European Union

General : Once Brexit negotiations begin the European Parliament will be a responsible and active partner, Martin Schulz told UK Prime Minister Theresa May. The Parliament President met her during a visit to London on 22-23 September. He said the greatest challenges would be trade and the issue of preserving the freedom of movement of goods, people, services and capital. He also discussed why the Parliament believes article 50 should be triggered as soon as possible.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

General : Members of the Euro-Latin American parliamentary Assembly “expect and hope” that the “historic” peace agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will be approved in the referendum to be held on 2 October. Once the deal is approved and the definitive and irreversible laying down of weapons is confirmed, they add, the FARC should be removed from the EU’s list of terrorist organisations.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

General : Members of the Euro-Latin American parliamentary Assembly “expect and hope” that the “historic” peace agreement between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will be approved in the referendum to be held on 2 October. Once the deal is approved and the definitive and irreversible laying down of weapons is confirmed, they add, the FARC should be removed from the EU’s list of terrorist organisations.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/bh-57ceb34ac0e07-hlavna_foto_thumb_169_1474539453_1474539454_129_97shar_c1.jpg

Informal Meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers (Trade) takes place on 23 September 2016 in Bratislava.

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While l’imbroglio Franco-Belge makes for fun headlines, the image of two normally friendly neighbours scrapping highlights the dysfunction of the EU’s collective migration policy. The Dublin system, which is supposed to dictate responsibility for refugees, is broken. Schengen has a surprising number of border checks for a passport-free travel zone. The flagship relocation scheme – designed to share out refugees more equally – has flopped.

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Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

With around 1.5 million refugees fleeing to Lebanon since the start of the war in Syria, it is clear that the situation in the country is untenable and that substantial help is needed to avoid a complete breakdown, not only in terms of financial assistance, but also through improved resettlement tools, says Civil Liberties Committee Chair Claude Moraes, who this week headed a delegation to Beirut.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

With around 1.5 million refugees fleeing to Lebanon since the start of the war in Syria, it is clear that the situation in the country is untenable and that substantial help is needed to avoid a complete breakdown, not only in terms of financial assistance, but also through improved resettlement tools, says Civil Liberties Committee Chair Claude Moraes, who this week headed a delegation to Beirut.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Election of the Presidents of Chambers of the General Court of the European Union

AMENDMENTS 1 - 314 - Draft report The implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy (based on the Annual Report from the Council to the European Parliament on the Common Foreign and Security Policy)
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

It is one of the bleakest assessments yet of the euro’s survival prospects, and it comes from some of its most committed supporters. An international group or senior policymakers including former WTO chief Pascal Lamy and former ECB board member Jörg Asmussen yesterday published a plan to “repair and prepare” the single currency. Their message? Change, or die:

“Europe will again be hit by a new economic crisis. We do not know whether this will be in six weeks, six months or six years. But in its current set-up, the euro is unlikely to survive.”

Their plan, which can be read here, includes a “first aid kit” of short-term measures to deal with urgent issues such as the lack of pooled firepower to deal with a banking crisis, as well as more long term projects, including the creation of a European Monetary Fund.

In short, exactly the kind of forward thinking agenda that the EU’s leaders have been at pains to avoid talking about in recent months.

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REPORT on human rights and migration in third countries
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Marie-Christine Vergiat

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Council v LTTE
External relations
Advocate General Sharpston considers that the Court should annul the measures maintaining Hamas and LTTE on the EU list of terrorist organisations on procedural grounds

Commission v Czech Republic
Free movement of goods
By refusing to recognise hallmarks for precious metals affixed by WaarborgHolland, a Netherlands assay office, the Czech Republic has infringed EU law

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It is the last thing the European Commission needs. Just as the furore over Jose Manuel Barroso’s new job at Goldman Sachs starts to subside, another scandal emerges involving the business practices of a former commissioner.

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Last year I stood here to assure you that isolationism will never be Europe's policy. And I haven't changed my mind even though the last twelve months have been difficult, not least for the European Union. Europe will always stand for a free and open world governed by the rule of law, where nations can trade and grow together, instead of living in conflict, mistrust and intrigue. We treat the values upon which the European Union is founded in all seriousness. And we have the determination to seek those values on the international arena. If we fail, the world will descend into greater disorder, whose first victims are always the weakest and the poorest.

This body is in the process of choosing new leadership. This gives us an  opportunity to reflect frankly on the kind of international system we have today, and the one we want for the future. As a historian, I know why the League of Nations failed in its mission to protect peace and international security. It was paralysed by inertia, fatalism and, finally, by cowardice. As a politician, I can see similar phenomena everywhere today. This is due to the rise of fear. Fear of war, fear of terrorism and the fear of strangers. Globalisation makes fear more contagious and more potent. It dangerously links together the anxieties of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and America. Take one example that can stand for others: the radical Islam of  Da'esh that spreads terror from Jakarta to Nice; from Tunis to Brussels, from Sirte to Orlando.

When fear takes over, nations increasingly turn away from each other. What we need to do here and now is to regain a sense of security, which is a fundamental need for every human being, as important as the need for freedom.

No challenge shows this so clearly as the issue of refugee protection and the mass displacement of persons across borders. In the last months, Europe has been confronted by the refugee crisis to a particularly large degree. Nevertheless, in all our actions aimed at solving the problem of refugees, the European Union is driven by empathy and the readiness to offer help to those in need, even if the world turns its back and pretends not to see. And still today, when we restore order on our external borders and take back control from the smugglers, the readiness to assist refugees in their plight remains our top priority.

This is why we have spent billions of euros to fund humanitarian assistance and are willing to spend much more in the months and years to come. It is our hope and expectation that global solidarity will now kick in to provide health, education and jobs for millions of people currently displaced, and to scale up resettlement. In light of this, we support the work that has now begun under the New York Declaration to find a sustainable and fair rulebook for global migration. This declaration gives us hope that the principles which have been at the heart of our response, will also form the foundation of the global response to the refugee crisis.

Europe is, and will be active everywhere where war is imminent or is already raging. And our main goal will always be peace. This is as true for civil wars in the Middle East or Africa as it is for nuclear testing and territorial disputes in Asia. It is true also on our own borders, where Ukraine has been attacked by Russia. Further afield, what we are now concerned with are conflicts in Syria, Libya and Afghanistan, where the very statehood of these countries is in danger. We fully support and stand ready to engage in the work of the United Nations, to bring parties to the negotiating table in Syria and in Libya. And in a few weeks, together with the Afghan government, the European Union will host an international conference in Brussels. This is a unique opportunity for the rest of the world to show that it cares about supporting a stable Afghanistan and the stability of the region as a whole.

This year we have also witnessed a rising wave of terror worldwide, also against the people of Europe, carried out by many terrorist organisations, in particular by Daesh. Building a global strategy and network against terrorism is key, including in preventing radicalisation and confronting the issues of foreign fighters and terrorist financing. Europe is working with partners from Asia to the Gulf and the Sahel on building up global capacities against violent extremism. We are upgrading our borders to ensure that terrorists cannot pass, or re-enter, and are working with communities to prevent young people from becoming infected with hatred. This threat will touch all of us sooner or later, which is why we should make better use of the United Nations to fight it together.

The European Union is the world's largest donor of development and humanitarian aid, and that will not change. The Sustainable Development Goals can drive reform of the international system by offering an opportunity to address many problems in one process: namely insecurity, poverty, under-development, climate change and uncontrolled migration. And, ultimately, we seek a system that ensures that everybody gets his or her fair share of the benefits of globalisation.

Lastly, I would like to say a word about the fight against climate change, to which the EU is fully committed. Europe has had a comprehensive climate change policy in place for years. Right now we are developing the laws which will allow us to reach our ambitious target for 2030, and our ratification of the Paris agreement will be completed soon. The fact that the two biggest global emitters have ratified the agreement early, is a positive sign. It shows that the readiness to take responsibility for our common future is not limited only to Europe. I am hopeful that this trend becomes contagious.

Let me say one more thing at the end: I feel that ordinary people sense a great change is coming. We should listen. We should understand. We should anticipate, not only react. Our job is to bring back a sense of direction, to bring back confidence, to bring back a sense of order. Globalisation needs credible rules to make it stable and fair, whether we talk about trade, migration or security. Thank you.

It’s easy to be sucked into the prevailing pessimistic EU narrative. You know the one: the Union is falling apart; Brexit will prompt an exodus of others seeking to leave the bloc; and pure, white Christian Europe is being invaded by nasty foreigners, most of them Muslim.

So let’s close down the EU shop. Will the last one out please turn off the lights?

Of course, it is not really that bad. As a visiting Chinese scholar speculated last week, Europeans are suffering from a particularly bad case of the blues – and instead of doing everything to make them feel better, dysfunctional European leaders may be making things worse.

As she put it: “Why can’t European leaders get their act together and stop whining and whinging about their ‘first world problems’”?

That’s harsh. Europe faces a multitude of crises: the Brexit vote and the uncertainty it has triggered; the rise of dangerous populism; the continuing, unresolved financial crisis.

It’s bleak. And nobody seems to like anyone anymore.

But the recent epic bouts of whining by Europe’s great and good are becoming increasingly tedious.

First on the scene to highlight Europe’s grim reality was Jean-Claude Juncker. In his annual State of the European Union speech, the European Commission President told MEPs that the EU is in an existential crisis. It was stark stuff.

Not to be outdone, European Council President Donald Tusk gave his own equally downbeat assessment. Then 27 EU leaders (minus British Prime Minister Theresa May) turned their Bratislava gathering – intended to be a show of solidarity – into yet another much-publicised bout of chest-beating over the fate of sad, old Europe.

There were some ‘roadmaps’ put forward, but they bore an unfortunate ‘Fortress Europe’ watermark. The undercurrent was to put Europe back together by pulling up the drawbridge and talking tough on security, but to soften the impact with new initiatives designed to distract, deflect and dazzle. Free Wi-Fi in every European town by 2020, anyone?

This approach is wrong-headed. The more EU leaders talk down Europe – and bewilder already-puzzled Europeans with more incomprehensible and makeshift initiatives – the more they perpetuate the myth of a lost continent.

The truth is more complex. Yes, Europe faces many problems. Unemployment remains high. The European economy has been weakened by years of economic stagnation and budgetary austerity. The ‘Gang of Four’ leaders of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic want a closed-off, white and Christian Europe that has little truck with diversity and inclusiveness.

But despite policymakers’ moans and groans, the European story remains strong.

Europe has room for – and a need for – the refugees and migrants who have arrived on its shores. Europe also needs foreign tourists who will pump money into Europe’s service industry.

Europe’s intelligence agencies are getting better at working together, foiling plots and catching would-be terrorists who threaten Europe’s “way of life”.

The EU still has peace. It has reconciled enemies. It has created a hugely-successful frontier-free single market and the free movement of people.

The young people in Britain who voted Remain know the value of being part of the EU. Thousands of Europeans – individuals and companies – are working to welcome and integrate refugees and migrants.

But these truths are going unsaid.

By endlessly repeating, as Tusk did in Bratislava, that Europeans feel insecure in the face of migration and terrorism, EU leaders are amplifying the voice of populists and bolstering their power.

If they are really serious about winning Europeans’ trust and support, EU leaders must fight fire with fire. This means putting as much passion, energy and hard work into crafting a European narrative of peace and openness as the populists are investing in their nightmare version.

The populists already have their captive audience. With the battle over Brexit lost, EU leaders need to arm themselves with a vision of Europe that resonates with the aspirations of millions of Europeans who will not be voting for Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders or the Alternative für Deutschland.

The 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome next March provides the ideal opportunity for such a reboot. Europe is far from being a lost continent. But EU leaders have certainly lost their way.

 

Related content

• Friends of Europe: ‘State of Europe’ high-level event: Disruption, Disorder and Division – Crunch Time for Europe – 13 October 2016
• Europe’s World: Brexit special section 
• Debating Europe: What would you like Europe to look like in 20 years?

IMAGE CREDIT: © European Union

 

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European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients
Approximation of laws
EU law protects the EU market from cosmetic products containing ingredients which have been tested on animals

General : Deepening the integration of the EU and Latin America is the best way to respond to common challenges, agreed parliamentarians from both sides of the Atlantic at the opening of the ninth plenary session of the Euro-Latin Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), on Tuesday in Montevideo (Uruguay). The economic situation, trade relations between the EU and Latin America and between both regions and China, managing migration flows and fighting terrorism are also on the agenda.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP