European Union

United Parcel Service v Commission
Competition
The General Court annuls, on the ground of a procedural irregularity, the decision by which the Commission refused to authorise the merger between UPS and TNT in the express small package delivery services sector

RPO
Taxation
The exclusion of digital books, newspapers and periodicals from the application of a reduced rate of VAT where they are supplied electronically is not contrary to the principle of equal treatment

On 9 March, the subcommittee will discuss the topic "CSDP missions and operations: Learning the lessons!?" with Giovanni Cremonini, Chair of the EEAS inter-service CSDP Lessons Working Group. With the EU having established, over recent years, a coherent mechanism for identifying best practices in CSDP missions, primarily through its Annual CSDP Lessons report and the associated processes, the committee will use this opportunity to take stock of the progress achieved and explore the way forward.
Further information
draft agenda and meeting documents
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

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EU Ministers of Foreign and European Affairs meet in Brussels on 7 March 2017 to prepare the Spring European Council, address the European semester and take note of the implementation of the better law-making agreement.

Download this video here.

Second post on our series on the Dutch general elections.

On Wednesday 15 March, Dutch voters will head to the polls to elect a new parliament and prime minister. And for once, the rest of Europe is very interested, as the question looms whether the leader of the far-right populist Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders may become head of government after these elections.

In good company in the European Parliament.

Although the Freedom Party’s election programme only consists of one single page with eleven bullet points, it does not fail to shock many. Geert Wilders promises a Dutch exit from the EU, the closure of all mosques, a ban on the Koran, and closed borders for refugees and immigrants from Islamic countries. Just a few months ago, Wilders was convicted by a Dutch court for group defamation and incitement of discrimination after he had stirred up an audience to chant ‘fewer, fewer, fewer Moroccans’. Yet Wilders has headed the election polls for well over a year and is now in a neck-and-neck race with the incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte from the Liberal Conservative Party (VVD).

Wilders’ popularity is not new, but has seen some high peaks recently. Indeed, the court conviction seems to have been ‘grist to Wilders’ mill’. It has fuelled the image that he is the only politician with the courage to say what is going ‘wrong’ in the Netherlands. Another important rise in popular support occurred in fall 2015, when the refugee crisis led to heated debates about immigrants taking advantage of the Dutch state and protests about the location of asylum centres. Wilders spoke in parliament about a ‘tsunami’ of asylum seekers, and said that the IS was smuggling thousands of terrorists into Europe.

Broadly speaking, it seems that a large group of Dutch voters feel that their quality of life is threatened by pressure from outside. Such pressures include the presence of Muslims, who are seen as a menace to the culture of gender equality, tolerance and freedom, perceived as ‘typically Dutch’. Moreover, the budget cuts over the course of the economic crisis are seen to have disproportionally hit the ‘hard-working’ Dutch citizen and the pensioners, and thereby threatened their social security. And finally, many do not only see the European Union and ‘Brussels’ as a threat to national culture and sovereignty, but share a widespread perception that the Dutch have paid billions of euros to Eastern and Southern member states in the wake of enlargement and the economic crisis. In this context, Wilders puts the blame on elitist politicians and promises to give ‘our money’ and the Netherlands back to ‘us’.

So the question is: can Wilders ‘win’?

In good company at the German carnival.

Current polls indicate his chances to become the largest party are good. But there are bumps in his road ahead. First, Wilders is a supporter of the presidency of Donald Trump (politico even claims he has ‘invented Trumpism’), but Dutch media have been overwhelmingly negative about Trump’s personality, behaviour and policies ever since he took office. Second, Wilders has caused some fuss in the run-up to the first election debates. He tweeted a fake picture in which the leader of the Liberal Democrats (D66) appeared to stand in a group of protesters demanding ‘sharia for the Netherlands’. He also cancelled two out of four initially scheduled debates, after a television channel adjusted the number of parties invited to participate in the debate and published an interview in which Wilders’ own (estranged) brother severely critiques his ideas. Both Wilders’ support for Trump and his absence from most major debates may diminish potential voters’ sympathy for him personally, which may lead to a shift away from his Party for Freedom, as previous occasions have shown.

But even if the Party for Freedom were to become the biggest group in the Parliament, Wilders’ chances of becoming Prime minister seem very slim. In the Netherlands, the 150 members of the House of Representatives are elected from party lists through proportional representation. The threshold for a party to enter the House is one seat – 0.67% of the votes – so that the percentage of votes roughly determines the percentage of seats won by a party. Moreover, political preferences of Dutch voters have become highly fragmented (as elsewhere in Europe). Altogether, it is likely that almost 15 parties will enter parliament after the elections, and that even even the biggest party in parliament will only assume around 30 seats. In this scenario, Wilders would need to find at least three partners to form a coalition government with a stable majority, but potential coalition partners have already announced that they are unwilling to cooperate with Wilders. This seems to leave him in an isolated position.

The election debates will really take off in the final three weeks before the election. It remains to be seen what the decisive issues will be – likely contenders are the costs and quality of health care and care for the elderly, pensions, defence, European integration (or disintegration), or immigration and asylum. Whether the bumps in Wilders’ road will turn out to be roadblocks remains to be seen.

The post Can the populist far-right win the elections in the Netherlands? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker called for a common EU defence headquarters in September after the Brexit vote, resurrecting an idea that had circulated in the EU for years. Today, the European Union has approved plans for a military headquarters to coordinate overseas security operation, foreign and defence ministers of the 28 member states (Britain having long opposed it) "unanimously" backed the project.

The new MPCC (Military Planning Conduct and Capability facility) will command the EU's non-executive military missions. The facility will initially run three operations - civil-military training missions in Mali, the Central African Republic and Somalia - which do not involve the use of force, other than in self-defence. The MPCC will initially have a small staff of around 30 and come under the EU's existing military structures.

But top EU officials, including Ms Mogherini, have had to repeatedly issue reassurances that the bloc is not going to undercut NATO as the primary defence for Europe. Besides Britain, many of the former Communist states of eastern Europe such as Poland and Hungary have argued consistently that NATO must come first, given the need for US support in facing a more assertive Russia.

The EU has also mounted Operation Sophia in the central Mediterranean, which can use force to stop migrant smugglers, and Operation Atalanta, part of international antipiracy forces off the Horn of Africa, these executive operations have their own command centres which will remain separate.

Tag: MPCCMogheriniCSDP

Towards a new trade framework between the EU and Turkey and the modernisation of the Customs Union
Report on the 2016 Commission Report on Serbia
Report on the 2016 Commission Report on Montenegro
Report on the 2016 Commission Report on Kosovo
Report on the 2016 Commission Report on the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

On 9 March 2017, Parliament’s lead MEP on the reform of the Dublin system, Swedish liberal Cecilia Wikström, will present her draft report to the Civil Liberties Committee.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

On 9 March 2017, Parliament’s lead MEP on the reform of the Dublin system, Swedish liberal Cecilia Wikström, will present her draft report to the Civil Liberties Committee.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : For this year's International Women's Day the European Parliament highlights the issue of women’s economic empowerment in a series of events. On Wednesday 8 March Spanish Green MEP Ernest Urtasun, author of a report on equality, answers your questions during a Facebook live session. Women are still often paid less, receive lower pensions and are less represented in top corporate posts and politics. Join our debate on Facebook and follow all Parliament events on International Women's Day.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : For this year's International Women's Day the European Parliament highlights the issue of women’s economic empowerment in a series of events. On Wednesday 8 March Spanish Green MEP Ernest Urtasun, author of a report on equality, answers your questions during a Facebook live session. Women are still often paid less, receive lower pensions and are less represented in top corporate posts and politics. Join our debate on Facebook and follow all Parliament events on International Women's Day.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

On 9 March, the subcommittee will discuss the topic "CSDP missions and operations: Learning the lessons!?" with Giovanni Cremonini, Chair of the EEAS inter-service CSDP Lessons Working Group. With the EU having established, over recent years, a coherent mechanism for identifying best practices in CSDP missions, primarily through its Annual CSDP Lessons report and the associated processes, the committee will use this opportunity to take stock of the progress achieved and explore the way forward.

Further information
Draft agenda and meeting documents
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : Parliament President Antonio Tajani was in Slovenia on 3 March where he opened the new Europe House in Ljubljana with European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker. At the opening Tajani said: "We need to strengthen our European identity and sense of belonging. We need to be united if we want to compete at the European level in a globalised world.”

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : Parliament President Antonio Tajani was in Slovenia on 3 March where he opened the new Europe House in Ljubljana with European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker. At the opening Tajani said: "We need to strengthen our European identity and sense of belonging. We need to be united if we want to compete at the European level in a globalised world.”

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

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EU Foreign Affairs ministers meet on 6 March 2017 in Brussels to have a joint session of defence and foreign ministers on implementation of the EU global strategy in the area of security and defence. Foreign Ministers are also discussing EU-Egypt relations with the Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry. The Council is also discussing migration, the Western Balkans and the Middle East peace process.

Download this video here.

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EU Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries meet on 6 March 2017 in Brussels to discuss the future of the common agricultural policy, the multi-annual plan for small pelagic species in the Adriatic Sea, dual quality of foodstuffs, and the EU animal welfare platform.

Download this video here.

It seems possible that, if the necessary conditions are created, British voters could decide not to leave the European Union at all.

And Ireland should work to create those conditions. The terms for Brexit set out by Theresa May will do incalculable damage to the island of Ireland – politically, emotionally and economically. We cannot simply wait for this to happen. While seeking to mitigate the effects of ‘hard’ Brexit, we must also do everything we can to ensure that there is no Brexit.

May has outlined the future she wants for Britain: out of the single market, out of the customs union, and ’control‘ over immigration. But she has avoided a few questions that remain open: the financial terms of the divorce; the status of EU citizens living in the United Kingdom, and vice versa; and two aspects of a future EU-UK trade agreement (if there ever is one), namely arbitrating disputes and addressing the issue of third-country imports getting into the EU via the UK.

It is unlikely that the Article 50 letter that May will send to the European Council President this month will tell us much more about the UK’s negotiating position than January’s Lancaster House speech did. So it is time to start thinking how the EU is going to respond.

The European Council is supposed to meet in April to agree on the guidance it will give to EU negotiators for discussions with the UK, which are scheduled to start in June. Every EU head of government needs to accept the orientation. For Ireland this April meeting is potentially the most important European meeting a Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) will ever attend.

The crucial thing for the European Council is to work out is what negotiators call the ‘BATNA’ – the best alternative to a negotiated agreement. It is important to have an alternative ready because there is every possibility that no agreement will be reached within the two-year timeframe.

“Ireland must use its imagination and ingenuity to find out a way out for the UK and the EU”

Mrs May has said that, for her, no deal at all is preferable to a bad deal. Her BATNA is no deal at all.

‘No deal’ would mean that the UK simply crashes out of the EU overnight, sometime before the end of March 2019. This scenario would mean an overnight halt to flights, to trade and to commerce. There would be immediate, massive currency instability.

From the perspective of pure negotiating tactics, May could be simply voicing threats. But to do so without a well-crafted fallback plan is something the UK cannot really afford. It vindicates former prime minister Tony Blair’s description of the UK government as “not driving the (Brexit) bus”, but rather “being driven” by partisan and ideological forces it has not tried to control. Without a real alternative to a hard Brexit, the government is on autopilot, heading towards a cliff.

The EU country worst affected by the UK crashing out of the EU with no deal is, of course, Ireland. So Ireland must use its imagination and ingenuity to find out a way out for the UK and the EU.

However, it is reasonable to ask whether the EU should offer UK voters another option.

If the UK government is unable or unwilling, because of domestic politics, to work out a responsible BATNA, the EU should do it on the government’s behalf. The 27 remaining member states should adopt it alongside their line-by-line response to the UK’s negotiating demands.

Having a BATNA would also strengthen EU’s own negotiating position. It would provide something with which an emerging deal could be compared. It would also provide a basis on which the UK could reconsider its decision of 23 June 2016, if it wants to do that. As Blair said, British voters have a ”right to change their minds”. After all, politicians can change their minds – so why not voters?

If British voters do ever change their minds about Brexit, it will happen slowly and incrementally. Parts of the Brexit scenario, obscured during the referendum campaign, will become clearer during the negotiations. The unavoidable interconnections between the EU’s freedoms and rules will emerge. It will be in the EU’s side of interest to ensure that there is maximum public understanding of the unfolding negotiations. Transparency will benefit the EU.

If the alternative to EU rules is no rules at all, citizens in both the EU countries and the UK may come to see the EU membership in a different light. They may, for the first time, see the EU as something that simplifies – not complicates – their lives.

In my view, the EU’s BATNA is an offer to continue the UK’s EU membership under the same terms as in 2015.

And these terms were generous. They allowed the UK to opt out of the euro, of Schengen, of police and judicial cooperation, of the Stability and Growth Pact, and of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The UK itself had also decided that it would have a referendum on any new EU powers. In that sense the UK was already having its cake while eating it, before even deciding opting for Brexit. These terms should be left on the table by the EU – but without the unjustifiable UK budget rebate.

At this stage the UK would reject such an offer. But, as the inevitable consequences of Brexit become clearer, British public opinion might begin to see merit in it, particularly when the offer is compared with the costs of simply crashing out of the EU overnight.

“Keeping the offer of resumed British membership on the table would be good politics and good economics for the EU”

Resistance to such an offer is more likely to come from some EU member states. Some members will point to the UK’s insatiable demands when it was a member, for opt-outs, rebates and exceptions. They will recall former French president Charles de Gaulle’s original veto of British membership, and his foresight that the UK would never settle in as a member. They may also argue that offering the UK a way back, after it has triggered Article 50, could encourage others to try the same approach.

But if these members sit back and think about it they will, I believe, conclude that an EU with the UK is better than one without, even if a trade deal were to be eventually concluded. Keeping the offer of resumed British membership on the table would be good politics and good economics for the EU.

The terms of the Lisbon Treaty do create some problems for this approach. But they are not insurmountable.

Article 50 (3) says a country that has sought to leave the EU under that article will be automatically excluded from the EU two years after it has triggered Article 50 unless the EU side “unanimously decides to extend the period”.

Article 50 (5) says that if a state that has withdrawn from the EU asks to re-join, it has to do so under Article 49. This means the application would have to be ratified by all existing members.

Others may argue that the UK cannot withdraw its Article 50 letter once it has sent it. This is a matter for the European Court of Justice to decide, but Article 6.8 of the Vienna Convention on treaties explicitly allows revocation of a notice of intention to withdraw from a treaty.

These problems are real but manageable. A political declaration by the European Council in April would create a realistic basis.

The real debate about Brexit – and whether it will really happen – has barely begun.

IMAGE CREDIT: Bigstock – CharliePhoto

The post The best alternative to a ‘hard’ Brexit may be no Brexit at all appeared first on Europe’s World.

General : On the occasion of International Women's Day Parliament calls attention to women's economic situation. Other issues being dealt with this week include the reform of EU asylum rules and the environmental impact of the production of palm oil as well as a debate on the rule of law in Poland. In addition political groups and parliamentary committees prepare for next week's plenary session.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : On the occasion of International Women's Day Parliament calls attention to women's economic situation. Other issues being dealt with this week include the reform of EU asylum rules and the environmental impact of the production of palm oil as well as a debate on the rule of law in Poland. In addition political groups and parliamentary committees prepare for next week's plenary session.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Place:       Europa building, Brussels
Chair:       Mr Louis Grech, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for European Affairs of Malta

All times are approximate and subject to change

+/- 08.30
Arrivals

+/- 08.45
Doorstep by Deputy Prime Minister Grech

+/- 10.00
Beginning of Council meeting (Roundtable)
Adoption of legislative A items (public session)
Adoption of non-legislative A items

Preparation of the European Council of 9-10 March 2017
European Semester
Implementation of the better law-making agreement

+/- 12.30
Press conference (live streaming)
Main press room, Justus Lipsius building