European Union

Foundation for the Protection of the Traditional Cheese of Cyprus named Halloumi v EUIPO
Intellectual and industrial property
The Court of Justice sets aside the judgment of the General Court according to which the collective mark HALLOUMI, reserved for Cypriot cheesemakers, does not preclude the sign ‘BBQLOUMI’ from being registered as a European Union trade mark for cheese of a Bulgarian producer

MEPs are arguing for a strong EU budget for 2021-2027 that will respond to the challenges Europe faces and deliver on Europeans’ expectations.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

MEPs are arguing for a strong EU budget for 2021-2027 that will respond to the challenges Europe faces and deliver on Europeans’ expectations.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Commission v Hungary (Enseignement supérieur)
Freedom of establishment
In the opinion of Advocate General Kokott, Hungary must treat foreign and national higher education institutions equally

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out about migrants found in clay at the Slovenian border, the latest about COVID-19 across the capitals, leftist Ramelow becomes Thuringia's minister-president, and so much more.

The EU will not accept Turkey’s migration pressure at its external borders and will use all necessary measures, in accordance with international law, to stop illegal crossings, European ministers of internal affairs have said.

An agreement with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development for an additional loan of $22 million (€19.8 million) to be used to finance the construction of a road section along the Vlora river has been signed by Albania’s finance...

Kosovo should seize the opportunity now the US has increased its interest in reaching a final deal with Serbia, said President Hashim Thaci. Talking about the EU’s role in the dialogue, the president added that the EU could not help...

“We consistently advocate the promotion of intra-Bosnia dialogue based on equality, mutual respect and a future-oriented approach. We hope all foreign partners interested in sustainable stabilisation in BiH will contribute to building bridges between the Bosnian parties and expanding the...

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has thanked Serbian President Vucic for Serbia’s intention to open a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, underlining that it is yet another sign of the deep relations existing between the two countries, the Times of Israel newspaper...

Serbia remains in the group of “partly free” states as it slips to the 67th spot. This means it has joined a group of around 30 countries with the largest drop in freedoms over the past ten years, according to...

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called on Wednesday (4 March) for the regular parliamentary elections to be held on 26 April. Earlier, Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic also called the local vote for the same day. The election will be held simultaneously...

Investing in the European defence industry is an investment in citizens’ security, and appropriate funding is needed for this, Deputy PM and Defence Minister Damir Krsticevic said on Wednesday (3 March) at an Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Zagreb attended by EU...

Diplomats in the Italian Permanent Representation to the EU will meet lobbyists only if they’re enrolled in the EU’s transparency register. Italy’s PermRep will also publish the agenda of the meetings with the stakeholders on its website, as part of...

Russia has absolutely no intention to stop its military operation in Syria until the “adversary” is defeated, stated Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday (3 March). While he added that he understood the difficulties of the refugee situation in...

5,000 Brussels citizens have used their right to petition to be heard in front of the regional parliament to demand that Brussels should be declared a “region outside CETA” and that a popular consultation be organised on the subject. In...

Left-wing politician and former Minister-President of Thuringia, leftist Bodo Ramelow (Die Linke), was elected to lead the former east German state of Thuringia in the third round of voting yesterday (4 March). His election brings an end to the state’s...

Two Iranian students in Hungary tested positive for the coronavirus, Orbán posted on his Facebook page.  While one of the students is studying at the Semmelweis medical school in Budapest and the other is studying in the country’s sixth-largest city,...

Hungary’s stance against illegal migration has become the generally accepted approach in Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told the Visegrad Group summit in Prague. “It was us who announced a policy against Muslim migration” the PM added, referring to the...

Maybe it’s the coronavirus, maybe it’s the floods, maybe it’s the excitement around the Prime Minister’s engagement/child-to-be, but we seem to have largely given up talking about Brexit any more.

Sure, there’s debate if you want it, tucked away in the Westminster/Brussels bubble and deep in the inside sections of the paper, but it’s a small fraction of what it was before.

Partly this is about the churn of people that I’ve written about before, but equally it’s about the other stuff that clamours for our attention. Stockpiling for a virus is newer/more engaging than boring old stockpiling for a no-deal.

Rather than ascribe this to some masterplan on the part of Number 10 (or anyone else), largely it comes down to the concatenation of events that followed the December general election. Parliament faded to irrelevance, Labour disappeared to sort itself out, the cliff-edge was averted, the impossible was done.

So, sure it’s tough again, but nothing like before and we get out of that tight corner, so how about we focus on the bloke on the bus with the sniffle?

Importantly though, as much as this is the product of circumstance, it doesn’t mean no-one cares.

David Gauke wrote a thread about this at the weekend, which I responded to:

Have been turning this over all day. It makes sense, but only if you neglect where it leaves you.

1/ https://t.co/c5qTvmgKMZ

— Simon Usherwood (@Usherwood) February 29, 2020

Rather than type out again both views, I’d note that as much as the government might see a no-deal outcome from the current round as not that bad, they still have to demonstrate that through their actions.

Critically, as several tweeps responded to me, prepping for no-deal is actually not so different from prepping for the deal the UK is seeking. Most obviously, Northern Ireland needs an operational system in any case, because of the commitments in the Withdrawal Agreement.

Failure to secure infrastructure, personnel and procedures in time for any part of this coming arrangement merely heightens the costs to the UK and generates more pressure for subsequent action to resolve it.

Even if you can blame the EU for that, it doesn’t change the necessity of the EU’s role as a necessary counterparty to those talks on sorting out the mess.

The argument might be made that the EU would be so embarrassed by the failure of the process that it makes significant concessions to get out of the hole. Quite part from being hugely optimistic, it also neglects the legal constraints that the organisation operates under: the kind of concessions that you hear British politicians talk about are just the kind of concessions the EU is bound not to make. Rules play a much more fundamental part of the EU’s nature than they do in the UK, precisely because the former isn’t underpinned by an affective community that can weather such challenges.

But this is to get ahead of ourselves.

Today sees the end of the first round of formal negotiation talks between the two sides. There is a process in place for helping the two to try to find a mutual-acceptable outcome. Breakfast food choices aside, there has been no public spat at this stage.

Strikingly, compared with the Article 50 process, the level of public scrutiny is much less. No photos and analysis of How Many Notebooks Did You Bring To The First Meeting, no prominent briefing to friendly journalists.

That makes life somewhat easier for those involved: not having to provide a running commentary means both more time to talk with counterparts and less need to play to the gallery.

Whether that’s enough to move this through to a stable and productive conclusion remains to be seen.

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