European Union

Written by Tambiama Madiega (1st edition),

© Sashkin / Adobe Stock

In December 2020, the European Commission published a proposal for a regulation on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector, otherwise referred to as the digital markets act (DMA). The proposed legislation lays down harmonised rules aimed at regulating the behaviour of digital platforms acting as gatekeepers between business users and their customers in the European Union (EU). This approach entails a shift from ex-post anti-trust intervention to ex-ante regulation, and would enshrine within EU law a set of ex-ante rules that would radically change how large digital platforms are allowed to operate in the EU. While there seems to be strong support for this approach in the EU, a number of issues regarding the designation of gatekeepers, the design of ex-ante obligations and prohibitions, and enforcement mechanisms have already been raised. As the EU lawmakers, Parliament and Council will now assess whether the Commission’s proposal is an appropriate response to the challenges identified and work towards defining their positions on the proposal.

Versions

• Digital markets act (1st edition)

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector (Digital Markets Act) Committee responsible: Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) COM(2020) 842
15.12.2020 Rapporteur:

Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany)

2020/0374 (COD) Shadow rapporteurs: Evelyne Gebhardt, (S&D, Germany)
Andrus Ansip (Renew, Estonia)
Virginie Joron (ID, France)
Marcel Kolaja (Greens/EFA, Czechia)
Adam Bielan (ECR, Poland)
Martin Schirdewan (The Left, Germany) Ordinary legislative procedure (COD) (Parliament and Council on equal footing – formerly ‘co-decision’) Next steps expected: Publication of draft report

Timeline

This week our podcast takes us to Athens, where things are getting quite shady when it comes to press freedom. Last month there was the mafia-style execution of an investigative reporter, Giorgos Karaivaz, and shortly after that, another journalist, Kostas Vaxevanis, reported to the police that he is receiving death threats.

Nothing stirs Anglo-Gallic passions quite like the sight of gunboats in the Channel. The presence of several hundred patrol boats in the waters around Jersey – one of the picturesque Channel islands that provides offshore banking to the mega-rich – is the latest act in the Brexit farce.

SEA EUROPE (1) CEOs calling for Commission action against unfair competition from foreign subsidies in shipbuilding. Dear Commission President Von der Leyen,  Dear Executive Vice Presidents Vestager and Dombrovskis,  For decades, the European Commission is fully aware that European shipyards suffer...

With the post-Brexit trade pact now formally ratified, EU and UK lawmakers must take the lead in rebuilding the cross-Channel relationship, writes John McStravick.

The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) has deemed titanium dioxide, a widely used food additive, to be unsafe in its latest study, contradicting an earlier conclusion and paving the way for an EU-wide ban after a decade of debate.

The transition to a greener, more sustainable economy will be impossible without the support of industries based around the ocean and coasts – known as the blue economy – according to the European Commission.

The EU’s highest court has ruled that the European Commission was entitled to restrict the use of three neonicotinoid pesticides linked with bee decline after an attempt to overturn the decision from the agrochemical company Bayer. The plant protection products...

Defence Ministers met today at EDA’s Ministerial Steering Board under the chairmanship of the Head of the Agency, High Representative Josep Borrell.

Ministers discussed the progress made so far as well as the way ahead in the implementation of the recommendations made in the first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) report.  Presented by EDA to Defence Ministers in November 2020, the report drew for the first time a comprehensive picture of the European defence landscape and identified more than 100 collaborative opportunities to be taken up by Member States in six main focus areas: Main Battle Tank, Soldier Systems, European Patrol Class Surface Ship, Counter-UAS – Anti-Access/Area-Denial, Defence in Space, Enhanced Military Mobility.

Ministers welcomed the first steps taken by Member States to implement the recommendations, including the interest expressed by them in taking forward concrete collaborative opportunities and cooperating in focus areas. They called on Member States to further declare their interest in participating and contributing to projects in the focus areas and, if possible, facilitate cooperation in those domains.

In this context, the Steering Board welcomed the willingness expressed by France to facilitate cooperation in the focus area ‘Defence in Space’. Many Member States confirmed their interest in discussing further and engaging in specific focus areas.

EDA was invited by Ministers to make the best possible use of its existing working bodies and, if need be, establish new ones to even better support the CARD implementation.

Background

In 2019-2020, the first full CARD cycle took place with EDA acting as the CARD penholder. The final CARD report finds that the European defence landscape is characterised by high levels of fragmentation and low investment in cooperation, and recommends to overcome this fragmentation through coordinated and continuous efforts among Member States in three major areas which are interlinked: defence spending, defence planning and defence cooperation. To support this renewed cooperation effort, the CARD report also identifies a total of 55 collaborative opportunities throughout the whole capability spectrum, considered to be the most promising, most needed or most pressing ones, also in terms of operational value. Based on this catalogue of identified opportunities, Member States are recommended to concentrate their efforts on the above-mentioned six specific ‘focus areas’ which are also covered by the EU Capability Development Priorities agreed in 2018. In addition to that, 56 options to cooperate in R&T have been identified. They span from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cyber defence, to new sensor technologies, emerging materials and energy efficient propulsion systems as well as unmanned systems and robotics. 

More information

• First CARD report
• CARD factsheet
• CARD video

EU defence ministers on Thursday (6 May) agreed to allow the United States, Norway and Canada to join the bloc's project on military mobility, seen as the ‘silver bullet’ for EU-NATO defence cooperation and designed to ensure seamless movement of military equipment across the EU in response to crises.

A popular initiative aimed at introducing an "opt-out" system for organ donation has been launched in Switzerland. If a corresponding law were passed, the organs of all deceased persons would be available for transplant unless that person had stipulated otherwise. Swiss media are at odds over the moral and practical consequences of the system, which is already used in several countries.

Donald Trump will remain blocked on Facebook for the time being, the company's Oversight Board announced on Wednesday. The suspension, which has been in place since the storming of the Capitol, is to be reviewed within the next six months. Facebook accused the ex-president of inciting violence. Trump has now launched his own blog - and commentators doubt that the Facebook ban will be able to stop him.