European Green Deal to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050
On 11 December the European Commission presented the European Green Deal – a roadmap for making the EU's economy sustainable by turning climate and environmental challenges into opportunities across all policy areas and making the transition just and inclusive for all. It covers all sectors of the economy, notably transport, energy, agriculture, buildings, and industries such as steel, cement, ICT, textiles and chemicals. The Commission will present within 100 days the first ‘European Climate Law'. To reach the EU's climate and environmental ambition, the Commission will also present a Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, a new Industrial Strategy and Circular Economy Action Plan, a Farm to Fork Strategy for sustainable food and proposals for pollution-free Europe. Work will immediately start for upping Europe's 2030 emissions targets, setting a realistic path to the 2050 goal.
Sectoral factsheets
Speech by President von der Leyen before the European Parliament plenary
Commission reinforces tools to ensure Europe's interests in international trade
On 12 December, the European Commission published a proposal that will allow the European Union to protect its trade interests despite the paralysis of the multilateral dispute settlement system in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The proposal to amend the existing Enforcement Regulation comes as a direct reaction to the blockage of the operations of the WTO Appellate Body. It will enable the EU to react even if the WTO is not delivering a final ruling at the appellate level because another WTO member block the dispute procedure by appealing into the void. This new mechanism will also apply to the dispute settlement provisions included in regional or bilateral trade agreements to which the EU is party. The EU must be able to respond resolutely in case trade partners hinder effective dispute settlement resolution, for instance, by blocking the composition of panels.
To further increase the focus on compliance and enforcement of the EU's trade agreements, the Commission also created the position of Chief Trade Enforcement Officer.
More
Commission approves public support for a pan-European project on batteries
On 9 December, the European Commission approved under EU State aid rules an Important Project of Common European interest (“IPCEI”) jointly notified by Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden to support research and innovation in the common European priority area of batteries. In the coming years, the seven member states will provide up to €3.2 billion (£2.7 billion) in funding for this project. This is expected to unlock an additional €5 billion (£4.2 billion) in private investments. The completion of the overall project is planned for 2031 (with differing timelines for each sub-project).
More about the project
EU-US Justice and home Affairs ministerial meeting
On 11 December 2019, the EU-US ministerial meeting on Justice and Home Affairs took place in Washington DC The meeting takes place twice a year and aims to oversee transatlantic cooperation in the area of justice and home affairs and address common security threats. The two sides reaffirmed that fighting terrorism in all its forms remains their top common priority. They stated that the agreement on Passenger Name Records (PNR) remains an important instrument for enhancing the security of their citizens. The participants acknowledged that threats to security take increasingly different forms and discussed means to enhance cooperation on countering hybrid threats. The United States of America was represented by Attorney General William Barr and Acting Secretary for Homeland Security Chad Wolf. The European Union was represented by the Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, as well as Finnish Minister of Justice Anna-Maja Henriksson, Finnish Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior Ilkka Salmi, Croatian Minister of the Interior Davor Božinović, and Croatian Minister of Justice Dražen Bošnjaković, on behalf of the current and incoming Presidencies of the Council of the European Union.
Joint statement
New EU Air safety list
On 9 December the European Commission updated the EU Air Safety List, the list of airlines that do not meet international safety standards and are subject to an operating ban or operational restrictions within the European Union. The list helps to maintain high levels of safety in the EU, but it also helps affected airlines and countries to improve their levels of safety. Following the update, a total of 115 airlines are banned from EU skies:
- 109 airlines certified in 15 states due to a lack of safety oversight by the aviation authorities from these countries;
- six individual airlines based on safety concerns with the airlines themselves: Avior Airlines (Venezuela), Iran Aseman Airlines (Iran), Iraqi Airways (Iraq), Blue Wing Airlines (Suriname), Med-View Airlines (Nigeria) and Air Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe).
An additional three airlines are subject to operational restrictions and can only fly to the EU with specific aircraft types: Air Koryo (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), Air Service Comores (the Comoros) and Iran Air (Iran).
More
All this week's key European Commission announcements can be found here
|