European Union

Police detained over 300 people in Minsk on Sunday, Belarus' interior ministry said, after thousands joined opposition rallies for the 18th consecutive weekend since the disputed election in August. The EU is drawing up a third round of sanctions against the regime of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, due to be imposed in mid-December. It blacklisted him and his oldest son, Viktor, last month amid reports of police torture.

Top-level talks between Brussels and London over the weekend failed to bridge gaps in Brexit talks, according to a joint statement by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and British prime minister Boris Johnson Saturday. "Significant differences remain on three critical issues: level playing field, governance, and fisheries," they said, adding that negotiators would resume talks on Monday morning and leaders would speak again by phone on Monday evening.

"How well I'm screwed," was the then Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat's first thought on 16 October 2017, when he found out his country's best-known journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, had just been murdered by a car bomb.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued to bait French president Emmanuel Macron ahead of an EU summit on Turkey relations. "With Macron, France is living in very dangerous times. I hope France gets rid of the Macron problem as soon as possible," Erdoğan said in Istanbul Friday, outside Hagia Sophia, a re-consecrated mosque. Erdoğan earlier called Macron "mentally ill" over a dispute on Macron's crackdown against Islamist radicals.

MEPs have fought for and obtained better support for key EU programmes creating jobs, tackling the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and boosting climate action.
Committee on Budgets

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

In the context of the exponential growth of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the President of the European Parliament has announced a number of measures to contain the spread of epidemic and to safeguard Parliament's core activities.

The current precautionary measures adopted by the European Parliament to contain the spread of COVID-19 do not affect work on legislative priorities. Core activities are reduced, but maintained to ensure that the institution's legislative, budgetary, scrutiny functions are maintained.

The meetings will be with remote participation for Members (being able to view and listen to proceedings, ask for the floor and intervene in the meeting). Other participants are invited to follow the meeting through webstreaming.

Following these decisions, the next meeting of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) will take place on 27 and 28 January 2021 (online).

New EP calendar 2020
SEDE meetings' calendar 2020
Press release: MEPs call for unity in Common Security and Defence Policy - 4 December 2020
Press release: MEPS to examine prospects of the EU space defence sector - 27 November 2020
Common Security and Defence Policy: Disinformation targeting EU missions and operations - 16 November 2020
Press release: Security and Defence Subcommittee MEPs will discuss continuing threat from Daesh - 27 October 2020
Press release: MEPs reiterate their support for Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons - 21 October 2020
Press release: - PESCO: MEPs call Member States to deepen defence cooperation at EU level - 21 October 2020
Press release: Implementation of the CSDP: MEPs to discuss the annual draft report 2019 - 15 October 2020
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

MEPs will hear about the progress on authorising Covid-19 vaccines and vote on measures tackling the spread of child pornography online.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

On Friday, EU legislators reached a provisional agreement on how EU countries will be able to spend funds allocated to fisheries and aquaculture for 2021-2027.
Committee on Fisheries

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Length of video : 134'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Length of video : 85'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Length of video : 103'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Length of video : 175'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

AMENDMENTS 1 - 268 - Draft report Recommendation to the Council on the "75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly"
Committee on Foreign Affairs
María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Austrian Airlines
Transport
According to Advocate General Pikamäe, the mere diversion of a flight to an alternative airport which is near the airport for which the booking was made does not give rise to a right to lump-sum compensation

Commission v Belgium and Magnetrol International
State aid
Tax rulings: According to Advocate General Kokott, the Commission was right to consider that the Belgian practice of making downward adjustments to profits of undertakings forming part of multinational groups constituted an aid scheme

Commission v Spain (Détérioration de l’espace naturel de Doñana)

According to Advocate General Kokott, the excessive abstraction of groundwater in the Andalusian Doñana natural area infringes EU law

Hungary v Parliament
Law governing the institutions
According to Advocate General Bobek, the Court should dismiss Hungary’s action against the Parliament’s resolution on the triggering of a procedure for determining the existence of a clear risk of a serious breach by this Member State of the EU’s fundamental values

Star Taxi App
Approximation of laws
A service that puts taxi passengers directly in touch with taxi drivers by means of an electronic application constitutes an information society service where it does not form an integral part of an overall service the principal component of which is the provision of transport

Région de Bruxelles-Capitale v Commission
Agriculture and fisheries
The Brussels Capital Region’s action for annulment of the Commission’s Implementing Regulation renewing the approval of the active substance ‘glyphosate’ is inadmissible

Disinformation is an endemic and ubiquitous part of politics throughout the Western Balkans, without exception. A mapping of the disinformation and counter-disinformation landscapes in the region in the period from 2018 through 2020 reveals three key disinformation challenges: external challenges to EU credibility; disinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic; and the impact of disinformation on elections and referenda. While foreign actors feature prominently – chiefly Russia, but also China, Turkey, and other countries in and near the region – the bulk of disinformation in the Western Balkans is produced and disseminated by domestic actors for domestic purposes. Further, disinformation (and information disorder more broadly) is a symptom of social and political disorder, rather than the cause. As a result, the European Union should focus on the role that it can play in bolstering the quality of democracy and governance in the Western Balkans, as the most powerful potential bulwark against disinformation.
Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP