European Union

Facts are few and speculation abounds about the European Parliament’s special Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector—in short, the EMIS committee or Dieselgate inquiry.

While we wait for certainty, this document prepared by FleishmanHillard offers an overview of what is known: membership, leadership, mandate, and timetable.

FleishmanHillard overview of EMIS

There are 45 members, including 1 chairperson, 4 vice-chairs, 2 co-rapporteurs, and 9 group coordinators. 1 member is also the rapporteur on the Commission’s January Proposal for a Regulation on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles. In other words, nearly 40% of the EMIS members have some sort of formal function in the committee.

The members have already agreed on the broad direction and timetable; the details of what will be discussed and which guests will be invited are being thrashed out between coordinators and members and should be agreed during the April regular meetings and those to follow.

Currently, the status is that:

1. The rapporteurs are responsible for preparing a programme of hearings, which will be discussed by the coordinators. It appears that each group is currently preparing its list of guests to invite to appear before the committee. Keep in mind that the committee has already a calendar of 18 meetings, of two and a half hours each, for 2016, and has reserved the right to organise additional meetings in Brussels for hearings.
2. EMIS has asked the Parliament’s research division to prepare two briefings, one to cover the legal obligations of ‘economic operators’ which can mean the car manufacturers as well as testing centres, and a second to cover the implementation and enforcement of the legal obligations with a focus on penalties and the ban on defeat mechanisms.
3. The committee is planning missions, to be determined by the coordinators, though the number of missions will be limited to the minimum necessary.

Special committees happen once in a blue moon, so this offers an opportunity for MEPs to sink their teeth into a meaty issue that has the attention of the media as well as the interest of many European consumers. It is an occurrence to watch closely.

 

Michael Stanton-Geddes, Laura Rozzo and Ben Carpenter-Merritt

The Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the European Union and Kosovo enters into force today, 1 April 2016. The SAA establishes a contractual relationship which entails mutual rights and obligations and large number of sectors. It will support the implementation of the reforms and give Kosovo an opportunity to move closer to Europe.

The SAA was signed on 27 October 2015 by Ms Federica Mogherini, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, and Mr Johannes Hahn, Member of the Commission responsible for the European Neighborhood Enlargement negotiations, for the European Union, and by MM. Isa Mustafa, Prime Minister, and Bekim Çollaku, Minister for European Integration, for Kosovo. Negotiated between October 2013 and May 2014, the SAA was signed on October 27, 2015 and formally concluded on 12 February 2016.

In order to support the necessary reforms, the EU provides pre-accession aid to the countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey amounting to some € 11.7 billion for the period 2014-2020, 645.5 million are destined for Kosovo.

Tag: SAAKosovo

The "Counter Migrant Group" in action...

Tag: Hungary

There is an increasing demand for the EU to become a ‘Security Provider’. This demand comes from Europe’s best ally, namely the U.S., but also from Member States themselves. For the first time ever the defence solidarity clause of article 42.7 of the Treaty on European Union was invoked in November 2015. Ultimately the demand to put ‘more defence in the Union’ comes from European citizens who wonder why Europe does not protect them in the current turmoil. From the answer to this question depends not only Europe’s ‘strategic autonomy’, but possibly the future of the whole European project. Several steps have already been initiated to answer the call for more defence in Europe. Since the beginning of his mandate, President Juncker has declared defence a ‘priority’, called for the implementation of the Permanent Structured Cooperation enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty and reiterated the long term vision of a ’European army’. In June 2016, a ‘global strategy’ will be issued and a Commission Defence Action Plan should follow by the end of 2016. A ‘Pilot Project’, adopted by the European Parliament in autumn 2014, has been launched and should open the path to a ‘Preparatory Action on Defence Research’ that may be voted in 2016 for the 2017-2020 budgets. A natural underpinning of those efforts should be the undertaking of a full-fledged Union programme in defence research. The size, the shape and the steps to be taken towards setting it up are the subject of the present report.
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP