Source: AFP News Agency

1. Austria: Österreichische Bundesbahnen (ÖBB)
2. Belgium:  Nationale Maatschappij der Belgische Spoorwegen (NMBS) - Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Belges(SNCB)
3. Bulgaria : Balgarski Darzhavni Zheleznitsi (BDZ)

Mission

The main purpose of the Association is to facilitate dialogue between Members of the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Member States and the European rail sector. The Association intends to achieve a better understanding of rail-related issues and generally speaking to facilitate the work of all interested parties.

To this end, the Association endeavours in particular to facilitate:

Author: Simon Tisdall, Assistant Editor of the Guardia and a foreign affairs columnist

Orginal Text has been edited

Management Board Members

US tech companies are gradually becoming aware that the success of their business model in Europe depends on influencing the regulatory framework in Brussels. Half of the top 10 most influential companies lobbying the Commission are from the US and with the exception of General Electric all of them are primarily software companies. Their dominance of the lobbying scene is particularly strong in the area of the digital single market and the digital economy.

Annual reported EU lobbying expenditures by Silicon Valley Companies (2017)

According to the Catalan government, preliminary results showed that 90% of people cast their ballots in favour of independence. A total of 2.26 million Catalans – 42% of the region’s 5.3 million eligible voters – are said to have taken part in the referendum.

In the next few days, the results of the referendum will be sent to the Catalan parliament. The law passed by the Catalan parliament last month backing the vote, while declared invalid by the Spanish courts, says the government should declare independence within 48 hours of a Yes vote, regardless of turnout levels.

The European Parliament (EP) gave its consent by a large majority (567 votes to 65, with 31 abstentions) on 5 July 2017 to the conclusion of the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement (PDCA) between the EU and Cuba.

The Government in Madrid insists the referendum is illegal and defies the Constitution which says the country is indivisible.

Article 92.1 of the Spanish Constitution provides that ‘Political decisions of special importance’ may be submitted to all citizens in a consultative referendum. The following paragraph stipulates that the ‘referendum’ shall be called by the King on a proposal by the President of the government after previous authorization by the Congress.

Authors: David Earnshaw and David Judge

Original text has been edited

Talk of ‘inspired legislation’, where laws, or more particularly amendments to legislation, are ‘written by a lobby group from the civil society and more or less rubber stamped by a public body’ is to over-simplify a complex and mediated relationship between elected ‘legislators’ and unelected ‘interest representatives’.