News

France reaffirmed today (25 September) its opposition to plans by the European Commission to extend its approval for the weed killer product glyphosate. “The European Commission has proposed renewing its approval for glyphosate for another ten years. This is far too long, given the concerns that remain over this product, and France will vote against the proposal, as clearly laid out previously in July,” Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said in a statement. Read the original post.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected for a fourth term while nationalists have made a historic surge in federal elections. Her conservative CDU/CSU bloc has seen its worst result in almost 70 years but will remain the largest in parliament.

Theresa May has proposed delaying a full Brexit until 2021 by asking EU countries to agree to a two-year transition period during which the United Kingdom would continue to enjoy unfettered access to the single market.

The Visegrad group and two Balkan countries signed yesterday (September 21) a Joint Declaration urging the European Commission to reconsider its proposal to gradually phase out first generation biofuels after 2020 and think about the consequences. The Declaration is available here.

On Thursday, 21 September, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada enters into force provisionally. CETA will be fully implemented once all EU Member States ratify the deal according to their respective constitutional requirements. At the time CETA will take full effect, a new and improved Investment Court System will replace the current investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism that exists in many bilateral trade agreements negotiated in the past by EU Member States' governments.