CDE NewsComuniq.Eu

Comuniq.eu is the only Malta-based platform offering a one-stop shop for EU-affairs, from research to in-depth analysis of developments and the dissemination of news related to the European institutions and their activities.

Through its research arm, it constantly looks for the latest developments from across the EU institutions through various channels, whether contacts within the institutions themselves, international media agencies and portals, and local representatives and offices of the said institutions.

The team at Comuniq.eu looks beyond the news which makes the media headlines, understanding the stakes at play, the positions being taken, the likely scenarios and the potential impact on the Maltese economy and businesses.

After identifying how developments, such as proposed legislation or regulation can affect your business, we also support you in makign your voice heard should it be in your business’ interest to support or challenge such proposals. We also look at the positions being taken by international organisations and other countries thereby allowing our clients to strengthen their position where possible.

Over the past months, Comuniq.eu has extensively looked into all facets of Brexit, and is supporting local business in understanding the impact of this important change on their operations and supporting them in identifying the right channels to get their concerns across. Similarly, Comuniq.eu raises advance note of legislative and regulatory processes which are still in the pipeline at EU level, which would have barely made news portals, to allow businesses to react at an advanced stage to such developments.

Comuniq.eu also disseminates EU-related news, both sourced through its exclusive arrangements with interntational news agencies as well through its own research and networks. It also produces exclusive content on matters related to EU affairs.

Domestic tourism recovers faster than foreign tourism – Eurostat

24th October 2020

During the early part of 2020, the tourism industry suffered as a result of travel restrictions implemented in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tourist numbers dropped sharply during March and April 2020, when compared with the same period a year earlier. Since June 2020, most EU countries have begun to ease travel restrictions. However, other restrictions related to Covid-19 have remained i...

Malta files complaint against the first Mobility Package before the Court of Justice of the European Union

24th October 2020

Malta has filed a complaint before the Court of Justice of the European Union against Mobility Package 1, Government said in a statement this afternoon. The package of measures adopted by the Council and the European Parliament last July, which was originally intended to modernize EU road transport rules, included in its final adopted version two specific rules: the ‘Return-Home of Vehicles’ r...

Von der Leyen facing discontent within EPP

24th October 2020

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is facing growing discontent within her own political family, accused of being too keen on green policies and snappy headlines and not focused enough on traditional Christian Democratic priorities. POLITICO reports that the unrest in the ranks of the European People’s Party (EPP), the center-right alliance that forms the biggest group in the ...

First rescEU ventilators dispatched to Czechia

23rd October 2020

Following a request for assistance from Czechia, the EU is immediately sending a first batch of 30 ventilators from rescEU - the common European reserve of medical equipment set up earlier this year to help countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic. As President von der Leyen said yesterday: “Czechia is facing one of the most difficult situations in Europe right now. The number of corona...

Euro zone economic activity risks double-dip recession

23rd October 2020

Euro zone economic activity slipped back into decline this month as a second wave of the coronavirus sweeps across the continent, heightening expectations for a double-dip recession, surveys showed on Friday. Renewed restrictions to control the pandemic forced many businesses in the bloc's dominant service industry to limit operations, and nearly 90% of economists polled by Reuters this week s...

European Parliament launches its first European Gender Equality Week

23rd October 2020

At the initiative of the Women’s Rights Committee, the European Parliament is holding its first ever European Gender Equality Week from 26 to 29 October. 2020 sees the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This important milestone provides an opportunity to discuss the achievements and future challenges for the advancement of girls' and women's rights and gender ...

Italy, Spain and Poland to get EU SURE funds first

23rd October 2020

Italy, Spain and Poland will be the first EU countries to get SURE jobs funding for the COVID emergency, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday. "We are doing all we can to save jobs," she said. "With SURE we are supporting the temporary employment support schemes up to 100 billion euros. "The first countries to receive the support will be Italy, Spain and Poland. ...

EU impose sanctions against head of Russia’s military intelligence

23rd October 2020

The European Union imposed sanctions on the head of Russia's military intelligence, Igor Kostyukov, and another Russian on Thursday, accusing them of stealing Angela Merkel's emails in a 2015 hacking attack on the German parliament. Russia in May denied the accusations as a "hackneyed story" and said the EU lacked evidence. The sanctions on the head of the GRU military intelligence agency f...

The EU is yet to fully exploit the potential of its agencies, European Court of Auditors say

22nd October 2020

The EU agencies are playing an increasingly important part in the Union, but their role in serving EU citizens effectively needs to be evaluated more carefully. This is the conclusion of a report presented by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) today. The ECA signed off the 2019 accounts of all but two EU agencies and confirmed the positive results it had reported in previous years. For the firs...

European carmarkers seek support to UK concessions

22nd October 2020

The EU's auto car manufacturing lobbies are pushing Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier to open up to the possibility of some concessions to the UK with regard to rules governing the trade in electric cars. Of particular interest to EU-based companies are rules on how much content in a finished car should be produced locally in either the U.K. or EU to allow cars to be sold tariff-free between cou...

Over half Europe’s small firms fear for survival, survey finds

22nd October 2020

Over half the small and medium-sized companies which together provide jobs for two-thirds of European workers fear for their survival in the coming 12 months, according to a survey released by management consultancy McKinsey on Thursday. The survey was conducted in August, before the current acceleration in new coronavirus cases across Europe that is forcing governments to impose new restricti...

Democratic opposition in Belarus awarded 2020 Sakharov Prize

22nd October 2020

The democratic opposition in Belarus has been awarded the 2020 Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament. The annual human rights prize is named after the Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov and was established in 1988 by the European Parliament to honor individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.The Belarusian Association of Journalists and the fo...

EU cuts Canada, Georgia and Tunisia from safe traveller list

22nd October 2020

The European Union is set to cut Canada, Georgia and Tunisia from a “white list” of countries from which travellers can visit the bloc without COVID-related restrictions such as quarantines or mandatory tests, while adding Singapore. A meeting of ambassadors from the 27 EU nations on Wednesday chose to remove the three countries because of sharp increases in COVID-19 infections there, whereas ...

EU leaders to hold COVID-19 video-conference Oct.29

22nd October 2020

European Union leaders will hold a video-conference next week to discuss how to better cooperate against the COVID-19 pandemic as infections rise, European Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter, confirming a previous Reuters report. The video-conference, to be held on Oct. 29, will be the first of a series of regular discussions that EU leaders have committed to hold, to tackle the ...

Greece calls for tougher EU action against Turkey

22nd October 2020

Greece urged the European Union on Wednesday to reconsider its customs union with Turkey in response to Ankara's continued gas exploration in contested Mediterranean areas, deploring what it termed Turkey's "imperial fantasies." After meeting Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Nicosia, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said they all agree...

Facebook launches dating service in Europe

22nd October 2020

Facebook Inc said it is launching its dating service in 32 European countries after the rollout was delayed earlier this year due to regulatory concerns. The social media company had postponed the rollout of Facebook Dating in Europe in February after concerns were raised by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), the main regulator in the European Union for a number of the world's bigge...

Roberta Metsola nominated as European Parliament Vice President

22nd October 2020

The centre-right European Popular Party has formally announced the nomination of PN MEP Roberta Metsola to serve as Vice President of the European Parliament. She will replace the Irish Mairead McGuinness became European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union last month. Metsola expressed her delight with a post on Twitter yesterday evening. h...

EU signs supply deal with J&J on potential COVID-19 vaccine

21st October 2020

The European Commission said on Wednesday it had signed a contract on behalf of EU states with U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson for the supply of 400 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The move follows an advance purchase agreement signed by Brussels with Johnson & Johnson earlier in October.

EU countries back binding green farming schemes

21st October 2020

European Union agriculture ministers agreed on Wednesday to set aside part of the bloc's massive farming policy budget for programmes that protect the environment. The EU is nearing the end of a two-year struggle to overhaul its agriculture policy, to attempt to align it with the bloc's climate change commitments, while supporting farmers' livelihoods. The agriculture policy as a whole will...

MEP report on digital services approved

21st October 2020

The European Parliament has voted 83% in favour of a report on the Digital Services Act by Socialists and Democrat MEP Alex Agius Saliba. The report is based on the principle that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online” and calls for future-proof rules on digital services, including online platforms and marketplaces, and for a binding mechanism to tackle illegal content online. It was...

Efforts towards last minute deal shape Brexit talks

23rd October 2020

Britain and the European Union have made good progress in talks on a last-minute trade deal that would stave off a tumultuous finale to the five-year-old Brexit crisis, but fish is the biggest sticking point. The United Kingdom left the EU in January but the two sides are trying to clinch a deal...

The 10 ‘Organising Principles’ underpinning relaunched UK-EU talks

22nd October 2020

Britain and the European Union have agreed to resume talks on reaching a trade deal to govern their future relations, setting out a new set of “organising principles” for intensified talks to begin on Thursday. The principles, as set out in a British government statement, are: 1. The parties ...

Ireland will be eurozone’s biggest loser from a no-deal Brexit, says Irish central bank chief

22nd October 2020

Irish central bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf warned that Ireland will be the eurozone's biggest loser from a no-deal Brexit, which could cause an economic "double whammy" in addition to the fallout from rising novel coronavirus infections, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. If the UK exit...

Norway, Britain in provisional trade agreement for no-deal Brexit scenario

22nd October 2020

Norway and Britain have signed a temporary, limited agreement to help maintain trade in goods in case there is no final Brexit trade deal in place by year-end, the Norwegian Industry ministry said on Wednesday. Talks to put in a place a permanent, comprehensive free trade agreement were still on...

UPDATE – UK – EU talks on post-Brexit trade deal to resume

21st October 2020

Britain will resume talks with the European Union on Thursday, marking a new push by the two sides to protect billions of dollars worth of trade from the beginning of next year. Prime Minister Boris Johnson walked away from the negotiations late last week after British officials criticised concl...

UPDATED: EU’s Barnier says trade deal with UK “within reach”

21st October 2020

The European Union's Brexit negotiator said on Wednesday that a new trade deal with Britain was "within reach" if both sides work hard to overcome the sticking points in the coming days. "An agreement is within reach if both sides are willing to work constructively, compromise and working to mak...

European Commission's NewsFeed

Coronavirus: additional ventilators dispatched to Czechia via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism

European Commission Press release Brussels, 24 Oct 2020 Following Thursday's announcement by President von der Leyen that the EU is sending 30 ventilators from the rescEU medical reserve, Austria and the Netherlands are now also answering Czechia's request for assistance through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Press statement by Commissioner Sinkevičius, in charge of Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, after the Environment Council

European Commission Speech Brussels, 23 Oct 2020 Press statement by Commissioner Sinkevičius, in charge of Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, after the Environment Council
Calendrier du 26 octobre au 1 novembre 2020

European Commission Commissioners' weekly activities Brussels, 23 Oct 2020 (Susceptible de modifications en cours de semaine) Déplacements et visites Lundi 26 octobre 2020 President von der Leyen participates in the Meeti...
Daily News 23 / 10 / 2020

European Commission Daily news Brussels, 23 Oct 2020 Coronavirus: first rescEU ventilators dispatched to Czechia Following a request for assistance from Czechia, the EU is immediately sending a first batch o...
Latest Eurobarometer survey (July-August): Economic situation is EU citizens' top concern in light of the coronavirus pandemic

European Commission Press release Brussels, 23 Oct 2020 In a troubled period marked by the coronavirus pandemic, trust in the EU remains stable and Europeans trust the EU to make the right decisions in response to the pandemic in the future.
Speech by President von der Leyen at the closing session of the EU Green Week 2020

European Commission Speech Brussels, 22 Oct 2020 Dear Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Dear Inger, Dear Commissioners, Dear Jutta and Virginijus, Ladies and gentlemen, Dea...

European Parliament Newsfeed

Article - Plenary highlights: Sakharov laureate, EU farm policy, digital services, Brexit

MEPs set out their priorities on digital service rules, artificial intelligence and EU farm policy during the 19-23 October plenary session. Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP
Press release - A greener, fairer, and more robust EU farm policy

The EU’s future farm policy should be more flexible, sustainable, and crisis-resilient, so that farmers can continue to deliver food security across the EU.Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP
Press release - EU farm policy reform: Statements by Parliament’s chief negotiators

Following today’s vote on the EU farm policy reform, the Chair of Parliament’s Agriculture Committee and the three lead MEPs have issued the following statements.Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP
Background - EU farm policy reform as approved by MEPs

On Friday, Parliament adopted its position on the future EU Farm policy and for the upcoming talks with EU ministers.Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP
Press release - Fostering gender equality in the EU’s foreign and security policy

MEPs call on the EU to recognise the pivotal role women play in foreign policy and international security and to adapt its policy accordingly.Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP
Press release - Parliament launches its first European Gender Equality Week

At the initiative of the Women’s Rights Committee, the European Parliament is holding its first ever European Gender Equality Week from 26 to 29 October.Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel

Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel 26 October - 1 November 2020
Forward look: 26 October - 8 November 2020

Overview of the main subjects to be discussed at meetings of the Council of the EU over the next two weeks and upcoming media events.
Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the general elections in Bolivia

The EU issued a declaration congratulating Luis Arce for his election as President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in the general elections held on 18 October, and paying tribute to the people of Bolivia who have shown a strong commitment to electoral democracy
European climate law: Council reaches agreement on large parts of the proposal

The Council reached a partial general approach on the European climate law.
Council adopts conclusions on the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030

The Council adopted conclusions on the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030.
Pandemic contingency plan for freight transport - Council adopts conclusions

Council conclusions call on the Commission to swiftly draw up a pandemic and other major crisis contingency plan for the European freight transport sector.

132/2020 : 15 October 2020 - Opinion of the Advocate General in cases C-562/19 P,C-596/19 P

Commission v Poland According to Advocate General Kokott, the Polish tax on the retail sector and the Hungarian advertisement tax do not infringe EU State aid rules
131/2020 : 8 October 2020 - Order of the Court of Justice in Case C-201/20 P(R)

Junqueras i Vies v Parliament Law governing the institutions Le pourvoi contre l’ordonnance du vice-président du Tribunal rejetant la demande de référé de M. Junqueras i Vies est aussi rejeté
130/2020 : 8 October 2020 - Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-360/19

Crown Van Gelder Freedom of establishment A customer may submit a complaint against the operator of the national grid following a power failure