European Union

Following a general strike and the blocking of transport routes across the country, the Armenian majority party has agreed to elect opposition protest leader Nikol Pashinyan as the country's new prime minister. The parliament had rejected his leadership on Tuesday. Commentators stress that the appointment of a new prime minister cannot replace new elections and continue to observe how Russia reacts to the crisis.

Israel has accused Iran of lying when it signed the nuclear agreement and of secretly keeping research findings on building a nuclear bomb. Prime Minister Netanyahu has presented what he claims are secret service documents to this effect. Commentators are unconvinced and ask what the Israeli leader hopes to achieve with his revelations.

The Basque separatist organisation Eta has announced its full dissolution. During the almost 60 years of its struggle against the Spanish central government around 850 people were killed. In the view of commentators, however, the violent and ideological struggle continues.

On Tuesday 15 May, the European Commission and the European External Action Service will present their Action Plan on Military Mobility to the Subcommittee of Security and Defence. Facilitating the movement of troops across the continent is a vital for Europe's defence and Members will discuss the measures proposed such as the development of common military requirements and the infrastructure policies that will have to be implemented.
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will take place on 15 May, 9:00-12:30 and 14:30-18:00 in Brussels.

Organisations or interest groups who wish to apply for access to the European Parliament will find the relevant information below.

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Source : © European Union, 2018 - EP

I’m being a bit of a dog with a bone on this one, mainly because no one else seems terribly interested in it.

As I’ve discussed before (here and here), the transition phase of withdrawal from the EU has been taken as a given. All parties were happy to sign up to the March text, it’s all highlighted in green, so job’s all done.

But as I discuss in the infographics below, there are lots of reasons why the transition period might not be long enough, plus various other reasons why extending it might not be an option.

In short, we might simply have replaced a cliff-edge in March 2019 with one at the end of December 2020.

So, some visuals for you, but not one on the consequences of falling off that new cliff-edge, because that’s essentially the same as all the stuff you’ve read about for ‘no-deal’ outcomes to Art.50 (like this).

Thanks to all my colleagues online who’ve helped shape these: any errors are mine.

 

The post Extending Transition appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

OTP Bank and OTP Faktoring
Environment and consumers
According to Advocate General Tanchev, a Member State legislative response to a ruling of the Court of Justice concerning the unfairness of contractual terms for lack of clarity is judicially reviewable

The Danish government published its long awaited energy plan for 2030 on 30th April. The plan reflects the government’s green realism (see previous blog post), where ‘more environment for less money’ translate into spending and tax cuts for the energy sector.

The plan aims to reduce energy taxes and charges, strengthen market regulations, support Danish energy technology export, and increase energy saving thereby achieve 50 per cent renewable energies in 2030 and a low carbon economy in 2050. There is no detailed strategy for how to achieve a low carbon economy and green transition in all areas of society, such as electrification of transport. The silo thinking is problematic from a climate perspective where everything is connected.

According to  the 2018 Energy Projection published by the Energy Agency in March 2018, Denmark will not achieve its 50 percent renewable energy target in 2030 instead it will only reach 39.8 per cent. Moreover, the report predicts an increase in energy consumption after 2020 due to new data centres, electrification of heating and transport, just as the energy companies’ energy efficiency scheme ends in 2021. According to the new energy plan, the government main energy investments is a new offshore Wind Park (2024-2027). Yet several green organisations (e.g. Ecological Council, Concito, Skovforeningen) argue this is not sufficient to ensure Denmark meet its long term climate and energy targets. It is, therefore, necessary with more and earlier investment in renewable energies, energy efficiency and emissions cuts for Denmark to achieve its climate goal in 2030.

Furthermore, the energy plan does not explain how the electrification of transport will influence the Danish energy system. The government’s transport policy favours private transport i.e. car ownership and investment in road infrastructure. Without any incentives, transport users are likely to continue to choose fossil fuel cars instead of public transport or electric/ hybrid cars. Indeed, the 2018 Energy projection states that fossil fuels in transport will fall from 95 per cent in 2017 to 93 per cent in 2030. Compared to other countries, such as Norway, the Danish government is not considering banning fossil fuel cars although transport is one of the main sources of pollution, especially air pollution in cities. Clearly, Denmark will not reach its 50 percent renewable energy or emissions reductions targets in 2030 without integrating transport into the energy plan.

One of the government’s central goals is to reduce taxes and charges for all areas of society. Indeed the energy plan wants to reduce energy taxes and charges for both private and corporate energy users, which is supported by several energy organisations (e.g.  Danish Energy, the Danish Chamber of Commerce and Danish Wind Industry Association), who want cheaper electricity. The energy plan wants to cut red tape to allow better use of surplus energy from especially smaller companies, this is clearly positive step towards better use of resources and the energy plan focuses on creating better business environments for business and industry. Moreover, the green think tank Concito acknowledges that reducing energy taxes can be positive, if these create a tipping point for renewable energies, nevertheless this is not the case in the energy plan. Instead, a general reduction in energy prices might lead to increased energy demand thereby jeopardising Denmark’s climate commitment vis-a-vis energy efficiency and reduction in emissions.

Overall, the energy plan is a clear example of green realism, which believes in bottom-up market driven innovation to energy transition. Crucially, the energy plan is likely to miss both the 2030 and 2050 climate targets. The energy measures are not ambitious enough for Denmark to achieve its climate goals, especially as the plan predominately focuses on renewable energies instead of incorporating energy efficiency targets and emission reduction targets for 2030 currently debated at EU level, where Denmark is not part of the climate coalition in the Council (Euractiv and Altinget). Significantly, the energy plan does not take into account all the different elements of green energy transition, e.g. transport decarbonisation. Indeed silo thinking does not lead to energy transition and a low carbon economy. Finally, the government plans to publish separate plans for transport and climate in the autumn, which begs the question of whether the government will coordinate the policy aims for these three policies to ensure Denmark will achieve its climate goals.

The post The Danish government’s new energy plan: green realism & silo thinking appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Today in Parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May said:

“We are committed to delivering on our commitment to having no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and that we have as frictionless trade as possible with the European Union.”

She added:

“There are a number of ways that can be delivered.”

The best way to deliver ‘as frictionless trade as possible’ and ‘no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland’ is to have what we’ve already got: full membership of the EU

Nothing comes even close to being as good as that.

Ever since the EU referendum, Mrs May has been telling Parliament that she aims to get the benefits of EU membership without being a member. It’s nonsense of course.

For example, on 26 October 2016, Mrs May told Parliament she wanted “the best possible arrangement for trade” with the European Union.

Which is exactly what we have now.

Two months later, Brexit Secretary, David Davis, also told Parliament that he wants to get “the best possible access for goods and services to the European market.”

Which again, is exactly what we have now.

Last year Mr Davis also told Parliament that he had “come up with” the idea of a comprehensive trade and customs agreement with the EU “that will deliver the exact same benefits as we have.”

Of course, he has not found a way to achieve that. But this all begs the question: if EU benefits are so important to Britain (and they are) why on earth are we leaving?

In America they have a saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. So why does Mrs May want to fix something that isn’t broken?

She says it’s because that’s what the British people want. Well, that’s a moot point.

Yes, 17 million people voted for Britain to leave the EU – but that’s 17 million out of a UK population of 65 million.

And two of the four countries that comprise our Union of the United Kingdom – Scotland and Northern Ireland – don’t want Britain to leave the European Union at all.

What’s strange is that Mrs May also didn’t want Britain to leave the EU.

In a keynote speech during the Referendum campaign, she said:

“I believe it is clearly in our national interest to remain a member of the European Union.”

During a private and secretly recorded meeting with Goldman Sachs one month before the Referendum, Mrs May warned that companies would leave the UK if the country voted for Brexit.

What’s more strange is that, including herself, 70% of Mrs May’s current Cabinet voted to Remain in the EU. All of them said during the Referendum that leaving the EU would be bad for Britain.

So now they’re going to take Britain on a path that they all claimed would be against the interests of the country.

Mrs May now says we’re leaving so that Britain can trade with the rest of the world. But we already do that now. The EU doesn’t stop us.

On the contrary, Germany exports much more than Britain across the world, without any complaints that the EU is holding them back. Indeed, the EU was set up to facilitate better trade across the world.

Mrs May now says we have to leave the EU, its Single Market and Customs Union, so that Britain can be free to negotiate its own trade agreements with other countries.

Precisely for what advantage?

Currently the UK enjoys trade agreements with over 60 countries across the world, which we helped to negotiate as a leading member of the EU.

Since the EU is the world’s biggest free trade bloc, and the world’s biggest exporter, and biggest importer, of manufactured goods and services, it has the muscle and size to negotiate the best trade agreements with other countries.

By contrast, the UK, on its own and as a much smaller trader, is unlikely to get trade agreements anywhere near as good as the ones we have now, let alone any better.

On leaving the EU in March next year, the UK will have to tear up those 60+ EU trade agreements and negotiate them all over again from scratch. It will take years.

And for what?

Just so the name ‘UK’ is on the front of those trade agreements, instead of the name ‘EU’?

Big deal.

Does any of this make any sense?

No. It doesn’t. The EU is the world’s largest free trade area. As a member, we receive huge benefits worth enormously more than the net annual membership fee of £7.1 billion a year.

As a member, we enjoy free, frictionless trade with our biggest trading partner by far, right on our doorstep, where almost 50% of our exports go to and over 50% of our imports come from. Nowhere else in the world comes close to that.

The UK government is desperate to continue to enjoy similar membership benefits of frictionless trade with the EU after we have ended our membership, because they know that our economy’s survival depends on it.

But the UK government has said it wants to continue to enjoy membership benefits as an ex-member, without being part of the EU Single Market or customs union, without agreeing to the rules of the EU and its market, without being subject to the European Court of Justice to oversee those rules, and without paying anything to the EU for access.

It’s not going to happen. Mrs May knows this.

Before the referendum she said boldly and strongly, “It is not clear why other EU member states would give Britain a better deal than they themselves enjoy.”

Yet that’s exactly what Mrs May now wants. She says she aims to achieve a new trade agreement with the EU that’s unique to us, that no other country in the world has ever achieved.

Of course, it’s not going to happen.

What’s the point of a club if you are going to allow non-members to enjoy the same or better benefits as members? What club allows that?

So here’s the bottom line:

 Britain needs frictionless trade with the EU.

We need free movement of goods, services, capital and people for our country not just to survive, but to thrive.

For the sake of peace, we need an entirely open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

To achieve this, we need to continue with the status quo: the arrangement we have now.

Has this sunk in yet?

We’re leaving all the benefits of the EU, only to desperately try and get back as many of those benefits as we can after we’ve left.

This is complete and utter madness. It will be much better to just keep the current arrangement. It will be cheaper, and we will all be better off.

Sometimes the truth hurts, but it’s time we faced up to it before it’s too late.

Brexit makes no sense.

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At the European Parliament in Brussels I interviewed LibDem MEP, Catherine Bearder, who gave a positive message: We can stop Brexit.

“Absolutely it can be stopped,” she said, “and I think that’s the message that I would like to get out.”

The LibDem MEP added, “It has to be done democratically.”

Ms Bearder said that voters need to be told that, ‘This is not a done deal, this is your choice. Is this the deal you thought you were going to get? You can change your mind if you want to.’

“Lots of people do change their minds,” said Ms Bearder. “Even Mrs May has changed her mind.”

Ms Bearder, who has been an MEP for almost ten years, has promoted a hashtag, #GiveUsASayMrsMay.

Ms Bearder told me:

“My message is that Brexit is not inevitable.”

“We can stop this, but we need the voices to come from the streets. We need people to be saying: ‘This is not what we voted for.’”

Please share this 7-minute video. Polls show that most of the country now thinks that Brexit is a mistake, but that it’s too late to stop it.

But as Ms Bearder says, Brexit can be stopped. “We need to demand a vote on the final deal,” she said.

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• Follow my journalism page on Facebook: Jon Danzig writes
• Follow my Stop Brexit campaign on Facebook: Reasons2Remain

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'We can stop Brexit' – Catherine Bearder, MEP

→ Give us a say, Mrs May – Please shareVIDEO: ‘WE CAN STOP BREXIT’ – CATHERINE BEARDER, MEPAt the European Parliament this month, Reasons2Remain founder, Jon Danzig, interviewed Catherine Bearder MEP, who gave a positive message: We can stop Brexit.“Absolutely it can be stopped,” she said, “and I think that’s the message that I would like to get out.”The LibDem MEP added, “It has to be done democratically.”Ms Bearder said that voters need to be told that, ‘This is not a done deal, this is your choice. Is this the deal you thought you were going to get? You can change your mind if you want to.’“Lots of people do change their minds,” said Ms Bearder. “Even Mrs May has changed her mind.”Ms Bearder, who has been an MEP for almost ten years, has promoted a hashtag, #GiveUsASayMrsMay. “My message is that Brexit is not inevitable,” Ms Bearder told Jon Danzig. “We can stop this, but we need the voices to come from the streets. We need people to be saying: ‘This is not what we voted for.’”Please share this 7-minute video as widely as possible. Polls show that most of the country now thinks that Brexit is a mistake, but that it’s too late to stop it.But as Mrs Bearder says, Brexit can be stopped. “We need to demand a vote on the final deal,” she said.• This video is now on the Reasons2Remain YouTube channel. Please share widely: youtu.be/lfYrwxl86Vw• Please re-Tweet:twitter.com/Reasons2Remain/status/990923564948901888********************************************► Watch Jon Danzig's video on YouTube: 'Can Britain Stop Brexit?' Go to CanBritainStopBrexit.com********************************************• To follow and support Reasons2Remain just ‘like’ the page, and please invite all your friends to like the page. Instructions to ensure you get notifications of all our stories:1. Click on the ‘Following’ button under the Reasons2Remain banner2. Change the ‘Default’ setting by clicking ‘See first’.********************************************• Please rate Reasons2Remain out of 5 stars. Here's the link: facebook.com/Reasons2Remain/reviews/********************************************• Follow Reasons2Remain on Twitter: twitter.com/reasons2remain and Instagram: instagram.com/reasons2remain/********************************************• Explore our unique Reasons2Remain gallery of over 1,000 graphics and articles: reasons2remain.co.uk********************************************• Reasons2Remain is an entirely unfunded community campaign, unaffiliated with any other group or political party, and is run entirely by volunteers. If you'd like to help, please send us a private message.********************************************• © Reasons2Remain 2018. All our articles and graphics are the copyright of Reasons2Remain. We only allow sharing using the Facebook share button. Any other use requires our advance permission in writing.#STOPBREXIT #EXITBREXIT #PEOPLESVOTE

Posted by Reasons2Remain on Monday, 30 April 2018

The post ‘We can stop Brexit’ – Catherine Bearder, MEP appeared first on Ideas on Europe.