European Union

The European Union is committed to supporting democracy and human rights worldwide, in accordance with its founding principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. As the only directly elected EU institution, the European Parliament is particularly committed to promoting democracy. The two Fact Sheets in this booklet present the EU’s role and engagement in promoting democracy.
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

REPORT on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD) and establishing the EFSD Guarantee and the EFSD Guarantee Fund
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Development
Committee on Budgets
Eduard Kukan, Doru-Claudian Frunzulică, Eider Gardiazabal Rubial

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Children are at risk of coming across videos containing violence or hate speech when online. The culture committee proposed several measures to better protect them when it adopted its position on a proposed update of the audiovisual media services directives on 25 April. But do you know how much time children spend online or the best way to protect them from harmful content? Watch our video to find out.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Children are at risk of coming across videos containing violence or hate speech when online. The culture committee proposed several measures to better protect them when it adopted its position on a proposed update of the audiovisual media services directives on 25 April. But do you know how much time children spend online or the best way to protect them from harmful content? Watch our video to find out.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/5fbe47e2-7bf5-11e5-8327-bc764e083742_38.78_thumb_169_1489758706_1489758706_129_97shar_c1.jpg

The presidency updates ministers on the state of play on a draft regulation simplifying the rules governing the European structural and investment funds - the so-called Omnibus regulation. Ministers discuss how cohesion policy can be brought closer to European citizens. They also adopts conclusions on making cohesion policy more effective, relevant and visible to citizens. The Council is also expected to adopt conclusions on the implementation of EU macro-regional strategies.

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MEPs beefed up rules to ensure that buyers of goods or services from another EU country are treated like local customers in a committee vote on Tuesday.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

MEPs beefed up rules to ensure that buyers of goods or services from another EU country are treated like local customers in a committee vote on Tuesday.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Key products and services, like phones, e-book readers, operating systems and payment terminals, will have to be made more accessible to people with disabilities, under draft EU rules amended in committee on Tuesday.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Key products and services, like phones, e-book readers, operating systems and payment terminals, will have to be made more accessible to people with disabilities, under draft EU rules amended in committee on Tuesday.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Children should have the same protection whether they are watching TV, a web-shared video or a web-streamed film, said committee MEPs on Tuesday.
Committee on Culture and Education

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Children should have the same protection whether they are watching TV, a web-shared video or a web-streamed film, said committee MEPs on Tuesday.
Committee on Culture and Education

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

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Manuel Valls, France’s former prime minister, did not mince words about the paltry 6.36 per cent score achieved by his party’s candidate Benoît Hamon. The outcome was “bruising,” he told France Inter radio. “It is the end of a cycle, the end of a story.”

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Plenary session and committee meetings, Brussels

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Asylum seekers should be able to work in the EU no later than two months after applying for asylum, instead of the current nine months, said Civil Liberties Committee MEPs on Tuesday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Asylum seekers should be able to work in the EU no later than two months after applying for asylum, instead of the current nine months, said Civil Liberties Committee MEPs on Tuesday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

MEPs will look at how EU rules to prevent sexual abuse and exploitation of children have been implemented by EU countries in a committee hearing on Tuesday afternoon.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/40fb653a-2985-11e7-a1c2-bc764e092fac_1.69_thumb_169_1493104231_1493104231_129_97shar_c1.jpg

The Informal meeting of Environment Ministers takes place on 25 and 26 April in Valletta.

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On 25 April 2017, the Council adopted a regulation on the anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds into the air, water and land. 

Mercury is a very toxic substance which constitutes  a serious global  risk to human health and the environment, including through the presence of its compound methylmercury in fish, seafood, ecosystems and wildlife.

The new regulation will provide a high level of protection and limit the pollution generated by activities and processes related to mercury.

To this end, the regulation establishes measures and conditions at an EU level to control and restrict: 

• the use and storage of and trade in mercury, mercury compounds and mixtures of mercury;
• the manufacture and use of and trade in mercury-added products;
• the use of mercury in dental amalgam;
• and to ensure the appropriate management of mercury waste.

Activities such as mercury mining, the use of mercury in products and industrial processes, artisanal and small-scale gold mining, coal combustion and the management of mercury waste,  can be the source of emissions and releases of this hazardous substance resulting in environmental and health risks. 

Background and next steps 

The Commission presented its proposal, which also repeals Regulation (EC) No 1102/2008, on 2 February 2016. 

On 14 March 2017, the European Parliament adopted its position at first reading. Now that the Council has approved this position, the Regulation can be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, once both the President of the European Parliament and the Council have signed the act, and will enter into force 20 days after publication. 

The new rules provide greater legal clarity and transparency and will apply from 1 January 2018 replacing Regulation (EC) No 1102/2008.

International scope: Minamata Convention

Mercury can travel long distances once emitted and released into the air or water. That is why the EU cannot on its own guarantee the protection of its citizens against the negative health effects of mercury. Mercury pollution must also be tackled at an international level. 

The new regulation addresses this issue by setting out   provisions which will allow the Union and its Member States to approve, ratify and implement the Minamata Convention on Mercury. It will also ensure that EU law is in line with the Convention.

The Minamata Convention, adopted in Kumamoto (Japan) on 10 October 2013, is a legally binding treaty providing a regulatory framework for the reduction of mercury pollution globally. The Convention is currently being ratified by signatory states and regional organisations. The EU and its member states are committed to ratification, and the necessary measures are underway to ensure this happens.

The United Kingdom’s momentous decision to leave the European Union will have long-lasting consequences for Australia’s relationship with both the EU and the UK. Will Brexit result in reinvigorated ties between Australia and the UK and the EU, or will it disrupt current and future engagement?

Brexit will cause much uncertainty in the coming years, but it also marks an opportunity for a revitalisation and recalibration of Australia’s European partnerships. Australia will need to continue to nurture and intensify its relationship with the EU, and at the same time develop a strategy to engage with the UK post-Brexit.

To avoid a reduction in the level and quality of engagement, Australia will need to take a pragmatic rather than nostalgic approach towards future relations with the UK. Australia must also avoid pursuing its relationship with the UK at the expense of its relationship with the EU, and creating a zero-sum dynamic.

The UK and Australia have a long and robust relationship: they share a common heritage, parliamentary traditions and the Commonwealth. But historical links and nostalgia cannot override the political and trade realities. Commonwealth ties may help recalibrate Australia-UK relations, but this Commonwealth heritage cannot replace Australia’s diversified political and trade links, especially within its own Asia-Pacific region.

The UK is the world’s fifth-largest economy, Australia’s fifth-largest trading partner and leading trade partner within the EU region. It is a valuable trade interlocutor for Australia.

But within Australia’s broader trade context, the UK accounts for only 4.1% of Australia’s total two-way trade. Compare that with the combined trade share of Australia’s four leading trade partners (China, the United States, Japan and South Korea), who collectively make up 47.4% of Australia’s two-way trade (22.7% with China alone) and the UK represents a small market for Australia. Australia (and New Zealand) accounts for less than two per cent of the UK’s two-way trade.

“There is no need for Australia to make a choice between the UK and the EU-27”

A key challenge for Australia will be to ensure that the UK gives it priority. The successful conclusion of free trade agreements (FTAs) will be a priority for the British government in the period immediately following its formal withdrawal from the EU, so Australia will need to persuade the UK to focus on Australia at a time when British resources and capacity will be pushed to their limits dealing with a plethora of deals and negotiations.

Fortunately for Australia, it finds itself in a position of strategic advantage in strengthening its economic ties with the UK: it has two years to prepare for Australia-UK trade negotiations.

Australia is not in a position of exclusive dependence on the UK as it has other trade partnerships, particularly in Asia. When it comes to negotiation strategies and preferences, Australia has extensive trade negotiation experience in comparison to the UK, as trade negotiations have been an EU competence since 1973 when the UK joined the European Economic Community.

But the significant challenges that Brexit poses for Australia cannot be ignored. It will result in the loss of access to the UK market as part of the EU, and Australian companies have already begun reconsidering the feasibility of continuing to use the UK as a base or gateway to the EU. Brexit may also lead to possible changes, restrictions or loss of access to the UK for skilled Australian workers ‒ or amendments to the numbers to be admitted.

There is no need for Australia to make a choice between the UK and the EU-27. Australia can ill afford to shift its focus to the UK at the expense of the rest of Europe, and the Australian government must ensure that Brexit will not adversely affect the progress it has made in its relations with the EU. Australia-EU engagement is far more than an extension of Australia’s relationship with the UK, and has indeed advanced from the period of Australian critiques of the EU in the areas of agricultural trade.

“Australia will need to balance ideological imperatives with practical realities, and complement values with material interests”

After decades of tension, the relationship has immeasurably improved, to the extent that the largest agreement ever signed between Australia and the EU ‒ a Framework Agreement ‒ was successfully concluded after some years of negotiation in 2015. An FTA is set to follow this accord, and a scoping exercise has just been completed, paving the way for formal negotiations.

With Brexit, Australia will lose a like-minded state on trade and will likely face a very different EU trade negotiator. But Australia’s Trade Minister Steven Ciobo has sought to ensure that the pursuit of an Australia-UK deal will not threaten an Australia-EU trade agreement. The fact that the UK will not be able to enter into its own trade negotiations until it has left the EU should help Australia focus on an EU-Australia trade deal for the next few years, without neglecting preparations for Australia-UK negotiations.

Forging political relations with an altered EU and the UK will need to be top priority for Australia in the coming years. Australia’s relations with the EU should, as much as possible, follow a ‘business as usual’ tactic amid the unusual business of Brexit. The UK’s departure from the Union should not be allowed to negatively influence the progress made in EU-Australia relations. Holding steady will be a crucial task for the government as trade agreements with both the EU and the UK are crucial to Australia’s national interests and preferences.

Within the context of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s proclamation that “Brexit means Brexit”, Australia must now face this reality head-on by preparing how it will advance and strengthen its relations with the UK, as well as the EU.

It will need to balance ideological imperatives, which often stem from history rather than present-day truths, with practical realities, and complement values with material interests.

IMAGE CREDIT: CC/Flickr – European Council President

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