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On 12 July 2018, OLAF reported that a joint inspection with Dubai customs led to the seizure of a total of 82 tons of counterfeit steel pipes in the port of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

On 20 June 2018, the Commission appointed Ville Itälä from Finland as new Director-General of OLAF. He took office on 1 August 2018. Mr. Itälä is the successor to Giovanni Kesslerfrom Italy who was appointed the head of the Italian Customs and Monopoly Agency.

The resolution points out the progresses made in strengthening the Schengen area over the last several years: The creation of the European Border and Coast Guard; The introduction of mandatory, systematic checks against relevant databases at the external borders on entry and exit for third-country nationals and for EU nationals; The new entry and exit registration system.

n September 2018, the Council and the European Parliament formally adopted the EU legislation introducing a European Travel Information and Authorisation System (in short: ETIAS). The legal framework consisting of two regulations was published in the Official Journal of the European Union L 236 of 19 September 2018.

In July 2018, the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) released an in-depth analysis on the draft withdrawal agreement published by the European Commission on 19 March 2018. Additional points settled in negotiations up to June 2018 were also included. The report aims at providing an overview of the main areas already settled by the negotiators as well as areas of persisting difficulty or disagreement.

The Task Force set up by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) – a Brussels-based think tank – and the School of Law at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) published a report that extensively examines the key issues, main options, and alternative models …

The Institute for Government – a London-based think tank on governmental challenges – published a report entitled “Negotiating Brexit: policing and criminal justice” in September 2018.

As part of the Commission’s proposals for a new long-term EU budget, the Commission proposed a new “Justice, Rights and Values fund”. The fund will further contribute to the development of a European area of justice by simplifying the budgetary line into one financial programme.

On 28 May 2018, the Commission published the 2018 EU Justice Scoreboard. The Scoreboard provides a comparative overview of the independence, quality, and efficiency of justice systems in the EU Member States.

The controversy between the European Commission and Poland entered into another round in summer 2018. On 2 July 2018, the Commission decided to launch an infringement procedure against Poland regarding the Polish law on the Supreme Court.