Cecilia Malmstrom News

The European Union expects to hit U.S. imports with additional duties from July, ratcheting up a transatlantic trade conflict after Washington imposed its own tariffs on incoming EU steel and aluminium.EU members have given broad support to a European Commission plan to set 25 percent duties on up to 2.8 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of U.S. exports in response to what is sees as illegal U.S. action. EU exports that are now subject to U.S. tariffs are worth 6.4 billion euros."The…

The European Union's trade chief described on Thursday the lack of a full trade accord between the bloc and the United States as ridiculous, but said the best that could be expected now was only a very modest agreement.Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom also rebuffed suggestions that the EU should simply seek to settle its differences over tariffs with the United States at the World Trade Organization, questioning whether the WTO's appeals process could survive in the longer term.EU leaders agreed last week to discuss opening their markets wider to U.S.

European Union leaders called on Friday for a temporary exemption from U.S. import duties on steel and aluminium to be made permanent, saying they reserved the right to respond in an "in a proportionate manner" to protect the bloc's interests. The 40-day exemption granted by Washington was like U.S. President Donald Trump "putting a gun to our head", Belgium's prime minister complained. The EU's trade negotiator demanded that the United States drop "artificial deadlines". Trump said on Thursday he would suspend tariffs for the EU…

The European Commission will publish detailed reports on its negotiations with the United States to forge the world's biggest trade pact, EU trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom said on Friday, responding to criticism that the talks have been shrouded in secrecy. If agreed, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) would encompass a third of world trade, and proponents say it would deliver more than $100 billion of economic gains on both sides. But opponents in Europe have voiced concern that it could erode EU standards on food safety and the environment, and argue the negotiations have not been transparent. In a blog post, Malmstrom said one of her first decisions as trade commissioner when she took office last year had been to make the negotiations more open…

The European Union plans to launch a mission to help Italy cope with swarms of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa, the EU said on Tuesday. Called Operation Triton, the mission will be managed by Europe's border control agency, Frontex. It will reinforce Italy's own rescue operation, Mare Nostrum, which began after 366 people drowned just a mile from the Italian island of Lampedusa when their boat capsized a year ago. Italy has repeatedly called for more help from the EU to cope with the record number of sea-borne arrivals from conflict-torn Libya and Syria over the past year. Mare Nostrum, or "Our Sea," has been costing Italy 9 million euros a month, straining the resources of its navy and coastguard.

The European Commission said on Wednesday it would launch an EU version of Italy's sea rescue operation to help it deal with the droves of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in crowded boats from North Africa, something Italy has repeatedly called for. Europe's border control agency Frontex will take over the new operation, dubbed "Frontex Plus", by merging two existing ones and eventually it will replace Italy's costly mission to patrol the seas for boat migrants. "The aim is to put in place an enlarged Frontex Plus to complement what Italy has been doing," said Cecilia Malmstrom, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, on Wednesday. The civil war in Syria and breakdown of order in Libya have pushed the number of sea-borne arrivals in Italy to a record of more than 100…

At least 25 migrants die during weekend Mediterranean crossings; Italy says has rescued almost 4,000 in last 48 hours. Italy's search and rescue services have found six more bodies in the Mediterranean to add to the death toll of 19 over the weekend, the navy said on Monday, with no let-up in the record numbers risking the perilous crossing to Europe from Africa. The navy said it had rescued almost 4,000 migrants over the weekend and Italian vessels were continuing to look for victims of a boat which capsized north of the Libyan coast on Sunday evening. The names and nationalities of the casualties were not released. Record high number of migrants by sea to Italy this year are putting enormous pressure on the Italian coast guard and navy.

Italy is in talks with other European Union states about sharing the burden of rescuing migrants crossing the Mediterranean in crowded boats from North Africa, senior officials meeting in Milan said on Tuesday. So far this year, more than 63,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), surpassing the previous record of around 62,000 set in the whole of 2011, the year of the "Arab Spring" uprisings. But more than 500 have died trying to make the perilous sea crossing, including 12 on Sunday when their boat capsized off the coast of the Libyan Tripoli, the UNHCR said on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano repeated a call for Europe's border control agency Frontex to take over Italy's mission…