European Union

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

On 18 December 2015, under the Luxembourg Presidency and subject to the European Parliament and Council formal vote, the Coreper (Permanent Representatives Committee) approved a final package on plant health. 

The Council and European Parliament representatives finalised the overall compromise during a trilogue meeting held on 16 December.

Tackling plant diseases 

The proposal on protective measures against pests of plants aims to address increased risks in that area, which stem from the emergence of new pests and diseases. It will also modernise instruments related to intra-EU trade or trade with third countries focusing on a risk-based approach. Better surveillance and early eradication of outbreaks of new pests are the tools which should be used to ensure plant health. 

Together with the regulation on animal health (which should be adopted soon) and the proposal on official controls (currently under examination in the Council), the draft regulation on plant health aims to strengthen the enforcement of health and safety standards for the whole agri-food chain.  

The next steps 

The European Parliament is expected to vote on the compromise text at a meeting of its Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development in late February. 

The Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development will send a letter to the Chairman of Coreper. The letter will indicate that if the Council adopts at first reading the compromise text as adopted by the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (after legal-linguistic revision), the Parliament plenary will adopt the same text at its second reading, without any amendment, and the legislative procedure will be concluded. 

This should enable the entry into force of the new plant health regulation by the end of 2016 and its application after a three-year period following the entry into force, during which the relevant pieces of secondary legislation will be adopted.

 

This morning, we had a serious political discussion about completing the Economic and Monetary Union. The European Central Bank President Mario Draghi also joined us and has stressed the need for progress. We have one clear message from our debate: there is no time for complacency in reforming the eurozone. We stand ready to take difficult decisions on banking union and economic governance in the coming year. Our ministers will work rapidly and report to us next June.

We congratulated President Hollande on the historic success of COP21 in Paris and assessed progress on building the Energy Union. We discussed the conditions that need to be met by major energy infrastructure projects. What we have agreed is that any new infrastructure should be fully in line with Energy Union objectives, such as reduction of energy dependency and diversification of suppliers, sources and routes. Not to mention the obvious obligation that all projects have to comply with all EU laws, including the third Energy Package. This is a clear condition for receiving support from the EU institutions or any Member State - be it political, legal or financial.

I cannot finish without a word of appreciation for Prime Minister Bettel and his team. Xavier, I think I can speak for all leaders when I say that the Luxembourg Presidency was outstanding with very hard work done on the migration crisis, Passanger Name Record and data protection. It was an extremely efficient presidency. Thank you, Xavier, and most sincere congratulations. 

On 18 December 2015, the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) endorsed an informal deal struck with the European Parliament on the first rules to strengthen the security of network and information systems across the EU. 

The network and information security (NIS) directive will increase cooperation between member states and lay down security obligations for operators of essential services and digital service providers. Essential services operators are active in critical sectors such as energy, transport, health and finance. Digital services cover online marketplaces, search engines and cloud services. 

The requirements will be stronger for essential operators than for digital service providers. This reflects the degree of risk that any disruption to their services may pose to society and the economy. 

Each EU country will also be required to designate one or more national authorities and set out a strategy to deal with cyber threats. 

What next? 

Once the agreed text has undergone technical finalisation, it needs to be formally approved first by the Council and then by the Parliament. The procedure is expected to be concluded in spring 2016.  

After the directive has entered into force, member states will have 21 months to adopt the necessary national provisions. Following this period, they will have another 6 months to identify the essential services operators established in their territory which are to be covered by the directive.

Committees and holiday recess

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : "It is easy to blame Europe or Schengen for security failures in our Member States, and wave the illusion that retreating behind national borders somehow immunises against - often home-grown - terrorists", said the EP President Schulz in his opening speech before the European Council of 17-18 December dedicated to pressing issues, such as migration, counter terrorism and the British referendum. "If we want to preserve our freedom of movement, then we must act fast and decisively."

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : "It is easy to blame Europe or Schengen for security failures in our Member States, and wave the illusion that retreating behind national borders somehow immunises against - often home-grown - terrorists", said the EP President Schulz in his opening speech before the European Council of 17-18 December dedicated to pressing issues, such as migration, counter terrorism and the British referendum. "If we want to preserve our freedom of movement, then we must act fast and decisively."

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The Paris COP21 climate conference was interesting in that it managed to produce a deal which was considered as historic to some and yet disappointing to others.

The latter will argue that the following make for a weak deal. The agreement does not make INDCs binding, the aggregated INDCs put the world on track to over 3°C temperature increase, and there isn’t nearly enough money in the pot to compensate poor countries or help them mitigate the effects of global warming.

Why is it considered historic then?

Because the risk for Paris was not so much to fail on climate as it was to fail on diplomacy. No one actually expected COP21 to result in a globally binding deal where country pledges would limit global warming to 2°C. Ironically, accepting this in the first place is why the conference was a success; any attempt to force such commitments on the Parties would have resulted in a Copenhagen 2.0. COP21 was a twelve-day fine-tuning session where all Parties already knew which lines could be crossed and which ones couldn’t.

Where politicians could not fail however was on the direction, on the vision that would come out of Paris. And when 195 countries manage to sit down and commit to pursuing their efforts to limit global warming to 1.5°C, you know something big happened that Saturday 12 December in Paris.

Although some consider it disappointing, the COP21 agreement’s impact on legislation should not be underestimated as its overall direction will give legitimacy for the institutions to push for more ambitious climate and energy policies. Green activists in Brussels will hold the 31-page agreement over policymakers’ heads to make sure whatever comes out of the Berlaymont is in line with what came out of Le Bourget. The long-term view to limiting global warming to 1.5°C immediately raised the question in Brussels of knowing if the EU needed to reconsider and raise the ambition of its targets for 2030, even before they had a chance of being translated into legislation.

While Commissioner Cañete’s latest declarations indicate that the Commission does not intend to push for raising the EU’s 40% GHG emission reduction target before the next Commission takes office, his successors will be under pressure to adjust the 2030 target upwards in order to reach full decarbonisation by the end of the century. The argument is likely to be used by the Commission however to try and raise the energy efficiency target from 27% to 30% for 2030, something it has clearly indicated it intended to do. Paris just gave it a reason. The European Parliament gathered this week in Strasbourg for the last Plenary of the year went even further, adopting a resolution calling for a binding and 40% energy efficiency target.

Expect a number of conferences on ‘COP21: Challenges and Opportunities’ to be held in the upcoming months. Paris gave the ‘long-term investment signal’ one part of industry was waiting for. The fact that other commentators actually had to reaffirm that ‘industry can be/is part of the solution’ is interesting in itself. It’s almost  like there are those who believe we can do this without industry. In reality, as a delegate from Mali reminded me at COP21, “industry is the solution!” The only thing left for it to do is let the others know.

Nareg Terzian

 

The public hearing presented an overview of the current CSDP partnerships with third countries and organisations, the possibilities of evolution and general tendencies.
Location : Altiero Spinelli 1G-2
Programme
Programme
Presentations
Presentation by Rory Keane, Head of the UN Liaison Office for Peace and Security, Brussels
Presentation by Prof. Dr. Joachim A. Koops, Dean of Vesalius College & Director, Global Governance Institute (GGI)
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP