European Union

Russia's Defence Ministry said yesterday (18 July) that Russian and Syrian authorities had set up a refugee centre in Syria to help refugees return home from abroad.

Boris Johnson, who quit as Britain's former foreign minister last week, accused Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday of planning a phoney Brexit that would betray voters by failing to take the country completely out of the European Union.

The UK government has taken the somewhat unprecedented step of translating the executive summary of its Brexit White Paper into 22 European languages.

Iron cat 15-19 July 2018 on the Danube

Tag: Iron Cat

Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/880 of 18 June 2018 amending Decision 2014/386/CFSP concerning restrictive measures in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol

Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/901 of 25 June 2018 amending Decision (CFSP) 2017/2074 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Venezuela

Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/900 of 25 June 2018 amending Decision 2013/184/CFSP concerning restrictive measures against Myanmar/Burma

Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/833 of 4 June 2018 amending Decision 2010/413/CFSP concerning restrictive measures against Iran

On 18 July, EU ambassadors confirmed the agreement reached with the Parliament to increase the budget of the structural reform support programme by €80 million.

Written by Ana Claudia Alfieri (1st edition),

© Art_Photo / 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, a very efficient consumption tax. However, the rules governing value added tax as applied to intra-Community trade are 25 years old and the current common EU VAT system is both complicated and vulnerable to fraud. Businesses doing cross-border trade face high compliance costs and the administrative burden of national tax administrations is also excessive.

The reform towards the definitive system is planned in several consecutive steps and will take some years. In the meantime, this proposal will amend the VAT Directive (Directive 2006/112/EC) and reform the rules by which Member States set VAT rates. The reform will enter into force when the definitive system is in place; it will give more flexibility to Member States to set VAT rates and will end the current arrangements and their many ad-hoc derogations.

Versions

• July 2018: ‘More flexible VAT rates‘ (1st edition)

Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 2006/112/EC as regards rates of value added tax Committee responsible: Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) COM(2018) 20
18.1.2018 Rapporteur: Tibor Szanyi (S&D, Hungary) 2018/0005(CNS) Shadow rapporteurs:

  Werner Langen (EPP, Germany)
Sander Loones (ECR, Belgium)
Thierry Cornillet (ALDE, France)
Miguel Viegas (GUE/NGL, Portugal)
Molly Scott Cato (Greens/EFA, United Kingdom) Consultation procedure – parliament adopts only a non-binding opinion Next steps expected: Vote on report in committee

Trump's anti-EU jibes are not slips of the tongue, but signs of a "conflictual" new century in world affairs, Maros Sefcovic has warned.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) would risk its model business if it invested in Iran, given the US sanctions after its withdrawal of the nuclear deal, president of the EIB Werner Hoyer told the press on Wednesday (18 July).

The European Commission slapped Google on Wednesday (18 July) with a record fine of €4.34 billion for abusing its dominant position and said it would continue to investigate as a “top priority” Google's other businesses for possible additional breaches of market rules. The company said it would appeal.

Margrethe Vestager has fined the US tech giant with €4.34bn for abusing its market dominance in mobile operating systems - but assured US president Donald Trump that it is not because she does not like America.

Donald Trump wants Europe to spend more on defence. He’s right. But forget about tanks, missiles and guns: we need to pump cash into an energy arms race. There’s no doubt we’d win it.

Boris Johnson accused Theresa May's government of 'dither' over Brexit on Wednesday, as he set out his reasons for resigning as foreign secretary last week over May's Chequers white paper. Speaking in parliament, Johnson said it was "not too late to save Brexit", but said "We dithered. We burnt through negotiating capital. We agreed to hand over a €40bn exit fee, with no discussion of our future economic relationship."

The EU will respond to any provocation coming from the US on trade or any other matter, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned on Wednesday (18 July) ahead of his trip to Washington to meet Donald Trump next week.

The International Monetary Fund continues to project global growth at 3.9%  in 2018, but a rise in trade tensions “are an important downside risk”. EURACTIV’s partner La Tribune reports.

The European Commission and Macedonia signed an agreement Wednesday to send EU border guards to the country. The agreement will allow teams from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency to be deployed "with executive powers" and do border checks "if needed" to prevent irregular migration, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said. A similar agreement exists with Albania and negotiations are also ongoing with Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), known as the 'Juncker Plan', raised €335bn since it was launched in 2015, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank announced Wednesday. The fund, which provides EU guarantees on private investment, aimed to raise €315bn. It is now expected to reach €350bn by 2020. The commission and EIB said it will create 1.4 million jobs and increase EU GDP by 1.3 percent.