European Union

The Council agreed on adjustments to the EU's VAT rules to fix specific issues pending the introduction of a new VAT system.

The Council adopts a regulation aimed at improving controls on cash entering or leaving the Union.

The Council adopted measures to strengthen administrative cooperation in order to better prevent VAT fraud.

The Council agreed a proposal allowing member states to apply reduced VAT rates to electronic publications, contributing to the digital single market plan.

The Council removed Palau from the list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, bringing the names on the list down to six. It also found Liechtenstein and Peru compliant with commitments on tax cooperation.

Finland's youthful-looking former prime minister Alexander Stubb wants to defend liberal values as the lead candidate of the centre-right EPP - as the campaign gears up for next May's election.

A high-level EU conference on ‘The European Defence Fund (EDF) – Driving factor for defence research and innovation’ took place today in Vienna. The event, which gathered some 500 defence policy makers, industry representatives, researchers and other stakeholders, was organized by the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union with the support of European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA). 

The conference was opened by Austria’s Defence Minister Mario Kunasek, followed by video messages delivered by European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen and Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska (Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship & SMEs). Key note speeches were delivered by European Parliament Vice President and rapporteur on the European Defence Fund), Prof. Zdzisław Krasnodębski, EU Military Committee Chairman General Mikhail Kostarakos, as well as EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq.  Successive panels then analysed and debated the European Commission’s EDF proposal, the interaction and consistency between research and capability development, as well as the future design of financial instruments tailored for the needs and challenges of the European defence sector. EDA Deputy Chief Executive Olli Ruutu and EDA’s European Synergies & Innovation (ESI) Director, Denis Roger, were among the panelists participating in these debates. 

In his opening speech, Minister Kunasek stressed the importance for Europe to have an “innovative and competitive European defence industry”. “We therefore require new ways of cooperation between Armed Forces, entreprises, industry and the research community in order to find scientific, technological and capability-based solutions, and to activate value chains that help us strengthen our security and defence competence”, he stated.  

EDA Chief Executive Domecq, in his speech, insisted on the need to ensure coherence and consistency between the EDF and the other EU defence initiatives, especially the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) and the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). On top of that, the baseline for all three initiatives should be the 2018 Capability Development Plan (CDP). “Even if we ensure that all three initiatives – CARD, PESCO, EDF - are smoothly coordinated and harmonised, there is one element which is indispensable for coherent capability development at European level, and that is common priority setting, which must be the baseline for CARD, PESCO and EDF”, he said.

In the research domain, common priority setting is ensured by the Overarching Strategic Research Agenda (OSRA) which links capability priorities and defence research activities. “What the CDP is for capability development, the OSRA is for research. Before the end of the year, we will, for the first time, have adopted agreed research priorities stemming from the CDP 2018, that can be used for not only ad-hoc research activities among Member States but also for the Research Window of the EDF projects and other funding instruments such as H2020, Horizon Europe, ESIF, COSME, and more”, Mr Domecq announced.

It is important that the EDF takes into account the experiences from the EDIDP discussions, as well as the lessons learned from the implementation of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research and the previous Pilot Project, the EDA Chief Executive said.  If the Defence Fund is capability driven, focused on the agreed priorities and coherent with the other defence initiatives, “then it has a great potential added value in the development of European defence capabilities and incentivizing cooperation”, Mr Domecq concluded.
 

More information:

• Conference website

 

 

Many of you reading today’s Brief will be sat in Strasbourg, perhaps enjoying a Flammkuche with a cool Kronenbourg, but make the most of it because the monthly jaunt to the Alsace capital could be coming to an end.

Denmark announced on Tuesday (2 October) that it will ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines by 2030 and hopes to have 1 million electric and hybrid cars on the roads by then.

The Ecofin Council “broadly” supported on Tuesday (2 October) the European Commission’s proposal to transfer more powers to the European Banking Authority to investigate alleged cases of money laundering in the EU.

Denmark's centre-right government aims to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and of hybrid cars from 2035, prime minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told the parliament, Folketinget, on Tuesday. "This will mean that in 2030 there will be more than one million hybrid, electric or equivalent green cars in Denmark," he said. A concrete legal proposal will be presented to parliament next week.

Europe's gas industry wants renewable fuels completely accounted for in updated car CO2 rules. But the MEP charged with helming the legislation's revision hopes to shield her report from industry attacks ahead of a crucial vote on Wednesday (3 October).

Worker-starved Germany will ease immigration rules to attract foreign jobseekers, including giving well-integrated irregular migrants in employment a shot at staying, ministers said Tuesday (2 October).

Russia must halt its covert development of a banned cruise missile system or the United States will seek to destroy it before it becomes operational, Washington's envoy to NATO on Tuesday (2 October) told reporters in Brussels.

MEPs at the European Parliament backed plans on Tuesday (2 October) to ensure that at least 30 per cent of content provided by online media platforms such as Amazon and Netflix is European.

© iQoncept / Fotoli

Citizens’ frequently send enquiries to the European Parliament on the topic of seasonal clock changes. Whereas some citizens call on the institution to abolish the current summer and winter-time arrangements, others are in favour of keeping them.

The current EU legislation defining summer-time as ‘the period of the year during which clocks are put forward by 60 minutes compared with the rest of the year’, as well as its beginning ‘on the last Sunday in March’ and ending ‘on the last Sunday in October’, is Directive 2000/84/EC on summer-time arrangements. The directive states that a common date and time for the beginning and end of the summer-time period throughout the EU ‘is important for the functioning of the internal market’.

Commission proposal

Following the European Parliament’s resolution of 8 February 2018 and a public consultation on summer-time arrangements, the European Commission presented a proposal for a directive discontinuing seasonal changes of time and repealing Directive 2000/84/EC on 12 September 2018. The Commission proposes that ‘Member States shall not apply seasonal changes to their standard time or times’ (Article 1).

The new directive should apply from 1 April 2019 and aims ‘at contributing in a determined manner to the smooth functioning of the internal market’. The proposal also underlines that ‘it is desirable that Member States take the decisions on the standard time that each of them will apply as from 2019 in a concerted manner’.

Further information on the legislative procedure is available in file 2018/0332(COD) of the European Parliament’s Legislative Observatory.

Public consultation

The Commission’s proposal is accompanied by the report of results of the public consultation on EU summer-time arrangements carried out from 4 July to 16 August 2018.

The public consultation gathered European citizens’, stakeholders’ and Member States’ views on possible changes to the current summer-time arrangements and followed the Parliament’s resolution, as well as a number of requests from citizens and from certain EU Member States. The consultation received around 4.6 million replies. According to the results, 84 % of the respondents were in favour of discontinuing the bi-annual clock changes.

The European Commission opened a feedback period on the proposal for a directive (17 September – 12 November 2018).

European Parliament’s resolution

On 8 February 2018, the European Parliament held a debate on the summer-time arrangements. Members of the European Parliament subsequently adopted a resolution, in which the European Parliament calls on the Commission ‘to conduct a thorough assessment of Directive 2000/84/EC and, if necessary, come up with a proposal for its revision’. More information can be found in the press release ‘Parliament calls for thorough assessment of bi-annual time change‘.

Parliamentary questions and petitions

Summer-time arrangements have also been the subject of a number of parliamentary questions and petitions.

Further information

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) published the study ‘EU summer-time arrangements under Directive 2000/84/EC‘ in October 2017. The European Commission website on Mobility and Transport and the fact sheet on ‘State of the Union 2018: Q&A on the Commission’s proposal to put an end to seasonal clock changes‘ provide further information on the issue.

Continue to put your questions to the Citizens’ Enquiries Unit (Ask EP). We reply to you in the EU language that you use to write to us.

EU ministers of finance reached an agreement on Tuesday (2 October) to allow willing member states to apply reduced VAT rates or even scrap taxes on electronic books and digital press.

Macedonia can only join NATO if it implements the name deal with Greece, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday (2 October), putting fresh pressure on Skopje to ratify the agreement despite protests from opposition parties.

Opinions are divided on the outcome of the name referendum in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fyrom). While the electoral commission sees the vote as having failed due to the low turnout, Prime Minister Zaev has spoken of a victory. Commentators say both local and international factors played a role in determining the outcome.