European Union

At the Single European Sky (SES) Award Ceremony 2019 which took place on Tuesday (12 March) in the margins of the World ATM Congress (WAC) in Madrid, an Italian project nominated by EDA and aimed at improving interoperability between civil and military air navigation service providers was rewarded with a ‘Special Mention of the Jury’. 

Run by the Italian Air Force and the Italian air navigation service provider ENAV, the ATC Control System moving to i4D project is set to improve data sharing which is key to enhance civil-military interoperability and to achieve efficient and sustainable SES objectives. The project will introduce data link services based on air-ground point-to-point data communications and replace voice communication by standardised messages shared between the civilian and military controller in order to minimise voice communication and ensure consistency, availability and reliability of information flows across the civilian and military domains. 

EDA Chief Executive Jorge Domecq, who attended the Award Ceremony, said: “It is important that EDA works closely with all the European aviation organisations in view of integrating the military views into the Single European Sky. The fact that a civil-military project nominated by the Agency was rewarded with a ‘Special Mention of the Jury’ is an additional encouragement to continue to work for improved civil-military cooperation within the Single European Sky”.

With the Single European Sky Awards, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport rewards stakeholders who contribute to achieving the SES which aims to modernise and harmonise Europe's airspace management. The ceremony was one of the highlights of the ‘Europe For Aviation’ event at the WAC 2019 in which all European aviation organisations teamed up to showcase the joint efforts they make to achieve the SES. 
 

More information: 

• Single European Sky Awards
• The Military in the Single European Sky (EDA brochure)

 

In response to the now worldwide movement of concerned school children, the EU parliament held a debate about climate change. But those pupils attending were not allowed to speak, only to listen.

British prime minister Theresa May still has a 55 percent chance of ratifying her Brexit deal by 29 March in a third vote, after MPs' latest rejection of it Tuesday, leading investment bank Goldman Sachs said Wednesday. The odds of cancelling Brexit were 35 percent and those of a no-deal Brexit 10 percent, it added. Germany had "not given up" on "an orderly [British] exit," German chancellor Angela Merkel said.

Italy's far-right deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, ought to get Rome to veto a delay of the 29 March Brexit date, a well-known figure in the UK's hard-Brexit campaign group, Leave.EU, Andy Wigmore, urged publicly Wednesday. "Italy can be heroes", he tweeted. Leave.EU bankroller, British businessman Aaron Banks recently visited Italy, but he mocked allegations of a Salvini deal to force a no-deal Brexit as "conspiracy theories".

Far-right politicking in Estonia has threatened a rift in the centrist Alde group in the European Parliament, with group leader Belgian MEP Guy Verhoftstadt "firmly asking" Estonian prime minister Juri Ratas, a fellow liberal, not to form a national government with "fascist" MPs amid coalition talks in Tallinn. The Conservative People's Party of Estonia, which Ratas had approached, was "reminiscent of fascist regimes in Europe," Verhoftstadt said.

The EU has branded as "tax-havens" the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, Barbados, Belize, the British overseas territory of Bermuda, Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, and Dominica in a decision by finance ministers in Brussels Wednesday, the Reuters news agency reported. The 10 jurisdictions joined Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, and US territories American Samoa, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, which had been blacklisted earlier.

The US spy service, the CIA, was linked to two of the attackers in a raid on North Korea's embassy in Madrid on 22 February, Spanish newspaper El Pais has said, citing police and intelligence sources in an ongoing investigation. The US denied it "but not in a very convincing manner", the paper added. Attackers gagged staff and stole computers amid US-North Korea talks on nuclear arms control, it said.

Theresa May actually made a good point after her deal was rebuffed again last night: “Voting against leaving without a deal and for an extension does not solve the problems we face.”

The EU wants to hear exactly what type of a future relationship the UK wishes to have with the bloc before considering any Brexit extension, the EU’s lead Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said in Strasbourg. But he questioned the point of an extension at all and warned that the risk of a no deal "has never been higher.

The EU is stepping up its capacity to protect Europe against cyber threats by creating a new structure to support its expertise in cybersecurity research and technology.

Main agenda items, approximate timing, public sessions and press opportunities.

The Council adopted and published a revised EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. 10 new jurisdictions were included in the list.

In an exclusive interview, Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner General of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, told of the challenges of the international community in the context of the Syrian war and beyond.

Bosnia-Herzegovina’s financial and political support for a coal power plant could have far-reaching consequences on the Balkan country’s EU membership prospects, according to one of the bloc’s top officials.

The future of Europe is a return to patriotism, Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki told a conference on the 'Future of Europe' in Sofia. Dzhambazki is expected to be the lead candidate of the Bulgarian nationalist VMRO party in the European elections in May. EURACTIV’s partner Dnevnik reports.

Stakeholders from different policy areas have come together to set broader, multi-sectorial priorities for health and well-being but also to make the entire sector an EU priority in the next legislative term, because it could help foster a "new and stronger economic model" for Europe.

Italy is a founding member of European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1952, which paved the way to the EU. It joined the eurozone (1999) (despite not meeting the Euro convergence criteria) and since the start and Schengen in 1997. It is the 3rd largest Member State (60.6 million) by population, representing 13.6% of all EU citizens (without the UK). 76 (10.8%) out of the 705 Members of the European Parliament (MEP) are elected in Italy.

France, Germany, and Italy are in Russia's cross-hairs for EU election meddling, amid mounting military threats to Nato, Estonia's intelligence service has warned.

Plenary session, Strasbourg

Source : © European Union, 2019 - EP

All the improvements were in vain: the House of Commons has once again emphatically rejected Prime Minister May's Brexit deal. Now it will vote today, Wednesday, on whether to exit the EU without a deal. If the MPs reject this option they will vote on Thursday on whether London should ask for a postponement of Brexit. Europe's press takes a look at what comes next.