Union européenne

Comment les robots autonomes devraient-ils être considérés d’un point de vue légal ? La Commission pourrait leur donner le statut d’animaux domestiques ou de « personnes robots ».

France, Hongrie, Bulgarie, Grèce, dans plusieurs États membres, l’indépendance et le pluralisme des médias se dégradent, selon un rapport du Parlement européen.

Séance plénière : Les députés réunis en plénière à Strasbourg ont officiellement approuvé l’accord de Paris, un texte universel et contraignant visant à lutter contre le changement climatique. Grâce à la ratification par l’Union européenne, celui-ci entrera en vigueur dès le mois prochain. Le Parlement a également renforcé l’interdiction d’exporter des biens pouvant servir à la torture et s’est penché sur une proposition visant à offrir à tous les jeunes Européens un billet de train pour découvrir l’Europe.

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE

À quelques mois de la présidentielle, le caractère généraliste et égalitaire du modèle social français est remis en question par plusieurs dirigeants politiques et économiques. Un article de notre partenaire La Tribune.

Le vice-chancelier allemand, Sigmar Gabriel, a entrepris une visite en Iran afin de promouvoir les entreprises allemandes et de commencer à travailler à l’ouverture du pays. De nombreux experts doutent toutefois du fait que son mantra de « changement par le commerce » portera ses fruits. Un article d'EurActiv Allemagne.

Le texte adopté lors de la COP 21 aura force de loi, quatre jours avant l’élection présidentielle américaine. Un article de notre partenaire, le Journal de l’Environnement.

The new European Border and Coast Guard Agency (EBCG) is established today, October 6, 2016.

This successor of the former Frontex (from French: Frontières extérieures for "external borders") is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, tasked with border control of the European Schengen Area, in coordination with the border and coast guards of Schengen Area member states. Frontex was established in 2004 as the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders, and primary responsible for coordinating border control efforts.

In response to the European migrant crisis of 2015-2016, the European Commission proposed on December 15, 2015, to extend Frontex's mandate and to transform it into a fully-fledged European Border and Coast Guard Agency. On 18 December 2015, the European Council roundly supported the proposal, and after a vote by the European Parliament, the Border and Coast Guard was officially launched on 6 October 2016 at the Bulgarian external border with Turkey.

To enable the Agency to carry out its tasks, its budget would be gradually increased from the €143 million originally planned for 2015 up to €238 million in 2016, €281 million in 2017, and will reach €322 million (about US$350 million) in 2020. The staff of the agency would gradually increase from 402 members in 2016 to 1,000 by 2020.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency is not a new body. It does not replace Frontex and it retains the same legal personality. What the Commission draft Regulation aims to do is to strengthen the mandate of the EU border agency, to increase its competences and to better equip it to carry out its operational activities. The new tasks and responsibilities of the Agency need to be reflected by its new name. It coordinates its work alongside the European Fisheries Control Agency and European Maritime Safety Agency with regard to coastguard functions.
The permanent staff of the Agency will be more than doubled between 2015 and 2020. The new proposal provides for a reserve of European border guards and technical equipment. The Agency will be able to purchase its own equipment (this is not a novelty). However - and this is new - the Member States where this equipment is registered (this refers mainly to big equipment items such as patrol vessels, air crafts, etc. which need a flag of state) will be obliged to put it at the Agency's disposal whenever needed. this will make it possible for the Agency to rapidly deploy the necessary technical in border operations. A rapid reserve pool of border guards and a technical equipment pool will be put at the disposal of the agency, intending to remove the shortages of staff and equipment for the Agency's operations.

A monitoring and risk analysis centre will be established, with the authorisation to carry out risk analysis and to monitor the flows towards and within the EU. The risk analyses includes cross-border crime and terrorism, process personal data of persons suspected to be involved in acts of terrorism and cooperate with other Union agencies and international organisations on the prevention of terrorism. A mandatory vulnerability assessments of the capacities of the Member States to face current or upcoming challenges at their external borders will be established. The Agency is able to launch joint operations, including the use of drones when necessary. The European Space Agency's earth observation system Copernicus provides the new Agency with real time satellite surveillance capabilities alongside the current Eurosur border surveillance system.

ember States will be able to request joint operations, rapid border interventions, and deployment of the EBCG Teams to support national authorities when a Member State experiences an influx of migrants that endangers the Schengen area. In such a case, especially when a Member State’s action is not sufficient to handle the crisis, the Commission will have the authority to adopt an implementing decision that will determine whether a situation at a particular section of the external borders requires urgent action at the EU level. Based on this decision, the EBCGA will be able to intervene and deploy EBCG Teams to ensure that action is taken on the ground, even when a Member State is unable or unwilling to take the necessary measures.

The right to intervene is a point of contention between a number of EU Members and the Commission, especially those Members whose borders form the external borders of the EU, such as Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. They want to ensure that intervention is possible only with the consent of the Member States, whose external borders necessitate the presence of the ECBGA. Greece’s Alternate Minister for European Affairs, Nikos Xydakis, stated in an interview that while Greece is supportive of a common European action and of changing Frontex’s mandate, it wants the ECBGA to take complete charge of migration and refugee flows.

Tag: FRONTEXEBCG

This border is the main path for migrants trying to enter the EU without crossing the Mediterranean sea.

This measure is part of the new European Agenda on Migration which aims to better manage the EU’s external borders. The long-term goal is to fully restore the passport-free Schengen Area.

The establishment of the (EBCG) was agreed upon at the end of 2015 following the peak of the migratory crisis. (After 1.5 million people crossed into the EU between January and November 2015).

This new agency is meant to remedy the weaknesses of Frontex, its predecessor. The European Commission had often claimed that Frontex had deep flaws preventing it to tackle the consequences of the migration crisis.

Its statement read “it is not able to purchase its own resources, it does not have its own operational staff and relies on member state contributions, it is unable to carry out its own return or border management operations without the prior request of a member state and it does not have an explicit mandate to conduct search and rescue operations.”

In order to meet those shortcomings, there will now be 1,500 officers from 19 member states available to be mobilised for the new agency in case of an emergency (ex: the sudden surge of migrants). The agency, will receive 320 million of euros until 2020 enabling it to be independent from member state to purchase its own resources.

It should now be able to monitor migratory flows, manage external borders of the EU, provide operational and technical assistance to Member States and support search and rescue operations.

It will also be able to tell member states how to best secure their outside borders. If the member state was to fail to properly secure their outside border they would risk being imposed internal border controls for up to six months to protect the Schengen area.

Five member states have already volunteered to undertake the agency’s tests in order to review their external borders’ situation.

It will also have the ability to deal with personal data of irregular migrants but also of persons suspected of smuggling, terrorism or human trafficking. It will share all of those information with Europol and the Member States in order to launch investigations.

Some other missions of the agency have been criticised by European NGOs for their vagueness. In the Commission’s report it was stated that the new Frontex would now “play an enhanced role in returns of third-country nationals who do not have the right to stay on the EU territory“. It was also stated that the agency would play a role in “voluntary departures”.

The new agency has been criticised for only dealing with the migration crisis regarding the well-functioning of the Schengen area, but not the well-being of the migrants.

Yet, this new agency is not going to solve everything for the Schengen area. Dr Watanabe, a senior researcher at the Centre for Security Studies, told Euractiv that in the absence of changes to the Dublin Principles – imposing that an asylum seekers’ application should be handled by the EU country in which he first arrives – no long term solution can be found as only some countries will suffer from the burden.

Brussels hopes this agency will increase the EU’s security and help appease the tensions between member states due to their different visions on the EU’s refugee crisis.

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos claimed that “From now onwards, the external EU border of one member state is the external border of all member states — both legally and operationally”.

Today at least 13,000 migrants are still in Bulgaria, 60,000 in Greece and 140,000 have crossed the Mediterranean sea to reach to Italy this year.

Classé dans:Conditions d'accueil des migrants et réfugiés, Immigration légale, Liberté de circulation des personnes, Lutte contre l'immigration illégale, Lutte contre le terrorisme et la radicalisation

Steven Woolfe, favori pour reprendre la place de Nigel Farage à la tête du Parti britannique pour l’indépendance (UKIP), a été hospitalisé jeudi, après une réunion agitée avec d’autres eurodéputés UKIP au Parlement européen.

Extremely concerned about the death of protesters in Ethiopia, the Chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI), Elena Valenciano (S&D, ES), made a statement calling for an independent investigation. (For full statement see link below

Full statement
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Parliament condemns any act of intimidation, arrest, detention or prosecution of opposition party leaders, members and activists in Rwanda, the ongoing indiscriminate bombing of civilians and human rights breaches in Sudan, and the guilty verdict against worker's rights defender Andy Hall in Thailand, in three separate resolutions voted on Thursday. Full press release below.
Further information
Press release on the three resolutions
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Chaque semaine, l'agenda européen liste les principaux événements politiques à venir. A retenir pour la semaine du 10 au 16 octobre : la Grèce pourrait recevoir 2,8 milliards d'euros, tandis que les Etats soumettent leurs budgets à la Commission européenne.

Séance plénière : Les pays ayant ratifié l’accord de Paris vont devoir rehausser leurs engagements en matière de réductions d’émissions afin de limiter le réchauffement à bien en dessous de 2 degrés, et l’UE devra revoir ses objectifs pour 2030, ont estimé les députés dans une résolution adoptée ce jeudi. L’accord ayant réuni les conditions pour entrer en vigueur, le débat va désormais porter sur les outils à mettre en œuvre, en particulier lors de la conférence de Marrakech qui se tiendra le mois prochain.

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE

La situation particulièrement préoccupante de la plus grande banque allemande serait-elle l'arbre qui cache la forêt ? Tout porte à le croire, selon le rapport semestriel du Fonds monétaire international (FMI) sur la stabilité financière, dont les conclusions rendues publiques mercredi mettent en cause la fragilité du secteur bancaire européen dans sa globalité.

Séance plénière : L'Union européenne devrait davantage harmoniser les exigences de sûreté pour les matériaux en contact avec les denrées alimentaires, qui sont largement utilisés dans la vie quotidienne sous forme d'emballages alimentaires, d’ustensiles de cuisine et de vaisselle. Seuls quelques-uns d'entre eux sont suffisamment contrôlés quant à leur impact sur la santé humaine, selon un projet de résolution non contraignante adopté ce jeudi.

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE

Il y a un an, éclatait le scandale Volkswagen. L'un des plus grands constructeurs allemands était reconnu coupable d'avoir installé un logiciel destiné à truquer les mesures de pollution lors des tests d'homologation. Rencontrée à l'occasion de la session plénière du Parlement européen (3-6 octobre), Karima Delli, eurodéputée écologiste, candidate à la primaire des Verts pour l'élection présidentielle et vice-présidente de la commission chargée d'enquêter sur ce qui est également appelé le Dieselgate, répond aux questions de Touteleurope.eu.

Séance plénière : Le Parlement européen s’est opposé jeudi par un vote au projet de la Commission d’autoriser cinq organismes génétiquement modifiés (OGM) au sein de l’Union européenne, les maïs Bt11, 1507 et MON810 (graines et produits), ainsi que du coton résistant au glyphosate. Les députés ont à nouveau appelé à la réforme de la procédure d’autorisation européenne des OGM.

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE

Séance plénière : Les députés exhortent tous ceux qui participent à la guerre en Syrie, tout particulièrement la Russie et le régime d’Assad, à arrêter de bombarder les populations civiles, dans une résolution votée jeudi. Ils condamnent les attaques récentes sur les hôpitaux et les convois d’aide humanitaire et appellent les membres du groupe de soutien international à la Syrie à reprendre les négociations pour atteindre une trêve stable et parvenir à un éventuel accord de paix en Syrie.

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE

Séance plénière : Le Parlement condamne tout acte d'intimidation, l'arrestation, la détention ou la poursuite des dirigeants, membres ou militants de partis d'opposition au Rwanda, les bombardements aveugles continus de civils et les violations des droits de l'homme au Soudan, ainsi que le verdict de culpabilité contre le défenseur des droits des travailleurs, Andy Hall, en Thaïlande, dans trois résolutions distinctes adoptées jeudi.

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE

Séance plénière : Une proposition de la Commission visant à renforcer les règles existantes concernant le registre de transparence qui liste les organisations indépendantes et autres lobbyistes désirant accéder aux institutions européennes a été saluée par les députés lors d’un débat mercredi soir. Les changements incluront le Conseil aux côtés du Parlement et de la Commission, clarifiera les définitions existantes, améliorera la surveillance et introduira des sanctions en cas de violations des règles.

Source : © Union européenne, 2016 - PE