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Press material Tuesday 6 June 2023

● Council of the EU   06/06/2023 22:26 | Press release | Council and Parliament reach provisional political agreement on financial services contracts concluded at a distance   The Council and the Parliament have reached today a provisional political agreement on the directive concerning financial services contracts concluded at a distance. The agreed text simplifies existing legislation, increases consumer protection, and creates a level playing field for financial services concluded online, via telephone or through other forms of remote marketing. "Once the directive comes into force, consumers in the single market will be assured a higher level of protection when accessing new financial products and services from their phones and computers." Gunnar Strömmer, Swedish Minister for Justice Digital market, digital protection With the development of IT technologies, an increasing number of financial services such as credit, insurance, investments or pension plans are promoted online, and the contracts for these services are concluded at a distance. This can facilitate access to classical or innovative financial products, but consumers are often more vulnerable to practices such as the use of interfaces designed to trick users and divert their attention towards products or services they did not wish to sign up for (dark patterns) or unclear, long or deceptive contracts that, once signed, are difficult to withdraw from. The growing number of distance financial services, in particular during the COVID pandemic, required updating the existing EU legislation in this field, i.e. the 2002 directive on distance marketing of consumer financial services. The Commission proposal, presented on 11 May 2022, repeals the 2002 directive, and introduces new provisions for financial services contracts concluded at a distance as an additional chapter of the Consumer Rights Directive (CRD) which protect consumers in all kinds of commercial practices. It simplifies the legislative framework and certain articles of the CRD will also apply to financial services sold at a distance. Main elements of the agreement The political agreement clarifies the scope of application and the safety net-feature in the directive, in particular for financial services that are excluded from other sectoral legislation or only partially covered by it. The agreement improves the rules on information disclosure and aims to modernise pre-contractual information obligations and keeps the possibility for member states to impose stricter national rules in this area, thus avoiding any risk of lowering the level of protection for consumers. Where the trader uses online tools, such as robo-advice or chatbots, the consumer will have the right to request human intervention, in order to better understand the effects of the contract on his or her financial situation. The agreement facilitates exercise of the right of withdrawal from contracts concluded at distance through the inclusion in the service provider’s interface of a ‘withdrawal function’ which is easy to find. The objective of this withdrawal function is to raise consumers’ awareness of their rights of withdrawal and ensure that to withdraw from a contract is not more burdensome than to enter it. Since this is important for all kinds of distance selling the withdrawal function is applied to all contracts concluded at a distance, not only financial services contracts. The new text introduces additional protection for consumers from dark patterns. Once the agreed text is in force, member states will have to take measures to limit the use of dark pattern marketing techniques to influence consumer’s choices. The political agreement also adds further provisions from the CRD to financial services contracts concluded at a distance. These include provisions on inertia selling (the sending of unsolicited goods or services to potential customers to make a sale).

Press material Tuesday 6 June 2023

● Council of the EU   06/06/2023 14:48 | Press release | Criminal money: Council and European Parliament reach deal on access to financial information   The presidency and the European Parliament today reached a provisional agreement on a proposed EU law to speed up and ease the access of national authorities to financial information. Access to financial information is an important instrument in financial investigations and in efforts to trace and confiscate the proceeds of crime. "Access to financial information is a crucial instrument to trace and confiscate proceeds of crimes. Thanks to the agreement reached by the council and the European Parliament, our police authorities will have better access to illegal money flows." Gunnar Strömmer, Swedish minister for justice, In order to comply with a soon to be adopted anti-money laundering directive, EU countries will have to make information from centralised bank account registers available through a single access point. The centralised bank account registers contain data on who has which bank account and where. Thanks to the agreement reached today, not only national financial intelligence units (FIUs), but also national authorities dealing with criminal offences will have access to these registers through this single access point. This will greatly help law enforcement and judicial authorities to fight criminal offences as they currently have to collect this information via the regular cross-border cooperation channels. The European Parliament agreed to the Council’s proposal to require that financial institutions share transaction records (i.e. bank statements) in a harmonised format when they are sharing them as part of an investigation. A harmonised format will greatly help and speed up law enforcement agencies’ work.

Press material Tuesday 6 June 2023

● Council of the EU   06/06/2023 11:22 | Press release | Organic pet food: Council and Parliament agree on new labelling rules   The Council has reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on the labelling of organic pet food. The regulation agreed on today will make it easier for consumers in the EU to buy organic food for their pets. "For many of us, pets are an important part of our family, and we care about what they eat. As a result of today’s agreement, it will be easier for pet owners to choose organic food for their pets." Peter Kullgren, Swedish Minister for Rural Affairs Greater certainty for consumers and producers Under the new regulation, pet food will qualify for the EU’s organic production logo if 95% of its agricultural ingredients are organic, in line with the standards applied to food intended for human consumption. The new rules maintain the EU’s high standards for organic products while ensuring that pet-food producers are not prevented from using the organic label due to excessively strict criteria. The regulation also makes it easier for consumers to identify organic ingredients in the pet food they buy. This includes agricultural ingredients in pet food that mostly contains products from hunting and fishing. Today’s deal resolves an issue that has existed since early 2022, when new, EU-wide criteria came into force that required agricultural ingredients in processed animal feed to be 100% organic in order to qualify for the organic label. This requirement was impossible for many pet-food producers to satisfy due to a lack of availability of appropriate organic ingredients. Encouraging organic production The regulation adopted today aligns the rules for organic pet food with those of food produced for human consumption, which set the minimum level for organic agricultural ingredients at 95%. This approach also reflects the concern that many owners feel for their pets’ health and nutrition. By removing the need for 100% of agricultural ingredients to be certified as organic, the new rules eliminate a crucial barrier to organic production, making it more feasible for pet-food producers to satisfy the requirements for organic labelling. This means that more producers will be able to enter the organic market, increasing the availability of organic pet food and contributing to the EU’s organic farming goals under the Farm to Fork Strategy. Next steps Member states’ representatives to the EU will be asked to approve the agreement reached with the Parliament at an upcoming meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture. The text of the regulation will then undergo legal and linguistic revision before being adopted by ministers at a forthcoming Council meeting. Background Regulation (EU) 2018/848 on organic production and labelling of organic products has been in application since 1 January 2022. Prior to 2022, the requirements for organic pet food were generally set at national level, meaning that pet food could be labelled as organic if not all the ingredients came from organic production. This changed under Regulation 2018/848, which stipulated that processed animal feed could only carry an organic label if 100% of its agricultural ingredients and at least 95% of its dry ingredients were organic. However, these rules were impossible for many producers of pet food to satisfy due to the restricted availability in organic form of certain necessary agricultural ingredients, such as certain feed materials to enhance the palatability of pet food, or to guarantee nutritional value. The Commission adopted its proposal for a regulation on the labelling of organic pet food on 28 November 2022, with the aim of clarifying the situation for producers and consumers by establishing specific labelling rules for pet food. The proposal stipulates that at least 95% (in terms of weight) of the agricultural ingredients in pet food need to be organic in order to qualify for the EU organic logo. Moreover, the organic production logo of the European Union will be mandatory for prepacked pet food labelled as organic. From farm to fork (background information)

Press material Monday 5 June 2023

● Council of the EU   05/06/2023 19:01 | Press release | Human rights violations in Russia: EU lists individuals responsible for Vladimir Kara-Murza’s sentencing and degrading treatment   Today the Council imposed restrictive measures against nine individuals, under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime, for sentencing the Russian opposition politician, democracy activist and outspoken Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison on politically motivated charges and false allegations. The EU strongly condemns the ruling and calls on Russia to immediately and unconditionally release Vladimir Kara-Murza and all those imprisoned for politically motivated charges. "Vladimir Kara-Murza’s outrageously harsh prison sentence clearly demonstrates the political misuse of the Russian judiciary in order to suppress civil society and independent voices opposing Russia’s illegitimate war of aggression against Ukraine. Today’s sanctions decision demonstrates once again the European Union’s determination to stand in solidarity with all those who are prosecuted, imprisoned or intimidated for fighting for human rights, speaking the truth." Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy The individuals listed today include the Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation responsible for enforcing the “foreign agents” legislation that has been at the centre of a wave of repressive laws cracking down on independent civil society, media as well as dissenting individuals. Judges and other members of the judiciary are also included, as well as a senior officer of the Russian penitentiary system responsible for the degrading treatment, which has led to a considerable deterioration of Kara-Murza’s health. EU restrictive measures under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime now apply to a total of 43 individuals and 15 entities. Those designated are subject to an asset freeze and EU citizens and companies are forbidden from making funds available to them. Natural persons are additionally subject to a travel ban, which prevents them from entering or transiting through EU territories. The EU is concerned about the continuing deterioration of the human rights situation in Russia. Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine has amplified internal repression in Russia, drastically limiting the freedom of opinion and expression and media freedom and introducing war censorship. The EU continues to strongly condemn the severe expansion of restrictive legislation and systematic repression against civil society and human rights defenders, as well as unabated crackdown on independent media, individual journalists, political opposition members and other critical voices.

Meetings Monday 5 June 2023

● Council of the EU   05/06/2023 13:39 | MEETING | Agenda highlights - Justice and Home Affairs Council, 8-9 June 2023   At the meeting of ministers of the interior, the presidency will aim to reach an agreement on two key migration files – the asylum and migration management regulation and the asylum procedure regulation. This would allow to start negotiations with the European Parliament. Both pieces of legislation are part of the pact on migration and asylum which consists of a set of proposals to reform EU migration and asylum rules. In the justice area, the Council will aim to adopt general approaches on the following draft laws: directive against strategic lawsuits against public participation, directive on combatting violence against women and domestic violence, directive on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings, directive on the definition of criminal offices and penalties for violations of Union restrictive measures and directive on asset recovery and confiscation. 05/06/2023 13:00 | Press release Press Conference with Minister Erik Slottner at Digital Assembly 2023 Thursday, 15 June, Sweden’s Minister for Public Administration Erik Slottner will hold a press conference during the Digital Assembly 2023. Mr Slottner will present Sweden’s accomplishments regarding digitalisation during its Presidency of the Council of the European Union. 05/06/2023 12:00 | Article Important discussions on digitalisation in the EU On 2 June, EU digitalisation ministers met in Luxembourg to attend the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (Telecommunications) meeting. At the meeting, the ministers discussed the future of the connectivity sector and how to promote investments for the deployment of electronic communication infrastructure.