European Union

Europe and the US should quickly sort out the current issues in their "long-term faithful marriage" so they can speak in "one powerful voice" and address China's global activities, US ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, said on Wednesday (3 September).

MPs in the Czech parliament on Tuesday voted against launching the punitive process of the EU treaty's article 7 against Hungary. The vote, which took place during a debate on the EU's multinational financial framework for 2021-2027, was initiated by a Czech Civic Democrat MP, Jan Skopecek, who considers the vote against Hungary in the European parliament a mistake. Skopecek's motion was supported by 97 MPs, against 24.

Weiss and Others
Economic policy
Advocate General Wathelet proposes that the Court of Justice should rule that the decision of the ECB establishing a programme for the purchase of government bonds on secondary markets is valid

Cows burp and fart more than they need to, says a Swiss firm that has developed a feed that cuts methane emissions from livestock - helping to combat global warming into the bargain.

Commission v France
Freedom of establishment
The Conseil d’État should have referred a question to the Court for a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of EU law, in order to determine whether it was necessary to refuse to take into account the tax incurred by a non-resident subsidiary on the profits underlying dividends redistributed by a non-resident company

Kamenova
Environment and consumers
A person who publishes a number of sales advertisements on a website is not automatically a ‘trader’

One of Europe's most influential business lobbies is trying to push the EU towards climate action standstill, after a leaked memo obtained by EURACTIV called the bloc’s existing 40% emissions reduction target "already ambitious".

Società Immobiliare Al Bosco Srl
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
The Brussels I Regulation does not preclude legislation of a Member State which provides for the application of a time limit for the enforcement of a preventive attachment order from being applied in the case of such an order which has been adopted in another Member State and is enforceable in the Member State in which enforcement is sought

Feniks
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
A creditor’s action seeking to render a fraudulent disposal of property by its debtor ineffective as regards that creditor is a ‘matter related to a contract’ within the meaning of the regulation on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters

L.E.G.O.
Environment and consumers
The requirement to submit sustainability certificates imposed by Italy on intermediaries which do not take physical possession of the bioliquids which are the subject of the transaction in which those intermediaries are involved complies with EU law

Dicu
SOPO
A provision of national law which, for the purpose of determining the duration of paid annual leave to which a worker is entitled, does not include a period of parental leave taken by that worker complies with EU law

Ireland's data protection authority announced on Wednesday an investigation into whether Facebook had "appropriate technical and organisational measures" in place to protect its users' personal data. The move follows a security breach announced last week that affected 50 million accounts, of which five million belong to EU users. Companies can be fined up to four per cent of total worldwide annual sales for breaching the EU's new GDPR data rules.

EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova has announced binding demands on Malta, forcing for the first time an EU member state to improve its anti-money laundering efforts. "We will react because the EBA's [European Banking Authority] report has concrete proposals for improving the functions of [Malta's] financial intelligence unit," she told the Financial Times. The EBA report was published in July.

The estimated level of 'irregularities' in EU spending continued to decrease in 2017 to 2.4 percent, down from 3.1 percent in 2016 and 3.8 percent in 2015, the European Court of Auditors said in its annual report published on Wednesday. Problems remained in particular in rural development and cohesion, it said. The European Union spent €137.4bn in 2017, or around €270 for every citizen.

Italy's budget deficit will be 2.4 percent in 2019, dropping to 2.1 percent in 2020 and 1.8 percent in 2021, prime minister Giuseppe Conte said after a government budget summit on Wednesday. The announcement appeared to ease concerns that Italy would break EU budget deficit rules with the major stock exchanges in Europe closing up 0.9 percent. The jobless rate would fall to as low as seven percent, Conte promised.

Banks in Cyprus, known for their Russian clients and lax supervision, handled €3.4 trillion of cross-border transactions including by non-resident clients between 2008 and 2015, Bloomberg reports. Latvian banks handled €2.8 trillion and Estonian ones €900bn. The figures came out after a scandal in which the Estonian branch of Danske Bank handled €200bn of mostly "suspicious" Russian money, prompting EU action on money-laundering and leading to criminal investigations.

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday welcomed Austria's support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. Meeting Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz in St Petersburg - their fourth meeting this year - a deal to extend long-term contracts of gas supplies to Austria by 2040 was signed. Austrian oil giant OMV recently signed a deal to take part in development of the Urengoy oil and gas condensate field, Tass reported.

The European Commission remains “cautious” toward novel tobacco products and has to continue collecting evidence on their impact on public health, according to a European Commission official. EURACTIV.com reports from Austria.