European Union

The Council adopted conclusions on a homogeneous extended internal market and EU relations with non-EU Western European countries.

Poland has already deported 14 people from Central Europe since the beginning of COP24, including two members of the Georgian delegation. Many NGOs are questioning the legality of these bans on entering Polish territory. EURACTIV France reports.

EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete gives a state of play of talks at Katowice COP24 summit. The yellow jackets protests are merely "internal French politics".

The European Central Bank (ECB) won a landmark case on Tuesday (11 December) as the European Court of Justice confirmed that the national bond-buying policy was in accordance with EU law, in response to concerns raised in Germany. 

The vote in the UK parliament on the Brexit deal will now happen "before January 21", said Theresa May's official spokesman. The crunch vote - which could decide both the future of any Brexit and May's premiership - was due to take place on Tuesday (11 December), but was postponed after May admitted it was doomed to be outvoted. May is now touring EU capitals.

A specific article in the controversial copyright directive may result in Google withdrawing their news aggregator service from the EU, EURACTIV has learnt. EU ministers are set to discuss the issue and reach an agreement on the file later this week.

Plenay, Strasbourg

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

In the midst of the ‘yellow vest’ movement in France, criticisms made by heads of state – such as Trump, Salvini and Erdoğan – fuel mistrust towards climate action, notably that carried out by France. EURACTIV France reports.

SEAP organised an event focused on the importance to the EU business sector of an effective and robust transparency system operating within the EU institutions.

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker warned British PM Theresa May on Tuesday that "there is no room whatsoever for renegotiation". Juncker, who will meet May later on Tuesday in Brussels, said the Brexit deal achieved is the best and only agreement possible. However, he said there is "enough room" to give further clarifications on the backstop to be put in place to keep the Irish border open.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday (11 December) that the EU would be open to offer “clarifications” to  British Prime Minister Theresa May, but insisted that the withdrawal agreement was the “best possible, the only possible” deal.

Some Sicilian companies in the agri-food sector have chosen a different model of producing and selling. The idea is to recover the “human” contact with the product and with the consumer.  EURACTIV’s partner Sicilia Agricoltura reports. It’s an agriculture that...

The violent response to the French carbon tax in Paris demonstrates good climate policy is dependent on a fair, just and managed transition writes Sanjeev Kumar. Far from stalling, climate change action is becoming a major issue in elections globally, he says.

The European Union failed on Tuesday (11 December) to reach a compromise over how sharply to curb carbon dioxide emissions from cars and vans as car-producing countries and more environmentally conscious lawmakers could not find a compromise.

Weiss and Others
Economic policy
The ECB’s PSPP programme for the purchase of government bonds on secondary markets does not infringe EU law

With the UK entangled in Brexit, France mired in the "Yellow Vest" movement, and Germany stuck in political quagmire, Europe is not ready to lead global climate talks as the decisive political phase of the UN climate conference opens on Tuesday (11 December).

Russian propaganda activity has raised alarm of further escalation in Ukraine, amid other concern on Moscow's role in French rioting.

At yesterday’s OCCAR-EDA bilateral in Bonn, OCCAR Director Arturo Alfonso-Meiriño and the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency, Jorge Domecq, have exchanged letters describing the role of the EDA in support of the ESSOR Programme.

OCCAR manages the ESSOR Programme for Finland, France, Italy, Poland and Spain, whilst Germany is currently an observer to this Programme. The ESSOR Programme launched its Operational Capability 1 phase in November 2017, with an Operational Budget of €50 million.

In 2006, EDA established the Project Team Software Defined Radio (SDR) with the goal to define a common European concept and position on SDR architecture developments, promoting the working relations with the most important SDR stakeholders and coordinating the vision, policies and initiatives for emergence of SDR developments that serve European interest and autonomy. This is in line with EDA’s role as the European forum for joint capability development and the prioritised Capability Development Plan (CDP) scope of Tactical CIS in response to CSDP requirements to greatly enhance the interoperability of communication systems. 

Considering that enhanced cooperation with OCCAR also features among the recommendations endorsed by the Defence Ministers after EDA’s recent Long Term Review (LTR), with this exchange of letters, EDA formally commits to facilitate the coherence between the ESSOR Programme and the activities of EDA in Software Defined Radio (SDR) area, and to promote the ESSOR products, in particular the waveform and architecture of the system. 

 

The British prime minister dramatically delayed a parliamentary vote on the Brexit deal at the last minute, as she faced defeat. Theresa May will now speed-tour EU capitals to try to secure further political guarantees.

The world's first-ever global pact on how to deal with migration was adopted on Monday by 164 countries at a conference in Marrakesh, Morocco. Seven EU countries, Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Latvia and Slovakia did not sign the UN pact, while German chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed it, saying that it was high time the international community came to a more realistic understanding over global migration.