CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed

On 29 March ecta and several of its members CEOs participated in a meeting organised by EC Commissioner Thierry Breton to discuss the Ukraine crisis with a focus on mobile roaming and termination rates.

During the meeting the EC Commissioner Breton proposed a draft MoU aiming towards a clear public signal addressing the situation. The objectives of the document are:

(1) to provide visibility of  the measures that have been taken so far by the European telecom operators and

(2) to address the sustainability of the voluntary measures already taken by the operators involved (both European and Ukrainian operators) and are not stopped shortly being only on a voluntary basis.

Moreover, the draft MoU expresses solidarity and support towards the Ukrainian refugees in the EU. The document is expected to be signed by the European telecom operators on a voluntary basis and possibly by Ukrainian counterparts.

As a follow up, on 31 March ecta attended a meeting with DG CNECT together with some of the ecta members to further discuss on the draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that has been proposed by the Commission. Ms. Rita Wezenbeek, Director of Connectivity, Communications Networks, Content and Technology DG CONNECT, kindly asked the associations and the operators to provide their written comments on the draft MoU by the end of 1 April 2022 to the following e-mail address:  CNECT-B2@ec.europa.eu.

Next steps:

The Commission is aiming for the MoU to be signed by the end of next week.

Sanctions against Russia

On 30 March  the President of the European  Court of First Instance rejected RT France's request to suspend the sanctions adopted by the Council.

The full text (in French) can be consulted here and the press release downloaded  here. 

 

NEW CONSUMER RIGHTS FOR THE GREEN TRANSITION

On 30 March the European Commission proposed an update to the EU consumer rules to empower consumers for the green transition. The Commission is proposing to amend the Consumer Rights Directive to oblige traders to provide consumers with information on products' durability and repairability.

The pres release can be found here.

Next steps:

The Commission's proposals will now be discussed by the Council and the European Parliament.

DESTINATION EARTH INITIATIVE

On 30 March the European Commission launched the Destination Earth (DestinE) Initiative which aims to develop a highly accurate digital model of the Earth. DestinE will build on EU investment in high-performance computing and massive space and socio-economic data sources.

Under the European Commission leadership, and in coordination with the Member States, scientific communities and other stakeholders, three entrusted entities will implement the initiative: the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). Destination Earth will deliver initial digital services in 2024.

The press release can be found here.

Next week: Tenders will be launched for acquiring various components to be integrated into the Destination Earth system in the spring of 2022.

 

CYBERSECURITY

On 29 March the European Court of auditors published a special report on the cybersecurity level of EU institutions, bodies and agencies (EUIBAs). The report concludes that the level of preparedness of EUIBAs is not commensurate with the threats, and that they have very different levels of cybersecurity maturity.

It is advised that the Commission proposes the introduction of binding cybersecurity rules and an increase in resources for the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-EU). The Commission should also promote further synergies among EUIBAs, and CERT-EU and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity should focus their support on less mature EUIBAs.

The report can be downloaded from here.

 

DISINFORMATION

On 31 March the European Commission published the latest reports on actions to fight disinformation taken by TikTok, Twitter, Meta, and Microsoft in January and February 2022. Along with that, due to their actions taken to fight disinformation on the war in Ukraine, signatories asked for additional time for delivering the strengthened Code of Practice.

More information can be found here.

Next steps: The COVID-19 Monitoring Programme will run until June 2022, with reports referring to actions taken in March and April.

CRYPTO ASSETS

On 31 March MEPs from the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) adopted, with 93 votes to 14 and 14 abstentions, their position on the draft legislation strengthening the EU rules against money laundering and terrorist financing. Under the new requirements:

• all transfers of crypto-assets will have to include information on the source of the asset and its beneficiary, information that is to be made available to the competent authorities.
• minimum thresholds and exemptions for low-value transfers will be removed.

In addition to the above, MEPs want the European Banking Authority (EBA) to create a public register of businesses and services involved in crypto-assets that may have a high risk of money-laundering, terrorist financing and other criminal activities, including a non-exhaustive list of non-compliant providers.

The press release can be found here.

Next steps: The EP as a whole should vote on the adopted text during the plenary session in April.