Council of the EU,update

 

Press material Thursday, 13 June 2024

● Council of the EU   13/06/2024 12:49 | Press release | Victims’ rights: Council finalises position on strengthened EU law   To ensure that all victims of crime in the EU receive the appropriate support, the Council agreed its position (general approach) on a proposed update to the 2012 Victims’ Rights Directive. This update will establish and strengthen minimum rules to ensure that victims of a crime receive protection, support and access to information and can seek justice. Victims of crime deserve society’s full support. Thanks to targeted and integrated support services for child victims, an EU-wide helpline and the right to receive emotional support in court we are taking another important step to honour this obligation. Paul Van Tigchelt, Minister of Justice Crime reporting, access to support services and support on court premises In order to facilitate access to justice, member states will have to ensure that victims can report criminal offences through easily accessible, user-friendly information and communication technologies. This possibility should, where feasible, include the submission of evidence.  In addition, victims will have to be contacted by the relevant general or specialist support services if an individual assessment reveals a need for support. This will, however, require the victim to consent or request that support. Member states will also have to guarantee that victims receive general information on the organisational aspects of the trial phase in criminal court proceedings and emotional support on the court premises. That information and support will need to be provided in accordance with victims’ individual needs. Victims’ helpline In order to make it easier for victims to access information about their rights and how to exercise those rights, member states have decided to put in place an easily accessible, user friendly, free of charge and confidential victim helpline. This helpline will be reachable through  an EU-wide harmonised phone number, 116 006. Member states may also choose to provide the helpline service through other means (such as live chats). The helpline will be available in the official language(s) of the member state and – depending on the country – at least one widely-used language.     Support for children The updated victims’ rights directive also pays special attention to the needs of children as victims of crime. Member states will have to ensure the availability of child-friendly and age-appropriate support and protection services.  Targeted and integrated support services will provide for a coordinated multi-agency mechanism for child victims that will include medical examination, emotional and psychological support, the possibility of crime reporting, the individual assessment of protection and support needs and the possibility of video recording of testimonies of child victims. Next steps On the basis of the general approach the Council will be able to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament, which established its position in April 2024, in order to agree on a final legislative text. Background In 2012 the EU adopted a directive to establish minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime. A recent evaluation report came to the conclusion that the directive broadly delivered the expected benefits for victims of crime but also identified a number of shortcomings. In replying to these shortcomings, the revision – which the European Commission presented on 12 July 2023 – aims to improve victims’ access to information and to enhance safety measures tailored to the specific needs of vulnerable victims. Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of a victim of crime (general approach), 24 May 2024 Press material Thursday, 13 June 2024   ● Council of the EU   13/06/2024 12:48 | Press release | Data protection: Council agrees position on GDPR enforcement rules   The Council today reached an agreement on a common member states’ position on a new law which will improve cooperation between national data protection authorities when they enforce the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Data protection is a key fundamental right and the GDPR is the EU’s most powerful tool to safeguard it. Now the EU is taking an important step to make enforcement of this law more efficient. Paul Van Tigchelt, Minister of Justice The GDPR requires national data protection authorities, which are responsible for enforcing the GDPR, to cooperate when a data protection case concerns cross-border processing. This is the case for instance when the complainant resides in a different member state than the company under investigation. Swift handling of cross-border complaints and improved cooperation Once adopted, the regulation will provide tools to speed up the process of handling cross-border complaints filed by citizens or organisations, and any follow-up investigations. This is notably thanks to the harmonisation of the requirements for a cross-border action to be admissible. Wherever in the EU a citizen files a complaint relating to cross-border data processing, the admissibility will be judged on the basis of the same information. It also clarifies the procedural deadlines and procedural steps of an investigation and for the adoption of a binding opinion by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), the organisation which brings together all national data protection authorities, in case of disagreement between data protection authorities. The Council agreed that throughout the cooperation procedure, national data protection authorities should be able to provide their views to the lead supervisory authority and that cooperation tools provided by the GDPR should be used in order to aim at consensus early on in investigations. Rights of complainants and parties under investigation The new regulation will harmonise the requirements and procedures for the complainant to be heard if a complaint is rejected and provides common rules on the involvement of the complainant in the procedure.  The right to be heard for the company or organisation that is being investigated is also ensured at key stages throughout the procedure, including during dispute resolution by the EDPB.  Main elements Council position The Council position maintains the general thrust of the proposal but amends the draft regulation in the following aspects: clearer timelines: Member states introduce specific timelines that intend to speed up the cooperation process enhanced and efficient cooperation: The Council supports the new enhanced cooperation procedure between data protection authorities but also provides the option of not applying all additional rules when a case is more simple and straightforward. This allows data protection authorities to avoid administrative burden and to act swiftly on non-contentious cases and take advantage of the newly introduced additional cooperation rules for more complex investigations early resolution mechanism: The Council introduces an early resolution mechanism which allows authorities to resolve a case prior to initiating the standard procedures for handling a cross-border complaint. This can be the case when the company or organisation in question has addressed the infringement or when an amicable settlement to the complaint has been found Next steps Today’s adoption of a general approach will allow the Council to start negotiations with the European Parliament, which has agreed its position in April 2024, in order to agree on a final legislative text. Background The GDPR is the EU's landmark data protection law which harmonises data protection rights across Europe. It applies to any organisation that deals with personal data of EU citizens or residents, regardless of where they are based. The GDPR has put in place a system of cooperation between national data protection bodies that on the one hand ensures a consistent application of the law throughout the EU and on the other hand allows a complainant to deal with its local data protection authority. In cross-border cases one national authority will take on the role of lead authority in the investigation. However, the lead authority is required to cooperate with its peers from other member states. The GDPR has been in application since 25 May 2018. Several reports on the application of the GDPR noted that the handling of cross-border issues was hampered by differences in administrative procedures. The procedural rules in the new regulation will address this concern. Data protection in the EU (background information) Regulation laying down procedural rules relating to the enforcement of t

Press material Thursday, 13 June 2024

● Council of the EU   13/06/2024 12:51 | Press release | EU-NATO: 9th progress report stresses the importance of ever closer cooperation at a key juncture for Euro-Atlantic security   The Council today took note of the ninth progress report on the implementation of the 74 common proposals endorsed by the EU and NATO Councils on 6 December 2016 and 5 December 2017.  The current challenges to international peace and stability - such as Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine, the war in Gaza, but also other crisis and tensions at the European Union's neighbourhood and beyond – make the transatlantic bond and close EU-NATO cooperation more important than ever. The two organisations continue to play complementary, coherent and mutually-reinforcing roles in supporting international peace and security to the benefit of all EU member states and NATO allies, with a view to upholding and promoting the shared values and interests of the Euro-Atlantic community. The report highlights and elaborates on the tangible progress achieved between June 2023 and May 2024 across the entire spectrum of EU-NATO cooperation agenda, underpinned by a continued robust political dialogue, such as: countering hybrid threats: the EU and NATO strengthened cooperation in response to threats of disruption of critical infrastructure, civil emergencies, resilience and counter terrorism. They exchanged real-time insights, reports and analysis on hostile information activities and Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), including disinformation operational cooperation, including maritime issues: the first ever talks on operational cooperation took place in June 2023, focusing on land and sea operations and missions, crisis management engagements and advance planning. The second iteration was held in March 2024 with exchanges focusing on missions in the Western Balkans and the Middle East/North Africa, crisis management engagements and crisis response cyber security and defence: engagement between the EU and NATO intensified, as reflected by the decision to upgrade the annual high-level staff talks on cyber security and defence to a Structured Dialogue on Cyber. Discussions also covered possible synergies among respective tools to address malicious cyber activities. The EU and NATO continued to coordinate cyber capacity building in the Western Balkans and other partners defence capabilities: Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and its implications have underscored the importance to ensure rapid and seamless movement of military forces and materiel. The Structured Dialogue on Military Mobility continued to serve as an effective tool for focused staff discussions on shared priorities and respective work strands, such as military requirements, transport infrastructure, transport of dangerous goods, customs, cross-border movement permissions and relevant exercises, and host nation support defence industries and research: both organisations continued consultations on wider defence industries matters and concrete topics related to industry engagement and support. Staff coordination also continued on the implementation of NATO’s Defence Production Action Plan and the establishment of the NATO Defence Industrial Production Board, as well as on the development of the European Defence Industrial Strategy and the European Defence Industry Programme. exercises: cooperation in the area of exercises contributed to increasing the resilience and preparedness of both organisations and their respective memberships. After the successful conclusion of the agreed Plan for Implementation of Parallel and Coordinated Exercises (PACE) in the 2022-2023 period, both organisations agreed to extend the PACE concept for the period 2024-2025 defence and security capacity building: following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, both organisations have stepped up their respective efforts in support of Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, Tunisia, and Mauritania. At the annual Staff Talks in May 2024, the two organizations agreed to continue their regular exchanges and cross-briefings both in Brussels and local level to enhance coordination and leverage potential synergies political dialogue: intensive political dialogue between the EU and NATO at all levels remains indispensable for further strengthening mutual understanding, building confidence, ensuring reciprocal transparency, as well as reinforcing the strong engagement of all EU member states and NATO allies. Mutual invitations to relevant high level ministerial meetings, public events, cross-briefings and well-established staff dialogues continued at a high pace. This political dialogue continues to underpin the well-established cooperation and contributes to further strengthening the EU-NATO strategic partnership The EU and NATO remain firmly committed to further strengthen, deepen and expand their mutually reinforcing and beneficial cooperation by exploring avenues for further collaboration across all existing work strands. Link to the report EU-NATO cooperation (background Information) EU security and defence: C

Press material Thursday, 13 June 2024

● Council of the EU   13/06/2024 12:50 | Press release | Trans-European transport network (TEN-T): Council gives final green light to new regulation ensuring better and sustainable connectivity in Europe   Today the Council adopted a revised regulation regarding EU guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T). The new law aims to build a reliable, seamless, and high-quality transport network that ensures sustainable connectivity across Europe without physical interruptions, bottlenecks, and missing links. The TEN-T network is a key instrument of the EU’s transport policy with a huge contribution to our sustainable mobility objectives, as well as to economic, social, and territorial cohesion. The adoption of the revised regulation today is definitely a milestone towards a sustainable and resilient network in Europe, which should address the mobility concerns of our citizens and businesses for the years to come. Georges Gilkinet, Belgian deputy prime minister and minister of mobility The TEN-T network will be developed or upgraded step by step with the new regulation setting clear deadlines for its completion in three phases: until 2030 for the core network, 2040 for the extended core network and 2050 for the comprehensive network. The new intermediary deadline of 2040 was introduced to advance the completion of large-scale, mainly cross-border projects, such as missing rail connections, ahead of the 2050 deadline that applies to the wider, comprehensive network. For example, new high-speed rail connections between Porto and Vigo, and Budapest and Bucharest, must be completed for 2040. As another example, upon the network’s completion, passengers will be able to travel between Copenhagen and Hamburg in 2.5 hours by train, instead of the 4.5 hours required today. To ensure infrastructure planning meets real operational needs and by integrating rail, road, and waterways, the new regulation merges the core network corridors with the rail freight corridors to the so-called ‘European Transport Corridors’.  These corridors are of the highest strategic importance for the development of sustainable and multimodal freight and passenger transport flows in Europe.  Finally, in response to the impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to ensure better connectivity with key neighbouring countries, the new regulation extends four European Transport Corridors of the TEN-T network to Ukraine and Moldova whilst downgrading cross-border connections with Russia and Belarus.  Next steps Following today’s adoption, the legislative act will be signed by the presidents of the Council and of the European Parliament before being published in the EU’s official journal in the coming weeks. The revised regulation will enter into force twenty days after this publication.  Background information The proposal for a revised regulation was adopted by the Commission on 13 December 2021 as part of the legislative package for efficient and green mobility. In response to the impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Commission adopted an amended proposal on 27 July 2022 introducing several changes to the initial text. The revised proposal calls for unification of the TEN-T network by using the European standard rail track gauge. It also strives for better connectivity of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova with the EU through the extension of the relevant European Transport Corridors. Barbara Thaler (EPP/AT) and Dominique Riquet (Renew Europe / FR) were the European Parliament’s co-rapporteurs on this file and a provisional agreement was reached between the co-legislators on 18 December 2023. Regulation on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network, 30 May 2024 Trans-European transport network (TEN-T): Council and Parliament strike a deal to ensure sustainable connectivity in Europe (press release, 18 December 2023) Regulation on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), Commission’s amended proposal, 27 July 2022 Revised regulation on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network, Commission proposal, 13 December 2021

Press material Thursday, 13 June 2024

● Council of the EU   13/06/2024 12:50 | Press release | European Peace Facility: Council adopts assistance measure to support the Republic of Moldova’s air defence capabilities   Today the Council adopted an assistance measure under the European Peace Facility (EPF) in support of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova to modernise the country’s air defence capabilities. The adopted assistance measure is worth €9 million, and will finance air defence systems’ short-range interceptors for the benefit of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova. It complements a €41 million assistance measure adopted on 4 April 2024, which sought to modernise the defence capacities of the Moldovan Armed Forces in the areas of mobility, air surveillance, electronic warfare and logistics. Building on four previous EPF assistance measures since 2021, this support will continue to enable the Moldovan Armed Forces to improve their operational effectiveness, accelerate meeting EU standards and interoperability, and thereby better protect critical civilian infrastructure as well as civilians in crises and emergencies. It will also enhance Moldova’s capacities to participate in EU military CSDP missions and operations. This new action brings EPF support to Moldova up to €137 million to date. Last year and in 2022, the EU adopted assistance measures worth €40 million each. The first assistance measure adopted in December 2021 was worth €7 million. The EU is committed to provide all relevant support to Moldova in addressing the challenges it faces as a consequence of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and to strengthen the country’s resilience, security and stability in the face of destabilising activities by Russia. Background  The European Peace Facility was established in March 2021 to finance all Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) actions in military and defence areas, with the aim of preventing conflict, preserving peace and strengthening international security and stability. In particular, the European Peace Facility allows the EU to finance actions designed to strengthen the capacities of third states and regional and international organisations as regards military and defence matters. European Peace Facility: Council adopts assistance measures in support of the Republic of Moldova and Ghana (press release, 4 April 2024) European Peace Facility (background information) EU relations with the Republic of Moldova (background information) EU cooperation on security and defence (background information)

Press material Thursday, 13 June 2024

● Council of the EU   13/06/2024 12:49 | Press release | EU to facilitate recruitment of third country jobseekers   Today, the Council agreed its position on a proposal for an EU Talent Pool. The Talent Pool will be set up as an EU-wide online platform that will match profiles of jobseekers from outside the EU with job vacancies for shortage occupations of EU employers. Its aim is to facilitate the recruitment of talent from third countries who live outside the EU, to make the EU labour market more competitive and to tackle shortages on the European labour market. The Council position aims to reconcile principles of fair recruitment with a secure and comprehensive migration system while also reinforcing the position of the European Union in the global race for talent.  The EU Talent Pool Jobseekers from third countries will be able to register their profiles on the Talent Pool platform and provide information about their skills, qualifications, work experience and language knowledge. The platform will also contain job vacancies from employers in the EU (in participating member states). The EU Talent Pool will help to overcome some of the challenges faced both by European employers who want to recruit internationally and by third country jobseekers. These challenges include uncertainty about the accuracy, quality and comparability of qualifications and skills obtained abroad, difficulties in accessing and understanding information about recruitment processes and the high costs associated with these procedures.  As the EU Talent Pool is meant to tackle the problem of labour market shortages, only job vacancies that refer to designated national or EU-wide shortage occupations will be listed on the EU Talent Pool. Main elements of the Council position In line with the Commission proposal, participation in the Talent Pool will remain voluntary for member states. However, the Council decided that when member states decide to join the scheme, they should indicate which entities are allowed to take part in the Talent Pool – employers, temporary work agencies, private employment agencies or labour market intermediaries. The Council has also put in place a withdrawal procedure, with clear rules and a number of safeguards to ensure stability in the system. According to the Council, a participating member state may withdraw from the EU Talent Pool at any time. However, it must notify its decision to the Commission not later than 6 months before the desired exit date.  Next steps Based on the position member states agreed on today the Council will be able to start negotiations with the European Parliament to find agreement on the final legislation. Background The proposal was presented by the European Commission on 15 November 2023. It is part of the skills and talent mobility package of the EU which aims to attract more talent from outside the EU and to facilitate mobility within. Regulation estab