European Union

Mega-mergers are once again all the rage – just as protectionist currents are gaining strength. Corporate dealmakers are running headlong into some treacherous politics. Some combustible merger-related battles are already playing out in Europe.

Shortly before Kraft Heinz ditched its $143bn pursuit of Unilever on Sunday, Downing Street desperately thinking of ways to shield the Anglo-Dutch group from the US cost-cutters. EU law would have made that difficult. But the sentiment is clear. Britain’s historic open door is no longer so open.

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The Council agreed on a general approach to strengthen cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws.

The objective of the proposal is to modernise cooperation mechanisms to further reduce the harm  caused to consumers by cross-border infringements to EU consumer law. 

In particular, effective consumer protection has to respond to the challenges of the digital economy and the development of cross-border retail trade in the EU.

Chairing the Council meeting, the Maltese Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, Dr. Chris Cardona, stressed that consumer authorities must be equipped with the right tools to generate and preserve confidence in the internal market. "This proposal is about trust, trade and innovation. Trust in e-commerce by consumers and companies is essential if the European economy is to grow", he added. 

This revision of the existing Consumer Protection Cooperation framework will give more powers to national authorities which may for example check if websites geo-block consumers, order the immediate take-down of websites hosting scams or request information from domain registrars and banks to detect the identity of the responsible trader. 

In case of EU-wide breaches of consumer rights, national enforcement authorities and the Commission will coordinate common actions to stop these practices, in particular in cases of widespread infringements with Union-dimension which are likely to harm consumers in a large part of the EU. 

Consumer trust in e-commerce 

Ineffective enforcement of cross-border infringements, in particular in the digital environment, enables traders to evade enforcement by relocating within the Union, giving rise to a distortion of competition for law-abiding traders operating either domestically or cross-border, and thus directly harming consumers and undermining consumer confidence in the single market. 

An increased level of harmonisation setting effective and efficient enforcement cooperation among public enforcement authorities is therefore necessary to detect, investigate and order the cessation of intra-Union infringements and widespread infringements. 

In order to further harmonise practices across the EU, the future regulation will set out a number of minimum investigation and enforcement  powers that every national competent authority will have to be able to exercise in order to coordinate properly in the fight against infringements. 

These powers will strike a balance between the interests protected by fundamental rights such as a high level of consumer protection, the freedom to conduct business and freedom of information. 

The mutual assistance mechanism between administrations will be strengthened to establish whether an intra-EU infringement has occurred and to bring about the cessation of that infringement. 

An improved alert mechanism will allow a competent authority to notify without delay the Commission and other competent authorities of any reasonable suspicion that an intra-Union infringement or widespread infringement is taking place on its territory that may affect consumers' interests in other member states. 

Competent authorities will also be able to open investigations on their own initiative if they become aware of intra-Union infringements or widespread infringements by means other than individual consumer complaints. 

Catching up with the digital economy 

On 25 May, the Commission presented the proposal on the review of the consumer protection cooperation as part of a broader package including proposals on cross-border parcel deliveries and on tackling unjustified geo-blocking. 

Currently, regulation 2006/2004 provides for harmonised rules and procedures to facilitate cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of cross-border consumer protection laws. 

The scope of the 2004 regulation covers 18 pieces of consumer legislation, including: provisions to protect consumers from unfair and misleading commercial communication; ensuring that consumers are adequately informed before making purchasing decisions; providing appropriate protection when entering contracts with businesses; as well as complaint and redress mechanisms and access to justice. 

However, following a review on the effectiveness of regulation 2006/2004, the Commission concluded it no longer effectively addresses the enforcement challenges of the digital single market. 

The 2015 digital single market strategy identified the need to enhance consumer trust through more rapid, agile and consistent enforcement of consumer rules as one of its priorities. 

Next steps 

The general approach enables the Council to start discussions with the European Parliament under the EU's ordinary legislative procedure. 

The internal market and consumer protection committee of the European Parliament (IMCO) has announced a vote on its position on 21 March 2017. 

Today the President of the European Council Donald Tusk met Prime Minister of Romania Sorin Grindeanu in Brussels. 

This first bilateral meeting since Prime Minister Grindeanu took office in January allowed for discussions on the main files on the European Union agenda as well as recent developments in Romania and the government's priorities. 

President Tusk welcomed the government's continued commitment to the European project and a stronger and united European Union, as Romania is preparing for the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first semester of 2019. 

President Tusk and Prime Minister Grindeanu discussed the central importance of the rule of law and the fight against corruption in ensuring that its citizens are able to benefit fully from all the opportunities offered by membership of the Union. 

President Tusk underlined the need to advance in the fight against corruption, safeguard the significant progress achieved and ensure its irreversibility, in line with the high expectations of Romanian society and the EU's values.

Statistics concerning judicial activity in 2016: the duration of proceedings continues its downward trend, to the benefit of citizens

Delegations

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

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“The customs union means free movement of our goods. It doesn’t mean free movement of our trucks.” The FT visited the Turkish border with Bulgaria to find out what Britain’s lorry drivers can expect after Brexit. In short? Queues.

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From 17 to 19 February, more than 500 decision-makers from across the globe, including more than 25 heads of state and government, 80 foreign and defense ministers, and delegations from the new US administration and from Congress, come together in Munich for discussions on major international security challenges.

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from 07.45
Arrivals (live streaming)

+/- 09.15
Doorstep by Minister Scicluna

+/- 09.30
Ministerial breakfast (Roundtable)

+/- 10.30
Beginning of the Council meeting
Adoption of the agenda

Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (public session)

Any other business:
Current financial services legislative proposals (public session)

Approval of non-legislative A items

EU List of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes

Preparation of G20 Meeting on 17-18 March 2017

Discharge on the implementation of budget for 2015

Budget guidelines for 2018

Any other business

At the end of the meeting
Press conference (live streaming)
Main press room, Justus Lipsius building

Plenary sessions : MEPs approved Ceta during this week's plenary session followed by a visit by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau telling them how the EU-Canada trade deal was not just about commerce, but also about improving people's lives. Newly-elected Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen also addressed the Parliament, while MEPs adopted new anti-terrorism measures and set out their ideas for the future of the EU.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs approved Ceta during this week's plenary session followed by a visit by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau telling them how the EU-Canada trade deal was not just about commerce, but also about improving people's lives. Newly-elected Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen also addressed the Parliament, while MEPs adopted new anti-terrorism measures and set out their ideas for the future of the EU.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Monday 20 February 2017
10:15 Meeting with United States Vice-President Mike Pence (media advisory)

Tuesday 21 February 2017
13.00 Meeting with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker

Wednesday 22 February 2017
11.00 Presentation of letters of credentials of ambassadors

Place:        Europa building, Brussels
Chair:        Christian Cardona, Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Business of Malta                                        

All times are approximate and subject to change

 +/- 08.30    
Arrivals (Justus Lipsius building)                  

+/- 09.15 
Doorstep by Minister Cardona (Justus Lipsius building) 

+/- 10.00
Beginning of the meeting (Roundtable/Photo opportunity)
Adoption of agenda
Adoption of non-legislative A items
Adoption of legislative A items (public session)

+/- 10.15 
Consumer protection cooperation (public session)
+/- 11.15
Competitiveness check-up: intangible investments in EU companies
+/- 12.00
Public procurement in the context of the 2017 European Semester process 

+/- 13.00
Informal working lunch: European Industrial Competitiveness 

+/- 15.00
The start-up and scale-up initiative
+/- 16.00    
Approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles (public session)
+/- 16.30    
Any other business:
- Unitary Patent and Unified Patent Court
- European Defence Action Plan
+/- 17.35
- Services Package (public session)
+/- 18.00
 - Portability of digital services (public session)
 - Competitiveness of the transport sector

+/- 18.20
Press conference (live streaming) in the Justus Lipsius building

What if the good old ‘scarecrow’ effect did not work anymore? What if Marine Le Pen managed to break the famous ‘glass ceiling’ of the French electoral system, which has kept her out of governmental responsibility so far? What if voters were no longer willing to rally around a ‘front républicain’ between round 1 and 2 of the elections?

These are questions that would have sounded purely hypothetical some months ago. But are they still?

True, the French electoral system and institutional framework have always been the best allies of those for whom the vision of a triumphant Le Pen family member in the Elysée is nothing short of a Republican nightmare. History seems to be reassuring: at both the 2002 presidential election and successive legislative and regional elections, the time between the two rounds has always proved sufficient to form an ad-hoc coalition behind the remaining opponent. And simple maths also provide comforting evidence. It is difficult to imagine Marine Le Pen double the absolute number of voters between round one and two.

Yes, she does have an extremely stable base of 25% of the electorate, but there is little risk that ‘MLP’, as she is referred to in Twitter initials (while on her posters she prefers to drop the family name altogether), will obtain a surprise score that will put the pollsters to shame. As a matter of fact, now that publicly coming out as an FN sympathiser is no longer taboo, the polls concerning voting intentions are actually more reliable than they used to be. How exactly she could manage to attract the massive and unprecedented transfer of voters from all sides that she needs in order to win the final face-off remains unclear.

So it’s all about keeping calm and carrying on? The traditional politicians from the left and right – a species that has not realised yet it is under the threat of extinction – still want to capitalise on the scarecrow effect. François Fillon, for instance, is now desperate enough to warn his compatriots that in the case of his elimination in round one, the vast majority of his voters would turn towards Le Pen, if only to avoid Macron. And at the PS headquarters in Rue Solférino, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis pretends to see the writing on the walls of Donald Trump’s surprise victory in order to motivate the Socialist troops or what’s left of them. It all sounds like hollow scaremongering because it is too obvious they do not believe what they’re saying. Nothing but a kind of French ‘Project Fear’, and we know how efficient the English one was.

But can the nightmare really be ruled out? In a campaign where nothing is stable except the voting intentions for Marine Le Pen, where every further little scandal (not to mention strange rumours of all kinds) invariably seem to play into her hand, where an entire ‘internet army’ (brilliantly investigated by Nicholas Vinocur) is at MLP’s service, no scenario should be excluded. The very system that has always kept the Front National out of power will continue to work in its interest: with no governmental responsibility despite massive electoral backing the FN has not suffered any loss of credibility in its anti-establishment posture and will continue, all throughout the campaign, to capitalise on its comfortable status of sole untested alternative. That’s a unique selling point, providing a solid basis for an unexpected last-minute swing that could be due to the big unknown variable of these elections, the degree of ‘fed-upism’ of French citizens that may result in a shockwave of irrepressible ‘kick-outism’. With a little bit of imagination, you can already hear the electorate prepare the lamp-posts for the great hanging: ‘Ah, ça ira, ça ira, ça ira! Les aristocrates à la lanterne!’

The international press in shock: Le Pen elected President! (extract from ‘La Présidente’).

François Durpaire, for one, has no trouble at all seeing ‘La Présidente’ behind her desk in the Elysée. A historian and rather well-spoken television pundit on American politics – he’s a co-author of the French edition of ‘The United States for Dummies’ – Durpaire anticipated her victory in 2015, together with the illustrator Farid Boudjellal, in a remarkable graphic novel. In its highly realistic black-and-white aesthetics, and visibly based on thorough documentation, ‘La Présidente’ imagines a post-2017 France in the tradition of Orwellian dystopia. The book displays particular lucidity in depicting how self-referential media loops may create a hysterical sound cloud that eventually erupts in perfectly irrational voting behaviour (rings a bell? or two?). Despite a somewhat disappointing ending that indulged in the same kind of conspiracy theory on which populism itself flourishes, the book and its authors well deserved their success, with 120,000 copies sold.

In 2016, Durpaire and Boudjellal, published a sequel named ‘Totalitaire’ and set in a 2022 France that I would most likely have left in the meantime. While the graphics are just as brilliant, the scenario has some flaws, but overall the authors deserve praise for effectively highlighting the sheer fragility of democracy in an age obsessed with identity and security.

Reading these two graphic novels makes you hastily draw your wish list for 2017:
May the old scarecrow effect have kept at least some of its relevance!
May the ‘glass ceiling’ of the French electoral system prove more resilient than one might fear!
And may the French themselves be collectively smart enough to resist the temptation of hanging their entire political aristocracy at the lamp-posts just to relieve this itchy feeling of disgust.

Albrecht Sonntag
@albrechtsonntag

This is post # 12 on the French 2017 election marathon.
All previous posts can be found here.

The post France 2017: Could she possibly win? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

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Federica MOGHERINI, EU HR for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, at the G20 Germany 2017 Foreign Ministers meeting in Bonn, Germany.

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Plenary sessions : EU-wide rules are needed for the fast-evolving field of robotics, e.g. to enforce ethical standards or establish liability for accidents involving driverless cars, say MEPs in a resolution voted on Thursday.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : EU-wide rules are needed for the fast-evolving field of robotics, e.g. to enforce ethical standards or establish liability for accidents involving driverless cars, say MEPs in a resolution voted on Thursday.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : Europeans becoming radicalised and travelling to fight in Iraq or Syria represent a growing threat to the EU. Most of the recent terrorist attacks in Europe were perpetrated by home-grown terrorists. MEPs adopted on 16 February new rules to ensure stronger checks at the EU's external borders and prevent the preparation of terrorist acts. Check out our infographic for an overview of measures to tackle terrorism Parliament has been working on.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : Europeans becoming radicalised and travelling to fight in Iraq or Syria represent a growing threat to the EU. Most of the recent terrorist attacks in Europe were perpetrated by home-grown terrorists. MEPs adopted on 16 February new rules to ensure stronger checks at the EU's external borders and prevent the preparation of terrorist acts. Check out our infographic for an overview of measures to tackle terrorism Parliament has been working on.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : If the EU is to boost its capacity to act, restore citizens’ trust and make the euro zone economy more resilient to outside shocks, it needs to make full use of the Lisbon Treaty. But to go further, it needs to reform itself more fundamentally. This was the key message of three resolutions exploring the future development of the European Union approved by Parliament on Thursday.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : If the EU is to boost its capacity to act, restore citizens’ trust and make the euro zone economy more resilient to outside shocks, it needs to make full use of the Lisbon Treaty. But to go further, it needs to reform itself more fundamentally. This was the key message of three resolutions exploring the future development of the European Union approved by Parliament on Thursday.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP