European Union News - Internal Market

The European Commission's 2012 State Aid Scoreboard revealed that the volume of national support to the financial sector actually taken by banks between October 2008 and 31 December 2011 amounted to around €1.6 trillion (13% of EU GDP). Moreover, reflecting both a low uptake by companies and the budgetary constraints of most EU Member States, support to the real economy on the basis of temporary crisis rules dropped to €4.8 billion in 2011, a fall of more than 50% compared with 2010.

The European Commission sent a Statement of Objections with its preliminary view that Samsung's seeking of injunctions against Apple in various Member States on the basis of its mobile phone standard-essential patents ("SEPs") amounts to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited by EU antitrust rules.

The European Commission presented a Communication which takes stock of the current state of the EU customs union, identifies the challenges that it currently faces, and sets out priority actions for ensuring its future evolution.

The new EU rules which include that insurers in Europe will have to charge the same prices to women and men for the same insurance products without distinction on the grounds of sex, will enter into force from 21 of December.

Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and Staffan Nilsson, President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) agreed that long-term investment can significantly boost growth in times of crisis and constrained public budgets combined with private deleveraging. Both the EIB and the EESC agreed on the need to strengthen the EIB's relations with civil society, and the EESC already strongly supports the actions of the EIB.

The European Commission adopted new Broadband Guidelines that intends to help Member States achieve the objectives of the EU Digital Agenda. The new guidelines focus in technological neutrality, ultra-fast broadband networks, step change to connectivity, reinforcement of open access, and transparency.

The European Commission adopted nine regulatory and implementing technical standards to complement the obligations defined under the Regulation on OTC derivatives, central counterparties (CCPs) and trade repositories (the so-called European Markets Infrastructure Regulation – EMIR). The technical standards will enter into force on the twentieth day following publication in the EU's Official Journal.

The proposal to revise the Tobacco Products Directive presented by the European Commission bans the use of cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco (RYO) and smokeless tobacco products with characterising flavours and makes the use of large pictorial health warnings mandatory on cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco (RYO).