Upgrade for online payments - EUbusiness Week newsletter 719 - EUbusiness.com

EUbusiness Week 719 top stories: EU to speed up deportations to tackle migrant crisis; Facebook blow as EU court quashes transatlantic data deal; Two-thirds of EU nations seek to keep GM crops out; EU breached tobacco lobbying rules, says watchdog; Britain wins legal backing over EU migrant benefit claims; VW says 8m cars in EU fitted with emission cheat devices

Publisher’s Note

The final hurdle to an upgraded EU payment services law was cleared Thursday, as MEPs voted in the revised Directive on Payment Services (PSD2), with the aim of making payment transactions safer and ending card surcharges.

PSD2 should cut the cost of paying bills by enabling new market players to use mobile and online tools to make payments on a client’s behalf. They should also make online payments safer, by laying down data protection and liability rules for all online payment service providers.
More …

Regards,

Nick Prag
Publisher, EUbusiness

PARTNER OFFER

Reach our global audience of business & political actors with your own mini-website on EUbusiness.com! – Send us press releases, blogs, guides, events & jobs – Details
– Partners: Email content direct to mailto:editor@eubusiness.com

1. EU to speed up deportations to tackle migrant crisis

EU Member States agreed Thursday to speed up the deportation of failed asylum seekers as they took a harder line toward tackling the worst migration crisis since World War II.
More …
Turkey wary over EU’s migrant plan offer

2. Facebook blow as EU court quashes transatlantic data deal

Facebook and other Internet giants could be barred from sending European citizens’ personal information to the US after the EU’s top court struck down a key transatlantic data deal in the wake of the Edward Snowden scandal.
More …
Austria’s Max Schrems: US high-tech giants’ worst nightmare?

3. Two-thirds of EU nations seek to keep GM crops out

Nineteen of the 28 EU Member States have applied to keep genetically modified crops out of all or part of their territory, the Commission said on Sunday, the deadline for opting out of new European legislation on GM crops.
More …

4. EU breached tobacco lobbying rules, says watchdog

The EU has failed to be transparent about its dealings with the tobacco industry, in breach of UN rules, says the European Ombudsman after the lobbying scandal that claimed Health Commissioner John Dalli.
More …

5. Britain wins legal backing over EU migrant benefit claims

Britain is right to check whether citizens of other EU countries are lawful residents before awarding them child benefits, the advocate general to the European Court of Justice said on Tuesday in a boost for David Cameron’s referendum negotiations.
More …

6. VW says 8m cars in EU fitted with emission cheat devices

Scandal-hit Volkswagen says eight million of its 11 million diesel vehicles fitted with software that cheats in emissions tests were sold in the European Union.
More …

EUROPEAN LAW

Prisoners: the EU’s top court has ruled that countries can ban prisoners from voting in elections if they have been convicted of a serious crime, in a case Britain was watching closely.
More …
Latest news from the European Court of Justice
EU law firms
More …

Inside the EU Institutions

Council Watch

LuxLeaks: EU ministers agreed Tuesday that national authorities would automatically exchange information on tax deals with multinationals, but critics said failing to make them public means the tax avoidance practices that led to the LuxLeaks scandal would continue.
More …
Turkey’s Erdogan, EU’s Tusk discuss Syria ‘safe zone’
British business group calls for early EU referendum
Council …

Commission Watch

Spain: the Commission has warned Spain to scale back government overspending that is in violation of EU budget rules or risk an embarrassing reprimand ahead of December elections.
More …
The West must ‘treat Russia properly’: Juncker
Soulless roundabout at EU’s heart awaits transplant
Commission …

Parliament Watch

Local goods: MEPs on Tuesday said the Union should extend the use of geographic brand names from agricultural goods to manufactured products to give local economies a boost.
More …
EU to deploy Myanmar election observers
In plenary this week, French President Hollande and German Chancellor Merkel faced Parliament on the migrant crisis; while MEPs called for binding measures to close the pay gap between men and women.
More …

EU diary

14 Oct: European Parliament plenary session
14-15 Oct: Strategy meeting ‘Europeana for Smart Cities’
14-15 Oct: Shaping the future of food safety, together
15-16 Oct: European Council
15-16 Oct: Women in economic and political decision-making
The Week Ahead
Long-term diary