European Union

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told MEPs on Tuesday (26 November) that the UK would have to agree to maintain a ‘level playing field’ and not undercut EU regulation to secure a trade agreement.

The European Union continues to lag behind in terms of ‘green’ investment compared with China and the US, the EIB warned on Tuesday (26 November). The lender said that financing should increase by one-third to achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

The US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Tuesday (26 November) invited President Donald Trump to its first impeachment hearing, scheduled for 4 December, starting a new phase of the inquiry that could lead to formal charges against the president within weeks.

As negotiations between the European institutions on the Mobility Package move into their final stage, LeïlaChaibi, Nikolaj Villumsen and the European Transport Workers’ Federation call on European lawmakers to not accept the deregulation of driving and rest times for truck drivers and to ensure that the principle of equal pay for equal work is strictly applied.

President David Sassoli will unveil the 2019 Lux Prize winner during an award ceremony on Wednesday, in the presence of the three finalist films’ directors.
Committee on Culture and Education

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

President David Sassoli will unveil the 2019 Lux Prize winner during an award ceremony on Wednesday, in the presence of the three finalist films’ directors.
Committee on Culture and Education

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

On Wednesday (26 Novebmer), MEPs will finally cast their votes on the proposed new European Commission, headed by Ursula von der Leyen. For Renew Europe, there will be no 'carte blanche'.

Both EU member states and the parliament want to be ready in January with an agreement on how to involve citizens in a serious attempt to rethink the future of the EU. But institutional issues would come first.

Parliament is set to vote on the 2019-2024 European Commission by simple majority in a roll call vote at 12.00 tomorrow.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Parliament is set to vote on the 2019-2024 European Commission by simple majority in a roll call vote at 12.00 tomorrow.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

The latest row between Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Emmanuel Macron show how the French president is bumping over and over again to the German reality check.

Paris Saint-Germain's new training centre will be inaugurated in 2022. According to the club, the training grounds will be designed in such a way that PSG will be able to lead by example when it comes to protecting the environment. EURACTIV France reports.

Green lawmakers in the European Parliament have lashed out against a draft motion tabled by centrist MEPs that suggested declaring a climate emergency in Europe, tabling their own motion in response to what they denounced as a “PR-stunt”.

EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis called on the next EU executive to include animal welfare in the new Green Deal following a tragedy in which almost 15,000 sheep drowned in the Black Sea off Romania's coast.

Freed Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov warned Europeans against attempts to thaw ties with Russia as he belatedly received his 2018 Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament’s annual human rights award, on Tuesday (26 November). Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in...

The Maltese prime minister's chief of staff, Keith Schembri, resigned Tuesday in an escalation of the police inquiry into the murder of the prominent anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017. Schembri, who had been accused by Caruana Galizia of corruption, has been questioned by police. The inquiry intensified last week with the arrest of Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech, who allegedly had business links with Schembri.

Belarus is interested in building good-neighbourly ties with the European Union, and in particular with Stockholm and Helsinki, if there are no preconditions from the bloc, Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday (25 November).

Written by Nikolina Šajn,

In recent years, the concern that some branded products might be inferior in the Member States that have joined the European Union (EU) since 2004 has become ever more apparent. This concern has come to be known as the ‘dual quality of products’. To address the issue, between 2018 and 2019, the European Commission’s Joint Research Service (JRC) compared a set of branded food products sold under the same name and in the same or similar packaging across Member States – the first time a harmonised testing methodology has been used to compare products from the whole of the European Union. The analysis sought to determine whether, despite the identical or similar packaging, there were differences in product composition and, if so, whether those differences corresponded to any geographical pattern. Results showed that about one third of the branded food products analysed had a composition that differed from one Member State to another. However, the results did not point to any geographical pattern that might explain those differences.

In 2017, the Commission had already sought to clarify the relevant legislation with a notice introducing a test that national consumer protection authorities could use to determine on a case‑by‑case basis whether the dual quality of food products was misleading. Later, in April 2018, in the framework of the ‘new deal for consumers’, its proposal for a new directive on modernisation of EU consumer protection rules sought to include the dual quality of products (not just of food products) in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. The European Parliament has long voiced its concerns about the dual quality of products and had called for it to be added to the ‘blacklist’ of practices that should always be considered as banned. However, the text of the new directive on modernisation of consumer protection rules as adopted by the co-legislators did not include dual quality as a practice that must be considered unfair in all cases, but rather as one that must be proven to be misleading on a case-by-case basis. The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has criticised this, while business organisations defend the right of companies to differentiate their products in different markets.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Dual quality of products – State of play‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

The 2018 Sakharov Prize winner, Ukrainian film director and human rights activist Oleg Sentsov, received his award in Strasbourg on 26 November.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

The 2018 Sakharov Prize winner, Ukrainian film director and human rights activist Oleg Sentsov, received his award in Strasbourg on 26 November.

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP