European Union

EU negotiators hope to wrap up talks on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) this week, which will significantly affect the building sector. A new report released on 28 May says buildings have a crucial but often overlooked impact on health and renovation can be beneficial to our quality of life.

Is there life on Mars? Maybe soon. What seems more like Hollywood sci-fi than genuine farming prospect could soon come to fruition, as an Italian project uses EU funding to grow plants in extremely hostile conditions. EURACTIV.it reports.

The US is leading in healthcare innovation, China is catching up at high speed and Europe is just watching the global developments, Roche CEO Severin Schwan warned on Monday (28 May). EURACTIV.com reports from Dublin.

Written by Wouter van Ballegooij and Piotr Bakowski,

fotolia

In the wake of recent attacks, surveys show that combatting terrorism while respecting individual freedom, remains one of the key concerns of EU citizens. The EU fights terrorism through supporting various national measures and exchanges, including those preventing radicalisation and recruitment, measures addressing terrorist financing and regulating the possession and acquisition of weapons and explosives, as well as instruments aimed at strengthening security at the Union’s external borders. Moreover, the EU supports operational cooperation between national law enforcement authorities, as well as harmonising terrorism-related provisions in criminal law and procedure. This includes active cooperation with third countries and international organisations.

Gaps and barriers

Nevertheless, this Cost of Non-Europe report identifies a number of gaps and barriers in EU counterterrorism action, notably regarding:

• The accountability and oversight of – and the evidence-base for – policy and law making;
• The evidence base for – and fundamental rights compliance of – counter-radicalisation programmes;
• The scope of action related to the disruption of terrorist financing;
• Information sharing between Member States through various EU and national databases, in part due to the complex architecture of these databases and the lack of their interconnection due to legal and technical limitations and a degree of unwillingness among national authorities to share information;
• The awareness and use made of judicial cooperation tools; and
• The use made of the (analytical) support and coordination possibilities by EU agencies.

Impact of terrorism and counterterrorism measures

Further EU action in the area is imperative since, besides the impact on victims and their families, terrorism has a negative effect on the wellbeing of the population as a whole, affecting people’s life satisfaction, happiness, health and trust within communities and in national political institutions. Since 2004, terrorism has cost the EU about €185 billion in lost Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and around €5.6 billion in lost lives, injuries and damages to infrastructure. It is argued that terrorism also harms trade, foreign direct investment, tourism (where the consequences are immediate, but often short-lived) and transport. Inversely, the defence sector has benefited from increased investments. Moreover, in recent years, the EU counterterrorism budget has risen significantly, as illustrated by the €4 billion in commitments and €3 billion in payments towards the Commission’s Security and Citizenship programme in 2016. Finally, certain measures and practices under the guise of the fight against terrorism have had a disproportionate impact on suspects and wider groups within the society: not only have they violated fundamental rights, but they were also counterproductive. Examples include the rendition, unlawful detention and torture of terrorism suspects in secret locations, anti-radicalisation programmes conflating the Muslim faith with violent extremism (and thus further ostracising a community which already faces severe discrimination), as well as blanket mass surveillance by intelligence services.

Policy options

Significant benefits could be achieved by the EU and its Member States by addressing the gaps and barriers described above, notably by:

• Making sure we know what works and what does not and ensuring people’s fundamental rights are respected in the fight against terrorism. This can be achieved through the development of an evidence-based EU criminal policy cycle involving the European Parliament and national parliaments. In this context EU institutions should conduct proper ex-ante assessments and ex-post evaluations of counterterrorism measures in line with better law making principles;
• In the same vein, monitoring the effectiveness and fundamental rights compliance of counter-radicalisation programmes;
• Depriving terrorists from their funding by further refining the framework for countering terrorism financing; and
• Fostering a European law enforcement culture with full respect for fundamental rights, in which relevant information is shared and analysed, judicial cooperation tools are properly used and seeking the support of EU agencies becomes a natural thing to do. This also requires the allocation of significant resources aimed at training and exchanges.

Beyond resulting in a more relevant, coherent, effective and efficient action in the fight against terrorism, such measures could increase the wellbeing of the population, reduce the material and immaterial impacts of terrorism, and ensure protection of fundamental rights when impacted by counterterrorism measures.

Read this study on ‘The fight against terrorism‘ on the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

There is growing criticism in France of increased subsidiarity of the future Common Agricultural Policy for the 2021-2027 period, which the Commission seems to favour, EURACTIV.fr reports.

Carlo Cottarelli, a former International Monetary Fund economist, was mandated Monday by Italy's president Sergio Mattarella to try to form a government. Mattarella chose Cottarelli a day after rejecting the finance minister proposed to him by the coalition between the anti-system Five-Star Movement and the far-right League, triggering a new political crisis. If Cottarelli succeeds in forming a government, he would govern until elections by the end of the year.

France plans to intensify efforts to find a solution to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said.

In Italy the process of government building has failed at the last minute over a prospective minister. Cinque Stelle and Lega Nord wanted to appoint Paolo Savona, considered a eurosceptic and critic of Germany, as finance minister, but President Sergio Mattarella vetoed the move. A look at the commentaries shows that the crisis in Italy could widen the rifts in Europe.

A landslide and unexpected victory for the Yes camp: two-thirds of voters in once strictly Catholic Ireland cast their ballots for the liberalisation of the country's abortion laws. At 64 percent, voter turnout was higher than for the referendum on gay marriage. Journalists take differing views of the result and examine the repercussions it may have elsewhere.