European Union

This week, Bono comes to Brussels to preach, Frans Timmermans thinks the Commission job’s in reach, and Jean Claude’s dance moves make the British Press screech.

Marek Halter, a Jew and Holocaust survivor, used the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions to warn Europeans that there is a high risk that fascists campaigning on the Islamophobia ticket win big in next year's European elections.

Theresa May's attempts to negotiate a 'soft Brexit' are not backed by a parliamentary majority. Nor are the plans of the hard Brexiters. That could result in a new referendum, which could lead to the UK staying in, argues Hugo Dixon.

Chinese Ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, stressed that China and the EU are “in the same boat” on multilateralism. In an interview with EURACTIV.com, he admits that his country has to do more in some sectors to open up to foreign companies and will do more to strengthen protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).

Policy makers, industry and civil society are trying to find a way to reconcile scientific evidence with public opinion’s beliefs when it comes to food safety. However, this has proved time and again to be a difficult challenge.

Denmark has become the worst perpetrator of Baltic overfishing over the last years, putting in serious danger entire species, such as the Baltic’s iconic cod, warns Rebecca Hubbard.

Written by Maria Niestadt (2nd edition),

© am / Fotolia

The European Union aims to ensure that road transport rules are applied effectively and without discrimination. The current rules governing the access to the international market for coach and bus services appear to have been only partly effective in promoting this mode of transport. There are still differences in rules on access to national markets, differences in openness of national markets, diverse national access arrangements and discrimination in access to terminals in some EU countries.

In an attempt to address the issue, the European Commission adopted a legislative proposal on 8 November 2017 to amend the EU rules for access to the international market for coach and bus services. The proposal is part of its ‘Europe on the Move’ package, which aims to modernise European mobility and transport. The rapporteur published his draft report on 15 June 2018, and the Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism is expected to vote on it in the coming months.

Versions

• October 2018: ‘Access to the international market for coach and bus services‘ (2nd edition)

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1073/2009 on common rules for access to the international market for coach and bus services Committee responsible: Transport and Tourism (TRAN) COM(2017) 647
8.11.2017 Rapporteur: Roberts Zīle (ECR, Latvia) 2017/0288 (COD) Shadow rapporteurs:

 

  Luis de Grandes Pascual (EPP, Spain)
Peter Kouroumbashev (S&D, Bulgaria)
Dominique Riquet (ALDE, France)
João Pimenta Lopes (GUE/NGL, Portugal)
Michael Cramer (Greens/EFA, Germany)
Georg Mayer (ENF, Austria) Ordinary legislative procedure (COD) (Parliament and Council on equal footing – formerly ‘co-decision’) Next steps expected: Vote in committee

China joins a long list of countries - including Russia - accused of abusing Interpol's 'Red Notice' system to harras activists and dissidents.

Vladimir Putin's Ukraine "operation" has backfired by making its former vassal state more pro-Western than ever, a US diplomat has said.

190 states have agreed on a global compact for migration, which should be signed in December. However, some countries including Austria, have concerns. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Viktoria Marinova’s gruesome rape and murder in Bulgaria has featured high in the international news in recent days.

The European Commission unveiled a new bioeconomy strategy on Thursday (11 October), saying it could reduce the EU's dependence on fossil fuels while underlining the ecological limitations of Europe’s farming and forestry sector.

Election of the Presidents of the Chambers of three Judges of the Court of Justice

The EU has recognised access to energy as a human right. But whether it will enforce a  disconnection safeguard remains to be seen, writes Guillaume Derivaux.

Written by Marcin Grajewski,

EPRS Policy roundtable – The impact of automation:Identifying jobs at risk

Technological and digital revolutions are reshaping labour markets across the world, with many jobs likely to disappear or to be significantly transformed over the next 15 years, as robots and computers learn to perform an increasing number of tasks, according to analysts speaking at a conference in the European Parliament. In response, governments need to foster policies to master automation, rather than reject it, and create jobs in the technologically transformed environment, as well as alleviate the associated negative impacts with social protection measures. The analysts present also remarked that the European Union should step up efforts to catch up with the United States and China in new technologies. The event, entitled ‘The impact of automation: identifying jobs at risk’ was organised by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at the European Parliament Library Reading Room on 25 September 2018.

WEBER, Renate

‘This topic of the impact of automation has been absent from the agenda until recently… Some paint a catastrophic future. It is true that many jobs will be lost, but they will also be transformed into something else and a new one created, with the right policies’, said Renate Weber (ALDE, Romania), Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, opening the debate.

The conference focused on the recent OECD report, Putting faces to the jobs at risk of automation, which examines professions and skills that will sooner or later no longer be needed thanks to automation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI). The paper says that about 14 % of jobs in the OECD’s 36 mostly industrialised countries are highly likely to be automatable (17 % in the EU), while another 32 % could face substantial change in how they are carried out.

QUINTINI, Glenda

‘Some countries are more prone to automation than others as they have a different industrial structure. Germany, for example, has a relatively high risk of automation as manufacturing is still very important there. It depends what economic sectors are in the economy, but also what people do in those sectors’, noted Glenda Quintini, Senior Economist of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the OECD.

Among the OECD countries, Slovakia is the most susceptible to automation. This may be because of its large automotive sector, where vehicles are often assembled from parts produced elsewhere. Norway is the least vulnerable to the process.

In general, the highest risk of automation is concentrated in routine jobs with low skill requirements. The manufacturing and agricultural sectors, as well as some service jobs, are most likely to be affected. But there are also examples of white collar professions that are being automated, such as investment bank traders or paralegals. Sharing economy firms are reshaping transport and tourism. The development of autonomous vehicles puts many drivers’ jobs at risk.

The lowest risk of automation is for cognitive, non-routine jobs and those where human contact is valued, such as managerial professions, fine arts, negotiators or social care workers. ‘The qualities needed are creative intelligence and social intelligence’, said Quintini. However, physical tasks related to perception and manipulation in an unstructured, complex environment will also be difficult to automate.

In the past, new technologies often eliminated many jobs, yet new ones were soon created, as was the case during the industrial revolution. However, whereas in the past changes took decades, allowing for gradual adjustment, they now take place in years, posing a challenge to people’s job security and way of life.

Reinhilde Veugelers

‘There will be destruction, but there will also be creation, and a challenge from the policy perspective is to ensure that there is enough new activities, jobs created and … enough social protection’, said Reinhilde Veugelers, professor at KU Leuven and senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank.

Firstly, automation and digitalisation need to be mastered. The USA and China have outpaced the EU in this area. ‘The EU has not really shown in the past the strong capacity to lead in that digital and innovation here’, said Professor Veugelers, calling for more and smarter investment in new technologies, and highlighting the importance of research in artificial intelligence, which is ‘a general purpose technology, helping to innovative activities in other sectors’. Here, Renate Weber expressed concern about the transparency of the Chinese AI programme, saying ‘Do we know what is happening in China? I have my doubts’.

Secondly, education systems need to be adapted to teach children and youth the right skills, that is develop cognitive and social intelligence and learn to work in the digital context. Reinhilde Veugelers argues that AI could be useful in training for digital skills. Another crucial policy instrument is adult learning, as few people will have a job that is ‘guaranteed for life’. This needs to be accompanied by efforts to combat the currently growing wealth inequalities, as the poorest in society are the least likely to get proper education or retraining, propelling the vicious circle.

Lieve Van Woensel, the Head of EPRS’ Scientific Foresight Service and the event’s moderator, pointed to a recent EPRS study, The impact of new technologies on the labour market and the social economy, which additionally suggests limiting the impact of automation on unemployment by reducing working time as productivity increases.

Click to view slideshow.

European countries should not heavily rely on their forests to curb climate change. However, they should instead ensure that forests are protected from climate change, underlined a study published in Nature on Wednesday (10 October). EURACTIV France reports.

The Polish power sector is changing.

On 11 October, Council agreed its position on the directive on business insolvency and second chance

On 11 October, Council formally adopted the directive on countering money laundering by criminal law

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been missing without a trace for around a week now. Turkish media have published images of a "death squad" that allegedly killed him in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. According to the Washington Post the US intelligence agencies knew about the planned attack. World leaders are remaining silent about this crime, commentators complain. But some believe this will soon change.