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The crypto-asset sector, while still relatively new, has already changed the world of payments and investment forever. The fast-changing, mobile nature of the sector and its growing market prominence poses challenges, however, for tax authorities, which are not always able to track the capital gains made from trading crypto-assets. On 8 December 2022, the European Commission proposed to set up a reporting framework which would require crypto-asset service providers to report transactions made by ...

Between 2018 and 2020, over 18 000 migrant and refugee children were reported as missing in Europe. It is feared that many may have been exploited and abused for sexual or labour purposes. The European Parliament has repeatedly stressed the need to address the disappearance of migrant children in the EU. The conflict in Ukraine and the subsequent mass displacement of people have only made the situation worse, creating fertile ground for criminal networks to take advantage of vulnerable people, especially ...

In July 2021, the European Commission tabled a proposal to establish a new EU authority to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AMLA). This was part of a legislative package aimed at implementing the 2020 action plan for a comprehensive Union policy on preventing money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The AMLA would be the centre of an integrated system composed of the authority itself and the national authorities with an AML/CFT supervisory mandate. It would also support ...

As products have become more complex in the digital age, the European Commission published a proposal for a new directive on liability of defective products in September 2022. This would revise the existing Product Liability Directive, adopted nearly 40 years ago in 1985. The proposal aims to bring the European Union's product liability regime up to speed with the digital age, circular economy business models and global value chains. The proposal introduces new provisions to address liability for ...

Over the years, techniques to limit freedom of expression have been refined, in innovative ways, often taking advantage of a legal void or grey zones between legal norms. One of these techniques is that of 'SLAPPs' (strategic lawsuits against public participation), a term coined by George Pring and Penelope Canan in the 1980s to indicate an abusive or meritless lawsuit filed against someone for exercising their political rights or freedom of expression in relation to matters of public interest. The ...

On 11 May 2022, the European Commission presented a proposal for a regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse. The European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) has requested this complementary impact assessment of the proposal. Without disputing the need to protect children against child sexual abuse, this study focuses on specific aspects of the proposal, namely the problem definition, the impact of the proposal on the internet and ...

Consumer credit is a type of loan allowing consumers to purchase consumer goods and services for which they do not have the funds. It is regulated at national and EU level. The Consumer Credit Directive (CCD), in force since 2008, is the relevant EU-level legislation. While the CCD has undergone several revisions over the past decade, growing digitalisation, insufficient harmonisation and issues affecting consumer protection, among other things, have prompted the Commission to publish a proposal ...

In December 2019, Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (hereafter 'the directive') entered into force. Member States had 2 years to transpose the directive into their domestic legal systems. Prior to the entry into force of the directive, the legal framework was fragmented at national level and limited in scope to specific sectors at EU level (i.e. financial services and transport safety). Transposition did not prove easy, and the European Commission ...

'This is Europe' – an initiative proposed by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola – consists of a series of debates with EU leaders to discuss their visions for the future of the European Union. In his address to the European Parliament on 19 April 2023, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, emphasised three topics: i) democracy and the rule of law, ii) strategic autonomy, and iii) migration. He called for greater protection of minorities and respect for the rule of ...