European Union

In a hearing today, MEPs demanded clarity on vaccine deliveries and insisted that pharmaceutical companies honour their contracts.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

In a hearing today, MEPs demanded clarity on vaccine deliveries and insisted that pharmaceutical companies honour their contracts.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

David Sassoli called on EU leaders to continue the common approach to Covid-19 vaccines in a speech to the European Council.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

David Sassoli called on EU leaders to continue the common approach to Covid-19 vaccines in a speech to the European Council.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

EU criteria for safe and clean tourism, including a common vaccination certificate, should be a part of a new EU strategy on sustainable tourism, said MEPs.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

EU criteria for safe and clean tourism, including a common vaccination certificate, should be a part of a new EU strategy on sustainable tourism, said MEPs.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

DRAFT OPINION on assessment the implementation of Article 50 TEU
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Kati Piri

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

In this press kit, you will find a selection of the European Parliament’s press releases that show MEPs’ priorities in relation to topics on the summit agenda.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

In this press kit, you will find a selection of the European Parliament’s press releases that show MEPs’ priorities in relation to topics on the summit agenda.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Commission v Hungary
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
According to Advocate General Rantos, by imposing criminal penalties on organising activities intended to enable persons to initiate the international protection procedure who do not fulfil the national criteria for the grant of that protection, Hungary has failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law

ClientEarth v Commission
Research, information, education, statistics
In the opinion of Advocate General Juliane Kokott, the Commission’s decision refusing to review the authorisation of the plasticiser DEHP (bis(2ethylhexyl) phthalate) should be annulled

WABE
SOPO
According to Advocate General Rantos, an employer can authorise, as part of a policy of neutrality, the wearing by its employees of small-scale religious signs

Commission v Spain (Directive données à caractère personnel - Domaine pénal)
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
On account of its ongoing failure to transpose a directive and to notify transposition measures, Spain is ordered to pay a lump sum of € 15 million and a daily penalty payment of € 89 000

Slovak Telekom
Competition
Slovak Telekom, found liable by the Commission for abuse of a dominant position on the market for certain telecommunications services, could also be subject to sanctions imposed by the Slovak authorities for such abuse on the market for other telecommunications services

Caisse pour l'avenir des enfants
SOPO
A Member State cannot make entitlement to parental leave subject to the requirement that the parent was employed at the time of the birth or adoption of the child

Les Chirurgiens-Dentistes de France and Others
Freedom of movement for persons
Member States may authorise partial access to one of the professions covered by the mechanism for the automatic recognition of professional qualifications, which include certain healthcare professions

Dalli v Commission
Law governing the institutions
The Court confirms the dismissal of the action brought by the former European Commissioner John Dalli

Indecision Peak, apparently

Let’s call this the age of Gloomy Dawning Realisation.

Since the start of the year, every day has been filled with examples of How It’s All Going To Be, as various individuals and sectors click that what we have is what we’ve got.

This seems an odd way to put it, especially since those of us working in the field all talk about an era of permanent negotiation: surely this can’t be it?

But that negotiation will be within a framework, that of the Withdrawal Agreement and the Trade & Cooperation Agreement. That framework is here to stay, for the foreseeable future, and it imposes some hefty limits on what is even discussed.

Crucially, the two treaties will persist because they secure – as much as international treaties ever can [cough] – the key interests of the larger party, the EU.

The WA is very clearly about this, providing a schedule for resolving the financials, protecting citizens’ rights and creating a durable (and discrete) mechanism for Northern Ireland.

But the TCA also does something simply, giving legal footing to post-membership arrangements on trade and fish, as well as a single mechanism for future negotiations.

In short, if you want to talk to the EU, then this is how you’ll talk to it.

From a perspective of those days when we might well not have had a deal at all, this is all well and good, but we should remember that this deal still stands a long way closer to Not Much than to the Very Close Friendship that was seen as a viable/desirable outcome in 2016. In many ways it’s the bare minimum given the particularities of the UK’s situation.

But a deal is a deal and how it’s hard to see either side wanting to bin it in a hurry, given the pain of getting to even this.

Which creates something of a problem.

As Jon Worth rightly notes, most of our attention seems to be on the UK these days: lots of thought-pieces and blogs about the challenges that the country faces in making the relationship work (I’ve done just the same BTH). But the same is true, he argues, for the EU.

Having gotten through the crisis phase of Brexit, there’s now a need for a serious discussion about how best to manage relations with the UK, something that Jon discusses better than I will. And it speaks to a bigger point, namely that whatever the institutional arrangements, the EU also needs to consider its policy.

And here the successes (possibly ‘successes’) of the WA/TCA come into play.

The EU might well feel that it has secured its key defensive interests: it’s got legal commitments from the UK, plus enforcement mechanisms, so its back is covered.

But just as the UK has been driven by what it doesn’t want, so too is the EU at risk of simply avoiding the bear-traps. In neither case is there a constructive plan of engagement, or even of management.

And this can’t simply be put down to the UK’s vacillation about what it’s aiming for: the EU seems to be at risk of getting stuck in arch “well, this is the consequence of what you asked for: Brexit means Brexit, no?” rhetoric, rather than anything more.

For all the other priorities that EU leaders have, the absence of open conflict with the UK cannot be the sum total of their policy, not least when the UK can be a useful and significant partner in achieving other objectives. Climate change and security are just the two most obvious examples.

But there is no strategic vision on the EU side, just as there isn’t on the UK’s. No policy papers are circulated, no discussions are held, nothing more than a vague sense of “thank goodness that’s settled”.

If there is one thing that both sides might have learnt from the longer-term experience of EU-UK relations, then it would surely be that benign neglect doesn’t really work.

The UK seems intent on continuing to use the EU as a scapegoat, even as it (the UK) fails to appreciate that it’s now a third country and so much more liable to unfriendly retaliation.

The EU might well have succeeded in getting much of what they wanted in the WA/TCA, but they risk playing into the UK’s narrative of high-handedness and falling into future spirals of tit-for-tat.

In short, with neither side knowing where this is going, the field is clear for others to start plotting a course that neither wants to take, so it’s essential that one, the other, or both start to pick up the reins and lead.

To take back control, if you will.

The post What next? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Find out how MEPs want to shape the EU's rules for non-personal data sharing to boost innovation and the economy while protecting privacy.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Find out how MEPs want to shape the EU's rules for non-personal data sharing to boost innovation and the economy while protecting privacy.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP