EUROMAT News Bulletin - 14.09.2012

MEMBER STATE NEWS

12/09/12 – Addressing the Plenary Session of the European Parliament, European Commission President, José Manuel Durão Barroso, delivered his annual State of the Union speech. President Barroso stressed that in order to overcome the current financial and economic crisis the European Union (EU) needs a new direction and greater integration. Amongst others, he highlighted the need to create a banking and fiscal union. In fact, initial proposals to make the European Central Bank (ECB) responsible for the supervision of all eurozone banks (under a so-called “banking union”) were presented on the same day. Furthermore, President Barroso called for a “federation of nation states”. The Commission will present its outline for the shape of the future EU before the next European Parliament elections in 2014.

11/09/12 – The European Parliament Plenary adopted the new legal framework on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System (IMI), which is aimed at improving administrative cooperation and information exchange between national authorities. MEPs adopted the report prepared by MEP Adam Bielan (ECR, Poland) on the draft regulation with a broad majority. The Parliament and the Council had earlier reached an agreement on the text. The regulation now needs to be formally approved by the Council to enter into force. All EU institutions have suggested the IMI system could eventually be used also in the field of gambling. However, no concrete proposals have yet been presented in this regard.

10/09/12 – Betfair has filed a formal complaint against Cyprus to the European Commission in relation to the country’s new gambling legislation. The new law, which was adopted by the Cypriot Parliament on 6 July 2012, prohibits cash betting transactions by betting operators. According to Betfair, the law could lead to betting exchanges being prevented from operating in their current format in Cyprus. Betfair argues that any ban on betting exchanges is a discriminatory and disproportionate breach of EU law, as it may apply only to exchange providers, but would leave all other sport betting products unaffected.

12/09/12 - Greece’s privatisation agency, HRADF, has announced that it will start the process to privatise the country’s sports gambling monopoly, OPAP, next week. At the same time, OPAP’s “special status” is being questioned in Cyprus. The Legal Committee of the Cypriot Parliament is assessing whether OPAP’s permit to offer online gaming in the country, while other betting shops are banned from similar games, is in violation of competition laws. OPAP benefits from a partial exemption from the new legislation recently implemented in Cyprus due to a bilateral agreement between Greece and Cyprus. Both, the Legal Committee and OPAP now have a month to collect information and provide the Cypriot Parliament with a clear picture of the legal framework.