European Union

On 23 May 2017, the Council agreed on a new system for resolving double taxation disputes within the EU.

The proposal sets out to improve the mechanisms used for resolving disputes between member states when disputes arise from the interpretation of agreements on the elimination of double taxation. It builds on convention 90/436/EEC on the elimination of double taxation in connection with the adjustments of profits of associated enterprises.

"This directive is an important part of our plan for strengthening tax certainty and improving the business environment in Europe", said Edward Scicluna, minister for finance of Malta, which currently holds the Council presidency.

Situations where different member states tax the same income or capital twice can create serious obstacles to doing business across borders. They create an excessive tax burden, can cause economic distortions and have a negative impact on cross-border investment.

The draft directive requires dispute resolution mechanisms to be mandatory and binding, with clear time limits and an obligation to reach results. It thereby sets out to secure a tax environment where compliance costs for businesses are reduced to a minimum.

The text allows for a 'mutual agreement procedure' to be initiated by the taxpayer, under which member states must reach an agreement within two years. If the procedure fails, an arbitration procedure is launched to resolve the dispute within specified timelines. For this, an advisory panel of three to five independent arbitrators is appointed together with up to two representatives of each member state. The panel ('advisory commission') issues an opinion for eliminating the double taxation in the disputed case, which is binding on the member states involved unless they agree on an alternative solution.

The Council endorsed a compromise reached on the following issues:

• scope of the directive, i.e. the types of disputes that should be covered. The Council agreed on a broad scope but with the possibility, on a case-by-case basis, of excluding disputes that do not involve double taxation;
• 'independent persons of standing': criteria to ensure the independence of those appointed to a pool of independent arbitrators. It was agreed that arbitrators must not be employees of tax advice companies or have given tax advice on a professional basis. Unless agreed otherwise, the panel chair must be a judge;
• standing committee: the possibility of setting up a permanent structure to deal with dispute resolution cases if member states so agree.

Next steps

Agreement was reached at a meeting of the Economic and Financial Council. The Council will adopt the directive once the European Parliament has given its opinion.

Member states will have until 30 June 2019 to transpose the directive into national laws and regulations. It will apply to complaints submitted after that date on questions relating to the tax year starting on or after 1 January 2018. The member states may however agree to apply the directive to complaints related to earlier tax years.

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EU Finance ministers meet on 23 May 2017 in Brussels. They are called on to agree on a new system for resolving double taxation disputes, and expected to adopt rules on 'hybrid mismatches' between tax systems. The Council is discussing the in-depth reviews of macroeconomic imbalances in the member states.

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Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The Council, meeting in an EU27 format, adopted a decision authorising the opening of Brexit negotiations with the UK and formally nominating the Commission as EU negotiator. The Council also adopted negotiating directives for the talks. 

Both texts are based on a recommendation presented by the Commission on 3 May 2017 and build on the guidelines adopted by the European Council (Art.50) on 29 April 2017. Their adoption allows for the start of negotiations with the UK following the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU (under article 50 of the Treaty of the EU).

"Today we have established the EU position on the key issues for the beginning of the talks. The rights of citizens are at the very top of our agenda and we aim for an ambitious solution, where those affected continue to enjoy their rights".

Louis Grech, Deputy Prime Minister of Malta and President of the CouncilNegotiating directives and phased approach

This first set of negotiating directives is intended to guide the Commission for the first phase of the negotiations. They therefore prioritise issues that have been identified as necessary for an orderly withdrawal of the UK, including citizens' rights, the financial settlement and the situation of Ireland, as well as other matters in which there is a risk of legal uncertainty as a consequence of Brexit.

The first phase of the talks aims to provide as much clarity and legal certainty as possible and to settle the disentanglement of the UK from the EU. Once the European Council deems sufficient progress has been achieved, the negotiations will proceed to the next phase.

An agreement on a future relationship between the EU and the UK can only be concluded once the UK effectively leaves the EU and becomes a third country. However, discussions on an overall understanding of that future relationship could start during a second phase of the negotiations.

The negotiating directives may be amended and supplemented during the negotiations.

Citizens' rights

The first priority for the negotiations is to agree on guarantees to protect the rights of EU and UK citizens, and their family members, that are affected by Brexit. The EU27 insist that such guarantees should be reciprocal and based on equal treatment among EU27 citizens and compared to UK citizens. This should cover, among others, the right to permanent residence after five years of legal residence, including if this period is incomplete on the date of withdrawal but is completed afterwards.

The negotiating directives specify that workers, self-employed persons, students and other inactive persons should be covered, as well as frontier workers and family members. Guarantees should protect residence rights and free movement, as well as all the rights attached to them (such as health care). All rights should be protected for the lifetime of the persons concerned.

Financial settlement

The EU27 agree there must be a single financial settlement and the UK must honour its share of all the obligations undertaken while being a member. The UK should also fully cover the specific costs related to the withdrawal, such as the relocation of EU agencies currently based in the UK. The agreement should include a calculation of the total amount and a schedule of payments, as well as further rules and arrangements to address specific issues.

The situation of Ireland

The EU is committed to continue to support peace, stability and reconciliation on the island of Ireland. Nothing in the UK withdrawal agreement should undermine the objectives and commitments of the Good Friday Agreement. Negotiations should aim to avoid a hard border, while respecting EU law. Issues such as the transit of goods will need to be addressed.

Goods placed on the market and procedures based on EU law

The negotiating directives also cover other issues were arrangements are needed to reduce uncertainty and avoid a legal vacuum. This includes addressing what will happen with procedures based on EU law and with goods already on the market. For instance, if a product is already placed on the single market before the withdrawal, it should be ensured that it can remain in the market afterwards.

Other matters where there may be a need to reduce uncertainty or avoid a legal vacuum, such as services, will be covered in future negotiating directives.

Next steps

The Commission will agree with the UK the dates for the first negotiating sessions. The first formal meeting between the EU and the UK negotiators is likely to take place in June.

Over 350 000 documents are listed in the Council's register, and over 70% of these are public and can be downloaded for free. That is one of the key points in the Council's 2016 report on access to documents which was approved by the Council on 22 May 2017. 

During 2016, 22 671 documents were added to the register, of which 71%, or 16 181 documents, are public. The Council's public register was consulted around 380 000 times and attracted 9% of the Council's website traffic.

To get access to a document in the Council's register that is not public from the outset any interested person can request access. If access is refused at an initial stage a confirmatory application can be made. In 2016, the Council received 2 342 initial requests for access to documents and 24 confirmatory applications, requiring the analysis of 10 232 documents. Full access was granted to 7 307 documents (of which 7 273 at initial stage) and partial access to 556 documents (501 at initial stage). More than 76 % of the documents for which access was requested were released in full, and more than 82 % either in full or partially.

For some documents access was refused on the basis of legitimate reasons outlined in the EU regulation on the access to documents. These include in particular the need to protect the Council's decision-making process and public interest with regard to international relations and public security.

Brexit Secretary, David Davis, has said that Britain won’t hold ANY Brexit talks unless the EU drops its demands for €100bn in payments it claims are due.

It’s now more than likely that Britain will leave the EU without any agreement in place, which of course will be disastrous. Unfortunately, David Davis has shown he knows little about the art of negotiating.

Quite a handicap when you’re the Brexit Secretary. Refusing to talk is the way to end talks, and walking away from talks will make it very difficult to return to those talks. The Sunday Times quoted a senior Brussels negotiator as saying of Davis’s latest announcement:

“Once you walk away, you need a major concession to come back to the table and we are simply not able to provide any.”

Just as unfortunately, David Davis has shown he knows little about the EU and how it functions. Quite a handicap when you’re the Brexit Secretary. In 2012 Mr Davis gave an anti-EU speech in which he claimed that the European Commission was responsible for the laws of the EU.

“That is fundamentally undemocratic,” he said. But as he should know, the European Commission has no power to pass laws.

Only the directly elected European Parliament, in concert with the EU Council, comprising the ministers of democratically elected governments, can pass laws in the EU. Mr Davis also claimed that the EU’s foundational principles and acquis could not be changed, and that was essentially undemocratic.

But that’s not correct either. The EU is a democracy, and can be anything that all its members unanimously agree it can be. If that was not the case, there would not have been so many EU treaty changes – all of which were debated and passed by our Parliament in Westminster.

During last year’s EU referendum campaign, Mr Davis claimed that Britain would be able to negotiate individual trade deals with each of the EU’s member states. He appeared to be completely unaware that one of the main basic features of the European Union is that EU countries cannot negotiate individual trade deals and instead do so as a bloc of all its members.

Then, after Mr Davis was appointed to be the new Brexit Secretary, he boasted that Britain would be able to secure free trade areas “10 times the size” of the European Union. Liberal Democrat MEP, Catherine Bearder, had to point out that this would be 1.5 times bigger than the planet’s entire economy.

There’s only one way to ensure that David Davis doesn’t mess up the Brexit talks with the European Union. Vote Theresa May’s Conservative Party out of office on 8 June. 

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This week the Conservative Party tweeted Theresa May’s statement: ‘Sturgeon’s plan to leave the UK – Scotland’s biggest market – would mean economic chaos.’

The Prime Minister doesn’t seem to get it, does she? Exactly the same arguments also apply to her plan to leave the EU as well as its Single Market – the UK’s biggest market – which would also mean economic chaos.

Last March Mrs May made similar comments in a keynote speech giving all the reasons why the Union of the United Kingdom should remain intact. But yet again, all her arguments could just as easily and logically apply to keeping the Union of Europe intact.

Mrs May said:

“One of the driving forces behind the Union’s creation was the remorseless logic that greater economic strength and security come from being united. Our wholly integrated domestic market for businesses means no barriers to trade within our borders.”

Yes, the exact same reasons apply to the European Union – reasons that Mrs May extolled before the Referendum, but abandoned after the Referendum in exchange for the trappings of high office.

Mrs May also said about our Union of the United Kingdom:

“The fundamental strengths of our Union, and the benefits it brings to all of its constituent parts, are clear.” 

Yes, the strengths of the European Union are also clear – that Union is the world’s largest free trading area.

Mrs May also said:

“We must take this opportunity to bring our United Kingdom closer together. Because the Union which we all care about is not simply a constitutional artefact. It is a union of people, affections and loyalties.” 

Indeed, as is the European Union.

The Prime Minister continued:

“Together we form the world’s greatest family of nations. But the real story of our Union is not to be found in Treaties or Acts of Parliament. It is written in our collective achievements, both at home and in the world.”

Actually, the European Union is the world ‘s greatest family of nations. And its collective achievements have been huge, not least of which is the achievement of presiding over the longest period of permanent peace in our continent’s history.

Doesn’t Mrs May realise that all the arguments for keeping the Union of the United Kingdom intact, are the exact same reasons for keeping the European Union intact? Undoing our Union with Europe could directly lead to the undoing of our Union of the United Kingdom.

Of course, Mrs May knows that. In April last year, when she was Home Secretary, she gave one of the most powerful pro-Remain speeches of the entire referendum campaign.

Then, Mrs May advised against Brexit because it could prove ‘fatal’ both to the Union of Europe as well as the Union of the United Kingdom. She said then:

“..if Brexit isn’t fatal to the European Union, we might find that it is fatal to the Union with Scotland. The SNP have already said that in the event that Britain votes to leave but Scotland votes to remain in the EU, they will press for another Scottish independence referendum. 

“And the opinion polls show consistently that the Scottish people are more likely to be in favour of EU membership than the people of England and Wales.

“If the people of Scotland are forced to choose between the United Kingdom and the European Union we do not know what the result would be. “But only a little more than eighteen months after the referendum that kept the United Kingdom together, I do not want to see the country I love at risk of dismemberment once more. 

“I do not want the people of Scotland to think that English Eurosceptics put their dislike of Brussels ahead of our bond with Edinburgh and Glasgow. 

“I do not want the European Union to cause the destruction of an older and much more precious Union, the Union between England and Scotland…

“We should remain in the EU.”

Do you really want  Theresa May as our Prime Minister, when she supports Britain’s membership of the EU one month, then changes her mind the next? Are you happy for Tories to be running the country, and ruining our partnership with the European Union and its Single Market, as well as potentially our Union with Scotland?

The General Election is on 8 June.

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EU HR Federica MOGHERINI at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in Jordan

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Media programme

+/- 10.00 Arrival of President of the United States Donald Trump
Official welcome at the car
(Europa VIP entrance outside, level 0 - photo/TV opportunity - pool A)

Official handshake
(Europa Forum, level 0 - photo/TV opportunity - pool B)
Meeting with President of the United States Donald Trump, President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker

Enlarged meeting including European Parliament President Antonio Tajani and High Representative Federica Mogherini

+/- 11.00 Departure
(Europa VIP entrance, level 0 - photo/TV opportunity - same pool A)

Photographers and cameramen wishing to join one of the pools must express their interest by sending a request by email before Tuesday 22 May 2017, 17.00 to press.centre@consilium.europa.eu.

Pool A & B are incompatible. For security reasons the pool meeting point will be 60 minutes before the event at the Justus Lipsius press centre. No late comers will be accepted. The Council press office is responsible for the composition of the pool.

Access & accreditation

Access to the Council premises is only possible with the specific event badge or 6 month badge (see accreditation information).

Due to security measures, media wishing to access the premises are strongly advised to arrive well in advance. Media access will only be possible through the Justus Lipsius building.

Host broadcaster coverage

Photos and video coverage of the event will be available for preview and download on http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu
Live streaming will be available on http://video.consilium.europa.eu

 

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

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The EU has had a delegation office  in Mali since 1958. The two maintain relations based on political dialogue under the Cotonou Agreement, the Country Strategy Paper and on security and defence matters.

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Tuesday 23 May 2017
13.00 Meeting with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg

Wednesday 24 May 2017
Aachen (Germany)
19.30 Speech at the dinner in honour of Charlemagne Prize Laureate 2017, Timothy Garton Ash

Thursday 25 May 2017
EU-US Leaders' meeting (Europa building)
10.00 Welcome of President of the United States Donald Trump
10.05 Meeting with President of the United States Donald Trump and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker
10.20 Enlarged meeting including European Parliament President Antonio Tajani and High Representative Federica Mogherini

13.00 Meeting with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker

Friday 26 and Saturday 27 May 2017
Taormina (Italy)
10.15 Joint press briefing with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker 

G7 Summit

Sunday 28 May 2017
Bratislava
12.30 Intervention at the Globsec 2017 conference

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

All times are approximate and subject to change

+/- 09.30
Arrivals (live streaming)

+/- 10.15
Doorstep by Deputy Prime Minister Grech

11.00
Beginning of Council meeting (Roundtable)
Adoption of the agenda

Decision to create a working party on Article 50

Decision to authorise the opening of Brexit negotiations and nominate the Commission as EU negotiator. Adoption of negotiating directives

Preparation of the European Council (Art. 50) in June 2017

+/- 12.00
Press conference (live streaming)

+/- 12.30
Working lunch

Europa and Justus Lipsius building - Brussels

The 19th bilateral summit between the EU and China will take place on 1-2 June in Brussels. European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will represent the European Union. China will be represented by Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

Media Programme 

The media programme will be available in the coming days. The meeting is expected to start late afternoon on 1 June and finish around lunchtime on 2 June. 

Accreditation

• Journalists holding a 6-month badge (01.01.2017 - 30.06.2017) do not need to register.
  Journalists without the above badge must apply on https://eventaccreditationjour.consilium.europa.eu
• Media representatives applying for the first time or who have not been recently screened will be the subject of a comprehensive and detailed verification by our security service. Considering the time and resources needed for these verifications, not all requests may be processed. Media are therefore advised to avoid sending representatives falling into these categories. 
• You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt by email. Please read it carefully as it includes the list of original documents you will be asked to present when collecting your badge. Depending on your profile, the requested documents will include: Passport or ID card, press card and/or a signed original letter from your editor-in chief as well as the signed original of your authorisation for security screening (only for media representatives resident in Belgium). The press centre may contact you to request additional information if necessary. No accreditation badge will be issued if you cannot provide all required documents.

Collection of badges

Accreditation badges must be collected in person from the LEX building (145 rue de la Loi, Brussels)  

• Thursday 1 June - 14.00 - 19.00
• Friday 2 June - 8.30 to the end of the final press conference

Photos and video coverage of the event will be available for preview and download on http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu

Live streaming will be available on http://video.consilium.europa.eu

For more details on the EU-China Summit,  see the meeting page.

Place:        Europa building, Brussels 

Chair(s):    Evarist Bartolo, Minister for Education and Employment of Malta
                   Dr Owen Bonnici, Minister for Justice, Culture and Local Government 

All times are approximate and subject to change 

MONDAY, 22 MAY 2017

 +/- 09.30      
Doorstep by Minister Bartolo 

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

YOUTH 

+/- 10.35 
Conclusions on the role of youth work in supporting young people's development of essential life skills  Adoption 
+/- 10.45 
Conclusions on the strategic perspectives for European cooperation in the youth field post-2018 - Adoption 
+/- 10.55      
Resolution on the Structured Dialogue and the future development of the dialogue with young people  -Adoption
+/- 11.05      
Building Europe's future - listening to and supporting young people (public session) -Debate 

EDUCATION 

+/- 15.15      
Decision on a common framework for the provision of better services for skills and qualifications (Europass) (public session) - Progress report
+/- 15.25      
Recommendation on the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning - Adoption
+/- 15.35
Giving learners a voice: how to improve and modernise our systems to provide high quality education for all - Debate

+/- 18.00      
Press conference (live streaming) - main press room Justus Lipsius building 

TUESDAY, 22 MAY 2017

+/- 09.15      
Doorstep by Minister Bonnici 

+/- 10.00      
Beginning of Council meeting (Roundtable) 

AUDIOVISUAL/CULTURE 

+/- 10.10      
Directive on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services in view of changing market realities (public session) 
+/- 11.40      
Council conclusions on an EU strategic approach to international cultural relations -Adoption 

+/- 13.15      
Press conference - tbc (live streaming) - - main press room Justus Lipsius building  

SPORT 

+/- 15.15      
Conclusionson sport as a platform for social inclusion through volunteering -Adoption 
+/- 15.30      
Resolution on the European Union Work Plan for Sport (1 July 2017 - 31 December 2020) - Adoption
+/- 15.40      
Sports media and its role in strengthening social inclusion (public session) - Debate

Facebook's purchase of Whatsapp is having expensive repercussions: the EU Commission has imposed a fine of 110 million euros on the US company for providing false information about data sharing before the takeover. The press praises Europe's competition authorities - but also warns that they must do more to counter the dominant position of US technology companies.