Europe Daily News, 19 January 2023

COMPETITION

• Abuse of a dominant position: exclusivity clauses in distribution contracts must be capable of having exclusionary effects (See CPR No.14/2023, Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-680/20, Unilever Italia Mkt. Operations)
• Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.10924 - Proximus / Ethias / JV)
• Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.11001 - Skipjack / Mitsui O.S.K. Lines / International Transportation)
• Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.10967 - ACE Pharmaceuticals Belgium / Febelco / Pannoc Chemie JV)
• Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case M.10754 - One Rock Capital Partners / Prefere Resins)
• Commission clears creation of joint venture by HCM, Itochu and Tokyo Century (M.10981) - Midday Express
• Commission authorises the creation of two joint ventures by Altarea and Carrefour (M.10983) - Midday Express
• Commission clears acquisition of joint control of Serentica Renewables Singapore by KKR and Serentica Mauritius (M.11000) - Midday Express
• Romania - Work of the Competition Council in 2022
• Romania - The Competition Council fined Volva Romania 13 Million LEI
• UK - CMA takes action against HSBC for breaching Part 2 of the Retail Banking Order

STATE AID

• Commission approves €100 million Austrian measure to reduce electricity consumption in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine (SA.105069) - IP/23/127
• Commission approves €44 million Romanian scheme to support the cattle breeders sector in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine (SA.105163) - Midday Express

TRADE & CUSTOMS

• Agenda for: Trade Policy Committee (Full Members) - 25 January 2023
• Agenda for the 114th meeting of the Customs Code Committee - General Customs Legislation Section - 31 January 2023
• Minutes of the 111th meeting of the Customs Code Committee - General Customs Legislation Section - 16 December 2022
• Working Documents - Economic Tariff Questions Group (Suspensions & Quotas) - 19-20 January 2023
• Notice of re-opening of the safeguard investigation following the judgment of the General Court of 9 November 2022 in Case T-246/19 with regard to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/67 imposing safeguard measures with regard to imports of Indica rice originating in Cambodia and Myanmar/Burma
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/132 of 18 January 2023 on safeguard measures with regards to imports of Indica rice originating in Cambodia following the re-opening of the investigation in order to implement the judgment of the General Court of 9 November 2022 in Case T-246/19, with regard to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/67
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/111 of 18 January 2023 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of fatty acid originating in Indonesia
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/112 of 18 January 2023 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of certain aluminium road wheels originating in the People’s Republic of China following an expiry review pursuant to Article 11(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 of the European Parliament and of the Council
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/131 of 18 January 2023 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1259 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of threaded tube or pipe cast fittings, of malleable cast iron and spheroidal graphite cast iron, originating in the People’s Republic of China and Thailand, and subjecting imports of tube or pipe cast fittings originating in the People’s Republic of China to surveillance
• Trade and Climate: EU and partner countries launch the ‘Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate' - IP/23/248
• Transition to net zero needs an ambitious trade agenda: Speech by the President Ursula von der Leyen

INTERNAL MARKET & INDUSTRY

• Judgment of the Court of 19 January 2023 in Case C-292/21, Administración General del Estado, Confederación Nacional de Autoescuelas (CNAE), UTE CNAE-ITT-FORMASTER-ECT v Asociación para la Defensa de los Intereses Comunes de las Autoescuelas (Audica)
  Re: Reference for a preliminary ruling - Directive 2006/123/EC - Services in the internal market - Article 2(2)(d) - Material scope - Service in the field of transport - Provision of road safety awareness and re-education courses for the recovery of driving licence points - Public service concession - Article 15 - Requirements - Division of the relevant territory into five lots - Quantitative and territorial limit on access to the activity concerned - Overriding reasons relating to the general interest - Justification - Road safety - Proportionality - SGEI
• Agenda for: Working Party on Competitiveness and Growth (Internal Market) - 26 January 2023
• EU-funded research stimulates patented inventions according to a new study - ERC Press Release & Study

FINANCIAL SERVICES

• Consumer protection: Following EU action, credit card companies commit to preventing hidden online subscriptions to comply with consumer protection rules - Midday Express
• ESMA consults on post-trade transparency
• The EBA observed a significant increase in the number of high earners across EU banks in 2021

AGRICULTURE & FISHERIES

• Plant health protection: Member States may not derogate from prohibitions on the placing on the market and use of seeds treated treated with plant protection products containing neonicotinoids (See CPR No.12/2023, Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-162/21, Pesticide Action Network Europe and Others)
• Commissioner Wojciechowski in Berlin to participate in the International Green Week and the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture - Midday Express

ENERGY

• CEER - Report on Regulatory Frameworks for European Energy Networks 2022

ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE CHANGE

• The level of harmonisation achieved at EU level by the Biocidal Products Regulation does not prevent Member States from adopting restrictive rules on the promotion of sales of those products (See CPR No.13/2023, Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-147/21, CIHEF and Others)
• Agenda for: Working Party on International Environment Issues (Biodiversity) - 25 January 2023
• Minutes of the 90th meeting of the Nitrates Committee and meeting of the Nitrates Expert Group -15 December 2022
• Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning batteries and waste batteries, repealing Directive 2006/66/EC and amending Regulation (EU) No 2019 /1020 - Letter to the Chair of the EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI)
• EEA - More efforts needed to address land sources of marine litter - see EEA Briefing
• EEA - Monitoring soil threats in Europe - Indicators and thresholds for soil health assessments - see EEA Report No 08/2022
• Answer given by Mr Sinkevičius to a MEP written question - Need for consultation prior to the drafting of the environmental impact statement for plans and programmes related to building work at Puertito de Adeje
• Answer given by Mr Sinkevičius to a MEP written question - Biomedia pollution and revision of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive
• Answer given by EVP Timmermans to a MEP written question - Relevance of the impact assessment for CO2 standards for cars and vans
• Answer given by Mr Sinkevičius to a MEP written question - Catalytic converters containing catalysts: list of wastes code
• Answer given by Mr Sinkevičius to a MEP written question - Labelling requirements for packaging in France

DATA PRIVACY & CYBERSECURITY

• EDPB - Coordinated Enforcement Action, use of cloud-based services by the public sector
• EDPB - Draft Report of the work undertaken by the Cookie Banner Taskforce

AREA OF FREEDOM, SECURITY & JUSTICE

• Eurojust Report on the Transfer of Proceedings in the European Union
• Security: Commission launches public consultation on new rules for security-related information sharing with third countries

ECB, EURO & ECONOMY

• InvestEU: October SME V fund secures €35 million backing from EIF and Invest-NL - IP/23/268
• Netherlands: Rabobank gets EIB Group backing to issue €1 billion in new lending to Dutch small businesses and mid-caps
• NextGenerationEU: Commission endorses Germany's revised recovery and resilience plan - Midday Express
• NextGenerationEU: Commission disburses second payment of €3.6 billion to Greece under the Recovery and Resilience Facility  - Midday Express
• ECB - Euro area monthly balance of payments: November 2022
• ECB - Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 13 January 2023
• Opinion of the ECB of 16 January 2023 on a proposal for a directive on the energy performance of buildings (recast) (CON/2023/2)
• Annual inflation down to 9.2% in the euro area - Down to 10.4% in the EU - Eurostat 10/2023
• Production in construction down by 0.8% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU - Up by 1.3% and 1.8% compared with November 2021 - Eurostat 11/2023

FUTURE OF EUROPE

• Agenda for: Working Party on General Affairs (Comitology Revision) - 27 January 2023
• Report by President Charles Michel to the European Parliament plenary session

EXTERNAL RELATIONS

• Speech by Adina Vălean on behalf of HR/VP Josep Borrell at the EP Plenary: Situation of human rights in Morocco
• Speech by Adina Vălean on behalf of HR/VP Josep Borrell at the EP Plenary: The storming of the Brazilian democratic institutions
• Speech by Adina Vălean on behalf of HR/VP Josep Borrell at the EP Plenary: Humanitarian consequences of the blockade in Nagorno-Karabakh
• Human rights breaches in Brazil, Morocco and Nagorno-Karabakh - See EP Statement
• Parliament calls for more sanctions against Iranian regime

EU/UK RELATIONS

• Keir Starmer to tell Davos he wants to fix post-Brexit relationship with EU - UK opposition leader and shadow chancellor to push message of financial responsibility to world’s political elite - Financial Times
  

RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE

• Agenda for: Meeting of the Foreign Relations Counsellors - 19 January 2023
• Ukraine war: MEPs push for special tribunal to punish Russian crimes
• Answer given by Ms Vălean to a MEP written question - Romanian transport infrastructure and Ukraine solidarity corridors