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‘Marshall Twitto’ and the Vandellos

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The Slovenian presidency got off to a bumpy start. Slovenian PM Janez Janša, described by Italian journalist David Carreta as ‘Marshall Twitto’ - because of his acerbic twitter attacks mostly focused on journalists - circulated a photo at a pre-meeting with the college of commissioners, featuring two Slovenian S&D MEPs with Slovenian judges - implying that this may somehow damage the same judges independence . Frans Timmermans - refused to take part in the “family photo” of the commissioners and the head of the incoming presidency. Which just goes to show that the EU family is just like your ordinary family, with disagreements, dysfunctions and a weird uncle with some very dodgy and slightly embarrassing views. 

Try, try and try again

There are no surprises here. Jansa’s “unconventional style” has already been noted, in a hearing in the European Parliament he tried to hijack proceedings by showing a pre-prepared video. The MEPs halted proceedings and tried to drag Jansa back to normal proceedings. But never let a video go to waste, he used today’s (2 July) briefing with journalists to show the film again. This was awarded top marks for “weird” by those attending. 

But hey ho - onwards and upwards - we will have to hold our noses and struggle through the next six months before the French presidency. 

Vandellos

The launching of a statement penned by 16 far-right parties to generally foment against all things that it considers non-judeo-christian, like migration, gay rights, the rule of law, the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice was a reminder of the threat posed to the EU by these guys when they manage to get into government. We all want to only follow those laws that suit us at any particular moment in time - but there lies chaos.

While Poland’s Law and Justice party has much in common with Hungary’s Fidesz and French far-right parties, it has - up until now - refused to get into bed with the French Rassemblement National and Italy’s Lega because of their support for Putin. Not any longer it seems.

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Making finance greener and cleaner

Next week the European Commission will come forward with three important financial proposals: Renewed sustainable finance strategy, the establishment of an EU green bond standard  and a new strengthened anti-money laundering legislative package

Next week’s European Parliament plenary

Parliament will have its traditional debate next week on the programme of activities of the Slovenian Presidency. Usually a dull affair, outlining the long legislative programme for the next six months, we can maybe expect it to be a less traditional affair than usual with Janša.

MEPs will comment on potential breaches of EU law and of the rights of LGBTIQ citizens in Hungary and are set to ask what actions will be in place to protect the rights of children and LGBTIQ persons. 

Rule of law: MEPs will quiz Council and Commission about the two hearings held by the Council on the rule of law in Hungary and Poland. The Parliament are concerned about corruption and cronyism in these and countries, many MEPs want to see the ‘Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism’ launched to protect European funds

MEPs will debate and vote on a temporary regulation that allows the providers of web-based email, chats and messaging services to voluntarily detect, remove and report child sexual abuse online as well as to use scanning technologies to detect cyber grooming. 

The parliament is calling for the strengthening of the European Medicines Agency extending its mandate to prepare for crises and build on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic.

MEPs will comment on guidelines currently being developed by the Commission on how to apply the EU Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism, designed to protect EU funds from being misused by EU governments. (debate Tuesday, vote Wednesday, result Thursday)

Connecting Europe Facility programme worth €30 billion from 2021 to 2027 is set for adoption next week. The programme will back trans-European projects in the field of transport, energy and digital Infrastructure.

Also

Von der Leyen will continue on her Recovery and Resilience Fund tour, this week stopping off in sunny Cyprus and Croatia. 

European Court Highlights

07/07(J): #EU #SoundMark - opening a soft drink can (T-668/19)

08/07(J): Start-up aid for young #farmers (C-830/19)

08/07(J): Sale in one member state of #MedicinalProducts not subject to medical prescription in another member state #Hungary (C-178/20)

As ever, all this, and much, much more!

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