European Union

On 7 December 2015, the Luxembourg presidency of the Council reached an informal agreement with the European Parliament on common rules to strengthen network and information security  (NIS) across the EU.

The new directive will set out cybersecurity obligations for operators of essential services and digital service providers. These operators will be required to take measures to manage cyber risks and report major security incidents, but the two categories will be subject to different regimes.

Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Minister for Communications and the Media, and President of the Council, said: "This is an important step towards a more coordinated approach in cybersecurity across Europe. All actors, public and private, will have to step up their efforts, in particular by increased cooperation between member states and enhanced security requirements for infrastructure operators and digital services".

Stronger rules for essential operators

The directive lists a number of critical sectors in which operators of essential services are active, such as energy, transport, finance and health. Within these sectors, member states will identify the operators providing essential services, based on clear criteria laid down in the directive. The requirements and supervision will be stronger for these operators than for providers of digital services. This reflects the degree of risk that any disruption to their services may pose to society and the economy.

A more uniform regime for digital service providers

The following digital services will be covered by the directive: e-commerce platforms, search engines and cloud services.

Digital service providers are typically active in many member states. To ensure that they are treated in a similar way across the EU, the rules will apply to all operators providing such services, with the exclusion of small companies.

National and EU-level frameworks to counter cyber threats

Each EU country will be required to designate one or more national authorities and set out a strategy to deal with cyber matters.

Member states will also step up their cooperation on cybersecurity. An EU-level cooperation group will be created to support strategic cooperation and exchange of best practices among member states. A network of national computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) will be set up to promote operational cooperation. Both are also expected to help develop confidence and trust between member states.

Deadlines

Member states will have 21 months from the directive's entry into force to adopt the necessary national provisions. Following this period, they will have 6 further months to identify their operators of essential services.

How will it become law?

For the Council, the deal still has to be confirmed by member states. The presidency will present the agreed text for approval by member states' ambassadors at the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) on 18 December. To conclude the procedure, formal adoption by both the Council and the Parliament is required.

Good evening everyone and welcome to this press conference. I was going to say that we've had busier turnouts - looking at the audience tonight - but it makes sense, because we also had a short Eurogroup meeting. 

Let me first make a couple of remarks on Greece, which was one of the countries discussed today. After successful implementation of the first set of milestones last month, today we took stock of the implementation of the second set of milestones. Which as you know are connected to the last sub-tranche of €1 bn. The design of the second set has been agreed by the EWG at the end of November. We called on the Greek authorities to implement these milestones as soon as possible and as agreed. The objective is to settle this by mid-December, so that we can focus on some of the major fiscal and structural reforms that are still open and need to be finalised for the first review early next year.  

Recapitalisation of the four significant banks is almost finalised. We expect the last disbursement to be made tomorrow after approval of the ESM Board of Directors. Overall, a good success with significant involvement from private investors. The exercise will cost the programme less than €5½ bn, well below, as you know, initial estimates.  

Secondly, we welcomed Danièle Nouy, the SSM chair. She joined us for one of our regular exchanges of views as part of what's called the accountability arrangements for the SSM. She informed us on the execution of the supervisory work by the SSM, in particular the recent Comprehensive Assessments and the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP), as well as on the SSM's key policy challenges and priorities going forward.  

We had a thematic discussion on pensions and pension reforms, which are central to fiscal sustainability in the euro area. Top of the agenda in many member states that have already enacted considerable pension reforms. But pension expenditure is still one of the main challenges for long-term sustainability. Alongside addressing pension expenditures, we need a range of policies to ensure that retirement incomes remain sufficient in the future. There is also a strong link, which was mentioned by a number of colleagues, to reforms on the issue of long-term care, the costs of care, which are also linked to the aging of our populations. And also reforms of the labour market, making sure that also all employees can still participate in the labour market. We will come back to those issues, the issues of pension reforms, over the course of the next year. We've asked both the Commission to come forward with some sustainability scenarios, also scenarios with more downside risks, to check whether stresses in our systems, and we've asked EWG to do more work on also the possibility of benchmarking pension reforms. So we will come back to those issues in a second round next year.  

As I've said, we also discussed some country issues. A post-programme surveillance of Ireland took place in November 2015. The institutions informed us about the main findings of the review. I don't need to tell you all this. Very strong economic growth. Continued improvement on the fiscal and financial side. Overall an impressive performance by Ireland.  

Two years after the end of the programme, I think Ireland once again demonstrates that determined implementation of an adjustment programme can turn an economy around, to the benefit of citizens.  

We also discussed Portugal, in a different way. We welcomed the new Portuguese finance minister, Mário Centeno, to the Eurogroup, and his state secretary Ricardo Mourinho Félix. The minister outlined the new government's economic policy priorities and has assured us that he will come with a draft budgetary plan as soon as possible, probably at the beginning of the January 2016, for us to be able to discuss that with the Commission's opinion in our February meeting. This is how I see it in the planning.  

Finally one remark: we've come to an agreement on the constituency for the AIIB, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. We discussed it last month, had a silent procedure; after that only Finland said that they can not enter in the constituency at this point, but the other countries will make a start with a eurozone constituency and we will now concentrate on setting up what is called a constituency agreement. Work will be done on that by the EWG. So that is very good news as we have an agreement for that.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The EU Commission should investigate why Google offers its “Android” operating system only in conjunction with other Google services and also why manufacturers allegedly may not pre-install rival products; MEPs say in a response to the Commission’s annual competition report for 2014.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The EU Commission should investigate why Google offers its “Android” operating system only in conjunction with other Google services and also why manufacturers allegedly may not pre-install rival products; MEPs say in a response to the Commission’s annual competition report for 2014.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

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EU relations with Armenia are governed by the EU -Armenia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed in 1996 and entered into force in 1999

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General : Officials from nearly 200 countries have been meeting in Paris since late November to negotiate a new climate change agreement for after 2020. This week a delegation of 15 MEPs also takes part in the COP21 conference. Members are participating in background talks with NGOs and delegations from across the world, while the EU commissioner for climate action Miguel Arias Cañete will brief them on the progress of the talks on a daily basis. Live updates from Paris are available on our Storify page.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : Officials from nearly 200 countries have been meeting in Paris since late November to negotiate a new climate change agreement for after 2020. This week a delegation of 15 MEPs also takes part in the COP21 conference. Members are participating in background talks with NGOs and delegations from across the world, while the EU commissioner for climate action Miguel Arias Cañete will brief them on the progress of the talks on a daily basis. Live updates from Paris are available on our Storify page.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : A delegation of 15 MEPs heads to Paris this week as world leaders gather at COP21 to hammer out a global agreement to fight climate change. Back in Brussels members of the civil liberties committee discuss the current situation concerning so-called migrant "hotspots" in Greece and Italy. In addition MEPs meet their counterparts from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in Brussels, and Parliament's political groups prepare for the final plenary session of the year in Strasbourg next week.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : A delegation of 15 MEPs heads to Paris this week as world leaders gather at COP21 to hammer out a global agreement to fight climate change. Back in Brussels members of the civil liberties committee discuss the current situation concerning so-called migrant "hotspots" in Greece and Italy. In addition MEPs meet their counterparts from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in Brussels, and Parliament's political groups prepare for the final plenary session of the year in Strasbourg next week.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Place
Justus Lipsius building, Brussels 

Chair
Pierre Gramegna, Minister for Finance of Luxembourg 

All times are approximate and subject to change 

+/- 08.00
ESM Board of Directors 

+/- 08.45
Doorstep by Minister Gramegna

+/- 09.00
Ministerial breakfast
Roundtable 

+/- 10.15
Informal session on SRM (bridge financing) 

+/- 10.45
Beginning of ECOFIN Council meeting
Adoption of the agenda
Approval of legislative A items (in public session)

+/- 10.25
Financial transaction tax
Common consolidated corporate tax base
Banking union - European deposit insurance scheme
Any Other Business
Approval of non-legislative A items
Implementation of banking union
Terrorist financing
Business taxation - Code of conduct
Business taxation - Base erosion and profit shifting
Economic governance - 2016 European Semester
Flexibility under the Stability and Growth Pact
EU statistics
EU budget discharge - Court of Auditors report 

14 .00 (At the end of the meeting)
Press conference

The Council appointed Angel Losada Fernandez as the EU Special Representative (EUSR) for the Sahel until 28 February 2017.

Mr Losada replaces Mr Michel Dominique Reveyrand - De Menthon, who was appointed on 18 March 2013.

EUSRs promote the EU's policies and interests in troubled regions and countries and support the work the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini. Mr Losada will lead the EU's contribution to regional and international efforts for lasting peace, security and development in the Sahel. He will also coordinate the EU's comprehensive approach to the regional crisis, on the basis of the EU Strategy for Security and Development in the Sahel.

Mr Losada is a senior Spanish diplomat with more than 30 years' experience. He recently served as ambassador of Spain to Nigeria and Kuwait.

General : "Faced with the atrocities committed in certain parts of the world, we must play our part in worldwide solidarity", said Co-President Louis Michel (ALDE, BE) at the opening of the 30th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Brussels on Monday. " ‘Fortress Europe’ is not a solution and is unworthy of the humanist values that Europe defends", he insisted, adding that it must "shoulder its duty of humanity towards refugees fleeing war, violence or dictatorship".

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : "Faced with the atrocities committed in certain parts of the world, we must play our part in worldwide solidarity", said Co-President Louis Michel (ALDE, BE) at the opening of the 30th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Brussels on Monday. " ‘Fortress Europe’ is not a solution and is unworthy of the humanist values that Europe defends", he insisted, adding that it must "shoulder its duty of humanity towards refugees fleeing war, violence or dictatorship".

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

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EU Ministers of Employment, Social Affairs, Consumer Protection, Health and Equal Opportunities (EPSCO) meet on 7 December 2015 in Brussels to try to reach a general approach on women on company boards directive, and to tackle the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market. Conclusions on the reduction of alcohol-related harm, personalised medicine, dementia and lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak are also to be adopted.

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