EU budget rules are not designed for rescuing, but for operating under normal conditions. Now we have an emergency and you tell Member States that they will get all this money, expecting them to quickly prepare a programme and also spend the funds quickly, but in reality a year will pass until the first euro is spent. If there were absorption problems before, why shouldn't there be absorption problems with this recovery package, says Dr Jorge Nunez Ferrer, Senior Research Fellow at CEPS, in an interview to Europost.

Changes to EU rules on banks’ capital requirements to facilitate their ability to support households and businesses in the EU, were backed via remote vote by the EP Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) on Tuesday. With 41 votes to 16 and 2 abstentions, MEPs adopted the report authored by Jonas Fernandez, (S&D, Spain) for temporarily amending the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) as to respond to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

At the end of November the EU will have very strong Consumer Agenda and the Commission is now actively working on it, EU  Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told MEPs from the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) during their discussion on strengthening of consumer protection, led by the Committee Chair Petra De Sutter (Greens/EFA, BE). 

In a remote vote on Monday MEPs from TRAN Committee rejected all tabled amendments, overall about 100, for the three social and market access files of Mobility Package I and adopted at second reading the recommendations of the rapporteurs on the dossiers. The set covers legislative texts concerning posting of drivers, driving time and rest periods, and market access and cabotage.

Two important messages voiced European Council President Charles Michel at a news conference, he gave after the EU-Japan virtual leaders’ meeting on Tuesday. Saying that it was very productive discussion, he underscored that the partnership between EU and Japan is very “strong and vibrant” and the two sides are working hard together in order to face the Covid-19 crisis.

We have not approved yet the remdesivir, we just gave guidance about what is called a compassionate usage, Guido Rasi, Executive Director of the Amsterdam-based European Medicines Agency (EMA), told MEPs from the ENVI Committee during their debate on Monday.

Covid-19-induced crime and Europol’s work on combatting it was in the forefront of the discussion of EP LIBE Committee with the agency’s Director Catherine De Bolle.

We have one of the most advanced public infrastructure in the world, but nobody was prepared for a public health crisis of these proportions. We have totally neglected to invest in the medical sector in the same systematic way so that we would be up to taking on a pandemic, says Luca Jahier, the EESC President, in an interview to Europost.

In the midst of coronavirus pandemic, the Council backed in haste on Tuesday so called Mobility Package I, the notorious truck drivers’ reform, which is a step in a complex and lengthy procedure towards its final adoption. The package covers three legislative files concerning posting of drivers, driving time and rest periods, and market access and cabotage.

The sixth day of the semi-lockdown imposed to curb the coronavirus epidemic shows that although difficult, Brussels is learning to live at a slow pace.