European Union

Plenary sessions : If the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia can break its current political stalemate, hold free and fair elections soon and put its reforms back on track, then there should be no further obstacles to starting EU accession talks with it, say MEPs in a resolution voted on Thursday. In a separate resolution, they welcome Montenegro’s steady progress towards EU accession.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

DRAFT RECOMMENDATION on the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion of a Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Lebanon, of the other part, to take account of the accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic to the European Union
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Ramona Nicole Mănescu

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

DRAFT RECOMMENDATION on the proposal for a Council decision on the Conclusion of a Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Lebanon, of the other part, to take account of the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Ramona Nicole Mănescu

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Parliament condemns the deteriorating climate for the media and free speech in Kazakhstan, the torture and assassination under suspicious circumstances of EU citizen Giulio Regeni in Egypt, and the worsening security and human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in three resolutions voted on Thursday.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Parliament condemns the deteriorating climate for the media and free speech in Kazakhstan, the torture and assassination under suspicious circumstances of EU citizen Giulio Regeni in Egypt, and the worsening security and human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in three resolutions voted on Thursday.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs voted emergency measures into law on Thursday to help Tunisia’s economy by importing 70,000 tonnes of its virgin olive oil duty free in 2016/17, after adding safeguards for EU olive oil producers. These include a mid-term assessment of the effects of the measures, updating them if they turn out to be harmful, and ensuring that the imports are tracked from start to finish.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs voted emergency measures into law on Thursday to help Tunisia’s economy by importing 70,000 tonnes of its virgin olive oil duty free in 2016/17, after adding safeguards for EU olive oil producers. These include a mid-term assessment of the effects of the measures, updating them if they turn out to be harmful, and ensuring that the imports are tracked from start to finish.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

At its meeting on 16 March, SEDE will discuss the amendments to the draft report on Peace Support Operations - EU engagement with the UN and the African Union: Rapporteur Geoffrey VAN ORDEN (ECR, UK) and to the draft report on space capabilities for European security and defence: Rapporteur Bogdan Andrzej ZDROJEWSKI (PPE, PL).
Further information
Draft agenda and meeting documents
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

At the height of last summer’s refugee crisis, people across Europe took many personal actions to help. They donated food, blankets and sanitary products to those in need on our doorsteps. Uber drivers, for instance, offered to pick up items for free through UberGiving. Such was the goodwill that aid charities in Brussels even asked people to stop donating clothes, as they could not be sorted fast enough.

Since then, the conflation between economic migrants and refugees has raised questions about how public services can cope, how housing can be found, and how people fleeing to Europe can be better integrated into our communities. There are of course some actions that the state can take, but far more effective will be the thousands of initiatives taken at the community level. If we want individuals and communities to reach out, though, governments should begin by restoring some of the confidence and trust that has been lost.

I fear that many people across the EU have grown more sceptical of refugees following the Paris attacks in November and the crimes that took place in places like Cologne on New Year’s Eve. It is sadly inevitable that the acts of a small number of people are seriously harming the perception of the majority of refugees. In addition, a failure to properly process asylum applications to distinguish between genuine refugees who deserve our help and economic migrants who should be returned to apply through legal migration channels is leading us to struggle. If we can restore trust in the system, so that the people coming to Europe are bona fide refugees, and not a free-for-all of anyone prepared to risk their life, then I believe individuals and communities will want to do more to help.

“Impassioned individuals and grassroots charities are often far better able to understand local problems than top-down state programmes”

I have long been a passionate believer in non-state solutions to poverty. Impassioned individuals and grassroots charities are often far better able to understand local problems than top-down state programmes. In helping to solve some of the big challenges created by the refugee crisis, there has been a lot of talk about grand integration schemes or skills programmes, yet politicians often fail to see the good work already being carried out by charities who might just need a helping hand.

Take housing as an example. The International Federation for Housing and Planning has highlighted that many EU states face housing shortages, especially in the social and affordable sectors of the market. European governments in many cases are too financially stretched to afford to build houses. In addition, we must avoid the ‘ghettoisation’ that resulted from previous state programmes to build mass housing estates. While there may be vacant properties away from population centres, accommodating newcomers in remote areas does not help integration and may lead to stigmatisation.

Non-state solutions, though, are emerging readily. In a number of countries, we find that platforms similar to AirBnB are being used to connect refugees with people offering a home. In Germany and Austria, the platform called ‘Refugees Welcome’ has helped to place refugees in people’s spare rooms, giving them a host family. Of course, there are also good cases of the state providing assistance, such as the local authority of Solna, north of Stockholm, which has an initiative connecting minors with foster homes. Businesses have also helped. Nordic Choice Hotels, one of the largest chains in Scandinavia, have offered 5,000 free nights to refugees. Not a permanent solution perhaps, but it is a far better solution than the alternative of spending a night without any accommodation.

“We must avoid the ‘ghettoisation’ that resulted from previous state programmes to build mass housing estates”

Refugees may be lucky enough to receive housing from the state, but they cannot be given a sense of belonging by the state. That comes from being given a purpose. Projects like CUCULA, the Refugees Company for Crafts and Design, in Berlin claim to do something ‘together with’ refugees, not simply something ‘for them’. In their workshop, they teach refugees how to make furniture, and other skills. The furniture is sold, and the proceeds go towards further training and language classes.

When it comes to different cultures, we need to understand each other better. EU forums on intercultural dialogue that bring together an Imam, a Bishop and a Rabbi are better than nothing. But the best intercultural and interfaith dialogue I experienced was in my school playground, where I had friends of various faiths and of none. Through sharing our experiences and asking questions, we found out far more about each other. It is wonderful to see my children enjoying a similar experience in their playgrounds today. Projects like United Invitations have been created to achieve something similar by enabling people to host a dinner for one or two immigrants or refugees so they can come over for food and a conversation. I have always thought that the greatest cause of our problems in this world is that we do not seek to understand different points of view, so why not bring people in and talk to them?

As an MEP for London, one of the best parts of my job is being able to champion the charities and local community organisations across my home city. I work with anti-radicalisation charities like Tuffs, which uses football to prevent potential Daesh targets from being radicalised. I work with jobs clubs that don’t want a hand out from the state, but maybe an old computer that a company is throwing away. I help a charity called The Feel Good Bakery which turns ‘dope dealers into hope dealers’ using the skills that drug dealers often have in building supply chains and developing a customer base to sell sandwiches! All of these projects do fantastic work without state funding, and as politicians we should do all we can to promote their work, to connect them with people who can help them grow, and to rely on their ingenuity to find solutions.

“The best intercultural and interfaith dialogue I experienced was in my school playground, where I had friends of various faiths and of none”

Rather than complaining or waiting for the government to do something, it is heart-warming to see the many individuals and community organisations that have opened their hearts and homes to newcomers fleeing conflict and persecution. These examples show that many people want to help those who are in genuine need and have fled for their lives. We need to get a grip on the migration and refugee crisis because the “open door regardless of circumstances” approach has undermined confidence. But let us be in no doubt that even if we return economic migrants so they can apply through legal migration channels and only resettle the most vulnerable people from the refugee camps, we will still have a large number of refugees here in need of our help. The answer is not state-built ghettos and top-down integration programmes, but community-led solutions that promote dialogue and understanding.

IMAGE CREDIT: CC / FLICKR – Rasande Tyskar

The post Successful refugee integration begins with community outreach appeared first on Europe’s World.

Plenary sessions : Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni was investigating trade unions in Egypt when he went missing on 25 January 2016. His body, bearing signs of torture, was discovered nine days later in Cairo. Media and human rights activists suspect Egyptian security forces may have been involved, which the Egyptian authorities deny. On 10 March MEPs debated the case and adopted a resolution as part of their regular efforts to call attention to flagrant human rights violations around the world.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

HeidelbergCement v Commission
Competition
The Court of Justice annuls the Commission decisions relating to requests for information directed at cement manufacturers

Plenary sessions : Europe has made significant steps towards creating a banking union, but the work is far from finished. Italian S&D member Roberto Gualtieri, who drafted a report on the progress made last year, said a single deposit guarantee scheme was still needed ahead. MEPs debate his report and then vote on it on 10 March. Watch our video interview with Gualtieri to find out his views on how to improve the banking union.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

This is Thursday’s edition of our Brussels Briefing. To receive it every morning in your email in-box, sign up here.

Happy European Central Bank monetary policy meeting day! It’s the time of the month eurozone economy watchers crowd around their desktop livestreams to find out what new plan Mario Draghi has concocted to revive the region’s growth, since the latest one still doesn’t seem to be working. The problem is that the arrows in Mr Draghi’s economic stimulus quiver are running out, and those that are left all have significant limitations once they’re fired.

Let’s start with a central bank’s most basic tool: lowering interest rates to spur borrowing and investment. In normal times, cutting borrowing costs is a no-brainer. As of December, however, Mr Draghi lowered the ECB’s deposit rate to negative 0.3 per cent. In theory, a negative deposit rate would spur bankers to lend, since leaving the cash in ECB accounts means they’re actually losing money. But so far, there’s been little evidence that logic has taken hold.

Negative interest rates are also difficult politically in the ECB’s host country of Germany, where thriftiness is next to godliness and savings accounts and insurance policies are viewed as important income generators. Lower rates mean lower returns on savings, and cuts in ECB rates are treated with the kind of purple prose and blaring headlines in German tabloids that are normally reserved for celebrity divorces and grisly murders in similar newspapers abroad. Even before the ECB met, the German banking association was out with a statement yesterday saying further interest rate cuts would do “more harm than good.”

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DRAFT RECOMMENDATION on the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion of the Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Community and its Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Lebanon, of the other part, on a Framework Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Lebanon on the general principles for the participation of Republic of Lebanon in Union programmes
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Ramona Nicole Mănescu

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Brussels for the EU-India summit on 30th March is good news. If both sides play their cards right, the summit could pave the way for a more ambitious, dynamic and adventurous EU-India relationship.

India and the EU need a new conversation, a new focus on shared interests as well as new goals and ambitions. Above all, they need to take a fresh look at each other, replacing tired misperceptions and clichés. The summit should come up with a new EU-India action plan which is short, snappy and action-oriented.

With growth rates of 7.5% according to the World Bank, India now has a more dynamic economy than China. The EU, for all its current malaise, has an interest in exporting and investing more in India and has the technology India needs for its modernisation drive. Above all, opening a new chapter in relations means moving to a ‘beyond trade’ agenda.

“India now has a more dynamic economy than China”

Modi’s high-profile visits to Britain, France and Germany show his focus on national European governments over contacts with the EU. Meanwhile, Europe has spent more time and energy on building a strategy for China than on constructing a stronger relationship with India.

Now it’s time for a more serious conversation on refugees, peace and security in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Terrorism and the threat from ISIS are a common concern. In other areas, the focus must shift to a more practical, pragmatic and operational agenda which seeks to find common ground between Modi’s aspirational modernisation drive and EU initiatives to boost growth and jobs.

India’s new economic programme opens up fresh avenues for increased EU-India synergies that go beyond the two sides’ traditional interaction. This could include cooperation in areas where both sides have a strong economic interest such as infrastructure investments, sustainable urbanisation, renewable energy, innovation and synergies between “Digital India” and the EU’s agenda for a Digital Single Market.

Still, trade matters and negotiations on the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) or free trade agreement, under negotiation since 2007, need to restart. If some of the key blockages that brought the talks to a grinding halt in 2013 can be removed in time, the 30th March summit could mark the relaunch of the BTIA negotiations.

“Opening a new chapter in relations means moving to a ‘beyond trade’ agenda”

So far, however, the talks have been like an unending obstacle race, with new problems emerging at every twist and turn. The EU wants a reduction in India’s tariffs on cars, wines and spirits and a stronger regime for the protection of intellectual property. India is unhappy about EU restrictions on temporary movement of skilled professionals and wants data security status so that the thriving IT sector can do more business with European firms.

Such horse-trading is important and Modi and his EU counterparts must give the trade negotiations a much-needed push. But, as John Lennon sang to Yoko Ono all those years ago, having allowed their relationship to stumble and falter, it’s time that India and the EU agreed to start over.

Further reading

• Friends of Europe analysis ‘MODI’S ENERGY REVOLUTION – High hopes and daunting challenges’
• Europe’s World ‘India and Modi: it’s time to start over’
• Debating Europe How can Europe and India strengthen their relationship?

IMAGE CREDIT: CC / FLICKR – Sandeepachetan

The post EU-India relations: time to ‘start over’ appeared first on Europe’s World.

Jean-Claude Juncker, far right, at a press conference after the EU summit with Turkey

After a 12-hour meeting between the EU and Turkey, a tired-looking Jean Claude Juncker took to the stage after 1am on Tuesday morning and boldly declared that a plan to send back migrants from Greek islands to Turkey was legal.

The European Commission president swiftly tried to bog the even more tired-looking press corps down in legalese. With impressively few glances at his notes, Mr Juncker regurgitated:

Article 33 and 38 of the asylum procedure directive clearly open the way for a solution of this kind. Because article 33, paragraph 2, letter C indicates that a country can refuse to consider a claim if a non-EU country is considered as a safe third country.

But is this true?

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