European Union

A press conference involving the prime minister of Spain at a Lithuanian NATO base was suddenly plunged into disarray on Thursday when pilots scrambled two fighter jets to respond to an alert that an unidentified aircraft had carried out an incursion over Baltic skies. EURACTIV’s partner EFE reports.

The European Commission has imposed a €875m fine on Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche for forming a cartel, restricting competition in emission-cleaning technology for diesel cars. "Over five years, the car manufacturers deliberately avoided to compete on cleaning better than what was required by EU emission standards…despite the relevant technology being available," EU anti-trust commissioner Margrethe Vestager said on Thursday. This is separate from the previous 'dieselgate' scandal.

The Olympics will take place without spectators in host city Tokyo, organisers said, as a resurgent coronavirus forced Japan to declare a state of emergency in the capital that will run throughout the event, Reuters reports. Prime minister Yoshihide Suga said it was essential to prevent Tokyo, where the highly-infectious Delta Covid-19 variant was spreading, from becoming the source of another wave of infections.

The surge in Covid-19 cases across Europe due to the spread of the more contagious Delta variant is making EU member states consider re-tightening travel restrictions for this summer.

Independence of courts in Austria, in Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherland and Denmark is seen as very, or fairly, good, according to a survey published with the EU Commission's annual justice scoreboard.

Thee international community needs to act to prevent the environmental destruction being orchestrated by Slovenia's populist prime minister, Janez Janša - especially now his country has the EU's rotating presidency.

This year's Prague European Summit will focus on three main topics - the post-pandemic recovery, EU external relations - especially in the Neighbourhood Policy - and future trends and policies, with a focus on the 'digital decade'.

The European Parliament on Thursday (8 July) called for the EU to boycott the February 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing unless China improves the human rights situation in Hong Kong and in the Xinjiang province which is home to the...

The EU and Switzerland have agreed to recognise each other’s COVID-19 digital certificates from Friday to allow travel for Swiss citizens within the EU, and between the EU and Switzerland, the European Commission said on Thursday. Switzerland is the first...

Britain’s government said it signed a free trade deal with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein on Thursday, its latest post-Brexit trade agreement. The signing of the deal on Thursday followed an agreement in principle reached last month by the four countries....

Lithuania is due to start building barbed wire fencing on the border with Belarus, Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas confirmed on Thursday (8 July). “It will be launched most probably today or tomorrow, at the latest, but, of course, this would...

President Michel received the letters of credentials from six new ambassadors to the European Union.

in a fit of desperation, a young man from Tunisia threw himself over board. He was quickly rescued. But others have made similar threats, if no solution is found, including a 38-year old pregnant woman from Libya.

Written by Micaela Del Monte and Rafał Mańko.

Law-making by the executive is a phenomenon that exists not only in the European Union (EU) but also in its Member States, as well as in other Western liberal democracies. Many national legal systems differentiate between delegated legislation − adopted by the executive and having the same legal force as parliamentary legislation − and purely executive acts −aimed at implementing parliamentary legislation, but that may neither supplement nor modify it.

In the EU, the distinction between delegated acts and implementing acts was introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon. The distinction, laid down in Articles 290 and 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), seems clear only at first sight. Delegated acts are defined as non-legislative acts of general application, adopted by the European Commission on the basis of a delegation contained in a legislative act. They may supplement or amend the basic act, but only as to non-essential aspects of the policy area. In contrast, implementing acts are not defined as to their legal nature, but to their purpose − where uniform conditions for implementing legally binding Union acts are needed. Under no circumstances may an implementing act modify anything in the basic act.

Delegated acts differ from implementing acts in particular with regard to the procedural aspects of their adoption − the former after consulting Member States’ experts, but their view is not binding; the latter in the comitology procedure, where experts designated by the Member States, sitting on specialised committees, can object to a draft implementing act. In the case of delegated acts, however, the Parliament and Council can introduce, in the delegation itself, a right to object to a draft act or even to revoke the delegation altogether.

Both delegated and implementing acts are subject to judicial review by the Court of Justice of the EU which controls their conformity with the basic act.

Read the complete in-depth analysis on ‘Understanding delegated and implementing acts‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

MEPs condemn restrictive laws devised to criminalise political opponents in Nicaragua and call for all arbitrarily detained political prisoners to be immediately released.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

MEPs condemn restrictive laws devised to criminalise political opponents in Nicaragua and call for all arbitrarily detained political prisoners to be immediately released.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions on the human rights situation in Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Human Rights

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted three resolutions on the human rights situation in Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Human Rights

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Parliament “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the recent anti-LGBTIQ legislation and denounces the dismantling of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Parliament “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the recent anti-LGBTIQ legislation and denounces the dismantling of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP