Les évènements qui nous rassemblent aujourd’hui sont dramatiques. D’abord nous pensons aux enfants, aux femmes, aux hommes dont la vie a été tragiquement secouée, bouleversée pour certains à tout jamais. Nous pensons à ceux qui ont perdu des êtres chers à leur cœur, leur foyer, et leurs attaches.

J’étais il y a quelques semaines en Albanie et j’ai vu les efforts immenses portés par les autorités pour tenter de rencontrer les besoins auxquels la population est confrontée.

Nous connaissons la résilience des albanais, une résilience que les évènements récents ont encore une fois mis en lumière. Mais cette résilience doit être complétée, renforcée par une réponse solidaire, fraternelle, déterminée de la communauté que tous ensemble nous formons.

Au mois de décembre, lors du conseil européen, quelques semaines après ces tragiques événements, tous les États Membres l’ont déclaré: nous sommes et nous voulons être aux côtés du peuple albanais. Notre soutien est sans faille et inconditionnel.

La présidente de la Commission l’a évoqué: une aide substantielle a été fournie sur le terrain rapidement après le tremblement de terre. Chercher ceux qui ont disparu, soutenir les victimes autant qu’il est possible, évaluer les dommages, soutenir la distribution de l’aide. La solidarité de l’Union européenne prend des formes très concrètes.

Aujourd’hui nous sommes là, présents, mobilisés et nous ne sommes pas seuls. Autour de la table se rassemblent aussi tous ceux qui peuvent et qui veulent soutenir l’Albanie, et sa reconstruction: Nations-Unis, Banque Mondiale, États membres, institutions, pays amis de l’Albanie et partenaires internationaux.

Car ça doit être là, à mes yeux, l’une des forces de notre Union européenne: travailler inlassablement à rassembler, à unir la communauté internationale, autour de causes justes et nécessaires et être présents chaque fois au rendez-vous de la solidarité quand les circonstances l’exigent.

Nous ne serons pas un seul de trop. Réhabiliter les écoles, soutenir le tissu des entreprises et les aider à relever la tête, renforcer la protection civile: tout ceci nécessite de travailler ensemble, main dans la main, et d’apporter notre contribution.

Why are we doing this? Because we are one European family.

Albania and the Western Balkans are not far-away, faceless neighbours. They are an integral part of our continent. We have a common heritage, a common history and there is also our future together. We are determined to intensify our relations with the region. We share common opportunities and challenges, in a troubled world. We share interests, spanning the political, security and economic spectrum. And we share a vision of unity and solidarity among countries and regions in Europe.

I am confident that today’s conference will be a success.  Just as I am confident that the Albanian people will overcome these difficult times, rebuild, and move ahead stronger than ever. You can count on us. Thank you.

The updated Q&As provide answers to questions regarding practical issues on the implementation of the new CSDR regime.

The latest set of 7 CSDR Q&As approved by the Board clarify the implementation of the settlement discipline regime, as follows:

1. the costs of the penalty mechanism that are charged to participants by a CSD should not be allocated on the basis of the number or value of penalties applied to participants;
2. with respect to the settlement instructions sent by CCPs:
   • such instructions can stem from the netting of transactions with various trade dates, subject to the CCP being able to retrieve the original trade dates;
   • such instructions can stem from the netting of various types of transactions, subject to the CCP being able to retrieve the original transaction type;
   • there is no obligation under CSDR for CSDs to provide for a field to be populated with the “place of trading” of the transactions, but a CSD can provide such a field for it to be populated;
   • such instructions can stem from the netting of transactions traded on various trading places, subject to the CCP being able to retrieve the original trading places of each netted transaction and to the trading place indicated in the instruction being the trading place of at least one of the netted transactions. It is also clarified that to benefit from the penalty rate applicable to SME growth market transactions, such transactions should not be netted with others;
   • a CSD’s responsibility in respect of collection of information for the purpose of monitoring settlement fails is limited to the information included by the participant in the settlement instruction.
3. in respect of the buy-in process, the length of the extension period should be determined based on the liquidity classification of the relevant financial instrument as of the intended settlement date of the transaction.

Background

Q&As are an important tool to promote common supervisory approaches and practices in the application of CSDR. This document is aimed at national competent authorities under the CSD Regulation to ensure that, in their supervisory activities, their actions are converging along the lines of the responses adopted by ESMA. It should also help investors and other market participants by providing clarity on CSDR requirements.

The aim of CSDR is to harmonise certain aspects of the settlement cycle and settlement discipline, and to provide a set of common requirements for CSDs operating securities settlement systems across the EU. ESMA will continue to develop Q&As on the CSDR in the coming months and will review and update them where required.

On Tuesday, the environment committee will vote on the agreement between the Parliament and member states to further improve access to and the quality of drinking water and to ensure plastic waste from water bottles is reduced.

Artificial intelligence is in the spotlight this week. On Wednesday, the industry and internal market committees will discuss a European approach to AI, a Strategy for Europe Fit for the Digital Age and the European Data Strategy with EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton

There will be hearings on AI in the culture and civil liberties committees looking at legal issues linked to its use, including facial recognition.

MEPs and their national counterparts will look at how economic and social policies are being coordinated at EU level, the so-called European Semester. Among the issues to be discussed are climate action, EU taxation and an EU minimum wage.

On Tuesday, the industry and energy committee will provide input on the selection criteria for EU priority projects for energy. MEPs want to ensure that the revised guidelines are in line with EU climate and energy ambitions, including the 2050 climate neutrality goal.

The internal market and transport committees will vote on type approval of motor vehicles to control the emissions of light passenger and commercial vehicles.

On 13 February 2020, Turkish authorities denied Member of the European Parliament Özlem Demirel (GUE/NGL, DE) the right to monitor a court hearing in Ankara.

Sergey Lagodinsky (Greens/EFA, DE), the Chair of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee, made the following statement:

“It is unacceptable that my colleague Özlem Demirel was denied the right to monitor the court hearing. So far, such observation visits have been common practice in our bilateral cooperation. I consider the order to my second deputy in the EU-Turkey delegation, Ms Demirel, to leave the court building, a crude departure from our common practice, a provocation and a covert personal threat. I strongly condemn my colleague being treated in this way.

Such incidents could further strain our bilateral parliamentary relations and ultimately destroy any remaining confidence in democratic culture in Turkey. The European Parliament and the German Federal Government must request a comprehensive clarification of the incident.”

Background

Özlem Demirel travelled to Turkey in her capacity as a Member of the European Parliament and as an international observer in order to support the families of the victims and to monitor the trial following the bombing of a peaceful demonstration on 10 October 2015.

February 17, 2020 European Trade Mark and Design Network

New Zealand joins TMview

On 17 February 2020, The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) made its trade mark data available in the TMview search tool.

With the integration of IPONZ, TMview now contains data from 73 participating offices.

With the addition of more than 685,000 trade marks from IPONZ, TMview provides information and access to more than 57 million trade marks.

Since the introduction of TMview on 13 April 2010, the tool has served more than 67 million searches from 169 different countries, with Spain, China and Germany among the most frequent users.

The integration of IPONZ is a concrete result of the International Cooperation programme managed by EUIPO in collaboration with its international partners.

You can find out more at www.euipn.org and www.tmview.org