CALENDAR / Main activities of the european institutions
01/10 - 07/10/2018
Monday 1 October
Luxembourg. Council of the EU. Eurogroup. *Meeting of 19: – Growth and Employment: discussion on the national automatic stabilisers. – Examination of the development of exchange rates ahead of the forthcoming meetings of the G20 (Bali, 11-12/10) and of the IMF (Bali, 12-14/10). *Meeting of 27: - Reform of the European Stability Mechanism: examination of the ESM toolbox and the role of the ESM in preventing and managing crises).
Strasbourg. European Parliament. Plenary session (to 04/10). *Debates: - Evaluation of healthcare technologies (Cabezón Ruiz -ENVI). - Application of the Council guidelines concerning LGBTI with reference to the situation in Chechnya (OQ GUE/NGL, S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA – Commission). - International financial reporting standards: IFRS 17 Insurance contracts (Commission). - Distributed ledger and blockchain technologies: reinforcing confidence through disintermediation (OQ Kaili-ITRE/Commission). - EU programme for rural, mountainous and remote regions (Commission) (votes on 03/10).
Strasbourg. European Parliament. Activities of the committees (to 04/10). AGRI: vote on the legislative report on unfair commercial practices in the food chain. – LIBE: debate with Vice-President Frans Timmermans on the situation in Romania (independence of the judicial system). – TAX3: hearing on EU/Swiss relations in the field of taxation in the fight against money laundering.
Tuesday 2 October
Luxembourg. Council of the EU. ‘Economic and Financial Affairs’ Council. – Fight against money laundering and terrorist financing: Commission’s presentation of the proposal on reinforcing the supervision of financial establishments. – Indirect taxation: VAT on electronic publications; VAT reverse-charge mechanism; adaptation of the VAT rules (‘quick fixes’ ahead of the introduction of the new VAT system); adoption of the regulation aiming to improve administrative cooperation in the fight against VAT fraud. – Lessons learned from the ‘European Semester 2018’. – Preparations for the meetings of the G20 and of the IMF (see above).
Brussels. Council of the EU. COPS.
Strasbourg. European Commission. Weekly meeting of the College of Commissioners. Agenda unavailable.
Strasbourg (F). European Parliament. Plenary session. *Debates: - Preparations for the European Council of 18-19/10 (Council and Commission). *Formal session: Speech by Milo Đukanović, President of Montenegro. *Votes: - Application for the lifting of the immunity of Georgios Kyrtsos (Ferrara – JURI). – Third countries whose nationals are subject to these obligations to cross external borders and third countries whose nationals are exempt from this requirement (Geringer de Oedenberg – JURI). - EU-Morocco scientific and technological cooperation agreement: Morocco’s participation in PRIMA (Patriciello – ITRE). - EC-Canada air transport agreement (Assis – TRAN). - Inclusion of the Italian municipality of Campione d’Italia and of the Italian waters of Lake Lugano in the customs territory of the EU (Gualtieri – ECON). - Mobilisation of the EGF by request of the Netherlands (Maletić – BUDG). - Provision of audiovisual media services (Verheyen, Kammerevert – CULT). - Draft amending budget no. 5/2018: cancellation of the reserve aid for Turkey under the pre-accession instrument (IAP II) and reinforcing the European neighbourhood instrument and humanitarian aid for other urgent measures (Mureşan – BUDG). *Debates: - Contribution of the EU to a binding UN instrument to regulate the activities of transnational companies with regard to human rights (OQ Council, HR Mogherini, Commission-DEVE, INTA, AFET). - EU’s support for UNRWA following the withdrawal of support from the USA and the situation in Yemen (HR Mogherini). – Emissions standards for new cars and light utility vehicles (Dalli – ENVI). - Joined discussion: VAT rules: harmonising and simplifying certain rules in the VAT system (Kofod – ECON); VAT rate (Szanyi – ECON). - Denial of voting rights in the European Union (OQ Wikström – Council and Commission).
Luxembourg. * Court of Justice of the EU. #Judgments: *General Court of the EU: #Judgments: - C-207/16 (Ministerio Fiscal Spain - can the seriousness of an infringement and the penalty incurred for it be used as criteria to order measures infringing the inviolability of communications, for instance concerning mobile telephony?) - C-73/17 (France/European Parliament – invalidity of the 2017 general budget of the EU as the debate and vote of the EP were held in Brussels, Rob and Strasbourg).
Wednesday 3 October
Brussels. Council of the EU. Coreper I and II.
Strasbourg (F). European Parliament. Plenary session. *Debates: - Rule of law in Romania (Council, Commission – vote in November I). – Debate with the Estonian Prime Minister, Jüri Ratas, on the future of Europe. *Votes: - VAT: Application period of the reverse charge mechanism and of the rapid reaction mechanism (Pietikäinen – ECON) and Kofod and Szanyi reports discussed the day before (see above). – Reports on questions debated on 01-02/10 (see above). *Debates: - A minimum income for a fair Europe: a right for all citizens (topical debate). - European Union agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters– Eurojust (Voss – LIBE). - Mutual recognition of decisions to freeze and confiscate assets (Griesbeck – LIBE). - Free movement of data of a non-personal nature within the EU (Corazza Bildt – IMCO). - Risks of money laundering in the banking sector of the EU; - humanitarian emergency in the Mediterranean: support for the local and regional public authorities; - Tackling customs fraud and protecting the own resources of the EU (Council and Commission).
Thursday 4 October
Strasbourg (F). European Parliament. Plenary session. *Debates: - Strategy on the awarding of public procurement contracts (Coelho – IMCO). – Cases of violations of human rights, democracy and the rule of law (media in Belarus, situation of Ahmed Mansoor in the United Arab Emirates, mass arbitrary arrests of Uyghur and Kazakhs in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, in China). *Votes: reports on questions debated the day before and that morning (see above). *Debates: animal welfare, use of antibiotics and consequences of the industrial farming of broiler chickens for the environment (Commission).
Luxembourg. * Court of Justice of the EU. #Judgments: - C-105/17 (Kamenova – should a person who simultaneously posts eight announcements on an online sales platform be described as a “professional” and therefore subject to the obligation to provide certain legal information to consumers?). - C-416/17 (Commission/France – continuation in France of discriminatory and disproportionate treatment between French parent companies receiving dividends from French subsidiaries and those which receive dividends from foreign subsidiaries, despite a judgment of the Court against this discrimination). - C-242/17 (L.E.G.O. – obligation for all economic operators active in the supply chain of the product, including intermediaries, to present certificates guaranteeing the sustainability of bio-fuels or bio-liquids). - C-337/17 (Feniks - does the action of a creditor come under “contractual matters” within the meaning of the regulation on legal competence, the recognition and execution of decisions in civil and commercial matters?). - C-379/17 (Società Immobiliare Al Bosco – does the regulation Brussels I act against rules in a member state providing for the application of a time period for the execution of an attachment order to be applied in the presence of such an order adopted in different member state and enforceable in the required member state?) - C-12/17 (Dicu – legality of a national provision which, to determine the length of annual paid leave for a worker, excludes the length of the parental leave taken by that worker). #Conclusions: C-493/17 (Weiss e.a. – Compliance with EU law of the purchase of public securities by the ECB for a total of €1500 million). *General Court of the EU: #Judgments: joined cases T-328/16 (Paice/EUIPO Blackmore), T-344/16 Blackmore/EUIPO Paice) and T-345/16 (Blackmore/EUIPO Paice – Possibility for Roger Blackmore, former member of the band Deep Purple, to register DEEP PURPLE as an EU mark)
Friday 5 October
Innsbruck (A). Council of the EU. Informal meeting of the trade ministers to discuss “Trade, Jobs, Future”.
