European Union

Heute, am 4. Januar 2021, nimmt das neue Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten (BfAA) seine Arbeit hier in Brandenburg an der Havel auf. Nachdem ich ja schon im September und im November über erste Details informiert hatte, gab’s heute eine Pressekonferenz mit Außenminister Heiko Maas, auf der weitere Information bekannt wurden.

Das neue Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten in Brandenburg an der Havel – demnächst (Foto: Dr. Ronny Patz, Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Das hochfrequentierte, lokale News-Portale “Meetingpoint Brandenburg” – die zukünftigen Behörden-Mitarbeiter*innen sollte das lesen — berichtet von einer Online-Pressekonferenz mit Außenminister Heiko Maas, dem Ministerpräsidenten von Brandenburg Dietmar Woidke, und dem Oberbürgermeister der Stadt Brandenburg, dass das Amt in den nächsten Jahren auf 700-1000 Mitarbeiter*innen anwachsen soll, mehr als die Hälfte davon neu und viele sicher aus der Region.

Eine Behörde dieser Größe in einer Stadt mit knapp über 70.000 Einwohnern wird das Stadtbild nicht nur ein bisschen verändern sondern könnte Brandenburg nachhaltig prägen. Bislang ist zwar wohl (Hörensagen!) noch keine formale Kooperation mit der Technischen Hochschule Brandenburg (THB) vereinbart, aber wenn das Amt und die Hochschule intelligent sind, holen sie das bei nächster Gelegenheit nach. Auch die Unis und Hochschulen in Potsdam, Magdeburg und natürlich auch Berlin sind nicht weit.

Die Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung (maz) berichtet ebenfalls, dass der Mitarbeiter*innen-Stab des BfAAs noch in diesem Jahr von aktuell ca. 80 auf bis zu 300 Personen anwachsen soll – 15,25 Million Euro seien budgetiert, davon der Großteil für Personal. Der Aufbaustab für das BfAA war bislang der Zentralabteilung des Auswärtigen Amtes zugewiesen (siehe Screenshot des Organigramms vom November 2020), vermutlich ist das jetzt (oder wir demnächst) dann in die Behörde ausgelagert. Die heutige Pressemitteilung des Landes Brandenburg hebt auch hervor, dass das BfAA “Nebenstellen” in Berlin und Bonn haben wird.

Der Aufbaustab für das BfAA in der Zentralabteilung des Auswärtigen Amts (eigene Hervorhebung)

Warum das Amt so groß wird, wird deutlich, wenn man sich z.B. die aktualisierte Datenschutzerklärung der Stipendienseite der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung anschaut:

Dort wird die Verarbeitung von persönlichen Daten mit einer Abrechnungsprüfung durch das BfAA “im Auftrag der Zuwendungsgeber (das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung sowie das Auswärtige Amt)” begründet. Das heißt, wenn es um die Mittelvergabe geht ist der Auftrag des neuen Amtes nicht nur auf humanitäre Projekte beschränkt sondern umfasst wohl ein breites Feld an Zahlungen (inkl. Stipendien) mit Auslandsrelevanz.

An der Eingangstür zum Gebäude, wo das BfAA seinen Sitz haben soll (das Schild hängt an der Kirchhofstraße 1-2, 14776 Brandenburg) gab es heute Mittag noch keinen BfAA-Briefkasten und in den Büros brannte außerhalb des dort ansässigen Blutspendezentrums auch noch kein erkennbares Licht. Aber da das Schild dort hängt, ist das wohl die Adresse.

Die virtuelle Pressekonferenz vor dem BfAA-Banner hielt Oberbürgermeister Scheller offenbar aus der Technischen Hochschule, deren Logo man auf dem Pult in diesem Foto von heute sehen kann (siehe Pressebericht der Stadt).

Das heißt, vermutlich wird ein Großteil der BfAA-Arbeit aktuell noch aus Berlin erledigt, bis das Gebäude bezugsfertig ist (sonst wär das Foto vermutlich dort entstanden). Wie viele der geplanten Mitarbeiter*innen dann da drin Platz finden werden ist von außen nicht einsehbar (Fotos sind von der Vorder- und Hinterseite, Lizenz siehe oben).

Also dann: Herzlich willkommen, liebe aktuelle und zukünftige Mitarbeiter*innen des BfAA in der Stadt Brandenburg an der Havel. Auf gute Nachbarschaft!

(Dieser Beitrag wurde nach Erstveröffentlichung um wenige Details erweitert.)

The post Das Bundesamt für Auswärtige Angelegenheiten (BfAA) nimmt seinen Dienst auf appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Clothes, footwear and household textiles are responsible for water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and landfill. Find out more in our infographic.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Clothes, footwear and household textiles are responsible for water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and landfill. Find out more in our infographic.

Source : © European Union, 2020 - EP

Portugal took over the rotating Council Presidency on 1 January 2021, amidst a health and economic crisis. But what are the Portuguese MEPs’ expectations?

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Portugal took over the rotating Council Presidency on 1 January 2021, amidst a health and economic crisis. But what are the Portuguese MEPs’ expectations?

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

As the EU continues to deal with the impact of the pandemic, while delivering on priorities such as fighting climate change, here’s what to look out for in 2021.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

As the EU continues to deal with the impact of the pandemic, while delivering on priorities such as fighting climate change, here’s what to look out for in 2021.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission Ursula von der Leyen held a leaders’ meeting with China, represented by President Xi Jinping, via videoconference on 30 December 2020. The meeting focused in particular on progress achieved on negotiations on investment.

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EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Council adopts decision on the signing

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Weekly schedule of President Charles Michel 28 December 2020 - 3 January 2021

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The turn of the year has brought me something I never envisaged at the beginning of 2020: residency in Portugal. The certificate available to British citizens who arrived before the end of the transition period on December 31st gives me the right to spend five years in the country, at which point I can renew it or apply for Portuguese citizenship.

While I’ve made no firm decisions about where I’m going to be in the long term, for a time at least I’m joining what Samantha North calls ‘digital émigrés‘ – a growing group of international professionals who, being able to work remotely, up sticks and go abroad because they find their home country no longer suits them. They’re a more settled variant of the digital nomads which Lisbon has increasingly been attracting: cosmopolitan, welcoming to foreigners and – apart from the cost of accommodation – inexpensive, the Portuguese capital has sun, sea and co-working spaces.

Some of the more recent arrivals may be part of the Brexodus trend which has led British citizens to secure their right to live in another European country before the UK’s departure from the European Union. ‘Brexiles’ sometimes attribute their decision to a change in perception of the UK, their faith in a tolerant, cosmopolitan society replaced by a view of an insular country wary of foreigners.

In reality, of course, each person’s decision to uproot and go elsewhere is made up of myriad factors and feelings, not least their particular circumstances at the time. Life in a foreign country carries irremediable challenges: no matter how well you integrate, master the language or love your adopted country, you are always an incomer. That’s why, having been tempted by several other countries, I’ve always decided, in the end, that home was home. Living in Britain assured me the comfort of communicating in my native language and being surrounded by familiar cultural references. I also had the profound sense of safety that comes from the conviction that your society is liberal, humane and stable.

So it’s a surprise to find myself contemplating life in another country for the first time. My last minute dash for Portuguese residency, just three weeks before the Brexit deadline, wasn’t just because I’d lost my face-to-face work during the pandemic and, like many others, the ability to do things important to me. It was also due to what the UK’s Covid response revealed about the country’s priorities and values. Theatres and performance venues have been shut down without the compensation that would ensure their survival, and millions of freelance, creative people have been excluded from the generous financial support offered to the majority. Cafes, restaurants and pubs have been subject to so many restrictions and on-off closures that it’s likely that many will never re-open. It all adds up to a society which places little value on the kinds of shared experience and communal life that only take place in public space. And because of the long-term implications of these measures, I could see Britain, in the medium term at least, becoming a greyer, more privatised and monocultural place.

In contrast, European countries that I’ve been following throughout the pandemic seem committed to preserving their way of life, demonstrating how each country’s response is a distinctive reflection of its politics and culture. Visiting friends in Paris in the summer, I was impressed by how readily the French had recovered their savoir-vivre and were – while angry debates about holidays were raging in Britain – happily resuming their summer trips to other regions and continental countries.

Here in Portugal, bars and cafes – seen by George Steiner as a defining feature of European life – remain open, albeit with some restrictions. The calmness I recognise from my first visit to Lisbon some twenty years ago prevails, along with a sense that life goes on. Shops are open, and it’s still possible to visit a museum or attend a performance. On the streets and in homes, the sociability characteristic of southern Europe is visible and audible. ‘The Portuguese don’t want to give up their culture,’ a local told me. Hearing about how government decisions are being made in the UK, she laughed loudly and told me that the constitution formed after the dictatorship would prevent such a situation in Portugal.

At Christmas the authorities published advice with a focus on enabling the elderly to have dinner with their families and to see their grandchildren. I’ve been amused by an article about Portuguese police visiting those who live alone – a refreshing contrast to the many reports of the enforced isolation of the elderly in the England of 2020, when even those suffering from dementia or the last weeks of their lives have been forbidden contact with their loved ones.

All of which has brought the questions with which I began my research into European cities into sharp focus: what does it mean to ‘belong’ to Europe? What are European values? And how do I do maintain my European values in a country that seems ever-further removed from them. Unexpectedly, I’ve been forced by my nation’s response to a global crisis to take a deeper look at the question of ‘how to remain European’ than I ever anticipated when the UK left the EU at the beginning of 2020. One of the likely results is that my three cities will become four, and the book evolve into a more personal story about affinity with place.

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