European Union

Several major French mosques have expressed concern that a proposed ban on the slaughter of poultry without first stunning the animals would effectively lead to a ban on halal chicken, while the agriculture ministry says this concern is unfounded. EURACTIV France reports.

A new study on food quality has found detectable differences between European products but said they were not correlated with geography, lending weight to the idea that there is no East-West divide in food quality discrimination in Europe.

It would be wise to impose the equivalent standards of animal welfare on meat imports coming into the EU, according to a top EU official, who said this would be compliant with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, provided it...

Following his address to heads of state or government during the EU summit, President Sassoli will hold a press conference today at 14.30.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Following his address to heads of state or government during the EU summit, President Sassoli will hold a press conference today at 14.30.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Belgium's prime minister Alexander De Croo announced on Wednesday that the country will go into four weeks of Easter lockdown, starting from Saturday (27 March).

  The European Regional Development and Cohesion funds, the classical tools of the EU’s cohesion policy, will disburse €242.9 billion euros during the 2021-2027 period, 30% of which will go to greening. In this episode we discuss how the cohesion...

Lego v EUIPO - Delta Sport Handelskontor (Élément de construction d'une boîte de jeu de construction)
Intellectual and industrial property
EUIPO erroneously declared invalid a design of a brick of a LEGO toy building set

Wednesday, 24 March

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Wednesday, 24 March

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

DRAFT REPORT on the state of EU cyber defence capabilities
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Urmas Paet

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The main objective of the hearing is to identify human rights challenges and best practices related to EU security policies in third countries.
The focus of the current European external security agenda is mainly the fight against terrorism, organised crime and cybercrime as well as border management. However, more consideration of human security is needed, as outlined by the UNDP's 1994 Human Development Report, including the threat posed by interpersonal violence, especially gender-based violence. This hearing will therefore widen the focus to human rights and human security as an integral part of security policy.
Location : ASP 3G3 BRUSSELS
Draft programme
Poster
Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

NAMA and Others
Approximation of laws
EU law precludes a national practice by which a candidate excluded from a public procurement procedure may rely, in that candidate’s appeal against the decision to admit the bid of another tenderer, only on the infringement of the principle of equality in the assessment of bids

Prefettura Ufficio territoriale del governo di Firenze
SOPO
Lorry, motor coach and bus drivers who, during an inspection, do not produce the record sheets for the tachograph relating to the current day and the previous 28 days are subject to a single penalty, irrespective of the number of missing record sheets

MCP
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
The jurisdiction of the court of a Member State that is seised of an action relating to parental responsibility cannot be based on Article 10 of the Brussels II bis Regulation in a case of abduction of a child to a third State

The EU is working on new export rules for so-called dual-use goods to prevent them being misused in human rights violations.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The EU is working on new export rules for so-called dual-use goods to prevent them being misused in human rights violations.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

AMENDMENTS 1 - 28 - Draft opinion Assessment of the implementation of Article 50 TEU
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Kati Piri

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Agnès Callamard, a French former UN investigator, has told The Guardian newspaper that a senior Saudi official twice threatened her UN colleagues that he would have her killed if she did not stop digging into Saudi Arabia's 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Callamard would be "taken care of," the Saudi official said. It was "a death threat. That was how it was understood," she told the British newspaper Monday.

China and Russia have called for a UN meeting to seek international support against EU and US human-rights sanctions.