European Union

A second British cabinet minister resigned on Thursday morning rather than supporting the Brexit withdrawal deal agreed between the UK and the EU on Wednesday night. Esther McVey quit as secretary for work and pensions, just minutes after the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, also resigned - throwing the agreement, and Theresa May's authority as prime minister, into question. Parliament is set to vote on the deal in December.

Tempus Energy and Tempus Energy Technology v Commission
State aid
The General Court annuls the Commission’s decision not to raise objections to the aid scheme establishing a capacity market in the UK

Kuhn
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
The ‘Brussels Ia’ Regulation is not applicable in determining which Member State’s courts have jurisdiction to rule on claims brought against the Greek State by an individual holding Greek sovereign bonds following their forced exchange in 2012

Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Württemberg
Transport
Air carriers who do not express air fares for intra-Community flights in euros are required to indicate those fares in a local currency objectively linked to the service offered

Dominic Raab, the UK Brexit secretary, dramatically resigned on Thursday morning, just hours after signing off on the withdrawal agreement agreed between the UK and the EU. Raab, in his resignation letter, cited the Northern Ireland border and the 'backstop' as issues he could not agree to. The resignation, possibly to be followed by others, throws into doubt the deal only agreed by the UK cabinet on Wednesday night.

Deutsche Telekom v Commission
State aid
The General Court upholds the decisions of the European Commission classifying the Spanish tax scheme for the amortisation of ‘financial’ goodwill as State aid incompatible with the internal market

Plenary - Strasbourg

Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

Some 43 Romanian MPs have signed a petition urging the government to adopt a 'Magnitsky Act', imposing sanctions on human rights abusers, named after Russian anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky. "Today the campaign for a Romanian Magnitsky Act began," Bill Browder, Magnitsky's former employer, who is behind the campaign, said. Four EU states, plus Canada and the US, have them in place, amid a Dutch proposal for action at EU level.

Romania's ruling party has, literally, shown the middle finger to EU institutions as it prepares to take on the bloc's presidency next year.

Greek anti-money laundering authorities have ordered the opening of former Pasok prime minister Costas Simitis and his family's bank accounts, as well as those of Simitis' public order minister, Michalis Chrisochoidis in relation to bribe allegations related to the acquisition of a security system for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Simitis said he has "nothing to hide".

European Council president Donald Tusk announced Thursday that EU leaders will meet for a summit to formalise the Brexit deal on Sunday 25 November, at 9:30AM – "if nothing extraordinary happens" between now and then. He said that EU ambassadors will meet by the end of this week to discuss the agreement. "I hope there will not be too many comments," said Tusk, after meeting EU negotiator Michel Barnier.

EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Wednesday that the EU has a list of potential retaliation targets ready in case US president Donald Trump imposes auto tariffs on EU member states. "It could be cars, it could be the agricultural sector, it can be anything," Malmstrom said after a conversation with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington. The list still needs to be coordinated with the member states.

Illegal border crossings into the EU have dropped to a five-year low, with Spain now the main destination, accounting for 60 percent of new arrivals, the EU's border agency Frontex said on Wednesday. Frontex reported 118,900 illegal border crossings in the first 10 months of the year, which is more than 30 percent lower than in the same period in 2017.

The scandal over a dubious and possibly illegal transfer of €130,000 from a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company to fund the election of German AfD MP Alice Weidel grew on Thursday, with the AfD admitting Weidel also received €150,000 in February from a Belgium foundation, Stichting Identiteit Europa. The money was transferred from the Netherlands. The AfD party returned the full amount in May, three months after receiving it, it said.

The tentative Brexit deal grudgingly approved by the British cabinet on Wednesday (14 November) could yet fall apart, but for one man it is already a personal victory.

There can be no wind or solar energy, no smart grids and no electric vehicles without copper, aluminium or steel, to name but a few. What Europe must do is enable advanced processing of materials in order to close the loop, writes Dr Katia Lacasse.

Cyprus has overlooked undertakings on bank probity made to the EU in the context of the 2013 bailout - but it might prove harder to get the US off its back.

Brexit talks have reached "decisive progress" after May's cabinet backed the draft deal on Wednesday, but the EU27 still have to comb through the massive text and British MPs still have to agree.

EU ambassadors agreed the Council's position on a proposal for a regulation which will strengthen the security of identity cards of EU citizens and of residence documents issued to EU citizens and their non-EU family members.

British Prime Minister Theresa May won the backing of her senior ministers for a draft European Union divorce deal on Wednesday (14 November), but getting parliament to approve the agreement is a much bigger challenge.