European Union

Information about accreditation requirements for the European Council (Art.50) taking place in Brussels on 10 April 2019.

Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union on the alignment of certain third countries with the Council Decision (CFSP) 2019/284 of 18 February 2019 amending Decision 2011/101/CFSP concerning restrictive measures against Zimbabwe.

President Donald Tusk congratulates Zuzana Čaputová on her election as President of the Slovak Republic

Written by Alessandro D’Alfonso and Wouter van Ballegooij (*),

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) hosted a discussion on ‘Migration and Borders: Roadmap for the future of Europe’, including a keynote address from Claude Moraes (S&D, United Kingdom, Chair of Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE)) on 19 March 2019.

Following a welcome by EPRS Director General, Anthony Teasdale, Claude Moraes identified migration as the critical issue for the upcoming elections and for the work of the soon-to-be-elected new European Parliament. In his speech, he called for a comprehensive European approach to asylum and migration, including stronger legal migration possibilities, but also stressed the difficulties that the European Parliament has faced in finding a common ground on this topic with the Council.

The lack of progress made on the ‘asylum package’, as well as on the reform of the EU blue card, is a particular issue for Claude Moraes; even a simple revision of this instrument, limited to high skilled migrants, was blocked by the Council because of Member States’ opposition to any measure featuring the word ‘migration’. This opposition stems from the negative connotations surrounding migration based on fear of migrants as a threat to national identity. Moraes highlighted that, to the contrary, the analyses presented in the Parliament’s studies on the cost of non-Europe in the area of asylum and legal migration shed light on the opportunities offered by further European integration and attracting labour migrants.

Claude Moraes (S&D, United Kingdom, Chair of Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE)

Concerning the long-term budgetary aspects of migration, Moraes noted that the proposal for the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2021-2027 included greater EU spending on this issue. However, he deplored the preference given to border management over support to asylum systems, legal migration and long-term integration policies. In its first-reading positions on the Asylum and Migration Fund, Internal Security Fund and Integrated Border Management Fund, Parliament had insisted on a balanced allocation of resources between these objectives to address the unwarranted focus on returns and security-related measures. Parliament has also ensured that the money will primarily be spent within the EU and not abroad, to help frontline Member States who deal with the majority of new arrivals into Europe.

During the Q&A session following the discussion, Claude Moraes was asked whether he was pessimistic about future developments in the migration domain and where one should draw the line in the debate between valid concerns and positions fed by racism and xenophobia. He responded by stating the need for a change in the narrative on migration, towards one highlighting its opportunities, while tackling the identity concerns, racism and xenophobia head-on.

The debate continued with a roundtable discussion moderated by Fabia Jones, which was based on the presentation of three studies analysing budgetary, legal and economic aspects of EU policies on migration and borders. Alessandro D’Alfonso presented his study on external border control and asylum management as EU common goods: A budgetary perspective, recently published by the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. He explained that the removal of internal border controls across most of the EU has triggered the emergence of various EU common goods in the fields of borders, asylum and migration. The EU budget has an important role to play in the effective provision of such common goods, based on the Treaty of Lisbon, which sets the guiding principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility for these policy areas, including the financial implications, between the Member States. The presentation highlighted the institutional and budgetary challenges that led to a limited pooling of financial resources prior to the refugee crisis. Up to 2015, common expenditure on external borders, asylum and migration within the EU accounted for well below 1 % of the EU budget. The EU was obliged to resort to the flexibility tools of the MFF for the financing of measures designed to help tackle the refugee crisis inside the Union. Focusing on the proposals for the post-2020 MFF, Alessandro D’Alfonso highlighted elements that could increase the contribution of the EU budget to the application of the principle of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility, such as higher resources, more flexibility and allocation parameters that take into account evolving needs.

The next speaker, Wouter van Ballegooij, focused on the cost of non-Europe in the area of migration and borders, based on a number of his publications stemming from a project requested by the LIBE Committee, notably in the area of asylum and legal migration. The main gaps in EU action and cooperation in the area of migration and borders relate to the lack of enforcement of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights and secondary EU legislation already adopted, and a lack of legal pathways for asylum seekers and certain labour migrants to enter the EU. This lack of enforcement contributes to the ongoing tragedy of loss of lives in the Mediterranean, among other fundamental rights violations. It also leads to inefficiencies in EU and national spending and lost tax revenue. A cost of non-Europe report on organised crime and corruption drawn up by EPRS estimated the cost of corruption to the European economy in terms of GDP as between €218 billion and €282 billion annually. The cost of remaining with the status quo in the area of asylum is estimated at approximately €48.3 billion annually (of which the estimated cost of lives lost is around €12 billion). Income losses for third-country nationals already within the EU at individual level, and lost tax revenue at societal (aggregate EU) level due to discrimination, are estimated at €29 billion annually. Furthermore, shortages in the EU labour market and the effects of demographic change are not addressed. In addition, the potential to boost innovation and growth remains untapped. Beyond the introduction of an EU pact for monitoring and enforcement of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights, options for further EU action and cooperation in the spirit of solidarity and the fair sharing of responsibility are the introduction of an EU humanitarian visa scheme, and an immigration code covering all third-country nationals.

The final speaker, Lina Vosyliute, presented a study prepared for the Parliament on ‘The cost of non-Europe in the area of legal migration’, feeding into the relevant Cost of non-Europe report (see Annex I). Lina Vosyliute described the current state of play as a circle of ‘minimum harmonisation’ approach, since the EU Member States retain a certain leeway as to how to implement EU legislation governing migration. This results in a high degree of fragmentation and complexity in the EU, and a low use of EU schemes (e.g. the EU blue card for high-skilled workers), as national migration schemes are preferred by some countries, which in turn leads to the EU wide scheme having low perceived impact. Moreover, third-country nationals face a number of obstacles related to differential treatment of the different migratory groups as regards equal treatment, entry and re-entry conditions, work authorisation etc. These problems also result in income loss at individual level and lost tax revenue at the aggregate EU level. Vosyliute recommends the policy option of a legally binding immigration code as proposed by the European Commission in 2001 in line with international labour and human rights standards as a solution. However, while this would have key benefits and low cost, it is politically difficult to implement.

(*) With special thanks to Sophia Stutzmann, trainee with the EPRS Budgetary Policies Unit, for preparing a draft report of this event.

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Plenary and committee meetings, Brussels

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

Slovakia's election of Zuzana Caputova, a green activist, as its president this weekend showed that "decency in politics, rule of law, and tolerance" had triumphed over "power politics and the false promises of populism", EU Council president Donald Tusk said in a congratulatory letter on Monday. He spoke ahead of European Parliament elections in May, where populist-nationalist and anti-EU parties are polling to make unprecedented gains.

Ukrainian elections were free and fair, monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Nato, the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament said Monday in an initial assessment. "Elections were competitive. Voters had a broad choice and turned out in high numbers," the OSCE said, summing up the work of 2,300 international observers. The assessment came despite "disinformation" designed to "delegitimise" the winners, the EP said.

EDA held a workshop in Athens recently to conclude the first phase of the Smart Blue Water Camps (SBWC) research project. 

Water infrastructure is facing pressures due to climatic changes and sometimes a lack of investment. At the same time, military installations can be insufficiently acknowledged in both distributed water management and pollution control despite their ubiquitous presence.

Against this backdrop, EDA’s SBWC research project was launched in 2017 with the Hellenic MOD as lead nation to investigate how to improve water management in military camps from sustainability, hydro-informatics, and technological perspectives. During 2017 and 2018 at sites from each of the six participating Member States involved (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain), the National Technical University of Athens collated water supply, distribution and consumption data, and made technical assessments. Bespoke recommendations were made for each of the military sites from across these different European geographic and climatic regions based on:

• detailed modelling of water and wastewater cycle of each camp using an Urban Water Cycle Optioneering Tool (UWOT)  
• assessments of alternative scenarios regarding interventions for each camp 
• consideration of social, economic, environmental and technological context factors such as population, monitoring and automation of water transmission and storage systems, budget availability, regional water quantity and quality, climate change, and the feasibility of using information and communications technology (ICT)
• development of Key Performance Indicator protocols, including economic, operational and social impacts 
• economic assessments of interventions for each camp based on modelling results.

Recommended interventions varied in scale and complexity and ranged from those of a more straightforward nature, such as the installation of grey water recycling and water harvesting systems, to more technologically sophisticated measures, such as the application of ground penetrating radar to support leak detection and control  or the use of a grid of smart sensors to enable real-time monitoring and management of water supply systems.

It was found that leakage was responsible for considerable water losses with mitigation measures costing around 40% of the annual cost of water lost to leakage in one case, thereby providing a significant return on investment.

Rainwater harvesting in another case could provide nearly two thirds of the supply required for vehicle washing. Installation of smart water grid systems would integrate ICT into the management of the water distribution systems to optimize operation of the water supply network.

The conclusions of the final report were presented and the way ahead, such as implementation of nationally based recommendations as well as potential further steps, were discussed at the workshop chaired by Richard Brewin, EDA Project Officer Energy and Environment Systems.

 

Written by Silvia Polidori,

An ecological and social approach to converting old-style industries in urban areas may well contribute to a new eco and social friendly development path for the European Union. This prospect was a prominent conclusion of the workshop on ‘Reconversion of industrial areas in the framework of regional policy‘, organised by the Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) on 26 February 2019 at the European Parliament (EP), and proposed by Rosa D’Amato (EFDD, Italy), member of the EP Committee on Regional Development (REGI). Fifteen experts from twelve EU Member States, including five Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), representatives of other European institutions, universities and local authorities, attended to discuss the topic from various angles, highlighting the challenges and proposing solutions based on policy strategies, legislative proposals and specific case studies.

As explained in his welcome to the audience, Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso (EPP, Spain), EP Vice-President responsible for STOA, highlighted that the impact of new technologies and the circular economy links to wider aspects of European development. In the 1950s, the coal and steel industry became the symbol of cooperation among those European countries that decided to pool their coal and steel resources. This served to guarantee peace among European peoples, and those industries represented a step towards European integration. Today, he argued, we need to change perspective and move on to a new phase of European development, based on industrial conversion towards more sustainable models. The main challenges in triggering industrial conversion are related to developing the architecture of old industrial areas in or close to towns into innovative and ecological zones, offering investment opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), involving the local population in the decisions affecting their towns, and managing the risks of demographic and employment losses during the process.

Gerald Muscat, Head of the Urban Development Division in the Projects Directorate of the EIB explained that the European Investment Bank (EIB) proposes dedicated partnerships in industrial conversion investment. These involve cities and regions, urban development agencies, urban remediation and regeneration funds, real estate developers and national promotional/municipal banks.

The European Commission also proposes a strategy for supporting industrial reconversion. Embedded in the ‘proposal for a regulation on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF)’, published on 29 May 2018. As Sander Happaerts, Policy analyst in the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission, mentioned, the new EU cohesion policy (2021-2027) is expected to focus on five policy objectives, including a Europe closer to citizens, with the support of locally-led development strategies and sustainable urban development. Industrial modernisation is one of the key investment priorities. There is also a shift towards investments that promote a low-carbon, circular economy, and help in the fight against climate change.

Bronis Ropė (Greens/EFA, Lithuania), member of the REGI Committee, emphasised the positive inputs provided by the report on the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund adopted by his committee on 14 February 2019 in the form of amendments to the Commission’s proposal. The REGI Committee confirmed its support for sustainable urban development and smart specialisation, and for a transition to ‘industry 4.0’. In the optimistic view of Gilles Pargneaux (S&D, France), Member of the EP Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), Europe will win the challenge of industrial conversion, acknowledging that ‘it won’t be easy, but it will succeed’.

This positive approach is supported by specific cases of urban areas with an industrial past, already transformed into attractive locations for their inhabitants and for tourists. Bilbao, for example, has overcome a difficult past, dominated by natural and social turbulence, establishing itself as a liveable and inclusive city. Lille and its Haut-de-France Region well represent the third industrial revolution, privileging environmentally-friendly policies, based on a systemic approach. The Ruhr region, a symbol of the end of coal mining, and its Industrial Heritage Route with the Zollverein Word Heritage site is a tourist attraction reminiscent of, but far from, the heavy-industry historical age. The city of Gdansk, with its various districts, is also a good example of industrial reconversion, revitalising and reorganising social life through development of suitable infrastructures. L’Aquila, capital of the Abruzzo region in Italy, is undergoing a digital transformation, becoming one of the fifteen European Digital Cities and one of the five Italian cities with 5G. After the destruction of the 2009 earthquake, L’Aquila can be described as a living laboratory. The river city of Gothenburg also proposes a citizen-friendly vision for reconstruction of the harbour and industrial area on the riverbanks.

As Rosa D’Amato stressed in her concluding remarks, industrial conversion is already a reality all around Europe, but we need to go further. Paul Rübig (EPP, Austria), STOA First Vice-Chair, believes that the use of technologies can facilitate this transition, but policy-makers need to listen to the people, to ensure the process is smooth and successful. All in all, a lot is at stake for the next generation and for a sustainable society.

* All presentations of the workshop are available on the STOA website.

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EUobserver should have been granted access to a fraud investigation into a €400m EU loan to Volkswagen Group (VW), and recommendations on how to avoid future misuse, the European Ombudsman has concluded.

Zuzana Čaputová, future president of Slovakia, promises change on many fronts. The 45-year-old liberal lawyer and environmental activist's entry into politics has created great expectations. But some observers warn against excessive euphoria.

Volodymyr Zelensky has won the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election. The comedian secured roughly 30 percent of the vote, giving him a strong lead against incumbent Petro Poroshenko, who won just around 16 percent. The two will now face off in a second round of voting on 21 April. Commentators examine what the future holds for Ukraine.