EU targets marketing scams – EUbusiness Week newsletter 596 – EUbusiness.com

EUbusiness Week 596 top stories: Barroso sees treaty change for euro’s future;. EU okays free trade talks with Japan, protects cars; EU reaches compromise on ratings agency rules; EU rejects French report linking GM corn to cancer; EU to prolong fishing ban for endangered sharks; Half of EU failing to tackle hate crime: report

This Week’s Top Stories

1. Barroso sees treaty change for euro’s future
2. EU okays free trade talks with Japan, protects cars
3. EU reaches compromise on ratings agency rules
4. EU rejects French report linking GM corn to cancer
5. EU to prolong fishing ban for endangered sharks
6. Half of EU failing to tackle hate crime: report

Publisher’s Note

If you have received an email asking you to update your company’s listing in a business directory, apparently for free, don’t sign the form. You could be signing a paid contract. One such fraud recently masqueraded as originating from our own EUbusiness.

The small businesses, professionals and NGOs most affected by this type of fraud can at last look forward to some protection. The Commission this week outlined a series of actions to tackle marketing scams, including stepping up enforcement and clarifying the law. Most welcome, however, is the possibility of a legislative proposal, and we urge the Commission to press ahead with EU-wide action.
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Regards,

Nick Prag
Publisher, EUbusiness

PUBLIC TENDER – MACEDONIA

Granting of state-owned agricultural land under lease – Public Notice, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy in Macedonia
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1. Barroso sees treaty change for euro’s future

Greater EU integration through changes to its basic treaties, though likely to prove hugely controversial, is the long-term answer to the crisis undermining growth and jobs, Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday, as he presented a “blueprint for a deep and genuine Economic and Monetary Union”.
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2. EU okays free trade talks with Japan, protects cars

European Union trade ministers have agreed to launch negotiations on a mega-sized free trade deal with Japan while pledging to safeguard Europe’s struggling carmakers.
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3. EU reaches compromise on ratings agency rules

Commission, Parliament and Council have reached compromise on new rules meant to govern credit ratings agencies, Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier said on Tuesday.
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4. EU rejects French report linking GM corn to cancer

The EU’s food safety agency has definitively rejected a bombshell French report linking genetically modified corn to cancer, saying it failed to meet “acceptable scientific standards”.
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5. EU to prolong fishing ban for endangered sharks

Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki said Thursday that a total ban on fishing endangered deepwater shark species would be maintained for another two years.
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6. Half of EU failing to tackle hate crime: report

Half of EU countries are failing to tackle hate crime, thereby violating European conventions, by not keeping track of offences linked to race, religion or gender, a report said on Tuesday.
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EUROPEAN LAW

Stability Mechanism: the EU’s highest court has ruled that the ESM, the permanent euro rescue fund created to help prevent repeats of the Greek debt crisis, does not breach EU treaties.
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Italian mobsters received EU farm aid: court
Latest Court of Justice judgements
EU Law Firms
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Inside the EU Institutions

Council Watch

Greece: eurozone finance ministers struck a new deal with the IMF Tuesday to slice more than EUR 40 bn off Greece’s massive debt burden by 2020 — in turn freeing up long-blocked loans.
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Battered EU budgeting for more painful talks
EU to unfreeze Egyptian, Tunisian assets
18 EU leaders accept Nobel peace invite, 6 decline
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Commission Watch

Budget: “Schizophrenic” positions by Member States led to the breaking down of negotiations over the bloc’s budget for the rest of the decade, says the Budget Commissioner.
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Malta’s Tonio Borg appointed new Health Commissioner
EU backs Palestinian state even if split on UN vote
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Parliament Watch

Global economy: Parliament president Martin Schulz on Wednesday urged US lawmakers to strike a deal to avoid a fiscal cliff, warning a new recession in the US would hurt economies in Europe and elsewhere.
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‘Stung’ Euro-MP in Austrian corruption trial
This week political groups discussed a ‘draft package’ of proposals outlined in talks with Council and Commission to ascertain whether there are grounds for a possible deal on the payment shortfalls for 2012 and the 2013 budget; and MEPs debated in committee how best to protect the right of workers posted abroad.
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EU diary

3 Dec, Transport, Telecommunications & Energy Council
4 Dec, Economic and Financial Affairs Council
5 Dec, Commission presents Youth Employment Package
6-7 Dec, Employment, Social, Health, Consumer Council
6-7 Dec, Justice and Home Affairs Council
10-13 Dec, European Parliament plenary session
10-11 Dec, Competitiveness Council
The Week Ahead
Long-term diary