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Europe Daily Bulletin No. 12677

13 March 2021
Contents Publication in full By article 3 / 34
SECTORAL POLICIES / Transport/energy
Connecting Europe Facility, interinstitutional agreement gives hope for first calls for grants before summer
Brussels, 12/03/2021 (Agence Europe)

“Deal! We have a deal!”, tweeted the MEPs responsible for negotiating the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for the 2021-2027 period with the EU Council on Thursday 10 March in the evening.

This programme, which aims to finance infrastructure projects in the fields of transport, energy, and digital technology, will therefore be renewed with a budget of EUR 33.71 billion (current prices).

The long-awaited agreement on this text (see EUROPE B12620A15) - which still needs to be given the...

Contents

SECTORAL POLICIES
MIGRATION: Commission is ready to tighten up acquisition of visas by uncooperative third countries with regard to return of migrants staying illegally as of this summer
HOME AFFAIRS: resilience of critical infrastructure, EU Member States welcome reform 
TRANSPORT/ENERGY: Connecting Europe Facility, interinstitutional agreement gives hope for first calls for grants before summer
SPACE: EU Member States are drawing up a very liberal joint vision of European ‘New Space’
INDUSTRY: European Commission wants to speed up pace of negotiations on battery regulation
ENVIRONMENT: EU environment ministers to hold political debate on 18 March on future ‘sustainable batteries’ regulation
CLIMAT/FINANCE: commission examines possibility of including electricity generation from natural gas in EU taxonomy
AGRICULTURE: EU Member States urged to be more flexible on post-2020 market measures
FISHERIES: mandatory monitoring cameras upset Europêche but NGOs are delighted
CONSUMERS: Covid-19, impact of crisis has changed consumer behaviour in EU, according to 2020 data
ECONOMY - FINANCE - BUSINESS
ECONOMY: European budgetary rules should only be reactivated after having been revised, says Margarida Marques
FINANCE: European Parliament starts work on pilot regime on distributed ledger technology
FINANCE: European Commission assesses functioning of European financial supervisory authorities
ECOFIN: EU Finance Ministers to discuss digital taxation and economic recovery
CROATIA: Croatian draft recovery plan enters final phase of consultation with Commission, says Andrej Plenković
EXTERNAL ACTION
UNITED KINGDOM: UK National Statistics Office confirms fall in EU-UK trade in January
CHINA: publication of market access annexes of bilateral investment agreement with EU 
HONG KONG: EU denounces Chinese decision to reform Hong Kong’s electoral system
LIBYA: EU and its Member States welcome approval of Government of National Unity
ACP: ACP and EU MEPs call for massive public aid, without interference, for ACP countries after Covid-19 crisis
SOCIAL AFFAIRS
SOCIAL: Member States’ Ministers will discuss Action Plan on European Pillar of Social Rights
EU RESPONSE TO COVID-19
STATE AID: European Commission approves €350 million Finnish aid to Finnair
HEALTH: Commission does not agree to an inequitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines amongst Member States
NEWS BRIEFS
HOME AFFAIRS: Commission proposes banning two new psychoactive substances in EU
AGRICULTURE: public consultation on rural areas highlights need for infrastructure improvements
HUMAN RIGHTS: EU working on additional sanctions
EGYPT: EU lifts sanctions over misuse of public funds
MACAO: according to EU, the ‘one country, two systems’ principle continues to apply
SEAS: European Commission publishes information on algae biomass
OECD: Australian Mathias Cormann elected Secretary General over Sweden’s Cecilia Malmström
FISHERIES: European Commission proposes transposition of Indian Ocean Tuna Commission measures into EU
UKRAINE: EU extends targeted sanctions until 15 September
CALENDAR
Main activities of European institutions: until 19 March 2021
CALENDAR EXTRA
Other events: until 20 March 2021