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Europe Daily Bulletin No. 12424

13 February 2020
Contents Publication in full By article 25 / 33
BREACHES OF EU LAW / Taxation
Portugal again singled out for its taxation of imported second-hand vehicles

12/02/2020 (Agence Europe) – The European Commission decided on Wednesday 12 February to refer Portugal to the Court of Justice of the European Union over its higher tax rates on second-hand cars imported from other Member States than those bought on the Portuguese market. The Portuguese legislation in question does not take full account of the depreciation of vehicles imported from other Member States and is therefore not compatible with Article 110 of the TFEU, in the Commission's...

Contents

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PLENARY
UNITED KINGDOM: European Parliament in favour of closest possible post-Brexit relationship, but without selling short EU standards
BUDGET: MEPs will not accept a Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 that is too frugal
VIETNAM: European Parliament ratifies EU/Vietnam trade agreements
SYRIA: EU has remained powerless in face of Syrian crisis, acknowledges Mr Borrell
AFRICA: Jutta Urpilainen assures European Parliament that overall EU/Africa strategy will be guided by SDGs and shared interests
ENERGY: to the great annoyance of the Greens/EFA, European Parliament approves 4th list of projects of common interest
ENVIRONMENT: European Parliament vetoes proposal to allow lead in recycled PVC
ANIMAL HEALTH: European Parliament calls for a harmonised European system of compulsory identification and registration of cats and dogs
RULE OF LAW: MEPs urge EU to act to “protect civil rights” in Poland
JUSTICE: rise of antisemitism and racism in EU is still of great concern to European Parliament
ECONOMY: MEPs in favour of euro area budget with a stabilising function
DIGITAL: Parliament validates its position on artificial intelligence by deleting reference to data protection
INSTITUTIONAL
BUDGET: Charles Michel’s draft compromise on 2021-2027 MFF expected on 13 or 14 February
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS: Apostolos Tzitzikostas and Vasco Cordeiro elected President and Vice-President respectively
ECONOMY - FINANCE
FINANCE: first lines of thought of High Level Forum on Capital Markets Union
TAXATION: several reservations to EU Council on European blacklist of uncooperative jurisdictions
EXTERNAL ACTION
CAMBODIA: Commission proposes to impose 'calibrated' sanctions on Cambodian regime
UKRAINE: ACAA as a common priority of EU and Kyiv
SECTORAL POLICIES
HEALTH: EU fears equipment shortage following coronavirus outbreak in China
COHESION: capital cities of Visegrád Group countries are joining forces to obtain more directly allocated European funds
COHESION: European Parliament should adopt its position on Just Transition Fund before summer
WOMEN: Court of Auditors interested in gender issue in European budget
CLIMATE: energy-related CO2 emissions in EU to fall by 5% in 2019, according to IEA
BREACHES OF EU LAW
BIODIVERSITY: Italy before Court of Justice for non-compliance with legislation on access to genetic resources from non-Member States
TAXATION: Portugal again singled out for its taxation of imported second-hand vehicles
MONEY LAUNDERING: eight countries pinned for failure to transpose 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive
TRANSPORT: United Kingdom targeted by Commission for failure to comply with Road Charges Directive
NEWS BRIEFS
ASIA: EU and ASEAN reiterate their commitment to strengthen their cooperation
FUTURE OF EU: further postponement of adoption of an EU Council position on Conference on Future of Europe
EGYPT: Sassoli calls for immediate release of student Patrick Zaky
ENERGY: renewables provided 21% of energy used for heating and cooling in EU in 2018
GEORGIA: EU condemns judgement against opposition leader Gigi Ugulava in closed court
PARLIAMENT: European Parliament wants to set up a British-European Parliamentary Assembly