The fourth session of the EU-Indonesia Security Dialogue was held on 12 November in Brussels.

Both delegations discussed issues encompassing Common Security and Defence Policy, countering terrorism, violent extremism and radicalisation, maritime security, cyber security, organised crime and crisis management.

The discussions reflected the ambitions to develop and strengthen the EU-Indonesia partnership and cooperation in security and defence. The implementation of the EU Partnership Instrument project with Indonesia and four other countries in Asia on enhanced security cooperation, was also discussed.

The next Dialogue round will be held next year in Indonesia.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, met on 12 November with the Minister of foreign affairs of Uzbekistan, Abdulaziz Kamilov, and the first deputy chairman of the Senate of the country’s Parliament, Sadyk Safoev.

During the meeting, Mogherini and Kamilov discussed issues of common interest, including the peace process in Afghanistan, as well as regional cooperation in Central Asia, for which Mogherini praised Uzbekistan’s role.

They also reviewed progress in negotiations for a new Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Uzbekistan, launched last year, which aims to deepen bilateral relations and support reforms.

With the support of Eurojust, the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration have uncovered an illegal tobacco factory on 12 November.

The factory operated in a warehouse in Budapest, which had been rebuilt to cater to the network’s illegal activities. Its employees were forced to live and work in the factory, locked from outside by the criminal group, primarily Romanian and Moldavian citizens.

Europol provided the authorities with the analytical support to detect the international links and organised operational meetings to set out the strategy.

The European Investment Bank has launched on 12 November a new initiative supporting gender equality, SheInvest, that aims to mobilise €1 billion of investment.

Under the scheme, the EU bank will invest in projects that can increase the capacity of women across Africa to participate in the labour market. They will also be provided with training on how to get better access to finance.

The initiative also promotes gender-responsive climate financing, acknowledging the key role played by women in climate action, and targets climate and gender responsive infrastructure projects enhancing women’s access to water, clean energy, and sustainable public transport.

The eighth session of the EU-Indonesia Human Rights Dialogue took place on 8 November in Brussels.

Both delegations discussed a wide range of topics defined by the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, such as access to justice to international humanitarian law, minorities rights, freedom of expression, freedom of association, and Cooperation in the UN and other multilateral fora.

Representatives from the EU expressed the Union’s concerns about some parts of the proposed new Penal Code, and reiterated its principled position against the death penalty, to which Indonesia’s delegates explained that the country had not implemented it over the last three years.

Both parties shared the main developments in the field of human rights since the previous meeting in 2018 and agreed on the importance of complying with International Humanitarian Law. They reiterated their commitment to the UN human rights system and underlined the need to reinforce the cooperation in multilateral fora within the UN and ASEAN contexts.

The next Human Rights Dialogue between EU and Indonesia will be held next year.

The European Commission announced on 11 November a €55 million in humanitarian aid to Sudan, as some 6.3 million people do not have enough food to meet their needs. One in six children is also suffering from acute undernourishment.

The package contributes to responding to the most critical needs, through food and nutrition assistance, emergency health care, including in tackling the current cholera outbreak, support to refugees and host communities, as well as education for children in areas hit by the crises.

Since 2011, the EU has allocated over €518 million in humanitarian aid to help vulnerable people caught in the country’s humanitarian crises.

The European Investment Bank announced on 11 November that it has provided a total of €265 million to the construction of the Corridor X Motorway between Serbia and Bulgaria, which is crucial to connecting EU with the Western Balkans.

Corridor X is part of the strategic pan-European transport infrastructure passing through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia and Greece. The support represents around 40% of the total costs of the project in Serbia, and covers the most complex and demanding sections of the motorway.

This is the second-largest public sector project the EU bank has financed in Serbia since 1977, the first being a €314 million loan for the E-75 highway. Since 2000, the bank has lent more than €5.74 billion to Serbia, supporting transport, health, research and development and small and medium businesses.

According to a new report by the European Court of Auditors published on 11 November, national authorities should focus more on entering complete data promptly in the EU’s information systems of the Schengen area’s external borders.

The auditors visited Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg and Poland, and examined how well the main IT systems for border control allowed border guards to check individuals entering at authorised border-crossing points.

The report finds that some data is not included in the systems, while other data is incomplete or not entered in a timely manner.

The auditors, therefore, recommend that the EU Commission promote further training on the IT systems, improve data quality procedures, educe delays in data entry and shorten the time taken to correct weakness.

Cambodian opposition leader Kem Sokha has been released from house arrest after being held for more than two years on treason charges. He is accused of plotting to overthrow the country’s Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power for more than three decades.

The European Union welcomed the move, saying it is “a first step in the right direction”.

However, the charges have not been lifted, and he remains banned from conducting political activities or leaving Cambodia.

In that context, the EU added that it expects “the Cambodian authorities to reinstate the political rights of all opposition members banned from political life and to fully release all opposition members, supporters and activists recently put under detention”.

The European Investment Bank agreed at the Africa Investment Forum, in South Africa on 11 November, to support membership expansion of the African Trade Insurance Agency -ATI, with three prospective members – Cameroon, Niger and Togo.

The investment insurance is expected to transform public and private sector investment in the countries,by strengthening investment and reducing project financing costs.

The EIB will finance capital participation that will enable the three countries to access guarantee and insurance mechanisms provided by ATI. Full membership in ATI is expected to follow in the coming months.

The European Union announced on 11 November that it is extending sanctions against Venezuela for a year due to the political and economic crisis blamed on the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

“In light of the ongoing political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela with persistent actions undermining democracy, the rule of law and the respect for human rights, the Council today extended the restrictive measures against Venezuela for one year, until 14 November 2020,” the European Council said in a statement.

The measures include an embargo on arms and on equipment for internal repression, as well as a travel ban and an asset freeze on 25 listed individuals in official positions.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, nearly 5.000 people leave Venezuela every day due to the instability, and three million Venezuelans have left since 2015. EU’s foreign ministers said that the sanctions “are flexible and reversible” and do not target ordinary Venezuelans.

The European Economic and Social Committee, EESC, adopted on 30 October an own-initiative opinion on blockchain technology, an attractive tool for redefining security in digital transactions.

According to the EESC, blockchain technology has the potential to transform society, but there is a need for legal clarity and a common EU approach. It, therefore, called on the EU Commission to launch a comprehensive initiative to make the EU a global authority in this field.

The opinion explains that blockchain can be applied in many sectors to increase security and can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, and it proposes a new, EU-wide platform that will bring together representatives from the EU institutions, EU states, industry, consumers and academics, and would provide a space for sharing good practices.

It also gives concrete examples of how this technology can be used to harness significant opportunities in the context of the single market, for example by making data processing secure and helping build mutual trust between blockchain participants.

According to the conclusions adopted by EU finance ministers on 8 November, EU states’ contributions to help developing countries cope with the impacts of climate change have more than doubled since 2013.

The total contributions of EU countries’ public climate finance amounted to €21.7 billion in 2018, and €20.4 billion in 2017.

This fund is considered an important step to achieve the targets set by the climate change agreement reached in Paris in December 2015. The conclusions also stress the importance of an urgent implementation of the Paris Agreement, and highlight the recent progress achieved in legislative reforms at EU level on sustainable finance.

The European Union’s Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, Europol, and its Intellectual Property Office, EUIPO, have signed an agreement on 7 November to increase cooperation in fighting online and offline infringements of intellectual property rights.

The two institutions have been collaborating since 2013. In 2016, they created a specialist unit within Europol funded by the EUIPO, known as the Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition, or IPC3. Its main task is to coordinate cross-border operations aimed at tackling IP crime across the Union. So far, it has identified and dismantled over a hundred organised crime groups, and has seized goods valued over €980 million.

The European Commission adopted on 8 November the Council’s proposal to create a central database of value-added tax payments, with the goal of tackling VAT fraud.

The legislation will facilitate the transactions by enabling EU states to coordinate the collection of records made available electronically by payment service providers, which is necessary for tax authorities to detect fraudulent activities.

EU finance ministers also agreed on an update to the VAT rules for European small and medium businesses, giving more opportunity for cross-border activities by simplifying their obligations, such as registration and reporting.

The European Investment Bank and the Finnish airport company, Finavia Corporation, have signed a loan agreement of €150 million to finance “phase IV” of the expansion of Helsinki Airport.

The so-called phase IV of the airport’s expansion plans includes the extension of Terminal 2 with new arrivals and departures halls, new gates, increased border control capacity, and better connections to public transport and taxi services.

The financing is expected to boost links to public transportation by removing hold-ups in the Schengen area, as well as between the airport and the rail, bus and taxi services. It will also allow smoother transit of passengers and luggage, by expanding the baggage handling system and passport control areas.

With these interventions, Helsinki Airports annual capacity is expected to rise to about 30 million passengers per year.

Following an agreement with the European Parliament in March, the Council of the EU adopted on 8 November a directive that modernises EU law on consumer protection.

“The Directive guarantees higher standards of protection for EU consumers when they buy products or services online. It also provides for more robust measures against unfair or misleading trade practices across the EU”, said Finnish minister of justice, Anna-Maja Henriksson.

The directive facilitates the enforcement of consumers’ rights by harmonising the criteria for infringements, removing burdens such as outdated means of communication, clarifying information for consumers in case of price reduction, enhancing transparency in online transactions, clarifying misleading rules and providing the right to individual remedies for consumers when they are harmed by unfair commercial practices.

The measures will start to apply six months after EU states implement them.

The Council of the European Union gave on 8 November the green light to the free trade deal between the bloc and Singapore signed last year, removing nearly all customs duties and non-tariff barriers. It is due to enter into force on 21 November.

Over 10,000 European companies are established in Singapore. Apart from removing all tariffs on EU products, the deal will also boost EU services’ providers in key sectors, such as telecommunications, environmental services, and maritime transport.

The deal comes after the EU suspended efforts to strike a bloc deal with the 10-member Association of South-east Asian Nations, ASEAN, in 2009, due to disagreements.

The total bilateral trade in goods is over €53 billion, and the trade in services amounts €51 billion, making Singapore the number one location for European investment in Asia.