European Union

A trade pact between the EU and South American bloc Mercosur could be agreed in early September, Argentine foreign minister Jorge Faurie said on Thursday (19 July).

The European Commission has expressed concern, but no clear condemnation, of a controversial “nation-state” law passed by the Parliament of Israel. The law states that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country and strips Arabic of the status of an official language.

The European Commission published on Thursday (19 July) a 17-page communication to businesses in the EU – and most probably to other interlocutors – warning them of consequences in case there is no Brexit deal as of 30 March 2019, when the UK is due to leave.

US president Donald Trump said in a tweet on Thursday that the EU has "truly taken advantage of the US, but not for long!" He was reacting to the €4.34bn fine imposed on Google by the European Commission on Wednesday for abusing its market position in mobile phone operating systems. "I told you so!" he tweeted, saying that the tech company was "one of our great companies".

The relative winner of Slovenia's parliamentary election, conservative Janez Janša, said on Thursday (18 July) he did not gather enough support to become prime minister and form a new government. But he said he was still hopeful to create a parliamentary majority "in the coming weeks"

Spain's Supreme Court withdrew on Thursday its European arrest warrant against former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont and five other politicians who left Spain last year. Last week the Schleswig-Holstein regional court had ruled that Puigdemont could be extradited from Germany only for embezzlement and not for rebellion over Catalonia's independence declaration in October. Spanish judge Pablo Llarena refused to drop the rebellion charge and dropped all warrants.

The European Commission said on Wednesday (17 July) that Kosovo has met the remaining benchmarks to win visa liberalisation with the EU that other Western Balkan countries already enjoy.

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The European Union and Georgia enjoy a very close and positive relationship. The EU-Georgia Association Agreement entered into force in July 2016 and strives for political association and economic integration between the EU and Georgia. The EU and Georgia have also entered into a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), while Georgian citizens have benefitted from visa free travel to the Schengen area since 28 March 2017.

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Ministers of Foreign and European Affairs of the EU27 meet on 20 July 2018 in Brussels to take stock of the state of play of Brexit negotiations.

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Written by Ana Claudia Alfieri (1st edition),

© Nuthawut / Fotolia

Value added tax (VAT) is an important source of revenue for national governments and the European Union (EU) budget and, from an economic point of view, it is a very efficient consumption tax. However, the existing rules governing intra-Community trade are 25 years old and the current common EU VAT system presents such problems as vulnerability to fraud, high compliance costs for businesses and also a heavy administrative burden for national authorities.

The reform of the system is planned in several consecutive steps, first for goods and then for services, and will take some years. This proposal introduces the basic features of the definite VAT system for business-to-business (B2B) transactions of goods and aims to harmonise and simplify certain rules of the current VAT system, by amending the VAT Directive (Directive 2006/112/EC).

Versions

• July 2018: ‘Introducing the definitive VAT system for B2B cross-border trade‘ (1st edition)

Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards harmonising and simplifying certain rules in the value added tax system and introducing the definitive system for the taxation of trade between Member States Committee responsible: Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) COM(2017) 569
4.10.2017 Rapporteur: Jeppe KOFOD (S&D, Denmark) 2017/0251(CNS) Shadow rapporteurs:

 

 

  Ivana Maletić (EPP, Croatia)
Sander Loones (ECR, Belgium)
Thierry Cornillet (ALDE, France )
Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL, Greece)
Molly Scott Cato (Greens/EFA, United Kingdom)
Barbara Kappel (ENF, Austria) Consultation procedure – parliament adopts only a non-binding opinion Next steps expected: Vote in ECON committee on draft report

The EU is preparing a list of counter-measures to possible US tariffs on European cars, EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Thursday, a week before she and the EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker travel to Washington for trade talks with US president Donald Trump. The EU has already imposed tariffs worth €2.8bn on US products as a counter-measure to US tariffs on steel and aluminium.

The EU Commission on Thursday launched a probe into Hungary's so-called 'Stop Soros' legislation that criminalises assistance to people seeking asylum in the country. The new law could be in breach EU rules on asylum applicants' rights and other EU rules on non-admissibility. The commission also referred Hungary to the EU's top court for an earlier breach of EU asylum rules for legislation adopted in 2015.

The energy performance contract model can turn energy efficiency renovation of buildings into a truly popular policy objective among politicians in Central and Eastern Europe because it can be done without any use of public money and has no impact on public debt, says Ivan Lesay.

Paris wants to help Serbia solve its most delicate issues en route to the EU, French President Emmanuel Macron has told his Serbian counterpart. But Macron also said that both Serbia and the EU have to be reformed before any further EU enlargement. EURACTIV.rs reports.

The EU Commission has announced a record fine for Google: the tech giant must pay 4.3 billion euros for abuse of its dominant market position. Some commentators are delighted to see the EU actively protecting the interests of consumers. Others argue that only innovation can challenge Google's dominance.

Following the summit in Helsinki US President Trump has come under major pressure and is rejecting cross-party criticism in the US of his conduct at the summit meeting. Most commentators also take a dim view of Trump's foreign policy. But there are exceptions.