European Union

The leader of Romania's ruling Social Democrats, Liviu Dragnea, has filed a lawsuit against the European Commission at the European Court of Justice, after being sentenced to three and a half years in prison by Romania's Supreme Court for corruption involving EU funds. The fraud amounted to €21m from European Union funds linked to a road construction firm called Tel Drum. The conviction bars Dragnea from becoming prime minister.

Far-right party Vox, which sent shockwaves through Spain after winning a surprise 12 seats in Andalusia in December, announced on Wednesday it would vote next week in favour of a new conservative government in the southern region, replacing the Socialist Party. Vox was the first far-right party to win representation in a Spanish regional parliament since the death of longtime dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

If the UK "crashes out [of the EU], there will inevitably be a hardening of the border", Ireland's Sinn Fein party leader, Mary Lou McDonald, told EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. The next logical step, she said, would then be for the government in Dublin to start preparations for a referendum on unification, she was quoted saying by the Irish Times.

Manfred Weber, the Spitzenkandidat of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), ended months of silence on the ongoing efforts to resolve the Greece-Macedonia name row with a couple of pithy comments on Tuesday (9 January) that appear to support the deal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will urge Greece to press on with tough economic reforms and maintain strict fiscal discipline when she visits Athens on Thursday (10 January) for the first time in nearly five years.

From 15 January to 15 March France will hold what President Emmanuel Macron has termed the "great national debate", a public consultation to discuss the "essential questions" facing the nation after nearly two months of violent so-called yellow vest protests.

Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on Wednesday (9 January) said populists from Italy and Poland should spark a "European spring" to replace the centre-right influence of Germany and France, ahead of key EU elections.

One of the frontrunners to take up the next EU Commission Presidency, Manfred Weber, responded to concerns over the US Trump administration on Wednesday (9 January), saying that the President "is not America".

Many European countries and cities have implemented measures to promote e-mobility. But to create scale in Europe, a constellation of disconnected initiatives is not enough to drive the needed change and action must be taken at a European level, writes Folker Franz.

Socialists and liberals are natural allies for the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) in the next European Parliament, according to Manfred Weber, the EPP's lead candidate for the European elections in May.

Dutch officials handed over a pair of clogs and the keys to the European Medicines Agency's temporary base in Amsterdam on Wednesday (9 January) as the watchdog prepares to leave London after Brexit.

Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström will request a mandate from member states to start trade negotiations on industrial goods with the US, she confirmed on Wednesday (9 January) during her visit to Washington.

If the UK Parliament rejects Prime Minister Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement next Tuesday (15 January), as is widely expected, she will be forced to present a new Brexit plan within three days.

Forty-nine migrants disembarked in Malta on Wednesday (9 January) after spending more than two weeks stranded on board rescue ships, ending a standoff in which EU countries had refused to offer them a safe port.

The Council added 2 individuals and one entity to the EU terrorist list, as part of its response to recent foiled attacks on European soil. The Council also confirmed that the restrictive measures continue to apply to those previously listed.

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen told journalists on Tuesday that he would be “open” to consider changes to update competition law in order to cope with the strong competition of US and China firms, but discarded reforming “entirely” antitrust rules as they worked “well”.

Shortly before Christmas, the German news magazine Der Spiegel, one of the country’s most prestigious publications, revealed what many thought unthinkable: that it has been deceived for years by one of its top reporters who turned out to have falsified and fabricated reportages.

Emilio Fajardo, Spanish Rear Admiral (select), has been appointed EDA Industry, Synergies & Enablers (ISE) Director as of 1 January 2019. He previously held the position of Director for Naval Systems and Head of the Hydrodynamics Research Centre at the National Institute for Aerospace Technologies (INTA) in Madrid. Mr Fajardo’s assumption of office coincides with the entry into force of an organizational reshuffle of the Agency (see new EDA organigramme here). 

The new EDA Director holds a Master in Science as Naval Architect from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Emilio Fajardo brings with him more than 20 years of experience in international defence cooperation, among others as a member and Director of the NATO CALS Program (Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support), the responsible officer for multilateral cooperation in the National Armaments Directorate of the Spanish Ministry of Defence (where he also managed relations with NATO, EDA and OCCAR) as well as the Armaments Councillor at the Spanish Permanent Representation at NATO and COPS (EU) in Brussels from 2005 to 2009.

“It is a privilege for me to join the European Defence Agency at a particularly challenging time for European defence in general, and for the Agency in particular. EDA plays a central role in implementing the various EU defence initiatives as well as in the prioritization of EU defence capabilities and I look forward to contributing to this important work as the Agency’s Industry, Synergies and Enablers Director, together with its highly qualified and experienced staff”, Emilio Fajardo stated when he took up his new post.
  
As Industry, Synergies & Enablers (ISE) Director, Emilio Fajardo will lead a key directorate in charge of a wide range of topics and crucial enablers for improving cooperative defence capability building and enhancing interoperability in Europe, including standardisation, certification, test and evaluation, airworthiness, training and education, industry engagement and representing the military views on wider EU policies. The newly renamed ISE Directorate – previously known as Cooperation, Planning & Support (CPS) – also develops activities related to European Strategic Autonomy and the identification of Key Strategic Activities (KSA) at EU level. In addition, it provides support to CSDP military and civilian operations and missions and EU Battlegroups, at the request of their Member States. The directorate also facilitates the coordination of military views from and in support of the Member States and the relevant international military organisations in the framework of Single European Sky (SES) and acts as the interface with the EU institutions and related bodies.
 

More information:

Emilio Fajardo - CV  

 

France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania have agreed to relocate the 49 migrants stuck on two NGO boats moored, for almost three weeks, off Malta's coast.

France and Germany have pledged to strengthen their alliance and deepen a bilateral post-war reconciliation treaty in a bid to show that the EU's main axis remains strong and ready to counter growing Eurosceptic nationalism in the bloc.