Council of the EU,update

 

Press material Monday, 29 April 2024

● Council of the EU   29/04/2024 11:57 | Press release | The Council gives the final green light to the prolongation of a child sexual abuse protection measure   Today, the Council adopted a regulation prolonging an interim measure to combat online child sexual abuse. The interim measure will be extended until 3 April 2026. Main elements The regulation which was adopted today sustains a derogation from data protection rules in the electronic communications sector which allows providers of so-called number-independent interpersonal communications services (e.g. messaging services) to use specific technologies for the processing of personal and other data to detect online child sexual abuse on their services, to report and to remove it. The prolongation also forsees that, in order to obtain comprehensive reporting and comparable statistics, providers should make the information about the reports of detected online child sexual abuse that they submit to the authorities and the Commission available in a structured format. Next steps The regulation enters into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. It is directly applicable in all member states. Background The derogation, first agreed in 2021 and now extended until 3 April 2026 will bridge the gap until a new EU law, currently on the table of the Council and the European Parliament, offers a long-term legal framework for the detection of online child sexual abuse.   Prevention of online child sexual abuse (background information)

Meetings Monday, 29 April 2024

● Council of the EU   29/04/2024 12:25 | Meetings | Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council, 7 May 2024   Background brief - Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council, 7 May 2024

Press material Monday, 29 April 2024

● Council of the EU   29/04/2024 12:48 | Press release | Gigabit infrastructure act: Council gives final green light to faster deployment of high-speed networks in the EU   To ensure faster deployment of digital network infrastructure across Europe, today the Council adopted the gigabit infrastructure act, which will replace the 2014 broadband cost reduction directive (BCRD). The new law aims to simplify and accelerate the roll-out of high-speed networks, such as fibre and 5G, with a view to achieving Europe’s connectivity objectives and targets set out in the digital compass for this decade. The adoption of the gigabit infrastructure act reflects our commitment to tackle administrative burden and boost the roll-out of high-speed networks. This will allow our citizens to surf faster and have a better digital experience using fibre or 5G. Petra De Sutter, Belgian deputy prime and minister of public administration, public enterprises, telecommunication, and postal services The new regulation also aims to lower the unnecessarily high costs of the deployment of high-capacity networks partially caused by permit-granting procedures. The latter will be simplified through a mandatory conciliation mechanism between public sector bodies and telecom operators.  The new legislation will further provide more transparency and ensure efficient planning for operators of public electronic communications networks. To achieve better access to information society services by the public and the enterprises, the gigabit infrastructure act also addresses deployment and access to in-building physical infrastructure.  Moreover, the new law allows some degree of flexibility to member states, such as carve-outs for critical national infrastructure. Finally, given that the present retail price cap for regulated intra-EU communications will expire on 14 May 2024, the current caps of €0,19 per minute for calls and €0,06 per SMS message are extended until 30 June 2032 to ensure protection, especially for vulnerable consumers.  Next steps The text will be published in the EU’s Official Journal in the coming days and enter into force three days after this publication. The new law will apply 18 months after its entry into force with some specific provisions applying at a later stage.  Background The digital targets on which the BCRD was based have either been reached or become obsolete since 2014. Other factors have made its revision necessary as well. Low returns on equity and high investment costs that prevail in the telecom industry have started to derail the progress to reach the 2030 digital targets of the digital decade policy programme with an investment gap of around €65 billion annually. The Commission (Thierry Breton, commissioner for internal market) submitted the proposal for the gigabit infrastructure act in February 2023. Alin Mituta (Renew Europe / RO) was the European Parliament’s rapporteur on this file and a provisional agreement between the co-legislators was reached on 3 February 2024. Gigabit infrastructure act, 29 April 2024 Gigabit infrastructure act: Council and Parliament strike a deal for faster deployment of high-speed networks in the EU (press release, 6 February 2024) Gigabit infrastructure act, Council’s progress report, 3 June 2023 Gigabit infrastructure act, Commission proposal, 23 February 2023 Broadband cost reduction directive (BCRD), 23 May 2014

Press material Monday, 29 April 2024

● Council of the EU   29/04/2024 11:32 | Press release | Economic governance review: Council adopts reform of fiscal rules   Today the Council adopted three pieces of legislation that will reform the EU’s economic and fiscal governance framework. The main objective of the reform is to ensure sound and sustainable public finances, while promoting sustainable and inclusive growth in all member states through reforms and investment. The new legislation will significantly improve the existing framework and provide effective and applicable rules for all EU countries. They will safeguard balanced and sustainable public finances, increase the focus on structural reforms and investments to spur growth and job creation throughout the EU. The time is now for a swift implementation. Vincent Van Peteghem, Deputy prime minister and minister of finance of Belgium The reform’s overall objective is to reduce debt ratios and deficits in a gradual, realistic, sustained and growth-friendly manner, while protecting reforms and investments in strategic areas such as digital, green or defence. At the same time, the new framework will provide appropriate room for counter-cyclical policies and help address existing macroeconomic imbalances. Preventive measures for sound public finances Under the new rules, all member states will be asked to prepare a national medium-term fiscal structural plan that spans over 4-5 years, depending on the length of the national legislature. In their plans, member states commit to a multi-year public net expenditure path and explain how they will deliver investments and reforms that respond to the main challenges identified in the context of the European Semester, in particular in the country-specific recommendations. Ahead of this, the Commission will submit a ‘reference trajectory’ for net expenditure developments to member states where government debt exceeds the 60% of gross domestic product (GDP) or where the government deficit exceeds the 3% of GDP. The reference trajectory, takes into account each country’s specific sustainability challenges and indicates how member states can ensure that by the end of a fiscal adjustment period of four years, government debt is put or remains on a plausibly downward path or stays at prudent levels over the medium-term. The new rules contain two safeguards that the reference trajectory must comply with: a debt sustainability safeguard, to ensure a minimum decrease in public debt levels and a deficit resilience safeguard, to provide a safety margin below the Treaty public deficit reference value of 3% of GDP, in order to create fiscal buffers. The member states will incorporate a net expenditure path into their national medium-term fiscal structural plans. The national plans, including the net expenditure paths, will need to be endorsed by the Council. A control account will record deviations from the country-specific net expenditure paths. The new rules will further encourage structural reforms and public investments that enhance sustainability and growth. Member states will be allowed to ask for an extension of the plan to a maximum of seven years, if they commit to a set of certain reforms and investments that improve resilience and growth potential, support fiscal sustainability and address common priorities of the EU. These include achieving a fair, green and digital transition, ensuring energy security, strengthening social and economic resilience and, where necessary, the build-up of defence capabilities. Correcting excessive public debts and deficits The reform updates the excessive deficit procedure. While the deficit-based excessive deficit procedure remains unchanged, the debt-based excessive deficit procedure takes into account the operation of the new multi-annual framework. In order to kick-start a debt-based excessive deficit procedure, the Commission will prepare a report when: the ratio of the government debt to GDP exceeds the reference value the budgetary position is not close to balance or in surplus and the deviations recorded in the control account of the member state either exceed 0.3 percentage points of GDP annually, or 0.6 percentage points of GDP cumulatively Consistent with earlier practice, the Council and the Commission will make a balanced overall assessment of all the relevant factors that affect the assessment of compliance with the deficit and/or the debt criteria of the member state concerned. These include among other things, the degree of public debt challenges, the size of the deviation, developments in the medium-term economic position, the progress in the implementation of reforms and investments and, where applicable the increase of government spending on defence. As a reminder, when the excessive deficit procedure is opened on the basis of the deficit criterion, the corrective net expenditure path should be consistent with a minimum annual structural adjustment of at least 0.5% of the GDP. Temporarily, the Commission may in 2025, 2026 and 2027, take into account the increase in interest payments when setting the proposed corrective path within the excessive deficit procedure. The fine in case of non-compliance will amount to up to 0.05% of GDP and accumulate every six months until effective action by the member state concerned is taken. The new rules also better specify the functioning of the general and country-specific escape clauses. Next steps The three texts will be published in the EU’s official Journal tomorrow and enter into force on the day of their publication. Background Economic governance is a key pillar of the architecture of the Economic and Monetary Union, since 1992, aiming to prevent and correct macroeconomic imbalances that could weaken national economies and affect other EU countries through cross-border spill overs. The EU economy has been facing renewed challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Against the backdrop of higher debt levels, interest rates and new common investment and reform goals linked to the twin transition, the EU decided to reform the stability and growth pact to further improve its effectiveness. On 26 April 2023, the Commission presented a package of three legislative proposals: two regulations aiming to replace (preventive arm) or amend (corrective arm) the two pillars of the stability and growth pact first adopted in 1997, and an amended 2011 directive on requirements for budgetary frameworks of member states. On 21 December 2023, the Council formally approved a mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament on the preventive arm regulation and an agreement in principle with a view to consulting the European Parliament on the corrective arm regulation and the directive on requirements for national budgetary frameworks. The Council negotiator was Vincent Van Peteghem, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Belgium. The European Parliament negotiators were co-rapporteurs Esther de Lange and Margarida Marques. The Commission was represented by Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni. The European Council has provided political impetus on the reform, most recently at its meeting on 26-27 October 2023. Regulation of the Council and the European parliament on the effective coordination of economic policies and on multilateral budgetary surveillance and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1466/97 Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1467/97 on speeding up and clarifying the implementation of the excessive deficit procedure Council Directive amending Directive 2011/85/EU on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States Economic governance framework (background information) Timeline - Economic governance framework (background information)

Press material Monday, 29 April 2024

● Council of the EU   29/04/2024 10:24 | Press release | Ethiopia: Council restricts visa provision   Today, the Council decided to temporarily suspend certain elements of the EU law that regulates the issuing of visas to Ethiopian nationals. In particular, it will no longer be possible for member states: to waive requirements with regard to the evidence to be submitted by Ethiopian visa applicants to issue multiple entry visas to waive the visa fee for holders of diplomatic and service passports Furthermore, the standard visa-processing period now becomes 45 calendar days instead of 15. This decision follows an assessment by the Commission, which concludes that cooperation by Ethiopia in the field of readmission of its nationals illegally staying in the EU is insufficient. There is a lack of response from the Ethiopian authorities with regard to readmission requests and difficulties persist with the issuance of emergency travel documents and with the organisation of both voluntary and non-voluntary return operations. The suspension decision is temporary but does not come with a specific end date. The Commission will continue to assess any progress made on readmission cooperation. Background Based on the EU visa code, the Commission regularly assesses the cooperation of third countries on readmission. These assessments may lead to the conclusion that a given third country does not cooperate sufficiently. In such cases, the EU may decide to suspend the application of certain provisions of the visa code. As regards Ethiopia, the Commission observed in particular a low return rate. Also, the number of travel documents issued by Ethiopia in response to member states’ readmission requests is low, which indicates a low level of cooperation. EU visa policy (background information)

Υλικό για τον Τύπο Δευτέρα, 29 Απριλίου 2024

● Συμβούλιο της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης   29/04/2024 10:44 | Δελτίο τύπου | EU-Japan: the Council approves a protocol to facilitate free flow of data (347/24)   The Council adopted today the decision on the conclusion of a protocol to include provisions on cross-border data flows in the agreement between the EU and Japan for an Economic Partnership. The protocol will provide greater legal certainty, ensuring that data flows between the EU and Japan will not be hampered by unjustified data localisation measures, and also ensuring the benefit from the free flow of data according to the EU and Japan’s rules on data protection and the digital economy. The protocol will enable companies to handle data efficiently without cumbersome administrative or storage requirements, and provide them with a predictable legal framework. Data localisation requirements, such as the physical storage of their data locally, will be removed. Business will avoid additional costs and complexities because they will not need to build and maintain data storage facilities in multiple places and duplicate the data they use, which would have a negative impact on their competitiveness and would also undermine the security of such data. At the same time, the protocol ensures that the rules on the protection of personal data and privacy of both the EU and Japan, which contribute to trust in the digital economy, will be fully respected. Next steps Once the agreement has been ratified by Japan, and the two sides have notified each other about the completion of their internal procedures, it can enter into force. Background On 26 September 2022, the Council approved negotiating directives for the Commission to negotiate the inclusion of provisions on cross-border data flows in the agreement between the EU and Japan for an Economic Partnership. The negotiations were concluded in principle on 28 October 2023. On 29 January 2024, the Council adopted the decision on the signing of the protocol and on 31 January the signature took place. On 14 March 2024, the European Parliament gave its consent to the protocol.  EU trade agreements (background information) EU-Japan (background information) EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (background information)

Library blog Monday, 29 April 2024

● General Secretariat of the Council   New books added to the Council Library's collection - April 2024   Discover our selection of books recently added to the Council Library collection.