European Union News - Internal Market

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission has made public the list of denaturants that could be used to make alcohol unfit for human consumption following the addition of another element to it. With this harmonisation, the Commission seeks to mitigate both fraud and tax evasion practices related to alcoholic beverages.

The Regulation put forward by the European Commission aims to stimulate the financing of social business, i.e. companies whose corporate objectives go beyond maximising profits and also have the achievement of positive social impact within their core business. The measures to be put in place aim to increase the transparency of the information received by investors in order to stimulate funding to these type of projects.

The European Commission presented a strategy to promote better access to finance for SMEs. The strategy includes an EU Action Plan which consists in an increase of financial support from the EU budget and the European Investment Bank and a proposal for a regulation setting uniform rules for the marketing of venture capital funds.

The agreement reached by the Council negotiators and MEPs on fairer prices for raw milk seeks to boost dairy farmers' bargaining power, ensure fairer prices for raw milk they produce and thus help them to prepare for the end of milk quotas in 2015. The agreement still need to be confirmed by the Parliament as a whole and the Council.

The European Commission has opened formal antitrust proceedings to investigate whether some international publishers engaged in anti-competitive practices, possibly with the help of Apple, engaged in anti-competitive practices affecting the sale of e-books, breaching the EU antitrust rules.

The European Commission adopted a Communication on the future of VAT which sets out the fundamental characteristics that must underlie the new VAT regime. According to the Commission, the VAT regime must be made more workable for businesses, VAT must be made more efficient in supporting Member States' fiscal consolidation efforts, and the huge revenue losses that occur today due to uncollected VAT and fraud need to be stopped.

The first European Mobility Challenge, launched by the Commission's Vice-President Siim Kallas, has started with the public vote in order to find the best electronic journey planner. The main aim of this contest is to raise awareness about and stimulate development of all-in-one journey planners, going beyond national borders and offering alternative transport modes.

The Council stressed at the Competitiveness meeting celebrated in Brussels the importance of supporting actions leading towards Europe 2020 goals by an effective industrial policy that facilitates access to knowledge and enhances resource efficiency. Member States also stated their support to the European SME Envoy network to promote the implementation of the SBA.

The European Parliament agreed on the Commission's proposal to provide supplementary EU co‑financing to countries facing particular difficulties in managing public debt/deficit and ensuring financial stability. It is still needed the green light by the Council in order to adopt the proposal. The Member States which will benefit of this proposal are Romania, Latvia, Hungary, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

The Legal Affairs Committee and Council Presidency negotiators reached an agreement on plans for an EU unitary patent to cut costs for firms and boost the EU's competitiveness. The deal still needs to be approved by Parliament as a whole and by the Council.