European Union

Italy has announced a U-turn on migrants, at least temporarily - amid other clashing noises on fiscal and foreign policy.

Western Europe is estimated to have 5,904 nationals affiliated with the Islamic State inside Iraq and Syria. Of those, around 1,765 have returned of which 47 percent are minors and eight percent are women, says a new report.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker will try to "de-dramatise" the trade clash with the US when he meets president Donald Trump in Washington Wednesday, but will not bring a new offer on tariffs, his spokesman said Monday. "This is an occasion to de-dramatise any potential tensions around trade and engage in an open and constructive dialogue," the spokesman said. "There are no offers ... it's an opportunity to talk."

The EU is trying to bypass president Donald Trump in dealings with the US, Irish EU commissioner Phil Hogan has said. "We have to go in at the lower level of the administrative system and the federal system, directly to the federal states, rather than having to rely ... on the White House," he said at an event in Ireland Monday, the Irish Times reports.

Irish leader Leo Varadkar has said "we cannot contemplate" a hard border with Northern Ireland if Britain left the EU with no deal. He spoke in Croatia on a short EU tour pressing Dublin's position on Brexit. Andrej Plenkovic, his Croatian counterpart, said "populists, such as "Mr Farage" (a British MEP), had tried to "meddle" in his country's EU-entry referendum. "I deeply disagree with everything they stand for," he said.

No surprise that in the last decade at least one third of top staff at the EU Commission's financial unit have either came from the financial industry or went there after their time at the commission.

With European elections coming up in May 2019, you probably want to know how the European Union impacts your daily life, before you think about voting. In the latest in a series of posts on what Europe does for you, your family, your business and your wellbeing, we look at what Europe does for tourism operators.

There is no specific EU fund for tourism but, as a tourism operator, you can apply for funding from various EU sources, such as the European structural and investment funds.

Twitter Hashtag #EUandME

© dima_sidelnikov / Fotolia

The European Union has launched various initiatives to help entrepreneurs manage tourism businesses and improve staff quality and mobility, for instance if they are restructuring or are short of qualified workers. The EU helps tourism operators to find business partners, funding and information (for instance via its Tourism Business Portal). It also helps them to go digital (for example via webinars or by offering financial support for the development of tourism-related apps), and provides guidance on starting up tourism businesses. EURES – the EU’s job mobility portal – has a dedicated section for tourism and hospitality sector skills passports. The EU also conducts surveys that help give tourism operators a better understanding of the tourism preferences of the European public.

Furthermore, the EU is helping tourism operators to attract more tourists by promoting destination Europe. It has created the visiteurope.com website and has run various campaigns (such as 2018 EU-China Tourism Year).

Lastly, the EU is engaged also in visa facilitation, while strengthening internal security. It has removed internal border controls for those travelling within the Schengen Area (most EU countries), while retaining external border controls.

Further information

• European Commission website on support to tourism businesses, https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/tourism/support-business_en
• EPRS in-depth analysis, Tourism and the European Union: Recent trends and policy developments, 2015 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_IDA(2015)568343
• EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service: www.epthinktank.eu

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker heads to Washington on Wednesday (25 July) in a last-ditch effort by the EU to cool nerves and find an exit door from an all-out trade war with US President Donald Trump.

Italy agreed on Monday (23 July) to continue accepting migrants rescued at sea, at least until a broader EU strategy to address fair distribution of people can be defined.

The Belgian Naturism Federation has come to the defence of its burgeoning membership after the Flemish wildlife agency blocked an application for a second nudist beach in the country on the grounds that bathers’ “subsidiary activities” would pose a threat to a rare bird. 

Greece has appealed for help from other countries to help tackle a spate of fires which were raging uncontrolled in the country on Monday (23 July), its fire brigade said.

Washington needs to de-escalate its rhetoric and cease using tariffs under the guise of national security, the president of the powerful Federation of German Industries (BDI) said on Monday (23 July) in Berlin, ahead of Wednesday's meeting between US President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

British opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn will call on the government today (24 July) to back his vision for a new customs union with the European Union to avoid a "botched" Brexit leaving the country "in hock to Donald Trump".

External observers welcome the opening of Uzbekistan under its new leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev, but they are also aware that further reforms could be stalled, write Jos Boonstra and Andreas Marazis.

Written by Alex Benjamin Wilson (1st edition),

© WilliamJu / Fotolia

On 17 May 2018, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a new regulation on the labelling of tyres for the purposes of fuel efficiency, safety, and noise reduction. This would repeal and replace the 2009 Tyre Labelling Regulation (TLR), while maintaining and reinforcing most of its key provisions.

The proposed regulation seeks to increase consumer awareness of the tyre label and improve market surveillance and enforcement of TLR provisions across the EU Member States. It would oblige suppliers to display the tyre label in all forms of purchase, including where the tyre is not physically shown in the store and where it is sold online or on a long-distance basis. Whereas the tyre label is currently only applicable to passenger and light-duty vehicles, in future it would also apply to heavy-duty vehicles. The new label would include visual information on tyre performance in snow or ice conditions, and could be adjusted by means of delegated acts to include information on mileage, abrasion or re-studded tyres. Some outdated label scales would be readjusted by means of delegated acts. From 2020, all tyre labels would be included in the product registration database being set up as part of the revised EU framework for energy efficiency labelling.

Versions

• July 2018: ‘New EU rules on labelling of tyres‘ (1st edition)

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the labelling of tyres with respect to fuel efficiency and other essential parameters and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1222/2009 Committee responsible: Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) COM(2018) 296
17.5.2018 Rapporteur: Michał Boni (EPP, Poland) 2016/0148 (COD) Shadow rapporteurs:

  Edouard Martin (S&D, France)
Ashley Fox (ECR, UK)
Dominique Riquet (ALDE, France) Ordinary legislative procedure (COD) (Parliament and Council on equal footing – formerly ‘co-decision’) Next steps expected: Publication of draft report

Mesut Ozil resigned from the German national squad after months of fierce criticism, as critics questioned his loyalty for posing with Turkey's Erdogan. His departure exposes a deeply divisive European debate.