European Union

A finais do pasado mes de setembro finou Shimon Peres (Premio Nobel da Paz, Ex Presidente de Israel e Ex Primeiro Ministro por tres ocasións). Dito motivo provocou, entre outros feitos, un gran número de artigos xornalísticos falando da súa relevancia histórica[1].

Mais analizando ditos artigos ponse o acento especialmente nalgúns elementos da súa vida, resaltado a “súa contribución á Paz”[2]. Pola contra, moito menos era mencionado o seu pasado en Haganá[3].

É interesante observar como ao longo do tempo aqueles grupos, como Haganá, que eran considerados terroristas maioritariamente, na actualidade son considerados “organización defensiva hebrea, que operaba bajo las órdenes de la Agencia Judía para Israel, entre 1920 y 1948, predecesora, junto con otras organizaciones paramilitares, del actual ejército israelí conocido como las IDF o Tzahal” (Fuentes y Pellicer, 2016)[4] [5].

¿Cal pode ser a razón deste cambio? Benjamin Walter (2007) dinos “con quién se compenetra el historiador universal nacionalista. La respuesta suena inevitable: con el vencedor. Pero los amos eventuales son los herederos de todos aquellos que han vencido […] Quien quiera que haya conducido la victoria hasta el día de hoy, participa en el cortejo triunfal en el cual los dominadores de hoy pasan sobre aquellos que hoy yacen en la tierra”.

En definitiva, algúns grupos ou Estados que en determinada época foran considerados terroristas, co paso do tempo deixan de selo por diversas razóns e son aceptados como membros efectivos do escenario internacional en pé de igualdade cos demais Estados[6] [7].

No caso español as cousas sucederon doutro xeito. Primeiramente, cómpre destacar que a inclusión de diferentes nacións dentro dun Estado normalmente da lugar ó predominio dunha nación sobre as demais. O conflito é que o que podería ser unha alternativa teórica admisible (o Estado plurinacional), na práctica normalmente conduce a situacións no que o Estado beneficia a unha das súas parte e discrimina a outras. Mentres que todos os individuos son considerados cidadáns, existe unha discriminación á vez derivada do feito de que o Estado intenta inculcar unha cultura e valores comúns co obxectivo de acabar creando unha soa nación[8].

Ante esta falta de coexistencia entre nación e Estado, hai dúas saídas posibles. O Estado pode ter éxito e acabar absorbendo as diferentes nacións, o que supón a eliminación das culturas minoritarias e rematar sendo un perfecto Estado-nación (véxase Francia). Ou ben, non acabar conseguindo acadar o seu obxectivo e activándose un sentimento de ataque por parte das minorías ante un Estado alleo, o que provocaría que “no son las naciones las que crearon los Estados modernos, sino los Estados modernos los que crearon las naciones, tal como las conocemos” (Palti, 2002). Neste contexto, as minorías nacionais elaboran estratexias de rexeitamento, que pasan pola resistencia cultural e/ou a loita armada.

España é un bo exemplo de dificultade de homoxeneización nacional e que conta cunha resistencia tanto cultural como armada. No caso de Euskadi a resistencia foi dobre debido as accións de ETA. Nos casos de Galicia e Cataluña a resistencia foi e é principalmente cultural. Mais durante os anos 70 e comezo dos 90 foran activas en Cataluña as organizacións Terra Lliure, o Exèrcit Popular Català, o Front d’Alliberament de Catalunya  e o Arxiu. En Galicia, o Exercito Guerrilheiro do Pobo Galego a pesar de pequenas accións esporádicas ou de pouco alcance, demostra como en Cataluña que existía espazo para accións violentas. Recentemente, cabe aínda mencionar que a Audiencia Nacional acusou a outro pequeno grupo galego de terrorista, Resistencia Galega.

¿Que pasa entón para que estas organizacións non se consoliden e entren en decadencia? A resposta é complexa, pero poderiamos afirmar que as novas iniciativas destes grupos para prolongar as súas dinámicas de protesta conducen a unha espiral de violencia-represión-desalento. O pesimismo abre unha fase de apatía tanto sobre o contido das acción como sobre a súa lexitimidade. Deste xeito, os menos que van quedando vanse radicalizando e illando, e a súa utopía decae. Así, comezan a primar formas de protesta máis convencionais integradas no novo contexto político-social (Tarrow, 1991). Prodúcese pois o esgotamento dos movementos polo fracaso da súa estratexia, pola presión do Estado, ou porque obteñen un éxito parcial ou total das súas reclamacións que se institucionalizaron, ou poden converterse nun movemento diferente (Raschke, 1994).

Xente como Shimon Peres non cometeu ditos erros e por iso non son terroristas, senón liberadores nacionais…

 

 

 

“La nación como problema. Los historiadores y la cuestión nacional”, Elías Palti, Bos Aires: FCE, 2002, p.15

“Sobre el Concepto de la Historia. Conceptos de la Filosofía de la Historia”, Walter Benjamín,  La Plata: Derramar Ediciones, 2007, pp. 68-69

“Sobre el concepto de movimiento social”, J Raschke, Zona Abierta, 69, 1994, pp. 121-134

“Struggle, Politics and Reform: Collective Action, Social Movements, and Cycles of Protest”, Cornell Studies in International Affairs/Western Societies Program, Occasional Paper, S Tarrow, Cornell University, Ithaca: Center for International Studies, 21, 1991, pp. 41-56

 

[1] Ó día 01/10/2016 ascendían en Google News a 2.580.000 (procura “Shimon Peres”)

[2] Ascendía (“Shimon Peres + Peace”) a 351.000

[3] (“Shimon Peres + Haganah”) 2.620

[4] A modo de indicador, pódese observar que na biblioteca da Universidade de Georgetown as publicacións de “Haganah + terrorist” aumentan no período 1921-1960 de 625 a 2924 no que vai de 1990 á actualidade, isto é un multiplicador de 4,67. Contra isto “Haganah liberation movement” ascende de 27 a 783, ou sexa, un multiplicador de 29,00.

[5]http://www.seguridadinternacional.es/?q=es/content/setenta-a%C3%B1os-del-atentado-del-hotel-rey-david-de-jerusal%C3%A9n#_ftn6

[6] “En 1993, la mayoría de estos artículos [periodísticos] asocian [el terrorismo] con los musulmanes […] (especialmente Libia[non posteriormente á morte de Gadafi], Irak [non trala execución de Hussein] […] Virtualmente ningún artículo en el NYT o en el WP asocia tal acto con otros actores o lugares de la violencia política en el mundo (por ejemplo, El Salvador), como una forma de exclusividad tópica y léxica que en sí misma expresa una posición ideológica” http://segundaslenguaseinmigracion.com/L2ycomptext/Anlisisideolgico.pdf

[7] Fatah, anteriormente considerado terrorista, é agora visto como un actor relevante nos procesos de negociación.

[8] “Nationalisms”, M Guibernau, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996

The post ¿Shimon Peres, terrorista ou liberador?: leccións para Galeusca appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_c96321.r21.cf3.rackcdn.com/15289_169_full_129_97shar_c1.jpg

The Eastern Partnership aims to strengthen and deepen the EU's relations with its six partner countries to the east, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in areas such as political association, free trade, migration, energy etc.

Download this video here.

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/Qatar_thumb_169_1477383928_1477383929_129_97shar_c1.jpg

The EU has forged constructive political dialogue with members of the Cooperation Council for Arab States of the Gulf (GCC). These countries are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE. The Cooperation Agreement, which was concluded in 1988, forms the basis for the relationship that aims at: strengthening the stability in the strategically important region; facilitating the political and economic relations; broadening economic and technical cooperation; further broadening cooperation on energy, industry, trade and services, agriculture, fisheries, investment, science, technology and environment. Cooperation between universities, business and the media also form part of the EU-GCC agenda.

Download this video here.

To receive the Brussels Briefing in your inbox every morning, sign up here. You must be a registered user of the Financial Times. To register click here.

Matteo Renzi sent the European Commission some less-than-welcome news in the form of Italy’s 2017 budget plans.

Read more

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/d526f017a8c95f98d38fd8df19ddb500396d0cc2_thumb_169_1417191349_1417191335_640_361_80_c1_thumb_169_1425316270_1425315999_129_97shar_c1.jpg

In this section you will find footage of the meetings of Donald TUSK, President of the European Council.

Download this video here.

The inquiry committee into emission measurements in the car industry (EMIS) continued its work on Monday afternoon by hearing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Chief Technical Officer Harald Wester, who was quizzed mainly on possible “defeat devices” in Fiat diesel engines and gap between emission values in laboratory testing and real driving conditions.
Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The inquiry committee into emission measurements in the car industry (EMIS) continued its work on Monday afternoon by hearing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Chief Technical Officer Harald Wester, who was quizzed mainly on possible “defeat devices” in Fiat diesel engines and gap between emission values in laboratory testing and real driving conditions.
Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

No one would deny that these are difficult times for the European Union.

Sometimes deservedly, but often not, it is assailed by political disagreements among its members, policy differences over governance of the eurozone, and popular discontent (now intensified by the Brexit vote).

But the EU’s achievements in sixty years of progressive integration far outweigh its present shortcomings.

The Union can point to a wide range of activities where European solidarity and cooperation deliver benefits that no single member state could envisage alone. The snag – as ever – is that the EU fails to get the message across.

Five areas stand out. Each needs to be trumpeted. Each contributes substantially to a better quality of life in Europe while also helping to ensure that European countries maintain a competitive edge in the age of globalisation.

These “saving graces” encompass trade, technology, cultural identity, security and environmental leadership. The key question is how they can be further strengthened and more effectively communicated.

Although Europe’s share of accelerating global GDP is shrinking, the EU’s collective clout as the world’s top trading bloc remains an unparalleled asset.

Asia’s emerging economic giants are understandably eager to revise the post-World War 2 Bretton Woods arrangements that still favour the West, and the EU has a crucially important role to play. Europe’s credibility in this process is reinforced by decades of global leadership in development assistance, with two billion people raised out of poverty over the past quarter-century.

Europe’s researchers notch up half of all scientific breakthroughs around the world, and EU-wide funding and collaboration is an increasingly vital part of this achievement. Europeans are notoriously poor at turning their inventions into commercially successful innovations. The EU and its member states must raise their game in this area. Slowly but surely, the EU is directing more funding from its own and national budgets into high-technology sectors – those that will dominate the international economy and determine the winners and losers in the 21st century.

The days are long gone when Europeans’ national cultures were part of their colonialist armoury. Today the flow is if anything reversed, with Europe absorbing strong cultural influences from Asia, Africa and the Arab world. But the EU’s growing focus on the cultural affinities of its member countries is becoming vitally important.

The awareness and emulation of each other’s cultures marks an essential next step in Europe’s integration process, and in the information age the EU is well-equipped to promote this. EU-level policies should be the framework for a shared European culture – one that is capable of being strengthened by the arrival of migrants.

Ideas for an EU “Security Union” and even the creation of a “European army” are controversial. The European project eschewed a military dimension for almost half a century after the signature of the Treaty of Rome.

Now, a sense of vulnerability on its eastern and southern flanks, coupled with uncertainties over Russian assertiveness and American intentions, is pushing security up the EU agenda. Post-Cold War “peace dividends” sapped most EU countries’ defence capabilities, but now the consensus seems to be that collective security demands a common commitment to Europe’s own defence, and to the economic and political stability of its neighbours.

Last but not least, the environment. One of the EU’s best-known achievements has been its leadership on confronting climate change. That determination yielded the COP-21 global deal in Paris last year, which – although insufficient – is an important milestone. Environmental protection, like the other four areas of activity, is a long-term strategy that the EU has successfully pursued.

Now, Europe needs to underline all of its saving graces with greater vigour and clarity.

Giles Merritt is Founder and Chairman of Friends of Europe, and the author of Slippery Slope – Europe’s Troubled Future (Oxford University Press) which is shortlisted for the 2016 European Book Prize.            

 

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: A progressive agenda to revitalise Europe
• Debating Europe: Which is the most democratic country in Europe?

The post Making the most of Europe’s “saving graces” appeared first on Europe’s World.

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/6_3_2014-102811-stockshot-on-trade-16-9-preview_81.81_thumb_169_1475763497_1475763497_129_97shar_c1.jpg

EU Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Trade meet in Luxembourg on 18 October 2016 and are called on to adopt several decisions relating to the comprehensive economic and trade agreement with Canada (CETA), namely on the conclusion, signature and provisional application of the agreement.

Download this video here.

OPINION on rights of women in Eastern Partnership States
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Pier Antonio Panzeri

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

To receive the Brussels Briefing in your inbox every morning, sign up here. You must be a registered user of the Financial Times, which is available here.

It’s summit week. The full roster of 28 EU leaders will gather in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day meeting. Compared to what we have grown accustomed to in recent years, it lacks the urgency of a hot-crisis. Migration numbers are a fraction of this time last year, and the crunch of Brexit and Greek debt are for another day. What we do have though is a big introduction (this is Theresa May’s debut summit) and some potentially significant debates:

Read more

General : The migrant situation in Calais and the creation of a European Defence Union will be debated by committees this week, while the inquiry into how car emissions are measured continues. In addition President Martin Schulz will address the European Council, where migration, trade and EU-Russia relations are on the agenda.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

General : The migrant situation in Calais and the creation of a European Defence Union will be debated by committees this week, while the inquiry into how car emissions are measured continues. In addition President Martin Schulz will address the European Council, where migration, trade and EU-Russia relations are on the agenda.

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/a8444298-56f0-11e5-83d1-bc764e084e2e_1.48_thumb_169_1474554235_1474554237_129_97shar_c1.jpg

EU Ministers of Environment meet on 17 October 2016 in Luxembourg to hold a debate on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from sectors not covered by the emissions trading system. The Council is also adopting conclusions on water and on biodiversity issues.

Download this video here.

Might we see a renewal of the Community method which has retreated somewhat since the banking and euro crisis? If this is not achievable, does this mean there are limitations to free movement of services in the single market that cannot be avoided and will this confirm a turn towards differentiated integration?

Start-ups (formerly unicorns and now decacorns) of the so-called ‘sharing’ economy like Uber and Airbnb have become enormously popular and vehicles for high-value venture capital. Uber, for example, is reported as having received a $3.5 billion investment from the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund making its potential capitalisation at $70 billion equal to that of Daimler and more than BMW, GM and Honda.

‘Sharing’ in these cases is a misnomer. There is little or no element of ‘sharing’ (as in lending/borrowing, or ‘what’s mine is yours’). On the contrary, these are new forms of profit-seeking by mass exploitation of consumer needs or preferences made possible by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) platforms, that would have been familiar to the robber barons of the nineteenth century. Hence their attractiveness for venture capital. While this may be so, some see the new services as a welcome and overdue response to ‘regulatory capture’ by private monopolies in which the state has an interest in preserving.

Why does it matter – now? Two concerns are becoming apparent and are demanding the attention of public policy. The first is the negative environmental and societal externalities caused and which go unpaid by them (e.g. C. Crouch, R. Mejia, European Parliament).

The second, is the incoherent response to them by national jurisdictions. In some EU Member States (MS), such as the UK, Ireland and some Baltic members, these services are permitted or lightly regulated, whereas in others (the majority) they are either completely banned (in the case of Uber) or heavily restricted, although they operate widely ‘under the radar’. This matters because free movement of services and the right of establishment is one of the four pillars of the single market, itself the engine and most tangible expression of EU integration since the Treaty of Maastricht. While this inconsistency has latterly become of concern to the EU institutions, namely the European Commission (EC), the European Parliament (EP; 2015 and 2016), the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee, it has attracted little if any scholarly attention.

It was precisely in order to establish the ‘rules of the game’, that the Services Directive was approved by the co-legislators and transposed into national law throughout the EU by 2009. Its gestation was, however, highly contested politically (recall the storm over the Polish plumbers at the time of the original, ill-fated Bolkestein directive and the final version was the result of an intense compromise, with more areas of economic activity categorised as services being excluded than included). There is also lack of clarity over what is a single market competence and what is reserved for MS authority. Is Uber a taxi service, hence excluded under ‘Transportation’ (although the Treaty is not specific) or is it, as Uber claims, ‘merely’ an IP-enabled information service and therefore should not be excluded. A preliminary ruling sought by the government of Spain is awaited from the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Treatment under national regulations must in any case respect the principles of non-discrimination, proportionality and necessity when exclusion is justified for ‘overriding reasons of public interest’ (ORPI).

A briefing by the EP’s Transport and Tourism Committee acknowledged a ‘European’ dimension to regulating Uber and similar ‘transportation network companies’ rather than leaving it to individual MS, proposing that:

The first novelty brought by TNCs into the legal landscape is that they have a clear European dimension in an area where Member States were traditionally strongly opposed to European legislation. TNCs, as providers of information and communication technology services, are covered by European provisions on free movement of services and freedom of establishment, and their services are a part of the Digital Single Market’  . . .  Therefore, European institutions have the competence to bring together the fragmented response to TNCs which is happening at the national level. This could be done through legislation, regulatory actions or the judiciary.

In June 2016, the EC published an ‘Agenda for the collaborative economy’, setting out guidelines for MS to follow. These guidelines are described as ‘non-binding’ and under them, MS are invited to review their legislation to ensure that it is in conformity with EU law, which, as suggested, is by no means clear. Only ‘in the last resort’ should these services be banned.

The EC has little power of implementation or enforcement. It has suggested that the aforementioned response of the MS will be monitored, that it will defend its stance as guardian of the Treaty at the ECJ and that it will bring forward amendments, if required, to the Services Directive and to the Mutual Recognition Regulation.

Two fertile areas of research are raised by these developments. First, looking backward, why are there such differences in the regulatory position of MS towards the sharing or collaborative economy in general and, specifically, the P2P for-profit model? For these, interesting approaches of socio-economic ideologies and institutional path dependencies which overlap with the Varieties of Capitalism  typology could be employed (e.g. Hall and Soskice, Hanké et al.). Issues of autonomy, sovereignty, legitimacy and trust are also important and there are rich literatures through which to view all of these.

Looking forward from now, how might a regulatory approach emerge which is consistent with the free movement of services pillar? Will the EC’s ‘framework’ guidance, the promptings of the EP and the rulings of the ECJ be sufficient? Wallace (Chapter 4) identified a number of policy modes in the classic Community method, among them a Regulatory mode and Policy Coordination, with which she associated the EU’s flexibility and resilience in dealing with policy diversity among member states. Might we see a renewal of the Community method which has, it is argued, retreated somewhat since the banking and euro crisis of recent years? If this is not achievable, at least in the near term, does this mean there are limitations to free movement of services in the single market that cannot be avoided and will this confirm a turn towards differentiated integration, a hypothesis that has long been proposed (e.g. Howarth and Sadeh, Leruth and Lord) and might also be increasingly observable in other areas of what have been considered to be of common interest?

The post How does differentiated integration affect or is affected by policy responses to the disruptive innovations of the ‘collaborative’ or ‘sharing’ economy in the EU’s single market? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/7_7_2014-103163-macroeconomic-dialogue-rt-16-9-preview_24.55_thumb_169_1404734339_1404734318_129_97shar_c1.jpg

The European social partner organisations represent the interests of workers and employers.

Download this video here.

https://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_7e18a1c646f5450b9d6d-a75424f262e53e74f9539145894f4378.r8.cf3.rackcdn.com/e12384d6-6da0-11e5-8721-bc764e08d9b2_3.21_thumb_169_1474554376_1474554378_129_97shar_c1.jpg

EU Foreign Affairs ministers meet in Luxembourg on 17 October 2016 to discuss the implementation of the EU Global Strategy and to adopt conclusions on this issue, also taking stock of the EU actions and priorities on migration. Ministers are also to examine the situation in Syria in light of the recent developments on the ground.

Download this video here.

DRAFT REPORT on an integrated European Union policy for the Arctic
Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Urmas Paet, Sirpa Pietikäinen

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The US musician Bob Dylan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature. This is the first time the Swedish Academy has chosen an artist who isn't primarily a writer. Some commentators lament the decision to award a representative of pop culture. Others applaud the jury's understanding of what literature is.