European Union

Solemn undertaking before the Court of Justice of the European Union given by six new Members of the European Court of Auditors

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog called on MEPs to work to eradicate antisemitism in Europe and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog called on MEPs to work to eradicate antisemitism in Europe and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Can the EU Mission in Armenia (EUMA), agreed on by the EU Council this week, contribute to stabilising a conflict that the International Crisis Group considers one of the 10 most risky conflicts for 2023, ask Mail Negi and Tobias Pietz.

District heating is one of the main sources of heat for the Poles, and the Polish district heating sector is one of the largest in the European Union. With such a scale of district heating usage, every aspect of regulation is of great importance in the context of the need to ensure adequate supplies and conduct a capital-consuming investments to complete the transformation of this sector.

The power struggle between authoritarian powers reached a new level of intensity with the invasion of Ukraine. But it is important to remember that this fight plays out across the entire globe and sometimes in unexpected places, Juan Carlos Ondo Angue writes.

An extraordinary joint meeting of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) and the Committee on Foreign Affairs, in association with the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, will take place on Tuesday, 31 January 2023 from 15.00 - 16.30hrs in Brussels (room SPAAK 1A002).

The next ordinary meeting of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is scheduled to take place on Monday, 6 February 2023 from 15.30 - 19.30hrs in Brussels (room SPINELLI 3G2).

The meeting agenda and documents will be published here.

SEDE missions 2023:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina - 20-23 February 2023
  

SEDE missions 2022:

• SEDE mission to South Korea and Japan - 18-22 December 2022
  
  
• SEDE mission to Niger from 31 October - 3 November 2022
  
  
• SEDE mission to Mozambique from 18-22 September 2022
  
  
• SEDE mission to France from 19-21 July 2022
  
  
• SEDE mission to Iraq from 24-28 May 2022

• SEDE mission to Georgia from 10-14 April 2022

SEDE meetings' calendar 2023
EP calendar 2023
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

DRAFT OPINION on the implementation of “passerelle” clauses in the EU Treaties
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Tineke Strik

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

The aviation industry is in a period of transformation as passengers and Brussels regulators increasingly demand more sustainable air travel. A mixture of measures are on the table to cut emissions, from ramping up sustainable aviation fuels to greening airports and plotting more efficient routes.

On 24 January, AFET and SEDE will hold a joint exchange of views with Ambassador Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the IAEA has been working tirelessly to ensure the safety and security of Ukrainian nuclear facilities.
The debate will focus on negotiations launched by the IAEA with Ukraine and Russia with a view to establishing a safe zone around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, as well as other measures taken by the IAEA to prevent nuclear accidents on all Ukrainian nuclear sites. Members will also discuss other issues of concern, in particular Iran's flagrant violations of its international nuclear non-proliferation obligations, as well as the nuclear programme of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Speaking points of the IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

This article was updated with a correction on the role of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications. The United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is considering opening up a new office in Brussels amid calls from EU countries to...

Inspecţia Judiciară
External relations
Judicial Disciplinary Bodies: according to Advocate General Collins, EU law precludes national legislation making the Deputy Chief Inspector responsible for overseeing the investigation of complaints against the Chief Inspector

Ministerstvo na vatreshnite raboti () and génétiques par la police)
Principles of Community law
The systematic collection of biometric and genetic data of any accused person in order for them to be entered in a police record is contrary to the requirement of ensuring enhanced protection with regard to the processing of sensitive personal data

On 24 January, AFET and SEDE will hold a joint exchange of views with Ambassador Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the IAEA has been working tirelessly to ensure the safety and security of Ukrainian nuclear facilities.
The debate will focus on negotiations launched by the IAEA with Ukraine and Russia with a view to establishing a safe zone around Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, as well as other measures taken by the IAEA to prevent nuclear accidents on all Ukrainian nuclear sites. Members will also discuss other issues of concern, in particular Iran's flagrant violations of its international nuclear non-proliferation obligations, as well as the nuclear programme of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Speaking points of the IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's visit to Algeria brought speculation that the country is looking to forge a new energy policy. However, this is just business as usual, former prime minister and current leader of the Five Star Movement Giuseppe Conte told EURACTIV in an exclusive video interview.

A Russia-based hacking group named Cold River is behind an expansive and ongoing information-gathering campaign that has struck various targets in government, politics, academia, defence, journalism, and activism, Britain said on Thursday (26 January).

Ukraine will now push for Western fourth generation fighter jets such as the US F-16 after securing supplies of main battle tanks, an adviser to Ukraine's defence minister said on Wednesday (25 January).

The European Commission has several "red lines" in its drive to simplify state aid rules, including the protection of the EU single market and avoiding a harmful subsidy race within Europe, EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said on Wednesday (25 January).

Neil spots an answer. Possibly

As you might have noticed, I have recently become a Senior Fellow of the ESRC-funded UK in a Changing Europe initiative, working on UK-EU relations. For present purposes, it mainly means I carry on doing this work, but now with more access to resources, and with a plan.

That plan is basically to try and make sense of relations, which feels like a bit more of a challenge now I’m actually getting into it. As such, it’s forced me to think more systematically about how to tackle this.

A key part of that is trying to unpack the various things we talk about when looking at this subject. So consider this a first stab.

Objectives

Long-time readers of this (and other) blogs will know that I have always placed a lot of attention on the question of objectives in the relationship.

In the simplest terms, what are we trying to do here?

Simple and obvious as that might sound, it’s very rare to hear this voiced by participants in the debate, beyond some boilerplate stuff about wanting ‘good’ or ‘constructive’ relations. Those things are nice, but hardly a well-developed conceptualisation of anything.

What do you need those good and constructive relations for? How do they fit into your wider foreign relations? How do they fit with your idea of what you want to achieve domestically?

These are the big questions that need to asked to get towards a better sense of any of the rest of what follows.

Processes

More common is discussion of how we build and run a relationship.

This starts by focusing on the types of instruments being used – UK-EU treaties; UK bilateral treaties with member states; MOUs; informal venues, etc. – each of which has its own range of options and flexibilities.

There’s also a process issue relating to who decides about the relationship. How much do you involve different political and social actors in this? Are you consulting widely, or trying to keep things tight?

These things all matter, both because of the future implications they carry (on flexibility, on the extent and nature of obligations) and because of the contemporary political values they contain (on legitimacy, on the seriousness of intent).

Content

This is the one we almost always discuss: what’s in the deal?

As I’ve already suggested, this kind of thing should really be driven by higher-order considerations about objectives, but in practice a lot comes down to specifics. Especially if you have a thing you think is important.

Scope clearly is consequential, also because a wider scope also tends to mean more people are affected/involved, which also has process implications.

Principles and Norms

This last category is slightly different in that it captures a number of ideas that inform the rest of the elements discussed here. Three examples might make this a bit clearer.

First up is the notion of good faith. Yes, it’s a principle of international treaty law, but it’s also good politics to be seen as (and actually to be) straight up, doing what you say you will. This speaks to trust, albeit in a more focused and applied manner.

Second we have the value placed on resilience and durability of agreements. As much as we have seen plenty of expediency in post-referendum British policy, there has also been an underlying effort to build some that will last. If nothing else, it hopefully means not having to spend so much time on things down the line.

And thirdly there is a notion that precedent-setting is important. This is more on the EU side, who don’t want to open the door to other third states popping up to demand the same treatment as the UK, but you also find in London, where particularities in dealings with the EU aren’t simple either (part of why CJEU powers are contentious).

Each of these suffuse the rest, even as they matter in their own right and deserve our attention.

Putting that together again

As I say, this is a first effort to systematise my thinking on this, but the main takeaway for now is that if we want to reach any equilibrium – high or low – in UK-EU relations, then we are going to have to make sure that we take proper account of all four parts of this, or risk falling another cycle making-it-up-as-we-go.

Which would be nice.

The post What do we talk about when we talk about negotiating a UK-EU relationship? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is forcing migrant rescue ships to dock further and further north along Italy's coastline, meaning long journeys that raise their operating costs and strain their ability to continue saving lives.