Friday
21st Jul 2017
By EUOBSERVER
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker agreed at the G20 summit in Hamburg to start the provisional application of the EU-Canada free trade deal (Ceta) on 21 September this year. Some chapters, for instance on the investor court system, will not be applied. The accord will enter fully into force once all EU member states ratify it.
Friday will mark 128 days since elections in the Netherlands. Four parties are negotiating to form a government coalition.
Lawmakers in Poland adopted a controversial reform of the Supreme Court, despite warnings from the EU that the move could trigger a sanction procedure over the rule of law.
EU and UK negotiators presented their Brexit positions to identify common grounds this week, but that was made difficult by the scarcity of UK position papers.
EU law professor Ellen Vos says the commission's proposed mini-reform on comitology, an obscure but often-used method of EU lawmaking, should go much further.
Candidates from all political families should be presenting their vision on where the Union should be headed. European socialists want to keep the Spitzenkandidat procedure for future elections.
Huge amounts of money from criminal activities are funnelled into the legitimate European economy. But little is being done about it at EU or national level.
