-
EU Parliament Ratifies Long-Awaited CETA
February 24, 2017
The New York Times reports that, "after seven years of tortuous negotiations," the European Parliament has ratified the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), leaving the final step of ratifying the deal to national and some regional parliaments across the EU.
-
EU Aims to Retain Fishing Access After Brexit
February 24, 2017
The Guardian reports that, in a warning signal to British voters who chose to leave the EU in part to permit the UK to take back control of its fishing policies, a leaked negotiating document from the European Parliament shows that EU officials are seeking to retain the current UK-EU balance on fishing quotas in exchange for British access to the "single market."
-
EU Members Fear Impacts of "Two-Speed" Bloc
February 24, 2017
The Guardian reports that officials in the Central and Eastern European Visegrad Group - Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary - are increasingly opposing proposals from Western Europe to form a "two-speed" EU permitting a core area of member states to rapidly transfer their sovereignty to the EU without the interference of governments on the periphery of the bloc.
-
EU Committee Ramps up Vehicle Standards Testing
February 24, 2017
The European Parliament's Internal Market Committee has approved legislation, aimed at preventing a recurrence of the recent Volkswagen emissions scandal, that ramps up EU auditing of vehicle testing and the establishment of "national market surveillance programmes" to ensure adherence to the bloc's environmental and safety standards.
-
UK Considers Exit from EU Emissions Scheme
February 23, 2017
Reuters reports that UK Member of the European Parliament Ian Duncan has predicted, given that maintaining British membership in the scheme would require its acceptance of the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the EU, the UK will not remain in the EU's Emission Trading System following its departure from the bloc.