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On 23 May, EDA hosted a technical workshop on ‘Graphene in Defence’ which brought together some 50 experts from European Ministries of Defence, industry, SMEs, academia and research and technology organisations. With the graphene workstrand, EDA is entering unchartered but promising territory as it is the first time that this high-potential material is the subject of European collaboration in the defence domain.

The workshop is part of EDA’s ongoing ‘Impact of Graphene in Defence’ project run by a consortium led by Tecnalia R&I Innovation.   The ambition of this project is to evaluate the possibility of establishing a European Graphene Roadmap in Defence, through the assessment of graphene’s impact and potential application in eight defence-related domains:  

• (Opto)electronic materials and devices
• Flexible Systems
• Energy Devices
• Multifunctional materials
• Camouflage and signature management
• Membranes and filters
• Biomedical applications
• Sensors

The workshop was attended by representatives of the European Commission (DG CONNECT) who presented the ‘Graphene Flagship’, one of Future and Emerging Technology Flagships initiated by the Commission bringing together academic and industrial researchers to take graphene from the realm of academic laboratories into European society and industry.   Experts from industry, academia and MoDs also provided their insight and expertise with a view to identifying a possible timeline and the required investments to develop the 8 afore-mentioned defence applications in the air, land and domains as well as in other cross-cutting areas.

 

More information:

• EDA study to assess graphene potential for defence (EDA webnews, December 2017)

 

Libyan leaders meet in Paris on Tuesday for a summit, hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron, in order to unify rivals in the former Italian colony which descended into chaos after the death of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011. Representatives from around 20 countries involved in the Libya crisis have been invited to discuss a political roadmap committing all parties to hold parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

Croatia ranks lowest in terms of perceived judicial independence among it citizens, with just over 20 percent seeing independence of courts and judges as being good or fairly good, according to the 2018 EU Justice Scoreboard published Monday. Among southeast European EU countries, Romanians showed the highest confidence in the independence of their judiciary, while Denmark topped the ranking with close to 90 percent trusting their courts and judges.

The far-right political group, Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF), was Monday evening asked by the European Parliament's bureau, headed by president, Antonio Tajani, to file comments on allegations made by the budgetary control committee that they misspent more than € 427,000. The group on charge includes French National Front, Italy's League, co-governing Austrian conservative FPO and the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV) of Geert Wilders.

Following Ireland's abortion referendum last Friday, pressure is growing for Northern Irish women to gain the same right. Northern Ireland has blocked all efforts from London to liberalise its abortion law. More than 160 UK MPs, including some Conservatives, have written to prime minister Theresa May demanding a referendum on relaxing the abortion laws in Northern Ireland, but her Northern Irish DUP party allies are opposed.

Austria's conservative led government announced on Monday plans to cap minimum welfare payments for non-German speaking immigrants, including refugees, at €563 a month, but with the perspective of reaching the Austrian normal level of €863, provided they passed a German test. The test itself costs €1,000. The move brings Austria into conflict with European Union rules requiring EU citizens to be treated equally.

The EU commission wants to ban plastic straws and cutlery. Most of these are not made in the EU, making the proposal more likely to succeed.

NATO said Monday (28 May) it will focus on five key areas from deterrence to modernisation and EU relations at its July summit, with measures to "manage" ties with an increasingly assertive Russia high on the agenda.

Prolonged internal border checks are "unlawful", MEPs are preparing to say on Tuesday, in the EU parliament's first bid to protect free movement in Europe.

Two thirds of Raytheon supplier base are European companies. They are innovative, they have high end technology, we look to bring them in in our global supply chain, they are our global partners, says Alex Saklambanakis, Europe Executive Missile system,...

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The Dutch government has launched a bid to overturn a landmark climate ruling, arguing that judges in The Hague “sidelined democracy” when they ordered a 25% cut in carbon emissions by 2020. EURACTIV's partner The Guardian reports.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament approved on Monday (28 May) a far-reaching proposal calling for greater scrutiny of foreign investments, part of a bid to respond to a flurry of Chinese acquisitions in the European Union.

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A former governor of the Bank of Spain told EURACTIV that Luis de Guindos has the right CV to become vice-president of the ECB, a post he will take up later this week. But the ex-minister’s “brutally wrong” decisions led the country to the “disaster” of the bailout, he added.

In contrast with many EU countries, Greece’s decarbonisation process is lagging behind. A growing number of voices are now calling for an up-to-date energy transition roadmap focusing on renewable energy and green gas.

The next reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) should bring agricultural and food policies out of their respective silos and align actions across different areas in support of building sustainable food systems, write Sirpa Pietikainen and Bart Staes.

Since 2015, Poland has strongly opposed receiving refugees from Italy and Greece. Until now, not a single person has been accepted under the quota system set by the European Commission. And the majority of Poles actually side with their government on the issue, EURACTIV Poland reports.