Agrégateur de flux

There's big trouble brewing between the Council and the Commission.

The European Parliament and Commission have, apparently, concluded a new "Framework Agreement" on how the two institutions should coöperate (for a press release see here). This new agreement, signed on October 20, 2010, replaces the 2006 Framework Agreement (available here (main part), here (annex 1) and here (annex 2)).

The new Framework Agreement generally updates the old one to take account of the Lisbon Treaty. In particular, it seeks to improve the accountability of the Commission by setting up a Question Hour with Commissioners, including the Vice-President for External Relations/High-Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy based on the existing Question Hour with the Commission President. It also provides that if Parliament asks the Commission President to withdraw confidence in an individual Member of the Commission, he will seriously consider whether he should request that Member to resign. The President shall either require the resignation of that Member or explain his refusal to do so before Parliament in the following part-session. The new Agreement also increases the involvement of Parliament in international negotiations and provides that the Commission will provide Parliament with immediate and full information at every stage of negotiations on international agreements and in particular those on trade matters and other negotiations involving the consent procedure. At international conferences, the Commission shall, in view of Parliament's extended powers under the Lisbon Treaty, at Parliament's request, act as facilitator in order to enable the chair of the EP delegation to be granted observer status in relevant meetings and guarantee access to EU facilities for Parliament's delegations.

Despite the European Parliament and the Commission paying lip service to transparency, open access to information and all that jazz, they don't feel that the reading public is fit to see the actual text of the new Agreement. Well, a search of their respective websites has proved vain. Fortunately, Council has published a more-or-less final version dated June 29, 2010, on its public register here.

But now the Council has registered a public protest about the new Framework Agreement and has written to the Parliament and Commission to voice its misgivings. The Council's Legal Service has published a thorough legal opinion on the matter in which it states that the text agreed by the European Parliament and Commission negotiators on June 29 2010 aims, on several points, to modify the balance between the Institutions that was established by the Treaties and according the Parliament powers which are not conferred upon it by the Treaties. The Legal Service recommends that the Council should, by statement published in the Official Journal, reserve the right to submit to the Court of Justice any act or action of the Parliament or the Commission which refers to the Agreement and would have an effect contrary to the interests of the Council and the prerogatives conferred upon it by the Treaties. The Council should in particular reject the provisions on international agreements, infringement proceedings against Member States and transmission of classified information to the European Parliament. The text of the protest and Legal Service Opinion is available here.

UPDATE: A reader kindly pointed us to the text of the new Framework agreement, available here on the European Parliament's website.

FURTHER UPDATE: The new Framework Agreement is now published in the OJ (OJ 2010 L 304, p. 47)

2010.10.08.
Klubrádió - Eurozóna
A magyar EU-elnökség lehetőségei
interjú Schlenker Ádámmal, intézetünk legfrissebb kiadványa ("A szlovén elnökségtől a lengyel elnökségig - A magyar elnökségben rejlő lehetőségek") kapcsán

1. rész (6:35-től)

2. rész

interview with dr. Zoltán Fehér
Fraternity Magazine
By Kathy A. Megyeri
Summer 2010.

(...)

One of our newest, youngest, best-looking and most talented HRFA members travels regularly betweenBudapest and Washington, DC. In 2005-2009, he served at the Hungarian Embassy for four years as Political Officer and Press Attaché. In 2006, he was appointed the Embassy’s Chief Creative Offi cer and in this capacity, he developed creative diplomacy. This young diplomat designed a new approach to public diplomacy that integrates popular culture, the entertainment media and the Internet-based new media to promote his native Hungary. He was the Coordinator of Hungarian October, the series of events in Washington, DC commemorating the
50th Anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in the fall of 2006.
Last summer, he returned to Hungary where he has been working as the Senior U.S. Desk Officer and EU-Americas Coordinator at the Foreign Ministry’s Department for the Americas. He has reorganized the Young Diplomats Club of the Ministry and is currently the Club’s leader. In Budapest, he has also been teaching European integration to American and European students at the joint program of Pázmány Catholic University and the University of San Francisco.

(...)

Read more

interview with dr. Zoltán Fehér
www.diplomatamagazin.hu
Diplomatic Magazine
28/05/2010.

Hungarian and foreign young diplomats working in Budapest held a joint happy hour meeting in the elegant Café Dorottya in the heart of Budapest. The leader of the Young Diplomats' Club of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is dr. Zoltán Fehér. He had previously worked as Press Attaché and foreign policy analyst at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington DC for four years. He was also given the title ‘Chief Creative Officer,’ and the so-called 'creative diplomacy' is a result of his work in the US. Currently he is the co-ordinator of EU-Americas affairs at the Ministry’s Department for the Americas. I asked him about the birth, the aims and the operation of the club.

Indeed, we organised the first casual meeting of Hungarian and foreign young diplomats working in Budapest in April. The event was hosted by the Young Diplomats' Club of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Interest in the event exceeded even our expectations: nearly 150 young diplomats got together and used this opportunity to get to know each other and to have a friendly or professional chat with colleagues. Nearly all embassies in Budapest were represented. We can also declare that the joint club for all the young diplomats in Budapest has now been established. We are not going to stop here, we are going to organise many more events and activities throughout the year.

Has there been any initiative like that before?

Hungarian and foreign diplomats have been in contact in the past as well, but this meeting was unique concerning its character and the huge turnout. This was the first of its kind. Never before have we come together in such a great number.

What can you tell us about the Club that hosted the event?

The Young Diplomats Club of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs started several years ago, then led by our dear colleagues and friends Péter Sztáray and Gábor Csaba, so this is a kind of tradition in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Those of us who joined the foreign service around 8 to 10 years ago, have known about the Club’s activities. We remember that the Club significantly helped our integration into the foreign service and it enriched our professional development tremendously.
I had served abroad, in Washington DC, for four years and I returned last summer. At that time it struck me that the Young Diplomats Club had “gone under.” This might have been due to several different factors, including the continuous mobility that is a part of the diplomat’s life, young diplomats no exception. The Club had been silent for several years at the time of my return. My colleague Zsuzsanna Fernbach-Czibók and I made the decision that we would revive the Club. We began this work last autumn and the Club was back on track in early 2010. We have organised five events until now and we have numerous plans for the rest of the year.

(...)
More : 1, 2

---
Interjú dr. Fehér Zoltánnal

www.diplomatamagazin.hu
Diplomata Magazin
2010 május 28.

A Belváros szívében, az elegáns Dorottya Kávézóban találkoztak a Budapesten dolgozó magyar és külföldi fiatal diplomaták. A Külügyminisztérium Fiatal Diplomaták Klubjának vezetője dr. Fehér Zoltán. Korábban négy évig dolgozott sajtóattaséként és külpolitikai elemzőként a washingtoni nagykövetségen, az ő nevéhez és ottani munkájához fűződik az ún. „kreatív diplomácia”. Jelenleg a Külügyminisztérium Amerikai Főosztályán EU koordinátor. Őt kérdezem a klub létrejöttéről, céljáról, működéséről.

Valóban, a Budapesten dolgozó magyar és külföldi fiatal diplomaták első kötetlen összejövetelét rendeztük meg áprilisban. A rendezvény házigazdája a Külügyminisztérium Fiatal Diplomaták Klubja volt. A mi várakozásunkat is felülmúlta az érdeklődés: közel 150 ifjú diplomata jött el és használta ki ezt az alkalmat szakmai és baráti ismerkedésre, beszélgetésre. Szinte az összes budapesti nagykövetség képviseltette magát. Azt is mondhatjuk, hogy ezzel létrejött a budapesti fiatal diplomaták nagy közös klubja, hiszen itt nem állunk meg, egész évben szervezünk majd közös programokat.

Eddig nem volt ilyen jellegű szerveződés?

A magyar és külföldi diplomaták eddig is kapcsolatot tartottak, de ez a találkozó jellegében és méretében egyedülálló és első volt, soha ilyen széles körben még nem jöttünk össze.

A házigazda tehát a Fiatal Diplomaták Klubja volt. Mit lehet tudni erről?

A Külügyminisztérium Fiatal Diplomaták Klubja évekkel ezelőtt indult, akkoriban kedves kollégáink-barátaink, Sztáray Péter és Csaba Gábor vezetésével működött, ez egyfajta tradíció a Külügyminisztériumban. Akik – mint jómagam is – abban az időben, 8-10 évvel ezelőtt kerültünk be a minisztériumba, már ismertük a klub tevékenységét, amely nagyon sokban gazdagította és segítette a beilleszkedésünket, szakmai fejlődésünket.
Négy évig Washingtonban voltam külszolgálaton, tavaly nyáron jöttem haza, és ekkor feltűnt nekem, hogy a korábban oly aktív Fiatal Diplomaták Klubja elsorvadt. Sok oka lehetett, de a külügyi életpálya természetében benne van a folyamatos fluktuáció, mobilitás, a fiatal diplomaták egy része is külszolgálatra kerül. Hazajövetelemkor a klub tevékenysége egy-két éve szünetelt már. Fernbach-Czibók Zsuzsannával úgy döntöttünk, újjá szeretnénk éleszteni. Tavaly ősszel fogtunk neki ennek a munkának, és ez gyakorlatilag idén év elején érett be. Eddig már öt rendezvényt szerveztünk és számtalan tervünk van az év hátralévő részére.

(...)

A teljes interjút itt olvashatja el: 1,2

2010.01.22.| Híradó | Duna TV

Varga Gergely (18:40-től) - Duna TV (© SVKI,© Duna Televízió)