European Union

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/Colombian-flag_thumb_169_1448277250_1448277257_129_97shar_c1.jpg

On 2 December 2015 the EU signed a short-stay visa waiver agreement with Colombia, at a ceremony that took place in Brussels. The EU’s relations with Colombia are built on political dialogue, trade, and development cooperation, and cover a wide range of bilateral, regional and multilateral issues, whilst also helping to address the legacies of its internal armed conflict.

Download this video here.

Energy ministers from the world's biggest economies, including the G20, were shown how co-operation works in the Nordic electricity market. This co-operation is unique by international standards and is held up as a model globally.

Valcheva
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
The notion of ‘rights of access’ includes the rights of access of grandparents to their grandchildren

Wegener
Environment and consumers
The right to compensation for long delays of flights applies to connecting flights to third States with stopovers outside the EU

Commission v Italy
Environment and consumers
For having failed to implement EU law on the collection and treatment of urban waste water within the time-limit, Italy is ordered to pay a lump sum of €25 million and a fine of more than €30 million for every six months of delay

IR
SOPO
According to Advocate General Wathelet, the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion precludes a Catholic doctor who is Head of Department at a Catholic hospital from being dismissed because of his divorce and remarriage

The idea that the USA benefits less from market access to the EU than vice-versa is a fairy tale. That is why Trump is mistaken if he believes that he can blackmail the EU.

Macedonian PM Zoran Zaev has said a "breakthrough" on the name dispute is imminent, as he prepares to speak to his Greek counterpart on Friday.

The European Central Bank (ECB) on Wednesday said the head of Latvia's central bank, Ilmars Rimsevics, who was removed over suspicion of corruption, should be allowed to exercise some of his powers. At a hearing at the EU Court of Justice, the ECB argued that Rimsevics's removal was illegal and threatened the EU central bank's independence. The case was brought to the court by Rimsevics.

Romania's constitutional court ruled Wednesday that president Klaus Iohannis must fire Laura Codruta Kovesi, the chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA). Judges said that under the constitution, Iohannis cannot reject a government decree dismissing Codruta Kovesi. The social-democratic governement is also engaged in a wide-ranging reform of the judiciary, which has been critised by the EU and the Council of Europe for limiting independence of judges and prosecutors.

Lung cancer killed a quarter of a million people (273,000) in the EU in 2015, according to Eurostat figures published on Thursday, the World No Tobacco day. The share of lung cancer among all fatal cancers was highest in Hungary (27%), followed by Greece, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands (all 24%). The lowest shares were recorded in Portugal and Latvia (both 15%). Men were twice as affected as women.

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to double the budget of the Erasmus student exchange programme to €30bn for the period 2021-2027. The program will provide opportunities for 12m students to study or gain work experience in a different European country while completing a degree. The scheme also aims to "foster knowledge and awareness of the EU" and to "strengthen European identity".

US president Donald Trump plans to announce steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal. China was hit by a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent one on aluminum in March, while an exemption for EU products, to allow further talks, expires on Friday. The EU has threatened to impose tariffs on American products in return.

Written by Cécile Remeur (1st edition),

© Art_Photo / Fotolia

Value added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax borne by the final consumers and collected by businesses as taxable persons. Businesses have VAT administrative obligations and act as VAT collectors. This generates compliance costs that are higher for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than for bigger businesses, in spite of the small business exemption, especially in the case of cross-border activities.

The proposal for a revision of the VAT Directive relating to the common system of value added tax as regards the special scheme for small enterprises simplifies the rules, so as to reduce VAT compliance costs for SMEs by introducing simpler measures regarding invoicing, VAT registration, accounting and returns for SMEs, whether they operate in wholly domestic markets only or also across borders in the EU.

The legislative proposal falls under the consultation procedure.

Interactive PDF

• VAT for small enterprises

Proposal for a Council directive amending directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added tax as regards the special scheme for small enterprises Committee responsible: Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) COM(2018) 21 of 18.1.2018

procedure ref.: 2018/0006(CNS)

Consultation Procedure Rapporteur: Tom Vandenkendelaere (EPP, Belgium) Shadow rapporteurs:

  Alfred Sant (S&D, Malta)
Stanisław Ożóg (ECR, Poland)
Caroline Nagtegaal (ALDE, the Netherlands)
Paloma López Bermejo (GUE/NGL, Spain)
Molly Scott Cato (Greens/EFA, United Kingdom) Next steps expected: Discussion of the draft report

EU ambassador to Turkey said member states may consider reopening accession talks with Ankara if Erdogan put an end to the post-coup state of emergency.

Swiss bank UBS has hired the UK's former European Commissioner, Jonathan Hill, to advise corporate customers about Brexit, it was revealed on Tuesday (29 May), prompting 'revolving door' concerns once again.

Populist forces in Italy are “playing with fire” and exposing the country to market pressure, vice-president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament Maria João Rodrigues warned in an interview.

The EU is in a desperate search for a sustainable circular economy. But critics warn that the imminent adoption of waste recycling targets for 2035 is only a compromise between the very different realities of the 28 countries. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Reaching a common EU response to the long-running migration crisis has been painfully slow. Ministers remain deadlocked on plans to reform the so-called Dublin Regulation that sets out the EU’s common migration and asylum rules.

French President Emmanuel Macron called Wednesday (30 May) for talks on overhauling the World Trade Organisation, as European companies braced for the prospect of punishing US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, which could come as early as Thursday (31 May).