MEPs return to Brexit agenda – EUbusiness Week newsletter 850 – EUbusiness.com

EUbusiness Week 850 top stories: Stop pretending to negotiate, Barnier tells UK; EUR 740m of fake goods stopped at EU borders; MEPs no to patents on naturally obtained plants & seeds; New rules for online shopping in EU take effect; EU food agency consults on cumulative risk of pesticides; EU, UN and Smurfs help clean up world’s beaches

Publisher’s Note

MEPs returned to Strasbourg this week for their first plenary session since their summer break. In a busy schedule, they gave their recommendation for Christine Lagarde to become the next ECB President; they approved a EUR 100m top-up for EU research and youth mobility programmes; and, in a debate with Michel Barnier, pledged to reject any Withdrawal Agreement without a backstop, said the UK will be solely responsible for a ‘no-deal’ departure, and agreed another conditional Article 50 deadline extension was possible, if the UK requested it. No change then. Just a few weeks to go. Or not..
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Regards,

Nick Prag
Publisher, EUbusiness

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1. Stop pretending to negotiate, Barnier tells UK

Three years after the Brexit referendum, rather than pretending to negotiate, the UK needs to come up with legally binding solutions to the backstop problem, the EU’s chief negotiator said Wednesday.
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2. EUR 740m of fake goods stopped at EU borders

Fake and potentially dangerous goods worth nearly EUR 740 million were intercepted at EU customs borders in 2018, new figures released by the Commission show.
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3. MEPs no to patents on naturally obtained plants & seeds

Fruit, vegetables or animals obtained from conventional breeding processes, such as crossing, must not become patentable, the European Parliament urged in a non-legislative resolution adopted Thursday.
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4. New rules for online shopping in EU take effect

New EU rules on online shopping, which came into force on Saturday, should make it easier and safer for consumers to pay for goods and services online and to manage their personal finances.
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5. EU food agency consults on cumulative risk of pesticides

The EU’s food agency opened a public consultation Tuesday on its pilot assessments of the risks posed to humans by residues of multiple pesticides in food.
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6. EU, UN and Smurfs help clean up world’s beaches

EU staff joined hands with local communities, and the Smurfs, on beaches across Europe and the world Thursday, as part of the #EUBeachCleanUp campaign to clean up marine litter.
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EUROPEAN LAW

Latest news from the European Court of Justice
EU law firms
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Inside the EU Institutions

Council Watch

President Tusk meetings with Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, and Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev – Control of arms export conclusions, new decision updating the EU’s common rules – For a torture-free world: policies
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Council …

Commission Watch

EU Beach Clean Up – Customs Union: Fake goods 2018 – Humanitarian aid: EUR 34 million in African Great Lakes region – Eurostat: Annual inflation, production in the construction sector, job vacancies – Mergers: conditional clearance for E.ON acquisition of Innogy – Juncker-Johnson meeting – probe into individual ‘excess profit’ tax rulings granted by Belgium to 39 multinational companies
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Parliament Watch

Schedule for new Commissioner hearings – Europe must remember its past to build its future – Human Rights breaches in Iran, Turkey and Myanmar – No patents on naturally obtained plants and seeds – EP President receives call and invitation to London from PM Boris Johnson – Brexit: EP reaffirms wholehearted support for EU position – EUR 300m EU aid after 2018 floods in Austria, Italy, Romania – extra support for EU research and Erasmus – Parliament green light to Christine Lagarde, Yves Mersch recommended for ECB Supervisory Board
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EU diary

23 Sep: Climate action summit 2019
23-24 Sep: LGBTI equality in the EU: from 2020 and beyond
23-24 Sep: Workshop on REACH review action 3
23-26 Sep: European Parliament Committee Meetings
23-30 Sep: European Week of Sport 2019
24 Sep: Transport, Telecoms & Energy Council – Energy
26-27 Sep: Intellectual property Horizon 5.0 conference
26-27 Sep: Competitiveness Council
26 Sep: 2nd European education summit
27 Sep: EU-Asia Connectivity
The Week Ahead
Long-term diary