Europe Daily News, 25 November 2024

COMPETITION

• Request for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato (Italy) of 10 September 2024 - Imballaggi Piemontesi Srl Vs. Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) (Case C-588/24, Imballaggi Piemontesi)
  Re: Articles 41 and 47 of the [Charter] and Article 46 of the [European Convention on Human Rights]; statement of objections; powers to impose penalties
• Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.11711 - JWL / Asia Pulp & PaperGroup)
• Withdrawal of notification of a concentration (Case M.11485 - Brasserie Nationale / Boissons Heintz)
• Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case M.11666 - Neveon / Brantner Österreich / JV)
• Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case M.11732 - Carlyle / Vantive)
• Commission seeks feedback on commitments offered by Corning over possible anticompetitive practices related to cover glass for electronic devices (AT.40728)
• Commission published its earlier decision to conditionally clear a merger between Danish bioscience companies Novozymes and Chr. Hansen (M.11043)
• Commission clears acquisition of DBUPH by DigitalBridge Group, AustralianSuper and Swiss Life (M.11796) - Midday Express
• Commission authorises the acquisition of joint control of FHH by CDPQ and ENGIE (M.11781) - Midday Express
• Commission clears acquisition of Seidor Solutions and Logistics by Carlyle (M.11736) - Midday Express
• Commission clears acquisition of ECH by LFPI and Apheon (M.11792) - Midday Express
• Slovak Republic - PMU carried out unannounced inspections of suppliers of devices for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases

STATE AID

• Authorisation for State aid pursuant to Articles 107 and 108 of the TFEU - Cases where the Commission raises no objections – SA.104316 & SA.115203
• Commission welcomes Greece's commitment to bring its tonnage tax scheme in compliance with State aid rules (SA.33828)
• Commission finds Estonian State aid to agricultural company Tartu Agro AS to be incompatible State aid (SA.39182)
• Answer given by EVP Vestager to a MEP written question - Consequences of the European Court of Justice judgment in Case C-465/20, Commission Vs. Ireland and others

TRADE & CUSTOMS

• Agenda for: Trade Policy Committee (Deputies) - 28 November 2024
• Agenda for: 661st meeting of the Export Credits Group - 4 December 2024
• Commission challenges China's anti-dumping tariffs on EU brandy at the WTO - see the Request for consultations
• Explanatory Notes to the Combined Nomenclature of the European Union (CN: 1902 20 10 to 1902 20 99)
• Explanatory Notes to the Combined Nomenclature of the European Union (CN: 3907 61 00 and 3907 69 00)
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) …/... of XXX concerning the classification of certain goods in the Combined Nomenclature (CN: 2106 90 98)
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) …/... of XXX concerning the classification of certain goods in the Combined Nomenclature (CN: 2208 90 69)
• WTO - Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures - European Union import tolerances for certain pesticides to achieve environmental outcomes in third countries - Specific trade concern 534 - Submission by the United States of America
• WTO - Facilitator urges members to be practical, flexible as dispute reform talks intensify
• Report: U.S.-EU Virtual Workshop on plastics recycling standards and definitions to support Transatlantic Trade - October 31, 2024
• Globalisation is not dead — it’s just changed - What happens next does not depend on the US alone, we are seeing a shift to a multipolar world - Financial Times
• German gloom deepens as Trump tariff threat rattles exporters - Acute vulnerability to a trade conflict could push struggling economy into recession, analysts warn - Financial Times
• Italian cheesemakers stockpile in US over fear of Trump tariffs - Exporters of dairy and olive oil made in Italy face shipping and storage crunch in run-up to Christmas - Financial Times
• Top Biden adviser warns of ‘chaos’ if Trump raises tariffs and guts IRA - White House’s senior economy official says president-elect’s plans will hurt US manufacturing - Financial Times
• EU extends tentative olive branch to Trump on trade - “We should not be opening old trade disputes, and we should be avoiding new trade disputes,” Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis says - Politico.eu

INTERNAL MARKET & INDUSTRY

• Agenda for: Meeting of the Technical Committee - Motor Vehicles - 04 December 2024
• Agenda for: Meeting of the Telecommunications Conformity Assessment and Market Surveillance Committee (TCAM) - 28 November 2024
• Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council on Compulsory Licensing for crisis management and amending Regulation (EC) 816/2006 – Four-column table

CHEMICAL

• Commission Regulation (EU) …/… of XXX amending Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAC) and 1- ethylpyrrolidin-2-one (NEP)
• Answer given by Ms Kyriakides to a MEP written question - Guidance on how to proceed when banned and highly carcinogenic pesticides are detected

ENERGY

• Action brought on 19 September 2024 – RWE Supply & Trading Vs. ACER (Case T-487/24)
  Re: annulment of the initial decision of 5 July 2024 (No 09/2024), in so far as the decision amends existing technical price limits and amends and maintains transitional price limits, in particular as regards Articles 2 and 4 to 6 of Annex I to the initial decision
• Agenda for: Meeting of the Energy Performance of Buildings Committee - 03 & 04 December 2024
• The Northvolt dilemma: can European EVs avoid relying on Asian batteries? - Governments, carmakers and investors must recraft the region’s strategy after the fall of the Swedish group - Financial Times

ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE CHANGE

• Agenda for: Meeting of the Climate Change Committee - 04 December 2024
• Minutes of the Meeting of the Expert Group for RoHS 2 adaptation and enforcement - 18 September 2024
• Thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents (TEIA COP 13) (Geneva, Switzerland, 27-29 November 2024) - First EU coordination
• Ninth session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, resumed, Fifth session of the meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment, resumed, (Geneva, 10 December 2024) - First EU coordination
• EU secures agreement on carbon market rules and new climate finance goal, with broader contributor base to drive clean investments, increase resilience and prepare the ground for further emission reductions*
• EU committed to the conclusion of a global agreement on plastic as final negotiations start (Global Plastics Treaty (INC-5)) - Midday Express
• Designing more sustainable products: 18 categories with high potential - See the new JRC report

AGRICULTURE & FISHERIES

• Agenda for: Meeting of the Standing Forestry Committee - 17 December 2024
• Minutes of the Meeting of the Standing Forestry Committee - 07 Octobber 2024

DATA PRIVACY & CYBERSECURITY

• Concluding report of the High-Level Group on access to data for effective law enforcement
• Implementation of the provisions on information exchange of the "Prüm Decisions" -
  - overview of documents and procedures; - overview of declarations & - state of play of implementation of automated data exchange

EURO, ECB & ECONOMY

• Council gives go-ahead to EU annual budget for 2025
• Interview of ECB's Philip R. Lane with Les Echos
• ECB Survey of Monetary Analysts (SMA), December 2024
• Eurosystem response to EU Commission’s consultation on macroprudential policies for non-bank financial intermediation (NBFI)
• US and Europe diverge on monetary policy as Trump scrambles outlook - Big central banks’ rates trajectories part ways as Eurozone wrestles with sluggish growth - Financial Times

FUTURE OF EUROPE

• Agenda for: Meeting of the Coreper (Part.1 & Part.2) - 27 November 2024

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

• Commission and HR/VP Borrell call for increased efforts to protect women and girls from violence
• Statement by President von der Leyen on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE

• Answer given by Ms Johansson to a MEP written question - Attack on Nord Stream 1 and 2
• Answer given by HR/VP Borrell to a MEP written question - New Ukrainian sanctions call into question the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement
• Answer given by Ms McGuinness to a MEP  written question - EU sanctions against Russia and the potential use of former Soviet republics to circumvent these sanctions

 DEFENCE

• France drops buy-EU demand for Brussels defence fund - Incentives promoting ‘strategic autonomy’ for Europe’s arms industry to be open to US, UK firms - Financial Times
• Can Europe defend itself with less American help? - The continent will have to spend more as Trump refocuses policy elsewhere. But replacing US military heft will not be easy - Financial Times