European Union

The Council adopted conclusions on the situation in Nicaragua, where recent measures targeting civil society organisations and independent media aggravate the political and social crisis.

Written by Philip Boucher,

In the context of climate change, we often talk about the need to achieve public support for low-carbon energy technologies. However, new installations frequently face public opposition, and there are gaps between how regulators, developers and experts conceptualise and respond.

Public acceptance of energy infrastructures goes beyond individual consumer choices. While almost all citizens make use of energy from the grid, some may object to the impacts of specific installations on their local environment, economy, sense of place, or a wide range of other factors. Opposition may also be more global, on the basis of climate change impacts. These opponents are sometimes characterised as ‘luddites’, dogmatically opposed to any kind of technology development, or as ‘NIMBYs’ (derived from ‘not in my back yard’), who want to use green energy but object to infrastructural developments in their local area. These characterisations are often found in popular discourse and, while they do provide a model for understanding opposition, they do not open many avenues for resolving disagreements.

A third characterisation suggests that opponents have misunderstood the technology or hold irrational fears of its potential impacts. This is known as the ‘knowledge deficit model’ and it is frequently found in strategies for managing the introduction of new technologies into society. Unlike luddite or NIMBY conceptualisations, the deficit model does indicate a practical means of responding to opposition and fostering public acceptance by informing citizens about the technology, particularly how it works and what benefits it can bring. For regulators, developers and other stakeholders that are eager to reap the promised social, environmental or economic benefits of technologies, it can be tempting and intuitive to adopt one of these three characterisations. The deficit model is particularly attractive when opposition is expected but there is little appetite to change the development path.

However, studies of public opposition to low-carbon energy technologies have repeatedly highlighted the inaccuracy and ineffectiveness of the luddite, NIMBY and knowledge deficit conceptualisations. They tend to misrepresent the often nuanced and sensitive concerns of citizens with simplistic or even pejorative caricatures of opposition. As a result – instead of opening paths to mutual understanding, dialogue and resolution – they are more likely to escalate tensions and lead to entrenched positions. Concepts such as ‘beyond NIMBYism’, ‘responsible research and innovation‘ and Science with and for Society have provided practical measures for understanding and responding to this opposition, usually focusing on establishing meaningful dialogues between the full range of actors involved, particularly developers and citizens, from the earliest stages of development.

STOA is organising a workshop, entitled ‘Responding to public opposition to low-carbon energy technologies’, which will provide an opportunity to discover and discuss several perspectives on understanding and responding to public opposition to low-carbon energy technologies. The workshop will also serve as the launch of a new STOA study, which reviews academic perspectives on these issues. It will open with a welcome address from STOA First Vice-Chair Paul RÜBIG (EPP, Austria), and an introduction to the workshop from the workshop’s chair and moderator JENS GEIER (S&D, Germany). This will be followed by a panel discussion, with presentations from Antonella BATTAGLINI (CEO, Renewables Grid Initiative), Sarah MANDER (Senior Researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and lead author of the STOA study, Catharina SIKOW-MAGNY (Head of Unit, DG Energy, European Commission), Rosemary STEEN (Director of External Affairs, EirGrid) and Ilse TANT (Chief Public Acceptance Officer, Elia System Operator). The event will conclude with a Q&A session and debate with all participants.

Register to attend or watch the live webstream on the STOA event page.

British prime minister Theresa May announced on Monday that the proposed £65 [€74] fee for EU nationals in the UK to apply for "settled status" after Brexit would be scrapped, and previously-paid fees reimbursed. The U-turn came as May detailed to British MPs her 'Plan B' Brexit deal, following the defeat by 230 votes last week of the agreement with Brussels she had spent two years negotiating.

The European elections will take place in just over four months. Economy and growth will play an important role in deciding who will sit in the new European Parliament.

The World Economic Forum starts today but as fears of a new recession grow and political tensions arise, the question for many is: does the exclusive meeting serve any actual purpose?

Turkish NBA basketball star, Enes Kanter, gave up joining teammates in a London match over fears of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reach into the EU.

Negotiations planned for Monday evening were cancelled because national governments could not support a new mandate.

The French data protection authority CNIL handed Google a €50m fine on Monday for violations of the general data protection regulation (GDPR). It said Google was not transparent about the data it collected. "The relevant information is accessible after several steps only, implying sometimes up to five or six actions," CNIL said in a statement. It also said users were not sufficiently informed when consenting to personalised advertisements.

The treaty that France and Germany will sign on Tuesday (22 January) stems from Macron’s pro-European vigour. The text is a pragmatic one, promoting the economy and defence rather than politics but some major differences remain. EURACTIV France reports.

Truck drivers should earn the same salaries as their foreign colleagues while working abroad, according to new EU rules. But non-EU competition and disgruntled hauliers complicate the issue further. EURACTIV Czech Republic reports. The revised Posting of Workers Directive introduces...

The EU defines risk management capability as ‘the ability of a Member State or its regions to reduce, adapt to or mitigate risks (impacts and likelihood of a disaster), identified in its risk assessments to levels that are acceptable in...

The EU on Monday imposed travel bans and asset freezes for chemical weapons' use for the first time against individuals linked to the poisoning of Russian former double-agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain last year. The sanctions target the two GRU [Russia's intelligence agency] officials "responsible for possession, transport and use in Salisbury of a toxic nerve agent," and the head and deputy head of the agency.

The EU commission warned on Monday that the British government should not look for concessions from the EU in their search for an alternative Brexit plan. "Don't look for answers to Brussels. This is the moment for London to speak, not for us," a commission spokesman said. Last Friday the EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and British prime minister Theresa May talked on the phone.

High-capacity connectivity is vital in scaling Europe's broadband networks across the continent, in the hope of guaranteeing Europe's position at the forefront of the 4th industrial revolution.

The EU has long been plighted by patchy broadband coverage, so much so that previous Commission targets set out for 2020 were put to bed last year by the European Court of Auditors. But could 2019 prove to be a tipping point in the bloc's connectivity potentials?

Some events in Azerbaijan are treated in the EU with prejudice and intentional bias, and some MEPs have a clear agenda to make obstacles to the rapprochement of EU-Azerbaijan relations, Javanshir Feyziyev told EURACTIV in a written interview.

Written by Ivana Katsarova,

© durantelallera / Fotolia

The sexual assault allegations brought against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein laid bare the painful reality for scores of women working in the film industry around the world. However, sexual harassment is seemingly just the tip of the iceberg in an industry where gender inequalities relating to biased representation and pay are arguably systematic and pervasive. Europe’s own film industry has not been spared. The weighted average of films directed by women in the 2012-2016 period is just 19.6 %, with country results varying from 5 % (Latvia) to 30 % (Sweden). More worryingly, research shows that the various positions in the film industry appear to be dominated by one or the other gender. Thus, women are over-represented in professions traditionally considered feminine – such as costume design and editing – and under-represented in others viewed as more technical, such as those dealing with sound, music and image.

To start redressing these imbalances, various EU-level initiatives have been introduced in support of female film projects. One such example is the LUX Film Prize, through which over the past 11 years the European Parliament has been consistently encouraging the dissemination of films directed by women and portraying strong, inspiring female characters. For its part, the European Commission has started measuring women’s participation in key positions in projects supported under the Media strand of its Creative Europe programme. Similarly, it is currently considering specific ways for a more gender-balanced provision of support. Yet again, the cultural support fund of the Council of Europe – Eurimages – committed in its 2018-2020 strategy to achieving equal distribution of co‑production funding between women and men by the year 2020; the distribution of funding currently stands at 38 %. Sweden is the EU leader in terms of regulatory policies at national level. The critical acclaim won by Swedish female filmmakers in the past 10 years has shown that by applying a methodical and systematic approach it is possible to achieve gender equality without compromising quality.

Read the complete briefing on ‘The place of women in European film productions: Fighting the celluloid ceiling‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

• Average percentage of films directed by women in the EU, 2012-2016
• Positions of women in fiction film projects receiving Eurimages funding, 2014-2015
• Gender share of overall festival participation and awards
• Types of policies pursued in the EU
• Proportion of fiction films with a woman in a key role, with or without funding from the Swedish Film Institute, 2000-2016

Germany's economy minister, Peter Altmaier, on Monday warned the UK not to 'misuse' the patience of the EU over a Brexit deal compromise ahead of the scheduled 29 March exit date. Altmaier, a close confidante of chancellor Angela Merkel, tweeted: "Sympathy, patience & readiness to wait until the UK's position will be clarified are of utmost important to avoid the worst. They should not be misused for party politics."

Donald Trump has been US President for two years. In that time the White House resident has implemented many of his campaign promises. But commentators disagree as to whether this makes him a successful president.