European Union

Czech premier Andrej Babis said that Dutch commissioner Frans Timmermans "is not the right one to unite Europe". Timmermans has emerged as a frontrunner after weekend talks between key EU leaders at the G20 summit. Timmermans has criticised several EU member states over failing rule of law. "In the past, we had the feeling he has not been too positive to our region, we need some geographical balance," Babis said.

At their meeting in Osaka, Japan, on 28-29 June 2019, G20 leaders adopted a declaration focusing on the global economy, trade, anti-corruption, inequalities, climate change, environment, inclusiveness and a sustainable world.

Weekly schedule of President Donald Tusk 29 June - 7 July 2019

The Council prolonged the mandates of EUPOL COPPS and EUBAM Rafah for 12 months until 30 June 2020.

At a press conference ahead of the summit, President Tusk underlined the EU continuos committment for international cooperation, democracy, freedoms, rule of law and human rights.

The European Union and South American trade bloc Mercosur sealed a blockbuster trade deal Friday, ending 20 years of talks over one of the world's largest regional commercial accords, negotiators said.

EU leaders have agreed that conservative German candidate Manfred Weber will not become president of the next European Commission, Germany's Die Welt daily reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the decision. Instead, Socialist Frans Timmermans is now the frontrunner for the EU's top job.

Written by Kristina Grosek,

© BillionPhotos.com / Fotolia

With European elections held on 23-26 May 2019, the eighth parliamentary term formally ends on 1 July 2019, a day before the constituent part-session of the newly elected Parliament. Despite the efforts of the co-legislators, agreement could not be found on a number of legislative proposals before the end of the parliamentary term, and these form a major part of the business that needs to be picked up again in the new term. In order to ensure continuity in its work, therefore, Parliament has adopted rules on how to deal with unfinished files.

Unfinished business in the European Parliament

‘Unfinished business’ refers to any procedure on which parliamentary work was still ongoing at the end of the parliamentary term, i.e. where the plenary had not taken a final decision. According to Rule 240 (previously Rule 229) of the EP’s Rules of Procedure, ‘at the end of the last part-session before elections, all Parliament’s unfinished business shall be deemed to have lapsed’, unless the Conference of Presidents – at the beginning of the new term – decides ‘on reasoned requests from parliamentary committees and other institutions to resume or continue the consideration of such matters’. Furthermore, the EP can (Rule 61, previously Rule 63) ask the Commission to refer a proposal again to Parliament for work to restart.

Unfinished files at the end of the eighth parliamentary term

As of June 2019, there are around 168 ongoing ordinary legislative procedure files at different stages of the legislative process. Of these, the EP administration has identified 44 files which remained at an early stage in the legislative process at the end of the last term. There are also a number of other unfinished files (e.g. special legislative procedures, budgetary procedures, and non-legislative procedures). In line with Rule 240, in the early days of the new parliamentary term, the Chair of the Conference of Committee Chairs (CCC) will invite each committee to provide information on the state of play of unfinished files, and on how they intend to handle them (resume work, or ask the Commission to modify or withdraw the proposal). The Conference of Presidents will then decide on which of the proposed files work will resume and in what manner. On the basis of that decision, the President will then inform the Commission and Council of the EP’s plans.

Unfinished files at the end of the seventh parliamentary term

On 16 July 2014, the Chair of the CCC wrote to the chairs of all committees requesting them to examine the unfinished files and inform him on how they proposed to proceed. At its meeting on 18 September 2014, the Conference of Presidents took a decision on reasoned requests from parliamentary committees to resume work on 47 files under the ordinary legislative procedure (compared to 23 files carried over from the sixth parliamentary term). On a further 82 files on which a first-reading position had already been adopted in plenary, Parliament asked the Commission to refer its proposal again (Annex I). Work was to resume on 13 files under other legislative procedures (Annex II), while the Commission was asked to withdraw 19 legislative proposals (Annex III) and the Council to re-consult parliament on one file (Annex IV).

The Commission and Council

The Treaties do not set out a specific procedure for handling unfinished legislative files at the end of a parliamentary term, but they do allow the Commission to change a proposal as long as the Council has not acted (Article 293(2) TFEU). For those files where the first reading is concluded in the EP and where Council has already transmitted its first-reading position, Treaty deadlines for second reading must be respected. It should be noted that the joint declaration on practical arrangements for the co-decision procedure stipulates that the institutions coordinate their work, to enable proceedings to be conducted in a coherent and convergent fashion (point 6), with maximum efficiency (point 20).

Read this ‘At a glance’ note on ‘Continuation of work in progress from last term‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

A provisional agreement outlining the distribution of committees between political groups has been leaked to EUobserver. It showed the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group would 'get' the legal affairs committee and the agriculture committee.

The clock is ticking on agreeing on the new European Commission president and the once almighty European People’s Party is having some tough choices to make in the next couple of days. The Mexican standoff between France and Germany, amplified...

The 'top job' debate returns on Sunday with a special EU summit, followed by the first session of the new European Parliament. If leaders fail to solve the 'jobs puzzle', MEPs may feel force to choose their parliament president unilaterally.

Following the EU Elections, it will be clear if online platforms were used to influence the outcome. Newly elected MEPs will have the opportunity to review the future strategy for the media sector, ensuring its sustainability and support to democracy. They may wish to create a media intergroup.

The leadership of the Greens have asked European Parliament president Antonio Tajani to "revoke access badges to Saudi officials and to public relations companies or other entities working for or on the behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

A lively but polarised debate between farmers and an environmental organisation has exposed barely-concealed tensions between stakeholders over livestock farming, which could colour the political agenda of the next legislative term.

Austria will be represented by interim Chancellor Bierlein at the forthcoming EU special summit on Sunday (30 June). However, because she does not belong to any political party, the interim head of government will not be able to stand out with her own, pronounced opinion. An analysis by Herbert Vytiska for EURACTIV Germany.

The European Parliament’s leftist group (GUE/NGL) has proposed setting up a special climate emergency parliamentary committee to shift the spotlight on to green issues even more over the next five years.

Parliament‘s constitutive session

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

As Brussels relies on bilateral talks to increase trade relations with the ASEAN group, it is getting closer to concluding two free trade agreements with Vietnam. But the European Parliament could yet prove to be a significant obstacle. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Forty-two refugees have been waiting for over two weeks to disembark from the Mediterranean rescue ship Sea-Watch 3. Disregarding a ban from Rome which has been provisionally upheld by the European Court of Justice, the crew sailed into Italian waters on Wednesday and anchored off the island of Lampedusa. What does the conflict tell us?