An informal meeting between transport and environment ministers took place in Austria on Monday. The ministers convened for a working-level meeting to focus on the future of the European environment policy, and in particular, on the question of a future 8th EU Environment Action Program. EU member transport ministers will take up the question of abolishing daylight savings time and on enacting road safety improvements.
An Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee delegation will visit Rome this week to discuss Italy's economic outlook and financial stability as well as supervision of and developments in the banking sector, e.g. capitalization levels and stock of nonperforming loans (NPLs). Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are set to meet, among others, Italy’s National Bank Governor Ignazio Visco and Finance Minister Giovanni Tria.
A delegation from the International Trade and Foreign Affairs committees will participate in the first-ever parliamentary conference to prepare the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires, which takes place at the end of November. The delegation is also set to meet Argentinian government representatives to discuss EU Argentina relations, South American trade bloc Mercosur and regional issues.
Thursday and Friday this week are public holidays in the EU because of All Saints' Day and All Souls Day, respectively.
-Last week
Belgium conducted talks with Turkish firm Karadeniz Holding to commission the Turkish company's floating power plants in Belgium to prevent power outages in the country arising from the deactivation of several reactors in November.
The EC has identified in the draft budgetary plan submitted by Italy for 2019 a particularly serious non-compliance with the council’s fiscal recommendation addressed to Italy on July 13, 2018. Therefore, the European Commission requested that Italy presents a revised draft budgetary plan for 2019 within three weeks in line with the relevant rules.
In the euro area, the government debt to GDP ratio declined from 89.1 percent at the end of 2016 to 86.8 percent at the end of 2017, and in the EU28 from 83.3 percent to 81.6 percent.
Single-use plastic items such as plates, cutlery, straws, balloon sticks or cotton buds, will be banned in the EU under plans adopted on Wednesday by European Parliament. These products, which make up over 70 percent of marine litter, will be banned from the EU market from 2021, under draft plans approved by Parliament.
The Council last week informed the European Parliament that it cannot accept all the amendments for the 2019 EU budget adopted by Parliament. This triggers a three-week conciliation period starting on Oct. 30. The two institutions will have until Nov. 19 to find an agreement on next year’s budget. The Council's position, adopted on Sept. 4, sets total commitments at €164.1 billion and total payments at €148.2 billion. The Parliament is asking for total commitments to be increased to €166.3 billion and total payments to €149.3 billion.