European Union

Plenary session, Strasbourg

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

French president Emmanuel Macron's advisor Ismael Emelien on Monday became the latest to quit the president's team, as Macron struggles to rebuild his popularity, bruised by weeks of 'yellow vest' protests and a scandal surrounding his former security chief, Alexandre Benalla. Benalla was sacked after he attacked demonstrators last May. Emelien said on Monday his departure was unrelated to the issue.

The Ukrainian embassy in Italy has complained after the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), a Russia-occupied Ukrainian region, opened a representative office in Verona, the Italian city, on 9 February. "The embassy of Ukraine strongly condemns any attempts to promote and support in Italy ... fake 'republics'," it said. It also asked Verona to clarify the DPR entity's legal status.

The European Union on Monday began an 18-month process ahead of sanctions against Cambodia being imposed. Cambodia has a preferential trade access to the European Union, but the EU says it is imposing the sanctions in response to Cambodia's poor record on human rights and democracy.

The US has warned Hungary that Chinese and Russian "corruption" posed a national security threat, but Budapest hit back with accusations of "hypocrisy".

Provisional agreement reached on a regulation on the transparency and sustainability of the EU risk assessment in the food chain.

The EU is streamlining its regulatory framework on seafarers' training and certification.

Remarks by President Centeno following the Eurogroup of 11 February on Philip Lane's candidacy as ECB executive board member, post-programme surveillance for Ireland and Portugal, the Commission's winter forecast and discussions on an euro-area budgetary instrument.

The Eurogroup gave its support to the candidacy of Philip Lane for the position to become a new member of the ECB's executive board.

No breakthrough emerged from the meeting between the top EU and UK negotiators on Monday evening in Brussels. Michel Barnier urged the UK to move on its red lines to help clinch a deal, with 45 days left until Brexit.

MEPs are set to rubber-stamp a trade deal with Morocco to fish off the disputed coastline of the Western Sahara. Human Rights Watch have stepped in to point out the deal could be in breach of international law.

All it took was three inter-institutional meetings and less than one month of negotiations to reach a deal on new European Food Safety Agency transparency rules, as EU co-legislators kicked into high gear in order to wrap up the file before the end of the mandate.

A new report from the environmental group said that between €28.5bn to €32.6bn of the European Union's subsidies for farmers supports the livestock sector.

European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Monday (11 February) British Prime Minister Theresa May should endorse a permanent customs union with the bloc - as proposed by the opposition Labour party - to break the impasse over their looming divorce.

In an eagerly-awaited decision, the European Commission last week categorised palm oil as a high-emitting biofuel crop but provided some controversial exemptions for smallholders and spared soybeans from the delegated act's provisions.

European Union lawmakers struck an agreement on Monday (11 February) on green public procurement rules for new buses requiring that local authorities purchase a minimum share of clean vehicles running on gas or electricity by 2025 and 2030.

Women, the great forgotten group of agricultural policies, represent a quarter of French farmers. In Brittany, the “agriculture au féminin” network is attempting to push forward the issue of gender equality in the farming sector. EURACTIV France reports.

Written by Marketa Pape (1st edition),

© Oleg Totskyi / Fotolia

With the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) policy, the European Commission seeks to develop a modern, efficient and climate-friendly network covering all transport modes.

Despite the TEN-T’s importance for the economy and society, and despite the binding timelines and targeted financial support, it risks not being completed as planned. This is partly due to complex administrative procedures linked to permit-granting for cross-border projects as well as broader regulatory uncertainty, often resulting in delays and increased cost. To speed up the network’s completion, the Commission has proposed measures to integrate and shorten permit-granting for projects, and facilitate public consultations and the involvement of private investors.

On 3 December 2018, the Transport Council stated that much remains to be resolved before an agreement on the proposal becomes possible. The European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted a report on the file on 10 January 2019. As interinstitutional negotiations cannot yet start, the file is expected to be closed at first reading during the February plenary session.

Versions

• February 2019: ‘Measures to advance the realisation of the trans-European transport network‘ (1st edition)

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a European Maritime Single Window environment and repealing Directive 2010/65/EU Committee responsible: Transport and Tourism (TRAN) COM(2018) 277 of 17.5.2018 Rapporteur: Dominique Riquet (ALDE, France) 2018/0138(COD) Shadow rapporteurs: Wim van de Camp (EPP, Netherlands)
Inés Ayala Sender (S&D, Spain)
Kosma Złotowski (ECR, Poland)
Merja Kyllönen (GUE/NGL, Finland)
Michael Cramer (Greens/EFA, Germany) Ordinary legislative procedure (COD) (Parliament and Council on equal footing – formerly ‘co-decision’) Next steps expected: Vote in plenary

Hot take, or hate speech? Religious speech or incitement to violence? Tackling harmful content online has never been more vital, or more complex.

Finland is the first country to complete a nation-wide experiment on universal basic income. With the first results in, Finnish finance minister Petteri Orpo told EURACTIV.com that the largest parties in his country don’t support the idea anymore.