FOREWORD

EMEL Newsletter is a bimonthly newsletter launched on January 2018 as a learning content for the course of European Monetary and Economic Law (EMEL): Towards a New Shape of European Union?, held by Prof. Giulio Peroni at University of Milan. The course is a Jean Monnet Module, which is a teaching programme in the field of European Union studies funded by the European Commission through the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

EMEL Newsletter aims at creating a platform of periodical information regarding the reform process of the European Union and of European Monetary Union especially, both for didactical and informative purposes, for all law students of the University and for all people interested in the law of the European Union, overall.

EMEL Newsletter is published on this webpage every two months and it is divided in different sections. Section ‘Focus on’ is dedicated to the most important news of said EU’s and EMU’s reform process. Section ‘Economic Policy Bulletin’ contains periodical updates about the economic performance in the EU and the coordination of Member States’ economic policies in the context of the European Semester. Section ‘News’ reports any other information in the field of European Economic Law while section ‘Events’ informs about the relevant initiatives. The news reported herein contain links to official documents, normative acts and press releases from European institutions and from other national or international institutions.

This issue of the Newsletter has been edited with the direct participation of the students of the EMEL course in the writing process. The participation of the students, which drafte the news reported herein, collectively or individually, will allow this project to grow in its contents and become a mean of study and information for all law students.

EMEL Newsletter is edited by Dott. Tiziano Bussani, a Ph.D. students in Public, International and European Law at the University of Milan, and it is coordinated and supervised by the teacher of said course Prof. Giulio Peroni.

EMEL NEWSLETTER European Monetary and Economic Law

emel@unimi.it - tiziano.bussani@unimi.it

FOCUS ON

# Brexit

BREXIT: THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL AGREES TO EXTEND ART. 50 UNTIL 31 OCTOBER 2019. WHAT’S HAPPENING AND WHAT COULD HAPPEN NEXT.

The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union was decided by the UK

Parliament following the result of the referendum held on 23 June 2016, in which 51.9 per cent of voting people supported leaving the EU. Art. 50 of European Union Treaty allows any Member State to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements. A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention; hence, the Union shall negotiate and conclude in accordance with Art. 218(3) TFEU an agreement with that State, setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship with the Union. Under Art. 50(3) TEU, European Treaties shall cease to apply to the withdrawing State from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification of the withdrawal, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period.

The withdrawal was notified by the UK Government on 29 March 2017. After almost two years of intense negotiations, the Brexit withdrawal agreement was endorsed on 14 November 2018 by the Leaders of the 27 remaining EU countries and the UK Prime Minister Theresa May; however, it faced opposition in the UK Parliament, whose approval was necessary for ratification. Indeed, the Agreement was rejected twice by the House of Commons, on 15 January 2019 and on 12 March 2019. At the same time on 13 March 2019 the UK Parliament also voted against the ‘no deal’, that is the withdrawal from EU without any agreement. Nevertheless, the no-no deal vote is not significant for the EU-UK relationship, because the cease of EU Treaties is automatic under Art. 50(3) TEU, if any agreement is reached within 2 years after the withdrawal notification, namely within 29 March 2019.

For these reasons, the UK Prime Minister asked the European Council for an extension of the period under Art. 50. Under UK law, this was made possible under the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 5) Bill, which creates a legal mechanism whereby the House of Commons can instruct the Prime Minister to ask the European Council for an extension to Article 50 in the absence of an approval resolution for an exit deal from the EU.

At the meeting of 21 March 2019, the European Council agreed to an extension until 22 May 2019. However, after the third vote of the House of Commons against the withdrawal agreement on 29 March 2019, the UK Prime Minister newly asked for an extension: at the meeting of 10 April 2019, the European Council agreed to further extend Art. 50 until 31 October 2019.

As a result, UK gained additional six months to find the best possible solution; moreover, the extension of Art. 50 means that UK, as a Member State of the EU, will have to participate to the elections of the EU Parliament of 23-26 May 2019.

Since the Brexit withdrawal agreement is not open to a negotiation, as stated by the European Council at the meeting of 13 December 2018 and confirmed at the meeting of 10 April 2019, UK Parliament seems to have only three options to solve the Brexit impasse:

1) approving the Agreement; 2) approving the ‘no deal’– that however will be automatic under Art. 50(3) TEU, unless

otherwise decided by the European Council; 3) revoking Art. 50. With the judgment dated 10 December 2018, the European Court of

Justice ruled that it would be legal for the UK to unilaterally revoke Article 50 to cancel Brexit. In such scenario, with the government still committed to Brexit, it's very likely that a major event such as a further referendum or change of government would have to happen before such a move: it's not totally clear what the process would be, but an act of Parliament calling for Article 50 to be revoked would probably be sufficient. Beyond all the legal issues related to the withdrawal of a Member State from the Union, the Brexit case has a crucial importance from a political, social and economic point of view.

Regarding the political perspective, it is diffused the opinion that the Union is going through an internal crisis that suggests several scenarios for the future: either the crisis will be a trigger to increase European centralizing federalism or a warning bell to give States more room for manoeuvre or, finally, the continuation of integrationism with a reluctance on the part of States. In such a context, the possibility of a domino effect of Brexit must be taken into account by the European Union: all the initiatives of the Commission and Parliament might be undermined and the vision of an economic, political and social union could disappear if the Member States do not face the political crisis together following the exit from the United Kingdom and the increasing rise of the Euroceptic movement. The fate of the United Kingdom in the years to come will be decisive for it and for the other countries of the European Union. If it sinks into crisis, the English experience will discourage other peoples from imitating it.

With regard to the economic scenario, with Brexit the United Kingdom will by definition loose the benefit of the Single Market and of the trade agreements concluded by the EU and its partners around the world. Many companies use the United Kingdom as a gateway to Europe. However, some of them have warned that they will relocate their European headquarters in the event of Brexit. It has been supposed that one of the UK’s first measures after Brexit in order not to lose the role of London as a financial center could be the reduction of corporate income tax to 15%, to encourage companies to stay in the country. THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION - Results of the referendum 23.6.2016 Notification of Article 50 TEU by the United Kingdom 29.3.2017 Draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, 14.11.2018 UK PARLIAMENT, Result of the vote 15.1.2019 UK PARLIAMENT, Result of the vote 12.3.2019 UK PARLIAMENT, Result of the vote 13.3.2019 EUROPEAN COUNCIL, Conclusions of the meeting 21.3.2019 UK PARLIAMENT, Result of the vote 29.3.2019 EUROPEAN COUNCIL, Conclusions of the meeting 10.4.2019 EUROPEAN COUNCIL, Conclusions of the meeting 13.12.2018 COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EU, Case C-621/18 Judgment 10.12.2018 OF THE EU, COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EU, Press release 10.12.2018 HOUSE OF LORDS, Brexit timeline: events leading to the UK’s exit from the European Union HOUSE OF LORDS, Brexit round up - website

ECONOMIC POLICY BULLETIN

# Summit & Meetings # Economy and Economic Policy

THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL SETS THE PRIORITIES FOR A STRONGER ‘ECONOMIC BASE’ OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

At the European Council of 21 and 22 March, EU leaders discussed the current economic

situation and endorsed the policy priority areas of the Annual Growth Survey and the draft Council recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area (see EMEL News 1/2019).

Furthermore, EU leaders agreed that a strong economic base is of key importance for Europe's prosperity and competitiveness and that this objective should be achieved, especially, by: 1. further strengthening and deepening the single market; 2. building a sustainable and competitive industrial base; 3. developing the digital economy; 4. stepping up investment and risk-taking in research and innovation; and 5. by pushing for a free trade agenda.

To this end, the European Council invited the Commission to develop by March 2020 a long-term action plan for better implementation and enforcement of Single Market rules, with particular emphasis on the development of a service economy, on mainstreaming digital services, on deepening the Capital Markets Union and the Energy Union, and on ensuring fair and effective taxation. The Commission has also been invited by the European Council to present, by the end of 2019, a long-term vision for the EU’s industrial future, with concrete measures to implement it.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Annual Growth Survey 2019: For a stronger Europe in the face of global uncertainty, Communication 21.11.2018 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Recommendation for a Council Recommendation on the economic policy of the euro area, 21.11.2018 EUROPEAN COUNCIL, Conclusions of the European Council meeting 21/22.3.2019

# Monetary Policy and Financial Stability

MONETARY POLICY: NEW SERIES OF QUARTERLY TARGETED LONGER-TERM REFINANCING OPERATIONS (TLTRO) FROM SEPTEMBER 2019

With the decision dated 7.3.2019, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank

confirmed the decision of 24.1.2019 (see EMEL News n. 1/2019) to keep the key ECB interest rates unchanged and specified to expect them to remain at their present levels at least through the end 2019, and, in any case, for as long as necessary to ensure the continued sustained convergence of inflation to levels that are below, but close to, 2% over the medium term.

Regarding non-standard monetary policy measures, the Governing Council announced that a new series of quarterly Targeted Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO-III) will be launched, starting in September 2019 and ending in March 2021, each with a maturity of two years. The TLTROs are Eurosystem operations that provide to credit institutions long-term financing at attractive conditions for periods of up to four years, in order to further ease private sector credit conditions and stimulate bank lending to the real economy. These new operations will help to preserve favourable bank lending conditions and the smooth transmission of monetary policy. Like the outstanding TLTRO programme, TLTRO-III will feature built-in incentives for credit conditions to remain favourable.

ECB, Monetary policy decisions, 24.1.2019 ECB, Monetary policy decisions, 7.3.2019 ECB, Monetary policy decisions, 10.4.2019 ECB, TLTROs - website

# Summit & Meetings # European Monetary Union Reform

DEEPENING THE DEBATE ON REFORMING EUROPEAN MONETARY UNION: UPDATES FROM LAST EUROGROUP’S MEETINGS AFTER THE EURO SUMMIT DATED 14.12.2018

Following the mandate received by EU leaders at the 14 December Euro Summit, the Eurogroup is continuing to discuss the deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union (see EMEL News n. 1/2019). At the Eurogroup’s meetings of 21 March and 5 April, after exchanging views on

the features of the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness (BICC) for the euro area, focusing on expenditure related and governance aspects, Ministers reached a broad agreement about the scope of such tool, which should support both structural reforms and public investment, in line with priorities and challenges identified in the European Semester, following in particular the euro area recommendations. The Eurogroup’s President Mario Centeno announced that an agreement on the features of said instrument will be prepared by June.

Ministers have also been updated by the Chair of the High Level Working Group on EDIS on the state of play of the European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS) for bank deposits in the euro area. Indeed, the EDIS was proposed by the Commission in 2015 as the third pillar of the Banking Union, but some Member States insisted for a further risk reduction in some other Member States’ banking sector before deepening the debate on this Banking Union’s reform. Progresses in such field are expected to come in June, when the High Level Working Group on EDIS will submit a final report to EU Leaders.

EURO SUMMIT, Statement of the Euro summit 14.12.2018 EUROGROUP'S PRESIDENT, Summing-up letter of Eurogroup of 21.3.2019 EUROGROUP'S PRESIDENT, Summing-up letter of Eurogroup of 5.5.2019

NEWS # Single Market

THE APPROVAL OF THE COPYRIGHT REFORM: NEW BASES FOR A EUROPEAN DIGITAL SINGLE MARKET

The 2019 Directive laying down rules on the exercise of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions of broadcasting organisations and retransmissions of television and radio programmes, also known as the Copyright Reform, has finally been approved by the European Parliament on 26th March and by the Council on 15th April. Member States will have 24 months after its publication in the Official Journal of EU to incorporate it in their own legislation.

The 2019 Directive, adding new rules to the 2006 Directive on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights, which consolidated the 2001 version, has been adopted after three years of negotiations, which started with the Commission’s proposal of directive on copyright in 2016. Such new copyright rules for internet and the digital market were necessary since the previous Directive did not take into account neither social medias nor video-on-demand, museums digitising their art collections and teacher providing online courses.

The Directive wants to reinforce the position of creators and right holders to negotiate and be remunerated for the online use of their property. The goals pursued by the copyright reform are to protect press publications, reducing « value gap » between profits made by the giants of internet and by content creators with a long term vision of collaboration; to try to unify European copyright law with international legislation, more particularly with World Intellectual Property Organization of 1996; and finally to strengthen the fundamental right of freedom of speech.

The reform focuses on the aspects of Digital single market: its strategy is to open up digital opportunities at the level of people and businesses and put Europe as a work leader in this sector, making links with national and regional initiatives and boosting investment. The scope is to build a European data economy without barriers impeding the free flow of data in the European single market. One of the consequences to improving connectivity and access is to boost productivity for businesses by strengthening broadband and wireless connectivity across Europe, while making European works widely accessible to European citizens and from all over the world. The reform aims also at ensuring a good balance between copyright and public policy objectives (as education, research and innovation) in a fairer online environment for press actors and creators.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL, Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, 22.5.2001 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL, Directive on the term of protection of copyright and certain related rights 12.12.2006 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Proposal of directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market 14.9.2016 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL, Directive laying down rules on the exercise of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions of broadcasting organisations and retransmissions of television and radio programmes 17.4.2019 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, Press release 26.3.2019 EUROPEAN COUNCIL, Press Release 15.4.2019 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Press release 15.4.2019

# Summit & Meetings # International Commerce

EU-CHINA RELATIONSHIP: EU AND CHINA RELEASE A JOINT STATEMENT REAFFIRMING MULTILATERALISM & TRADE

On 9th of April, the 21st EU-China Summit was launched in Brussels, presented by Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of China, Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. Both parties made compromises in order to reach further agreements and a joint statement was released despite earlier suggestions that EU leaders might walk away from negotiations amid a tougher European stance on China’s business practices.

China is the EU's second-biggest trading partner behind the United States and the EU is China's biggest trading partner. The EU is committed to open trading relations with China. To strengthen cooperation and coordination between two sides, which can be seen from the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2017, they are going to increase mutual understanding and awareness of current and forthcoming trends and expected developments of relevant policy in their respective jurisdictions.

However, the EU wants to make sure that China trades fairly, respects intellectual property rights and meets its obligations as a member of WTO. On the EU's emphasis on fair trade, the 2019 joint statement said the two sides commit to establishing economic and trade relations on the basis of openness, non-discrimination and fair competition to ensure a level playing field, transparency and

mutual benefit. Intellectual property rights’ violations and counterfeiting remain a very pressing concern. Cooperation with China on basic issues of patent policies should be intensified, particularly in creating a level playing field and non-discrimination in the field of patent applications. In the statement, both sides recognized the importance of intellectual property protection and enforcement and agree that there should not be forced transfer of technology.

According to the statement, China and the EU are committed to achieving major progress this year, for the conclusion of an ambitious EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement in 2020. The two sides pledged to widen market access, eliminate discriminatory requirements for foreign investors and establish a balanced investment protection framework.

For China, 5G technology has been an essential topic in agenda for the last few years. The EU said that it is concerned by Chinese companies and 5G security but it had seen no evidence of spying by firms such as Huawei. The EU said it would ignore US calls for a ban on Huawei but would continue to assess 5G in the light of security developments. The EU acknowledges that 5G network will provide the basic backbone for future economic and social development and welcomes progress and further exchanges in the China-EU dialogue and working mechanism on 5G.

The two sides agree on strengthening synergies between the EU strategy on Connecting Europe and Asia, the EU's Trans-European Transport Networks and the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Italy was the first western European nation to sign up for China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

China and EU stressed that they want to work together to uphold peace and stability and address global challenges. Thus they reaffirmed their commitment to the Iran nuclear deal, a key element of the global nonproliferation architecture, and the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, both of which the United States has withdrawn from. Furthermore, by affirming that they will pursue policies that support an open, balanced, and inclusive global economy and multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization and better global governance under the UN framework, the 2019 joint statement showed that China and the EU have a fruitful partnership.

EU-CHINA, Joint statement of the 20th Summit 16.7.2018 EU-CHINA, Joint statement of the 21st summit 9.4.2019 EU-CHINA, 2017 Memorandum of Understanding EU's Trans-European Transport Networks, website China’s Belt and Road Initiative, website ITALY-CHINA, 2019 Memorandum of Understanding EU PARLIAMENT POLICY DEPARTMENT, 5G Deployment. State of Play in Europe, USA and Asia, 2019

# Energy Union # Sustainability

THE 4TH REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE ENERGY UNION SHOWS PROGRESSES MADE UNDER THE 2015 ‘ENERGY UNION PACKAGE’ AND THE 2018 ‘A CLEAN ENERGY FOR ALL EUROPEANS PACAKAGE’

In February 2015 the European Commission unveiled its strategy to achieve a resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy (the Energy Union Package). The goal was to create an integrated energy market for a sustainable, low carbon and environmentally friendly economy which would put Europe at the forefront of renewable energy production, clean energy technologies, and the fight against global warming. According to that, the Energy Union strategy has five mutually-reinforcing and closely interrelated dimensions designed to bring greater energy security, sustainability and competitiveness: 1. security, solidarity and trust (diversifying Europe's sources of energy and ensuring energy security through solidarity and cooperation between EU countries); 2. a fully integrated internal energy market (enabling the free flow of energy through the EU through adequate infrastructure and without technical or regulatory barriers); 3. energy efficiency (improved energy efficiency will reduce dependence on energy imports, lower emissions, and drive jobs and growth); 4. climate action, decarbonizing the economy (the EU was committed to a quick ratification of the Paris Agreement and to retaining its leadership in the area of renewable energy); 5. research, innovation and competitiveness (supporting breakthroughs in low-carbon and clean energy technologies by prioritizing research and innovation to drive the energy transition and improve competitiveness).

In 2016, the first State of the Energy Union Report showed that much progress has been made since the adoption of the Energy Union Framework Strategy 9 months before. The second report on the State of the Energy Union from January 2017 stated that European Union as a whole has continued to make good progress on delivering the Energy Union objectives, in particular on the 2020 energy and climate targets. It has already achieved considerable reductions in energy consumption and if Member States' efforts continue, the European Union is on track to reach its 2020 energy efficiency targets. The third report on the State of the Energy Union from November 2017 stated that the share of renewable energy in the EU energy mix continues to rise and is on track to reach the 20% target in 2020. In 2015, renewable energy accounted for most (77 %) of the new EU generating capacity for the eighth consecutive year.

The last, fourth report on the State of the Energy Union from April 2019 stated that the Union has resulted in a comprehensive and legally binding framework for reaching the Paris Agreement

goals, while simultaneously helping to modernise the European economy and its industry; it has enabled the EU to put in place clear and ambitious targets for 2030 in renewable energy and energy efficiency; it has also provided a solid basis for work towards a modern and prosperous climate-neutral economy by 2050; it provided a combination of a fully up-to-date regulatory framework and a vision for the policies that are required between now and 2050 (which provides the certainty necessary for high-quality, innovative investment to modernise the EU economy and create local jobs); it has allowed the EU to speak with one voice on the international stage. Furthermore, Greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption were increasingly decoupled from economic growth while strong growth continued in the renewable sector but with an unequal deployment; good progress has been made towards a more integrated European energy market, air quality has progressed, but further improvements remain necessary.

Under this European Commission, the EU has successfully adopted a completely new legislative framework for energy and climate policies. The European Parliament and Council agreed on a revision of the EU’s climate legislation, including the Emissions Trading System Directive, both for stationary installations and for aviation, the Effort Sharing Regulation, and the Regulation on Land use, Land use change and Forestry. They also agreed on the eight legislative proposals in the Clean Energy for All Europeans Package dated 28.11.2018, and on the ten mobility proposals following the Low-Emission Mobility Strategy launched on 20.7.2016. The updated legislative framework sets out quantified objectives and a clear ‘direction of travel’ to 2030 providing a stable, predictable environment for planning and investment. Furthermore, all Member States have now submitted their first draft National Energy and Climate Plans (covering the period 2021-2030). The European Commission is assessing these draft plans with a view to issuing potential recommendations to Member States by June 2019, to help Member States further improve their plans, and ensure that the EU can collectively deliver on its commitments. One key question of the assessment will be whether the Member States’ national contributions to the renewable energy and energy efficiency targets are sufficient to meet the EU’s collective level of ambition as a whole. Building on this process, Member States will continue to develop, and ultimately adopt, their national energy and climate plans in the second half of 2019.

Energy Union - website EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Energy Union Package - Communication A Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Policy 25/2/2015 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Communication A Clean Planet for all - A European strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy 28/11/2018

EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Communication A European Strategy for Low-Emission Mobility 20/7/2016 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, First State of the Energy Union Report 25/2/2016 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Second report on the State of the Energy Union 1/2/2017 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Third report on the State of the Energy Union 24/11/2017 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Fourth report on the State of the Energy Union 9/4/2019

# Single Market

ANTITRUST: COMMISSION FINES GOOGLE AND NIKE FOR DISTORTING COMPETITION FOR SEVERAL YEARS

During March 2019, the European Commission has drawn the attention of mass media for having fined two worldwide known corporations that, according to the Commission, acted against EU competition law. Indeed both Google and Nike, at the end of two different proceedings in front of EU Commission, were sanctioned because they breached for several years EU antitrust rules: specifically Art. 101 TFEU was involved in the Nike case and Art. 102 TFEU in the Google one. The Commission has exclusive competence for the implementation of European competition law, market supervision and sanctions in the event of non-compliance with the rules. For such purposes, the Commission has extensive means to investigate company practices and prevent anti-competitive agreement and abuses of dominant positions as, in Google and Nike cases, but also cartels, mergers and state aids.

1. The Google Case. The European Commission has imposed a fine of EUR 1.49 billion on Google for distorting competition over a number of years, in violation of Art. 102 TFEU prohibiting the abuse of a dominant position. The Commission believes that Google has abused its dominant position by entering into several exclusivity clauses with third party website providers. This prevented competitors from placing their search advertisements on such websites.

Google had in the years 2006 - 2016, in the European Economic Area (EEA), a 70% market share at online search advertising intermediation. In 2016, Google held market shares generally above 90% in the national markets for general search and above 75% in most of the national markets for online search advertisement. These data clearly show the power position of Google. In such a context, for other competitors it is not possible to sell their own search adverts on Google’s own search engine result websites. Accordingly, their market entry is mainly possible via third party websites and their integrated search function.

In order to minimize the possible influence of competitors, Google has included specific clauses in its contracts with third party website operators since 2006. These take the form of exclusivity clauses, "premium-placement" clauses or approval clauses: the exclusivity clause prohibits the publisher of the third party website to place competitive search ads on its search result pages; according to the "premium-placement" clause, the publisher must reserve the most profitable place on the search result page for Google; the approval clause states that operators must obtain Google’s permission for planned changes to the presentation of competing adverts, so that Google could control how attractive competitive adverts could be.

In recent past, Google has been already fined by the Commission: in June 2017, the Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to Google's own comparison shopping service, while in July 2018 Google was fined €4.34 billion for illegal practices regarding Android mobile devices to strengthen the dominance of Google's search engine.

2. The Nike Case. Nike is famous for selling sports products. Some of them are football team products and they had the logo of Nike called as ‘Swoosh’; some other products don’t carry this logo, but instead they show directly the brand of the football team: these are called ‘licensed merchandise’, because Nike gives the license to a third party that can sell the merchandise as a licensee. The European Commission fined the company for this role of licensor for the production and the selling of these articles. According to the Commission, Nike has imposed to its counterparties directly measures for the restriction of cross border-selling, namely by imposing clauses prohibiting such sales and clauses establishing double royalties for out of territory sales; moreover, the Commission investigation showed that Nike has also enforced indirect measures implementing out-of-territory restrictions: for example Nike, as licensor, threats licensees that if they sell products out of the territory, Nike will refuse to give provision of official product holograms.

The Commission found that these practices carried out by Nike for thirteen years, from 2004 to 2017, were illegal under art. 101 TUE, because they lead to the compartmentalization of European single market and inhibition of licensees for cross border selling, causing a damage for ultimate customers. For this reason, the European Commission imposed a EUR 12.5 million fine on Nike. EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Press release on the 2019 Google Case 20/3/2019 EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Statement on the 2019 Google Case 20/3/2019 EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Press release on the 2017 Google Case 27/7/2017 EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Press release on the 2018 Google Case 18/7/2018 EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Press release on the Nike Case 25/3/2019

# International Commerce

AFRICA - EUROPE ALLIANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT AND JOBS: THE COMMISSION LAUNCHES NEW PROGRAMS IN ORDER TO SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, GROWTH AND SECURITY IN AFRICA.

The African States and the European Union maintain relationship since several years. The Joint Africa–EU Strategy, launched in 2007, provides the overarching long-term framework for Africa-EU relations and it is implemented through multi-annual Action Plans defining the priority areas of cooperation, that are traditionally adopted every 3 years during the Summits of Heads of States and Governments. The last Summit took place in November 2017.

In September 2018, with the Communication on a new Africa - Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs: taking our partnership for investment and jobs to the next level, the Commission proposed a new Africa - Europe Alliance, with the purpose of boosting strategic public and private investments; investing in education and skills of African peoples; strengthening business environment and investment climate; and tapping the full potential of economic integration and trade. The EU has always had a wish of reinforcing partnership with Africa, for sustainable investment and jobs.

In such a context, the EU Commission, in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has recently decided to invest 10 million of euro in technical assistance and capacity building in partner countries in Africa, in order to help them to improve the business and investment climate. The goal is to provide assistance in their process of regional integration, with implementing and monitoring sound macroeconomic, fiscal and monetary policies. The key of the EU and the IMF strategic partnership is to support operations and dialogue between Africa and the European Union. In fact, the IMF and the European Union are partners and implement the Strategic Partnership Framework (SPF) focusing on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, which was signed in 2016. This project is focused on debt sustainability, Public financial management and capacity development to support partner countries with the design and implementation of policies. Moreover, it promotes the growth and is focused on promoting sustainable development and reducing poverty.

The European Commission will also invest 4.2 million of euro in the context of External Investment Plan with the aim of assisting underfinanced sectors in Africa such as small businesses, like young entrepreneurs and women. This technical assistance program will support capacity building measures in order to help local banks to develop new loans and financial products.

Moreover, the European Commission has recently adopted five new programmes and three top-ups of current programmes worth €115.5 million under the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa to complement ongoing efforts in the Sahel and Lake Chad region. The EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa was established in 2015 to address the root causes of instability, irregular migration and forced displacement.

Joint Africa–EU Strategy, Lisbon 2007 5th Africa - EU Summit 29-30/11/2017 Final Declaration of the 5th Africa - EU Summit 29-30/11/2017 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Communication on a new Africa - Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs: taking our partnership for investment and jobs to the next level 12/9/2018 EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Press release #1 12/4/2019 2016 EC-IMF Strategic Partnership Framework - website EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Press release #2 12/4/2019 External Investment Plan - website EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Press release 4/4/2019 Emergency Trust Fund for Africa - website

EVENTS