Europe Daily News, 23 May 2025

COMPETITION

• Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.12008 - Reitan Retail/ Norwegian / Strawberry / Spenn)
• Summary of Commission Decision of 12 July 2023 declaring a concentration compatible with the internal market and the functioning of the EEA Agreement (Case M.10806 - Broadcom / VMware) - Final Report of the Hearing Officer & Opinion of the Advisory Committee on mergers
• Commission clears the acquisition of Kee Safety by Inflexion and 65EP (M.11983) - Midday Express
• Commission clears acquisition of GBSY by Carnival, RCCL and MCS (M.11896) - Midday Express
• Czech Republic - The UOHS respects the ruling of the Constitutional Court regarding the legality of the unannounced local investigation at Tipsport 
• Czech Republic - The UOHS has cleared the merger of Orbian Management Limited and of Payment Institution Roger a.s., including its subsidiaries
• Czech Republic - The UOHS has rejected the complaint of the contractor Stadler Praha s.r.o. and thus confirmed the correctness of the procedure of the Transport Company of the Capital City of Prague
• Lithuania - The Competition Council suspects that the Municipality of Panevėžys may have violated the Competition Act by concluding internal transactions with the company Panevėžio Specialus Autotransporta
• Portugal - The AdC announced that the procedure initiated to assess the Merger Nestlé/Nestea has been withdrawn
• Portugal - Bel Group notifies the acquisition of exclusive control over a set of assets that make up the Central Cash business held by Palmelalimentar.
• Portugal - Médis notifies the acquisition of exclusive control over Esfera Group.
• UK - CMA: Investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct by Vifor Pharma in relation to intravenous iron treatments
• UK - The CMA has revoked and reissued the IEO imposed on 15 May 2025 in relation to the completed acquisition by SMFLH of MRL.

STATE AID

• Commission finds Finnish soft drinks tax does not involve State aid (SA.104131) - Midday Express

TRADE & CUSTOMS

• European Commission – Notice in accordance with Article 2 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1128 of 24 March 2023 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 to provide for simplified customs formalities for trusted traders and for sending parcels into Northern Ireland from another part of the United Kingdom
• Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) …/... amending Regulation (EU) 2019/125 concerning trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment - See the Annexes
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/935 of 21 May 2025 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/918 laying down technical specifications of data requirements for the topic Global Value Chains pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council
• EU investigates allegations of dumping of PET plastic from Vietnam
• Council gives green light for EU conclusion of UN Mauritius Convention on transparency for ISDS
• Commission releases Report on Intellectual Property Rights in Third Countries, Counterfeit & Piracy Watch List
• WTO - Items proposed for consideration at the next meeting of Dispute Settlement Body - 23 May 2025
• WTO - DG Okonjo-Iweala, IPU Secretary General Chungong urge parliaments to ratify WTO Fisheries Agreement
• China and the Netherlands reach Six Common Understandings during Foreign Ministers' talks
• Trump pushes EU to cut tariffs or face extra duties - US negotiators to tell Brussels they expect unilateral concessions - Financial Times
• Ukraine warns EU tariffs will hammer economy and dent faith in Brussels - Imminent withdrawal of wartime trade waivers threatens Ukraine’s economic footing and feeds Russian propaganda, top Ukrainian MP warns - Politico.eu
• German firm shipped restricted tech to Russia — after EU sanctions kicked in - Calls for tightening of bloc’s sanctions regime after Kontron was able to export millions in sensitive telecoms tech to its Russian arm in late 2023 - Politico.eu

INTERNAL MARKET & INDUSTRY

• Agenda for: Meeting of the EP ITRE Committee - 03 June 2025
• Answer given by EVP Séjourné to a MEP written question - Development of the EU battery industry - carbon footprint calculation
• Single Market Strategy: a promising start, but long-term impact must be secured - See BusinessEurope Paper

CHEMICAL

• Summary of European Commission Decisions on authorisations for the placing on the market for the use and/or for use of substances listed in Annex XIV to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the REACH - (chromium trioxide - C(2025) 2761 & C(2025) 2782)

FINANCE

• Agenda for: Commission Expert Group on Banking, Payments and Insurance - 04 June 2025
• Commission welcomes co-legislators' agreement to maintain current liquidity rules, strengthening EU financial markets - Midday Express
• The EBA issues Opinion on a measure to address macroprudential risk following a notification by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance
• The EBA publishes onboarding plan to implement the Pillar 3 data hub

TAXATION

• Minutes of the Excise Contact Group (ECG) meeting - 31 March 2025
• Presentation for: 3rd Meeting Informal Expert Group on the CBAM - 15 May 2025
• Call for proposals – EU Tax Observatory: EC launches a call for proposals for EU action grants in the field of taxation under the Fiscalis programme

EMPLOYMENT & SOCIAL AFFAIRS

• Agenda for: Meeting of the EP EMPL Committee - 04 & 05 June 2025
• Call for evidence: Social economy action plan – mid-term review - Communication - Feedback period: 22 May 2025 - 16 July 2025

AGRICULTURE  & FISHERIES

• Meeting of the "Agriculture and Fisheries" Council of 26 May 2025
  - Meeting of Directors General for Forests (Warsaw, 13-15 May 2025) - Information from the Presidency
  - Sixth AU-EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference (Rome, 27 June 2025) - Information from the Commission
  - The Need for a Rapid Response to Economic Losses - Information from Slovakia, supported by Czechia and Hungary
  - For a strong Common Agricultural Policy and a strong Common Fisheries Policy that are fit to face future challenges - Information from Italy and Greece, supported by Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Ireland and Portugal
  - The challenges of the livestock sector connected to the revision of the European legislation on transport of live animals - Information from Italy with the support of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal and Romania
  - Vaccination – a tool in the fight against animal diseases - Information from Hungary, supported by Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Croatia, France, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia 
  - The Impact of Animal Diseases on the Agricultural Sector – The Need for a Rapid Response to Economic Losses - Information from Slovakia, supported by Czechia and Hungary
  - Serious damage caused by frost in the Hungarian fruit sector - Information from Hungary
• Emergency support of €15 million to farmers in Czechia, Slovenia and Germany

ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE CHANGE

• Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP): 63rd session of the Working Group on Strategies and Review (WGSR62) (Geneva, 26-28 May 2025) - First EU coordination
• City Blues: Adapting Urban Life with Nature-Based Solutions
• EU Ecolabel shows the way to green procurement of paper products
• Answer given by Ms Roswall to a MEP written question - Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation: proportionality, feasibility and health impacts of re-use obligations
• EEA Scientific Committee elects new chair and vice-chairs

DEFORESTATION

• Commission publishes country benchmarking to help fight deforestation worldwide
  - Commission Implementing Regulation laying down rules for the application of the Deforestation Regulation
• EU Deforestation Regulation – EU declares Laos “low risk”

DIGITAL & INFORMATION SOCIETY

• Meeting of the TTE (Telecommunications) Council on 6 June 2025
  - Report of the Digital Ministers of the Mediterranean EU countries meeting - MED9 - Information from Slovenia
  - Global Partnership on AI Summit (Bratislava, 25-26 November 2025) - Information from Slovakia
  - Spain's Quantum Technologies Strategy (2025- 2030) - Information from Spain
• Agenda for: Attaches of the Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society - 27 May 2025
• EU and Republic of Korea hold 7th Cyber Dialogue in Seoul
• EVP Virkkunen visits IMEC’s International Technology Forum
• Moldova moves closer to joining the EU Cybersecurity Reserve
• Commission seeks views on the use of data to develop Artificial Intelligence - Communication - Feedback period: 23 May 2025 - 18 July 2025 - Midday Express

ECB, EURO & ECONOMY

• Commissioner Dombrovskis in Riga for high-level conference on investment and security in the Baltics - Midday Express
• Economic Impacts of the Recovery and Resilience Facility: New insights at Sectoral Level and the case of Germany - See Scientific paper
• Speech by ECB's Philip R. Lane: Inflation and disinflation in the euro area
• The European economy is not drought-proof - ECB's Blog

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

• 5th Accession Conference with Albania: EU opens negotiations on the competitiveness and inclusive growth cluster
• Mexico: European Union and Mexico hold 10th High Level Political Dialogue
• Serbia: remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas at the press conference
• Kosovo: remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas at the press conference
• Speech by President António Costa at the ceremony for the award of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny - UNESCO Peace Prize