European Union

Two services of European Union's Copernicus programme, implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission, not only provide quality-assured data but concrete insights to help with crucial decisions.

The member states themselves are the weakest link in the defence of democracy in the EU. They have been sitting on the Article 7 procedure against the Polish government for almost three years.

The European Commission published its long-awaited enlargement package on Tuesday (6 October) in a fresh attempt to revive the stalled process with promises of more substantial economic assistance in exchange for reforms. The package included country-specific reports on the progress of the six Western Balkans countries and Turkey.

Written by Marcin Szczepański (1st edition),

© Richard Villalon / Adobe Stock

In May 2020, the European Commission adopted a proposal on a Solvency Support Instrument. The aim is to support otherwise viable companies in the Union that face solvency difficulties as a result of the coronavirus crisis, and to mitigate possible distortions to the single market and its level playing field. Such distortions are to be expected given the differing degree to which the Member States are affected and the likely unevenness of their responses, which may depend on their fiscal capacity and level of debt. The Commission proposes to increase the guarantee provided to the European Investment Bank under the European Fund for Strategic Investments and to use it to support financial intermediaries, which will then select companies eligible for solvency help.

At the European Council meeting in July 2020, EU Heads of State or Government did not take up the idea of the solvency support instrument. Both the European Parliament and Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, have expressed regret at this. Continuing the examination of the proposal in Parliament, the co-rapporteurs have published a draft report in which they propose to widen the scope of eligible companies and ensure fair geographical distribution.

Versions

• Solvency Support Instrument

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) 2015/1017 as regards creation of a Solvency Support Instrument Committee responsible: Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON)
Budgets (BUDG) jointly under Rule 58 COM(2020) 404
29.5.2020 Rapporteur: José Manuel Fernandes (EPP, Spain)
Irene Tinagli (S&D, Italy)
Nils Torvalds (Renew Europe, Finland) 2020/0106 (COD) Shadow rapporteurs: Frances Fitzgerald (EPP), Victor Negrescu (S&D), Billy Kelleher (Renew Europe), Gunnar Beck (ID), Hélène Laporte (ID), Claude Gruffat (Greens/EFA), Henrike Hahn (Greens/EFA), Bogdan Rzońca (ECR), Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR), José Gusmão (GUE/NGL), Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL) Ordinary legislative procedure (COD) (Parliament and Council on equal footing – formerly ‘co-decision’) Next steps expected: Adoption of report in joint committee

Alongside the annual country-specific enlargement reports on all EU hopefuls, the European Commission presented on Tuesday (6 October) an investment plan for the Western Balkans, which it hopes will bring investment to the region, spur greening and enhance regional cooperation.

Rule of law deficiencies in member states mean EU funds may be used to undermine European values. MEPs are demanding new tools to tackle the problem.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Rule of law deficiencies in member states mean EU funds may be used to undermine European values. MEPs are demanding new tools to tackle the problem.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

How to support young people’s transition to work during and beyond the pandemic? The recent StartNet virtual conference discussed the European Commission’s recent policies to improve young people’s transition to work with European Commissioner Nicolas Schmitt as well as best...

Tomorrow, the European Parliament is set to back Mairead McGuinness as Ireland’s new Commissioner responsible for financial services. However, during her hearing in the Economy Committee last week, MEPs failed to press the Parliament’s vice-president on perhaps the one thing...

The EU on Tuesday (6 October) said it has “taken note” of the declaration made the same day by the Central Electoral Commission that the results of the elections held on Sunday are not valid.

Entry into office of new Members at the Court of Justice of the European Union
Entrée en fonctions des nouveaux membres à la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne

Joint Statement of the Co-Presidents of the ACP - EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly on maintaining the Joint Assembly in the future Partnership Agreement.
Committee on Development

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Joint Statement of the Co-Presidents of the ACP - EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly on maintaining the Joint Assembly in the future Partnership Agreement.
Committee on Development

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Already precarious in many regions of Europe, youth unemployment has spiked dramatically with the onset of COVID-19, sparking fears of another lost generation. At a recent StartNet Conference, policymakers, practitioners, and other stakeholders called for greater cooperation on facilitating young people’s transition to work.

Sustainable biofuels are already making a big dent in Europe’s dependence on fossil fuel but should be empowered to do even more. With the right policy priorities, the EU Biofuels Value Chain writes, Europe can achieve new, higher emissions-reduction goals....

Pressure is increasing on member states to recycle 77% of plastic bottles by 2025 and reduce waste.

Written by Ralf Drachenberg,

© Adobe Stock

At the special European Council meeting of 1-2 October 2020, Charles Michel, President of the European Council, presented a new Leaders’ Agenda outlining his view of ‘the key challenges confronting the Union’ and setting a timetable for the Heads of State or Government to address these issues at meetings between October 2020 and June 2021. The new Leaders’ Agenda puts strong focus on the ‘green transition and digital transformation’, as well as on ‘Europe’s role in the world’, two core priorities in the EU Strategic Agenda 2019-24. Mr Michel intends to structure the approach to external relations discussions, notably through a series of strategic debates on relations with key partners. A number of EU priority topics are however missing, notably migration, the rule of law and the Conference on the Future of Europe. Mr Michel has, however, stated that the Leaders’ Agenda is a flexible tool, which can be updated as circumstances require.

Meetings and topics of the Leaders’ Agenda 2020-21

As flagged up in the EPRS outlook for the special meeting of 1-2 October 2020, President Charles Michel set out his vision of the main issues to be dealt with by his institution in the coming year in the form of a Leaders’ Agenda 2020-21. Along the lines of the Leaders’ Agenda put forward by then-President Donald Tusk in October 2017, this document sets out a work programme for the European Council up to June 2021. Surprisingly, it only covers a period of nine months, as opposed to 18 months for the first Leaders’ Agenda. Eight European Council meetings (including the 1-2 October one) are planned up to June 2021, including two informal meetings, one on China and the other on the social impact of the digital and green transformation, as well as a special meeting due to address both health issues and European security and defence (see Table 1). The agenda also includes two Euro Summits, in November 2020 and in March 2021, and envisages a series of summits with third countries: an EU-African Union Summit, an EU leaders-Chinese President meeting, a Western Balkans Summit, an ASEM Summit and a possible EU-CELAC summit.

Table 1: Main issues to be discussed at EU leaders’ meetings, October 2020 – June 2021

Date Meeting type Main issues 2020 1-2 October Regular European Council Digital, single market and industrial policy, and external relations (Turkey, China) 15-16 October Regular European Council EU-UK negotiations, climate (orientation debate) and external relations (Africa)) 16 November Informal European Council (Berlin) China 10-11 December Regular European Council Climate, trade and external relations (Southern Neighbourhood) Meeting with the African Union Euro Summit meeting Banking union and capital markets union 2021 February Special European Council Health, and European security and defence February Eastern Partnership Summit 25-26 March Regular European Council Digital, including digital taxation, single market and industrial policy as well as external relations (Russia) Euro Summit meeting International role of the euro 7-8 May Informal European Council (Portugal) Social impact of the digital and green transformation EU-India leaders’ meeting 24-25 June Regular European Council Future of Schengen and external relations (UK)

Presented as ‘an ambitious European Council agenda covering the key challenges confronting the Union, the new Leaders’ Agenda puts particular emphasis on the green transition and digital transformation, as well as on making the EU a strong global player. It aims to push ahead with the policy priorities outlined by the European Council in its Strategic Agenda 2019-24: i) protecting citizens and freedoms; ii) developing a strong and vibrant economic base; iii) building a climate-neutral, green, fair and social Europe; and iv) promoting European interests and values on the global stage.

As regards the fourth priority, Mr Michel aims at developing a more structured approach to dealing with the EU’s external relations. He has underlined that the ‘EU’s role in the world will be on every #EUCO agenda’, and indeed, all but one of the European Council meetings have a strategic discussion on a specific external relations topic. The exception is the planned informal meeting in May 2021, which will be dedicated to the ‘social impact of the digital and green transformation’, but will take place back-to-back with the EU-India meeting, which is not a European Council meeting. The Leaders’ Agenda notably includes a strategic discussion on Africa in October 2020 and one on Russia in March 2021. The last strategic discussion of the European Council on Russia was planned for 21-22 October 2016, but at that time, the European Council mainly discussed whether or not to introduce sanctions on Russia in relation to its involvement in the Syrian conflict. The new agenda confirms the recent trend to organise EU summits with third countries, such as the EU-Western Balkans summit, with the attendance of all or most EU Heads of State or Government, rather than just the presidents of the European Council and the Commission, the president-in-office of the Council, and the EU High Representative/Vice President.

The absence of a number of key issues from the Leaders’ Agenda is striking: next to the Conference on the Future of Europe, one of the four core priorities of the Strategic Agenda 2019-24, ‘protecting citizens and freedoms’ is barely included. Even though a discussion on the future of Schengen is planned for June 2021, sensitive topics such as migration and asylum, and the rule of law are missing.

Working method under the Leaders’ Agenda

Figure 1: Leaders’ Agenda decision-making process

The first Leaders’ Agenda was launched at the European Council meeting of 19-20 October 2017, in order to facilitate the finding of consensus among the EU leaders on otherwise intractable issues. It initiated a new working method for the European Council with the introduction of a special format of the European Council, Leaders’ Meetings, which were informal debates stimulated with ‘Leaders’ notes’ from the president, outlining the main challenges and sticking-points on the topic concerned. The aim was to help EU leaders reach agreement and enable them to approve conclusions at a subsequent, regular meeting of the European Council. The idea of only adopting conclusions at a later meeting has been kept in the new Leaders’ Agenda, which states that ‘where no immediate conclusions are drawn, the outcome of the debates will be reflected in later conclusions’. Whether special notes will be prepared or implementation reports drawn up remains to be seen. However, Mr Michel did mention the possibility of using smaller formats, with only some EU leaders, to prepare the discussions in the European Council itself.

Read this ‘at a glance’ on ‘European Council Leaders’ Agenda 2020-21‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Leaders should take advantage of the recovery fund to bring the climate goals of their citizens to fruition and use experience from the past to shape a green future, writes NGO members across Central and Eastern Europe countries.

In a debate with Council President Charles Michel on the past and forthcoming European Summit, MEPs called for clear-cut decisions, not watered-down compromise.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

In a debate with Council President Charles Michel on the past and forthcoming European Summit, MEPs called for clear-cut decisions, not watered-down compromise.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP