European Union

Iran has test-fired a missile "that allows it to strike parts of Europe and anywhere in the Middle East" with a nuclear payload, if it had one, the US state department said on Saturday. The test broke a UN resolution amid "accumulating risk of escalation in the region if we fail to restore deterrence," the US added. America recently walked away from an EU-backed Iran nuclear arms control treaty.

G20 leaders met in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30 November and 1 December 2018 and agreed a joint declaration.

Bulgaria has agreed to build a €1.4bn pipeline from its border with Turkey to Serbia to pump Russian gas into central Europe. The link is to take gas from TurkStream, a new Russian pipeline to Turkey, bypassing Ukraine. It comes after the European Commission forced Bulgaria in 2014 to halt construction of a direct pipeline to Russia, called South Stream. Bulgaria said it would "eliminate" all "mistakes" this time round.

German chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman tweeted a picture of her shaking Russian leader Vladimir Putin's hand at a G20 summit in Argentina Saturday, one week after Russian warships fired on Ukrainian vessels, an action condemned by the EU. "The focus was on the situation in Syria and the situation between Russia and Ukraine in the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov," Merkel's spokesman said.

Austria's far-right agitator will chair talks on how to send more migrants home with fellow EU interior ministers in Brussels, one day after a Romanian circus comes to town.

The Group of Twenty most powerful nations were nearing an agreement late on Friday (30 November), in which a reference to a rules-based multilateral trade system was expected to be included. But ambition was lowered in the climate field to overcome the US opposition to the Paris Agreement.

The Council today agreed its position (partial general approach) on the regulation on Horizon Europe. Horizon Europe is the next framework programme on research and innovation for the years 2021 to 2027.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

At a press conference ahead of the summit, President Tusk appealed to the G20 leaders to seriously discuss real issues such as trade war and addressed the question of Brexit.

The European Ombudsman suggested Friday that, when citizens request documents, the European Commission should consider also disclosing those parts not strictly covered by the requester's description. She made the suggestion in the context of an access to documents request by EUobserver about the EU's free wifi fund. Being less rigid in answering such requests would avoid "giving citizens a false impression of a lack of transparency", the ombudsman said.

Members of the European Parliament have received in their letter boxes a copy of a magazine which on the back cover featured an advertisement for an escort service. Greens MEP Pascal Durand and left-wing MEP Malin Bjork have asked parliament president Antonio Tajani and secretary-general Klaus Welle for an investigation. "It is unacceptable that this kind of extremely sexist material is being distributed in the parliament," they wrote.

The EU should strengthen regional investment in innovation through cohesion policy to compete with the US and China, regional leaders said during the European Innovation Summit in Brussels this week. 

In 1633, the ‘father of modern physics,’ Galileo Galilei was found to be “vehemently suspect of heresy,” as the Roman Catholic Inquisition ordered the scientist to relinquish his alliance to heliocentricism – the theory that the Earth moves around the Sun.

The post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) discussions started at long last in the European Parliament, but in a deeply divided Agricultural Committee. MEPs still seem a long way from an agreement on how to spend the money and who should get the subsidies.

Paris wants to place the emphasis on greening measures in the future Common Agricultural Policy. This is in order to support the transition to agroecology. EURACTIV France reports.

The EU continues to lead the world in balancing ethics with science, although the gap with other regions is "significantly" narrowing, Charles Laroche, industry co-chair of the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing.

The European innovations partnerships in agriculture (EIP-AGRI) build bridges between science and practice by connecting farmers, researchers, advisors businesses, and environmental groups.

Written by Zsolt G. Pataki with Riccardo Molinari

© plotplot /shutterstock

Technologies permeate all levels of modern society and economy, the internet and electronic devices are basic tools in our everyday lives; we are increasingly dependent on technologies. Some of these technologies – such as quantum technologies, artificial intelligence and blockchain, to name the newest and most dynamic – are now entering the democratic processes. However, none of this will benefit society unless we know whether regulation is necessary. How can we ensure that this immense potential does not damage our democracies, as well as attain a higher level of cybersecurity?

Assessing the impact of these new technologies on our democratic processes and institutions is truly relevant in the context of our ‘post-truth society’, where facts seem to be less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. This is a challenge for scientists, experts, the media, and also for policy-makers and society as a whole. Science and technology are crucial to democracy and there is a clear need to create the conditions for a vigorous dialogue between scientists, politicians and the public.

#FutureTechLecture

Democratic institutions must therefore face both the positive and the negative side of technological evolution that, on the one hand increases transparency and strengthens democratic processes, but on the other, facilitates the proliferation of illegal activities. These characteristics allow state and non-state actors to be both victims and perpetrators. Theft of data, fraud, industrial espionage, as well as terrorism and trafficking, are just a few examples of threats coming from the web, where technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain or quantum technologies are used to implement criminal intentions.

In this context, the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) is organising two highly relevant and interesting events on 4 December 2018:

The EPTA Conference 2018, scheduled for the morning and entitled ‘Towards a digital democracy – Opportunities and challenges’, will focus on the topic of democracy in the era of breakthrough technologies. This event takes place in the framework of STOA’s presidency of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) network in 2018.

Following the opening by European Parliament Vice-President Ramón Luis VALCÁRCEL SISO and an introduction by STOA Vice-Chair Paul RÜBIG, representatives of EPTA members from different countries will present their contributions and share their experiences, mainly from the point of view of the impact of these new breakthrough technologies on our societies and political systems. Panel discussions will follow the individual presentations, grouped in three sessions, and opening the floor to questions from the public.

The 17th STOA Annual Lecture, which takes place in the afternoon, is thematically linked to the EPTA Conference and is entitled ‘Quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity: Catching up with the future‘. This event will focus on the opportunities and challenges created by greatly enhanced computing power, as well as other applications of quantum technologies, touching upon issues of cybersecurity and data protection at a time of widespread use of big data, artificial intelligence and data analytics.

© geralt / Pixabay

The speakers are world-renowned personalities of great authority and influence on these developments: Professor Anton ZEILINGER, Professor of Physics and President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences; and Esther WOJCICKI, American technology educator and journalist at the Palo Alto High Media Arts programme.

Technologies evolve and, with them, our vulnerabilities; measures to protect us must keep up. The very experienced and committed speakers at this year’s Annual Lecture will share their valuable insights into the development of these technologies and their impacts on our societies.

Interested? Register for the Annual Lecture and join the debate. To keep up to date with STOA activities, follow our website, the EPRS blog, Twitter and Think Tank pages.