European Union

Although they will have to live with the decision for longer than anyone else, young people will have the least say on whether Britain stays in the EU.

Ironically, what is arguably the world’s oldest unelected group of legislators – the House of Lords – voted recently to give 16-to-17-year-olds a vote in the EU referendum. But this month the elected House of Commons threw out the Lord’s proposal.

It means that over 1.5 million 16-and-17-year-olds in the UK will not have a say in Britain’s future in Europe – even though it’s their future, in the long term, that will be most affected.

For sure, their votes could have clinched the referendum result, because surveys show that most younger people want Britain to stay in the EU.

It’s sometimes said that you cannot miss what you never had. But that’s not the case for many of the 121,000 16-and-17-year-olds in Scotland. They were permitted to vote in last year’s referendum on Scottish independence and most of them did.

Commented the Electoral Commission, “This referendum showed that for young people, indeed for all voters, when they perceive an issue to be important and are inspired by it, they will both participate in the debate and show up on polling day.”

“Importantly,” the Commission added, “97% of those 16-17 year olds who reported having voted said that they would vote again in future elections and referendums.”

They would vote, and last year they could vote; but now they can’t. It must seem strange winning a right that’s then taken away.

In the UK 16-to-17-year-olds can work, pay tax, join the army and get married, but they can’t vote in the forthcoming EU referendum.

Too young? Well, that wasn’t the reason given by the House of Commons for denying access to democracy for younger people. The Commons rejected the enlightened wisdom of their elders in the House of Lords, “Because it would involve a charge on public funds.”

What price democracy, eh?

But whilst 16-and-17-year-olds would vote but can’t, those aged 18-to-24 can vote, but mostly don’t. In elections, this age group is almost half as likely to vote as those aged 65 and over.

Around 40% of the 18-24s vote, compared to almost 80% of those of pensionable age.

And yet, once again, surveys show that these young people are by a large majority in favour of Britain’s continued membership of the European Union.

A poll last month revealed that EU membership is supported by 70% of  the UK’s two-million University students, but less than half of them said they would definitely vote in the referendum.

Giving lip service to the EU isn’t enough. Without casting a vote, it doesn’t matter what these young adults think. No vote means no say.

In summary:

• Most over 60s want Britain to leave the EU; they outnumber 18-24 year-olds two-to-one, and they are most likely to vote.

• Most under 25s want Britain to remain in the EU, but there are just 7 million of them compared to around 14 million over 60s, and they are least likely to vote.

In other words, it seems that the oldies may have a bigger say in Britain’s future in Europe, simply because they can vote, and they will.

And even though most young people are pro EU, they will have less of a say in the referendum because they can’t vote, or they won’t.

In addition, two other groups of citizens who will be greatly affected by the EU referendum won’t vote because they can’t.

They include most of the citizens from the rest of the EU who have made Britain their home. And they include all of the British citizens who are living in other parts of the European Union for more than 15 years.

These two groups of citizens are living the EU dream by voting with their feet for free movement of people across our continent. But they will have no say on whether that dream continues. And if the referendum decision is ‘LEAVE’, their dream could turn into an involuntary nightmare of uncertain proportions.

Yet, despite the fact that many of the people who will be most affected by the EU referendum can’t or won’t vote, latest opinion polls show that voters who have made up their minds are split down the middle.

In online polls, those voters who want to ‘LEAVE’ the EU and those who want to ‘REMAIN’ are equal at about 40%, with (curiously) slightly more wanting Britain to ‘REMAIN’ when polls are conducted by phone.

Almost a fifth of voters, however, are still unsure how they will vote in the referendum.

These undecided voters may hold the key to the referendum result; together, of course, with those young voters who can vote – if only they can be persuaded to vote. 

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Related stories by Jon Danzig:

• Many citizens affected by the EU referendum will have no vote
• The EU referendum – who can and can’t vote?
• Isn’t it time politics grew up?

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The post Will old people decide the EU referendum? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

On 18 December 2015, under the Luxembourg Presidency and subject to the European Parliament and Council formal adoption, the Coreper (Permanent Representatives Committee) approved a final compromise on the draft "Animal Breeding Regulation".  

The European Parliament and the Council representatives identified the compromise package during a trilogue meeting held on 16 December.  

The Animal Breeding Regulation will apply to the breeding, the trade in and the entry into the EU of purebred breedingcows, pigs, sheep, goats and horses, hybrid breeding pigs and their germinal products.

The new regulation constitutes a more comprehensive single legal framework taking into account the “state-of-the-art” in animal breeding while preserving valuable animal genetic resources. Breed societies and breeding operations which will have to meet specific criteria to obtain recognition and approval of their breeding programmes by national authorities form the backbone of this regulation. 

The new legislation aims at improving the functioning of the internal market and trade with third countries. It contains specific rules for promoting endangered breeds and provisions taking into account the specificities of the horse breeding sector. 

As animal breeding is not intended to fall within the scope of the official controls proposal currently discussed between the Council and the European Parliament, the new regulation will include provisions on the performance of official controls which are tailor-made for the animal breeding sector. 

The Chairman of the Coreper will send a letter to the Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development. This letter will indicate that, if the Parliament adopts at its plenary session the compromise text as approved by the Coreper today, the Council will then adopt in first reading that text without amending it.

This should enable the entry into force of the new legislation by mid 2016 and its application 28 months after the entry into force.

On 18 December 2015, under the Luxembourg Presidency and subject to the European Parliament and Council formal vote, the Coreper (Permanent Representatives Committee) approved a final package on plant health. 

The Council and European Parliament representatives finalised the overall compromise during a trilogue meeting held on 16 December.

The proposal on protective measures against pests of plants aims to address increased risks in that area, which stem from the emergence of new pests and diseases. It will also modernise instruments related to intra-EU trade or trade with third countries focusing on a risk-based approach. Better surveillance and early eradication of outbreaks of new pests are the tools which should be used to ensure plant health. 

Together with the regulation on animal health (which should be adopted soon) and the proposal on official controls (currently under examination in the Council), the draft regulation on plant health aims to strengthen the enforcement of health and safety standards for the whole agri-food chain.  

The European Parliament is expected to vote on the compromise text at a meeting of its Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development in late February. 

The Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development will send a letter to the Chairman of Coreper. The letter will indicate that if the Council adopts at first reading the compromise text as adopted by the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (after legal-linguistic revision), the Parliament plenary will adopt the same text at its second reading, without any amendment, and the legislative procedure will be concluded. 

This should enable the entry into force of the new plant health regulation by the end of 2016 and its application after a three-year period following the entry into force, during which the relevant pieces of secondary legislation will be adopted.

This morning, we had a serious political discussion about completing the Economic and Monetary Union. The European Central Bank President Mario Draghi also joined us and has stressed the need for progress. We have one clear message from our debate: there is no time for complacency in reforming the eurozone. We stand ready to take difficult decisions on banking union and economic governance in the coming year. Our ministers will work rapidly and report to us next June.

We congratulated President Hollande on the historic success of COP21 in Paris and assessed progress on building the Energy Union. We discussed the conditions that need to be met by major energy infrastructure projects. What we have agreed is that any new infrastructure should be fully in line with Energy Union objectives, such as reduction of energy dependency and diversification of suppliers, sources and routes. Not to mention the obvious obligation that all projects have to comply with all EU laws, including the third Energy Package. This is a clear condition for receiving support from the EU institutions or any Member State - be it political, legal or financial.

I cannot finish without a word of appreciation for Prime Minister Bettel and his team. Xavier, I think I can speak for all leaders when I say that the Luxembourg Presidency was outstanding with very hard work done on the migration crisis, Passanger Name Record and data protection. It was an extremely efficient presidency. Thank you, Xavier, and most sincere congratulations. 

On 18 December 2015, the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) endorsed an informal deal struck with the European Parliament on the first rules to strengthen the security of network and information systems across the EU. 

The network and information security (NIS) directive will increase cooperation between member states and lay down security obligations for operators of essential services and digital service providers. Essential services operators are active in critical sectors such as energy, transport, health and finance. Digital services cover online marketplaces, search engines and cloud services. 

The requirements will be stronger for essential operators than for digital service providers. This reflects the degree of risk that any disruption to their services may pose to society and the economy. 

Each EU country will also be required to designate one or more national authorities and set out a strategy to deal with cyber threats. 

Once the agreed text has undergone technical finalisation, it needs to be formally approved first by the Council and then by the Parliament. The procedure is expected to be concluded in spring 2016.  

After the directive has entered into force, member states will have 21 months to adopt the necessary national provisions. Following this period, they will have another 6 months to identify the essential services operators established in their territory which are to be covered by the directive.