi will jointly inaugurate with Chancellor Angela Merkel on April 12, is expected to generate additional investments and boost 'Make in India' initiative.

Cravinho said that Europe has solutions to Modi government's flagship programmes across sectors - Make in India, Digital India, Swachh Bharat Mission, Save Ganges mission as well as the ambitious Smart Cities initiative.

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European Union can provide India with advanced technology, says Joao Cravinho

Renewable energy investment across the European Union almost ground to a standstill last year, with less than 1% growth, despite a strong global rebound in financing led by China and the United States, according to figures published on Tuesday (31 March).

Global investment in renewable energies jumped by 17% to 290 billion, the first funding increase for three years, according to the United Nations Environment Programmes (UNEP) annual Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment report.

The hike reflected a 80.5 billion boom in solar installations in China and Japan and a record 20 billion of final investment decisions on offshore wind projects in Europe.

The total figure, which excludes large hydro, is just 3% below the all-time record of 299.6 billion set in 2011, according to research published today (31 March).

China was by far the biggest investor. It pumped a record 89.5 billion into projects, up 39% from last year.

The US was second at 41.2 billion, up 7%, but well below its all-time high reached in 2011. Japan was third, at 38.4 billion, 10% higher than in 2013 and its biggest total ever, according to the influential report, by Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance and an Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Solar and wind accounted for 92% of all investment in renewable and fuels worldwide. Biomass and waste-to-energy made up 3% of total.Solar jumped 25% to 161 billion, its second highest total ever. Wind rose 11% to a record 107 billion.

Offshore boom

There were seven billion dollar worth of financing for offshore wind projects in the North Sea, funded from the Netherlands, the UK and Germany.

It included the 600MW Gemini project in Dutch waters, which at 4.1 billion was the largest non-hydro renewable energy plant to get the go-ahead anywhere in the world.Geminis financing was agreed by 12 banks, three export credit agencies, the European Investment Bank and a Danish pension fund.

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Europe trailing behind in global renewables rebound

Victoria II Ultimate Mod Let Us Build A German European Union #19
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BRUSSELS NATO'S secretary-general wants more joint action with the European Union to face the security challenges coming from Russia and the violent Islamic extremism plaguing some countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Jens Stoltenberg told a European Parliament hearing Monday that NATO and the EU should combine efforts to make member countries more "resilient" to the so-called hybrid brand of warfare that Western governments accuse Russia of waging in Ukraine. Along with military force, hybrid warfare includes cyber-attacks, the use of social media, deception and disinformation.

The NATO secretary-general also said the EU should assist friendly countries to its south and southeast like Jordan to combat the spread of Islamic extremism.

Stoltenberg told European lawmakers that "the time has come to spend more on defense."

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NATO chief seeks closer cooperation with the European Union on new security challenges