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Europe Daily Bulletin No. 12679

17 March 2021
Contents Publication in full By article 34 / 36
NEWS BRIEFS / Digital
EU Council validates Digital Europe 2021-2027 programme

16/03/2021 (Agence Europe) – The EU Council formally adopted on Tuesday 16 March, by written procedure, its position at first reading on the Digital Europe programme, following the informal agreement reached between the three EU institutions at the end of 2020 (see EUROPE B12622A2). It now remains for the European Parliament to adopt its position at second reading before the regulation is published in the Official Journal of the European Union. With a considerable budget of...

Contents

EU RESPONSE TO COVID-19
HEALTH: Pfizer-BioNTech ready to deliver 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine ahead of schedule
ECONOMY: Member States support Commission’s move to freeze EU fiscal rules 
SOCIAL: SURE instrument, European Commission pays out €9 billion to seven Member States
ECONOMY - FINANCE - BUSINESS
TAXATION: EU remains cautious in its work on digital taxation so as not to jeopardise OECD negotiations
FINANCE: Mairead McGuinness confident of sealing EU/UK deal by end of March
COMPETITION: state-owned PPC suspected of abusive behaviour on Greek wholesale electricity market
COMPETITION: European Commission establishes a multilateral working group on mergers in pharmaceutical sector
SECTORAL POLICIES
FISHERIES: EU, Norway and UK reach trilateral agreements on 2021 North Sea quotas
FISHERIES: European Commission considering unilateral quotas for 2021 if no agreement is reached with UK by end of March
COHESION: MEPs divided over distribution key for proposed Brexit adjustment reserve fund
HEALTH: EU ministers take stock of current key issues
CONSUMERS: EU ministers reach consensus to implement New Consumer Agenda 2021-2025
ENVIRONMENT: EU environment ministers to discuss greening the ‘European Semester’ and adapting to climate change
CLIMATE: European Commission endorses new benchmarks for free allocation of emissions allowances under ETS
MIGRATION: Ylva Johansson faces some criticism in European Parliament for her work on how Frontex agency operates
MIGRATION: Dunja Mijatović does not feel acceptance of human rights violations can be part of EU migration policy
JUSTICE: electronic evidence, EU co-legislators will soon address difficult issue of notification
TRANSPORT: deployment of European rail traffic management system remains “slow and patchy”, says Ms Bilbao
ENERGY: importance of electrification of energy sector again highlighted by a CERRE report
EXTERNAL ACTION
GEORGIA: Mr Garibashvili wants to strengthen his country’s relations with EU
IRAN: Grossi warns of increasingly aggressive Iranian nuclear programme
SECURITY - DEFENCE
NATO: eleven Alliance countries spent at least 2% of their national GDP on defence in 2020
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS - SOCIETAL ISSUES
RULE OF LAW: MEPs lose hope over EU Council and Commission inaction regarding Poland
MEDIA: EU Council expected to support European Action Plan on recovery and transformation of media sector
DEMOGRAPHY: EU Council calls on Member States to take account of ageing populations in their public policies
SOCIAL AFFAIRS
SOCIAL: Portuguese Presidency of EU Council officially confirms launch of platform for tackling homelessness
COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EU
CONSUMERS: Advocate General clarifies concept of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ that release an airline from its obligation to compensate passengers
STATE AID: Court of Justice validates conformity with EU law of Hungarian and Polish progressive turnover taxes
NEWS BRIEFS
PATENTS: health sector was main driver of European patent applications in 2020, according to EPO
COHESION: MEPs greenlight interinstitutional agreements on umbrella regulation and ERDF
ENERGY/CLIMATE: Ursula von der Leyen reaffirms importance of European Green Deal to give up fossil energies
ENVIRONMENT/CLIMATE: EU Council endorses European Parliament/Council agreement on LIFE 2021-2027 programme
JUSTICE: EUIPO and Eurojust join forces to fight intellectual property crime.
DIGITAL: EU Council validates Digital Europe 2021-2027 programme
FISHERIES: economic performance of EU fleets declined in 2018, says EU scientific committee
TERRORISM: formal adoption of regulation to remove terrorist content online within 1 hour