European Union

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The Informal meeting of Energy Ministers takes place on 12-13 July 2016 in Bratislava.

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Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

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By Arthur Beesley

US treasury secretary Jack Lew visits Brussels today for talks withMargrethe Vestager, competition commissioner.

The meeting comes amid transatlantic tension over the European Commission’s long state-aid inquiry into Apple’s tax arrangements in Ireland.

Ms Vestager’s investigations continue. She had informal discussions on Tuesday with Irish finance minister Michael Noonan on the margins of a regular EU meeting in Brussels.

Read more

Good afternoon. We have just concluded the 18th summit between the European Union and China. We had rich and sometimes very candid discussions on all dimensions of our relations. But most importantly our talks with President Xi and Premier Li were fruitful and conclusive. As a result I can say that we moved the strategic partnership between the European Union and China forward.

You had a chance to listen to our opening remarks yesterday, so you should know where we stand on some of the key issues. Therefore allow me to highlight just a few elements.

First of all we discussed the importance of international cooperation based on rules. A global order based on common rules is in our mutual interest but clearly we have our differences in what it means in practise.

Secondly, ahead of the September G20 summit in China. I am happy that we agreed to tackle the migration crisis at the global level. Over 60 million displaced people around the world seek protection; so the international community needs to step up its efforts.

Thirdly we agreed to have another round of dialogue between the EU and China about human rights still this year in Brussels. There is no doubt that there are disagreements on this issue. But I welcome that China stands ready to engage.

On a different note let me just mention that this morning I had the opportunity to visit the National Museum in Beijing. It gave me a chance to appreciate Chinese history and its impressive culture.

Finally let me say this. We came here to discuss common challenges in an open and friendly manner. It is not always easy to have such talks because the stakes are high and real differences persist. But after these two days I can say that we made progress and we did it also thanks to the openness and frank approach by both President Xi and Premier Li. We had a good summit here in Beijing and I look forward to hosting the next bilateral EU-China summit in Brussels next year. Thank you.

Dear Prime Minister,

On behalf of the European Council, I would like to congratulate you on your appointment as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

I look forward to a fruitful working relationship and to welcoming you to the European Council.

A 9-strong MEP delegation from the Civil Liberties Committee will be in Calais on Wednesday 13 July to visit facilities for migrants and refugees, in the vicinity, which for years has been a gathering spot for people trying to cross from France to the UK. MEPs will meet with local authorities, NGOs, the French-British border authorities and the refugees and migrants themselves in order to assess the situation on the ground.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

A 9-strong MEP delegation from the Civil Liberties Committee will be in Calais on Wednesday 13 July to visit facilities for migrants and refugees, in the vicinity, which for years has been a gathering spot for people trying to cross from France to the UK. MEPs will meet with local authorities, NGOs, the French-British border authorities and the refugees and migrants themselves in order to assess the situation on the ground.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Framework Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Azerbaijan on the general principles for the participation of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Union programmes
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Report on the fight against trafficking in human beings in the EU's external relations
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

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Through its special relationship with France, Monaco is part of the EU customs territory and located within the external borders of the Schengen area.

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The EU relations with Tunisia in the current regional context
Corporate liability for serious human rights abuses in third countries
Human rights and migration in third countries
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

General : Parliament's inquiry committee into car emissions measurements continues its investigation this week by questioning industry representatives as well as former Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas. Committee chair Kathleen Van Brempt, a Belgian member of the S&D group, also takes part in a Facebook live session on Thursday from 14.00 CET, giving you the chance to ask her everything you wanted to know about this investigation.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

General : Parliament's inquiry committee into car emissions measurements continues its investigation this week by questioning industry representatives as well as former Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas. Committee chair Kathleen Van Brempt, a Belgian member of the S&D group, also takes part in a Facebook live session on Thursday from 14.00 CET, giving you the chance to ask her everything you wanted to know about this investigation.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

CANCELLED
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

will take place on Wednesday 13 July, 9:00-12:30 and 15:00-17:00 in room Paul-Henri Spaak 4B001 in Brussels (the last item is cancelled).

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

Further information
watch the meeting live
Access rights for interest group representatives
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Long-time readers of this blog will remember my (past) obsession with the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) thanks to my PhD research on information flows in EU policy-making during the recent CFP reform.

In a new paper posted on arxiv.org by titled “Exploring the Political Agenda of the European Parliament Using a Dynamic Topic Modeling Approach“, Derek Greene and James P. Cross look into the question what topics are discussed in MEPs’ speeches from 1999-2014 and how to detect this with text mining.

On page 23 of the paper, they show a chart with the number of MEP speeches relating to EU fisheries policy, with a visible spike in the 2009-13 period (my PhD looked in particular at 2009-11), i.e. during the time of the recent CFP reform, with additional spikes at key events.

[Chart from p. 23 about here, will ask the authors whether I can use it]

The authors argue on the following page that:

“As can be seen, MEPs pay a reasonably stable level of attention to fisheries between 2000 and 2010. This trend is interrupted in 2010, when MEP attention to fisheries increases.”

What is ignored in this interpretation is that there had already been a  CFP reform in the early 2000s, including with a 2001 Green Paper on CFP reform. However, different to the 2009 Green Paper, there was no spike in 2001 and also no spike after the 2002 reform proposal was published in late May 2002. I suppose that MEPs’ attention where probably as high back than as it was in the 2010s, but the competencies of the EP to deal with this topic was lower.

Assuming that the data is correct, it shows that making the EU Parliament a co-legislator in core CFP matters under the Lisbon Treaty has made a big difference between 2001-02 and 2009-13. I didn’t study the 2002 reform for my PhD, but one could also assume that the difference in public attention by MEPs in the 2000s and 2010s may also have had different effects on media and general public attention to the topic of EU fisheries policy in both periods.

These observations don’t change the overall argument of the paper by Greene and Cross (where CFP is anyway just one of several topics and by far not the focus). Strictly speaking, it could also be put in line with a more complex view of the punctuated equilibrium theory that they refer to to explain the 2010s spike. But since the paper is just on arxiv.org, I still thought to point this out for the CFP, supposing there is time to reflect this in a version that might go into peer review.

What the data for EU fisheries policy shows in any case is that the agenda dynamics observed by the authors through their data also have to do with the overall competencies of the European Parliament. These have changed over time, not least through the Lisbon Treaty, bringing new topics at the centre stage of the plenary, something that probably will come up quite frequently in the analysis on other policies, too. 

The post What a difference a Treaty makes: CFP reform debates in the 2000s and 2010s appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Length of video : 206'
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Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Theresa May will be the next prime minister of Britain – and become the chief architect of its departure from the EU.

The soon-to-be former home secretary will be a familiar face to many of those sitting across the negotiating table in Brussels.

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The Informal meeting of Energy Ministers takes place on 12 July 2016 in Bratislava.

Download this video here.