European Union

The Council and the Parliament met to discuss on the appointment of the first EU Chief Prosecutor.

‘Locked Shields’, the world’s biggest and most advanced international cyber defence exercise involving life-fire attacks, is organized annually by NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCD COE) in Tallinn. This year’s edition will take place from 9-12 April with some 1,000 experts from around 30 nations participating. EDA will support the strategic track part of the exercise.  

The exercise will see a Red team (based in Tallinn) attacking Blue Teams made up by CCD COE member states (based at exercise locations in their capitals) who will act as national rapid reaction teams deployed to assist a fictional country in handling large-scale cyber incidents and all their multiple implications. The main task of the Blue Teams is to protect and maintain their services and networks against these life attacks. Besides countering the technical attacks, information sharing, teamwork and cooperation will also be key aspects to be tested in this exercise. 

With its rich expertise and experience gained from several strategic decision-making exercises organised with Member States over recent years, EDA will support the ‘Locked Shields 2019 Strategic Track’, a parallel, table-top decision-making exercise track playing in the same fictitious, sovereign state under severe cyber-attacks from an aggressive neighbour. Participating Blue Teams will act as rapid reaction teams and advisors. High-level cyber/hybrid crisis management and legal decisions have to be made in accordance with national, EU, NATO and UN regulations by those Blue Teams. The roles of NATO, EU and UN will be played by a “White Team”, including EDA.
 

More information: 

• Cyber Defence (EDA project page)
• NATO CCD COE (Locked Shields page)
  
  

Preliminary results of Finland's two-year basic income experiment showed no impact on recipients' willingness to participate in employment services but that participants experienced less stress and fewer financial worries than a control group, social insurance institution Kela reported on Thursday. In the experiment, 2,000 randomly selected unemployed persons were paid €560 per month for two years regardless of any other income. The experiment ended on 31 December 2018.

A large majority in the European Parliament, 502 votes to 81 and 29 abstentions, backed on Thursday a draft bill exempting UK citizens from visa requirements to enter the EU for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period following Brexit. The visa exemption does not provide for the right to work in the EU. The bill must also formally be adopted by the council of ministries.

Croatia's supreme court in Zagreb on Thursday increased former prime minister Ivo Sanader's jail term to six years for taking more than €2m in kickbacks from a real estate deal during his time in power from 2003 to 2009. Sanader was also told to return any gains. "This is politically-motivated persecution that has lasted for nine years," he told reporters before escorted to the Remetinac prison.

17 EU countries – Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Latvia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Finland, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia – have passed temporary legislation allowing British nationals to enjoy a grace period to regularise their status following a no-deal Brexit, a file leaked to the Guardian showed. In Austria and Denmark requests to stay may be rejected on security grounds, it reported.

Medicine supplies and food safety standards are both vital and the EU cannot prioritise one over the other in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Vice President of the Commission Jyrki Katainen said on Thursday (4 April).

A ship belonging to the German migrant rescue NGO Sea-Eye was Thursday heading for the Italian island of Lampedusa with 64 migrants onboard it had rescued off Libya on Wednesday. Italy's interior minister Matteo Salvini told reporters during a G7 summit in Paris that he had written to the German government asking it "to take on the problem". The ship headed towards Lampedusa to avoid bad weather in Malta.

A German court stripped anti-globalisation association ATTAC of its charity status last January. Environmental groups now fear they could be next because they are politically active, EURACTIV Germany reports.

Debate over the cost merits of fossil fuels against renewable power generation has traditionally focused on the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE), which has dropped dramatically in the case of wind and solar power. But that ignores the upfront capital costs, which are still up to seven times higher for renewables, writes Mike Parr.

Finland has hit out at European Commission plans to develop cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS), saying the measures are "not technically neutral," according to a letter obtained by EURACTIV.

The EU might have been in the dark about 5G security for too long, but this will now change with the European Commission taking the lead, Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer writes.

The European Union is ready to refuse signing a joint statement with China at a bilateral summit next Tuesday (9 April), as Europeans request stronger commitment from Beijing on the economy, trade and human rights, according to official EU notes prepared in advance of the summit.

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French President Emmanuel Macron's crackdown on anti-government protests with tougher police tactics hit a fresh snag on Thursday (4 April) as France's Constitutional Court canned one of the central elements of the new rules.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes crisis cross party talks in London aimed at breaking the domestic deadlock over Britain’s exit from the European Union can produce a common position by the time EU leaders meet next week. British...

Western Balkans countries agreed on Thursday (4 April) to lower and eventually abolish roaming charges, in a rare act of neighbourly goodwill in region riven with political feuds.

The prospect of Britain holding European elections would have been unthinkable just weeks ago but with the Brexit timetable now uncertain, the country is reluctantly planning for a possible campaign.

The EU issued a declaration rejecting the decision taken by the non-recognised National Constituent Assembly to lift Juan Guaidó's parliamentary immunity.

Written by Marcin Szczepański,

© typomaniac / Fotolia

All EU Member States are party to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). The purpose of the Community is to create the necessary conditions for the development of a powerful European nuclear industry. To achieve this goal, the Community promotes research and establishes safety standards, among other things. Consecutive Euratom research and training programmes are established by Council regulations and are based on Article 7 of the Euratom Treaty, which stipulates that programmes shall be drawn up for a period of not more than five years.

The total budget of the Euratom programme for the 2014-2018 period, amounted to €1 603.3 million and was allocated to three programmes:

1. indirect measures in fusion energy research and development (€728.2 million);
2. indirect measures for nuclear fission, safety and radiation protection (€315.5 million);
3. direct measures in the field of nuclear safety, nuclear waste management, safeguards and security, mainly carried out by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre (€559.6 million).

In October 2018, the Council extended the Euratom programme to the 2019-2020 period, to synchronise its duration with the EU multiannual financial framework (MFF). While the objectives of the programme remain unchanged, there is now increased focus on nuclear safety and security aspects that are dealt with by the JRC. The €770.2 million financial envelope for the implementation of the 2019-2020 programme is allocated among the three above-mentioned strands, with respectively €349.8 million for indirect measures in the field of nuclear fusion research, €151.6 million for indirect measures for nuclear fission, and €268.8 million for direct measures in the field of nuclear safety. Switzerland and Ukraine partcipate as associated members of the programme.

An interim evaluation covering the first half of the 2014-2018 periode indicates good progress in reaching the programme’s objectives. It underlines its EU-added value, relevance and efficiency, and suggests improvements, considering for example the need for greater visibility and availability of the results for stakeholders. Taking into account the experiences gained from running the current programme, the EU is now considering a Commission proposal for the new edition, covering the 2021-2025 period, which offers a modest increase in the financial envelope (+4.4 %), and more streamlined objectives.

Read the complete briefing on ‘How the EU budget is spent: Euratom research and training programme‘ on the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Aggregated budget of the Euratom programme (€ million)