Feed aggregator

Written by Micaela Del Monte and María Díaz Crego,

© European Union, 2019 – EC – Audiovisual Service

On 26 August 2020, Commissioner Phil Hogan tendered his resignation to the President of the European Commission following controversy over his participation in an Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) Golf Society dinner attended by more than 80 people, despite the applicable Irish public health guidelines adopted to contain the spread of Covid-19 limiting gatherings to a fraction of that number. In addition, questions were raised as to whether he had complied with applicable restrictions on movements after his arrival in Ireland. Although President Ursula von der Leyen had not formally requested his resignation, she accepted it and thanked Commissioner Hogan for ‘his tireless and successful work’ during the current mandate as Trade Commissioner and in his previous mandate as Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner. Consequently, the procedure to replace him has started, with President von der Leyen requesting that the Irish government propose both a female and a male candidate. On 4 September, the Irish government proposed two candidates to replace Phil Hogan: Mairead McGuinness, current European Parliament First Vice-President, and Andrew McDowell, a recent European Investment Bank Vice-President. On 8 September, President von der Leyen announced she had chosen Mairead McGuinness, and that she would take over financial services, financial stability and the capital markets union from Valdis Dombrovskis. The latter would take the trade portfolio permanently (having already taken it temporarily in the meantime), while continuing in his role of Executive Vice-President. Parliament is now expected to organise hearings with both.

The ‘replacement’ procedure

The procedure for replacing individual Commissioners during their mandate is governed by the second paragraph of Article 246 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and differs from the regular Commission appointment procedure in several aspects (Article 17(7) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The latter applies only to the appointment of all members of the College as a whole, including its President, as most recently following the European elections of 2019.

Replacing individual members during the Commission’s term

The Article 246 TFEU procedure applies to individual vacancies caused by the resignation, compulsory retirement or death of a Commissioner during the Commission’s term. Resignation may by either voluntary or compulsory, if requested by the Commission President (Article 17(6) TEU). This latter possibility was included by the Treaty of Nice, as a result of the series of events that led to the collective resignation of the Santer Commission on 15 March 1999, following the refusal of two of its members to resign. The original provision required the Commission President to obtain the approval of the College to request the resignation of an individual Commissioner (Article 217(4) Treaty on the European Community, TEC), but the Treaty of Lisbon reinforced the power attributed to the President by deleting that requirement. Although there is no legal basis in the Treaties for the European Parliament to force individual Commissioners to resign, Point II.5 of the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the European Commission provides for the possibility of the European Parliament asking ‘the President of the Commission to withdraw confidence in an individual Member of the Commission’. Should this happen, the Commission President must consider whether to request that Member to resign, and if they decide not to must explain that decision to Parliament in the following part-session. Conversely, compulsory retirement may only be imposed by a decision of the European Court of Justice, on application by the Council (acting by a simple majority) or by the Commission, when a member of the Commission no longer fulfils the conditions required for the performance of their duties or is found guilty of serious misconduct (Articles 245 and 247 TFEU).

Completion of the term of office

It should be noted that replacement of individual members of the College applies for the remainder of the term of office. However, the Council may unanimously decide not to fill a vacancy in the College of Commissioners, further to a proposal from the Commission President, in particular if the remaining term of office of the member is short (Article 246 TFEU, third paragraph). This situation arose for instance in June 2019, when Vice-President Andrus Ansip (Estonia) and Commissioner Corina Creţu (Romania) resigned from the Commission to take up their seats in the European Parliament following the European elections. The then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker proposed not to fill these vacancies, as the remaining term in office was short (four months), the smooth functioning of the College could be ensured thanks to the practice of working in project teams, and to avoid unnecessary financial burden. The Council could not agree unanimously on his proposal, and the procedure to replace Commissioners Ansip and Creţu was launched, with the Estonian and the Romanian government proposing candidates. In the end, however, the Council did not appoint new commissioners. Five years earlier, following the resignations of Olli Rehn (Finland), Janusz Lewandowski (Poland), Antonio Tajani (Italy) and Viviane Reding (Luxembourg) to join the Parliament in July 2014, new Commissioners were appointed by the Council for the reminder of the Commission’s term of office – just three and a half months – (Jyrki Katainen (Finland), Jacek Dominik (Poland), Ferdinando Nelli Feroci (Italy) and Martine Reicherts (Luxembourg)). Conversely, in July 1999, the Council decided unanimously not to replace the resigning President, Jacques Santer, and Commissioners Martin Bangemann and Emma Bonino while the appointment of the new Commission, under Romano Prodi, was pending.

Parliament’s participation in the ‘replacement’ procedure

Unlike the regular appointment procedure for the Commission, the replacement procedure is a more expeditious process in which neither the Commission as a body nor the new individual candidate is subject to a vote of consent by Parliament before being formally appointed. Under Article 246 TFEU, the vacancy is to be filled by a new Commissioner of the same nationality. In this vein, after a suitable candidate has been put forward by the national government concerned (the Irish government in the present case), the new Commissioner is appointed by the Council, by common accord with the President of the Commission. The ‘replacement’ procedure only requires Parliament’s consultation. However, point II.6 of the Framework Agreement on relations between Parliament and Commission requires the Commission President to seriously consider the results of Parliament’s consultation before giving their accord to the Council decision on an individual replacement. It also requests the President to inform Parliament in due time of any re-shuffling of portfolios to allow ‘relevant parliamentary consultations’ (point II.7).

In this vein, Rule 125(9) of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure (RoP) provides that the candidate proposed to replace an individual Commissioner, and those to take a substantially changed portfolio following a re‑shuffle, should be invited to participate in a public hearing with the appropriate parliamentary committee(s). These hearings are organised along the same lines as the ‘regular’ hearings prior to the Commission taking office, i.e. the declaration of financial interests presented by the Commissioner-designate is examined first, the candidate responds to the written questions submitted by the committee and, during the oral hearing, the candidate makes a statement followed by a question and answer session (Part I, Annex VII RoP). Once the hearing is closed and the candidate evaluated, Parliament then votes on the candidate in plenary session, approving or rejecting them by a majority of the votes cast by secret ballot (Article 10, Annex VII RoP).

Previous cases of replacement of individual Commissioners

There are a number of examples of Commissioners being replaced during their mandates, apart from the specific late-term cases mentioned above. In the Juncker Commission, Commissioner Jonathan Hill (United Kingdom) and Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva (Bulgaria) were replaced, by Julian King and Mariya Gabriel respectively. The former resigned in July 2016 due to the result of the referendum on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union, while the second resigned in January 2017 to join the World Bank as Chief Executive Officer. The Barroso II Commission also faced a change because of the departure of the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli (Malta), who was replaced by Tonio Borg. The resignation of Dalli followed a report by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) arguing that Dalli had met several times with representatives of the tobacco industry without involving the appropriate Commission services. A court case ensued, with Dalli arguing that President José Manuel Barroso had forced him to resign during a meeting in October 2012, whereas the Commission argued that Dalli had resigned voluntarily. The General Court dismissed the action brought by Dalli (T‑562/12) and the Court of Justice confirmed the ruling on appeal (C‑394/15 P). Apart from these recent cases, examples of replacements of individual Commissioners before the end of the Commission’s term were also seen in prior mandates, in most cases due to the voluntary resignation of members of the College.

Read this ‘at a glance’ on ‘Replacement of individual Commissioners‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Der Detailhändler Denner ruft seinen Mmmh Mischsalat mit Poulet und Ei für 2,95 Franken zurück. Der Grund: In dem Produkt seien bei einer Selbstkontrolle Listerien nachgewiesen worden. Ein Gesundheitsrisiko könne nicht ausgeschlossen werden.

L’adjudant Ebabi Bongama Beange Sarah est l’une des femmes à avoir bravé les préjugés et les stéréotypes, afin de servir la nation Congolaise à travers son armée. En 2015, cette diplômée en Coupe et Couture intègre le service militaire, en participant à la formation à Kitona, dans la partie ouest du pays. Mais qui est-elle […]

L’article RDC : « Les femmes ont aussi le devoir patriotique de servir la nation dans l’Armée » est apparu en premier sur Afrik.com.

Le militant Brahim Laalami a été arrêté ce mardi, en compagnie d’autres personnes, à Bordj Bou Arreridj, indique le comité national pour la libération des détenus CNLD. Selon la même source, « Laalami Chems Eddine dit Brahim, a été arrêté par des éléments en civil, devant sa maison, ainsi que d’autres personnes qui étaient avec lui ». […]

L’article Bordj Bou Arreridj : Arrestation de Brahim Laalami est apparu en premier sur .

In St. Gallen tischte der Unternehmer Stefano Patta am Wochenende gross auf. Er lud die Bevölkerung zu gratis Wurst und Pasta ein. Bloss: Der Italiener soll hochverschuldet sein, berichtet das «St. Galler Tagblatt».

Americas

US Air Mobility Command commander, Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, made her first visit to Boeing Field, Tukwila, Washington, on September 4 to receive briefings with Boeing officials. It was disclosed that Boeing took the opportunity to demonstrate a potential interim Enhanced Remote Vision System (eRVS) to Van Ovost during the visit. Boeing is working on RVS 2.0 to fix the troubled system currently installed on KC-46A fleet. The deficiencies of the system in its current form has forced the air force to place operational restrictions on KC-46 refueling. RVS 2.0 will include 4K color cameras with proper viewing geometry, operator stations with larger screens, a laser ranger for refueling aircraft distance measurement and boom assistance augmented reality.

The US Navy said Monday it’s searching the North Arabian Sea for a sailor aboard the USS Nimitz reported missing. A statement from the 5th Fleet said the sailor, whose name was withheld, was reported missing Sunday, when a call of “man overboard” was recorded at 6:47 pm local time. According to ABC News Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a 5th Fleet spokesperson, said that, “the sailor was not located upon a search on board, which resulted in a man overboard being called and the activation of the search and rescue.“ The sailor was listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown. The sailor is attached to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. The guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton was assisting in the search a statement from the US Fifth Fleet said Monday.

Brazil has decided to suspend the sale of its former aircraft carrier NAe São Paulo. No reasons were given and also no dates on when the bidding to dismantle the warship will resume. The former French Navy carrier has about 900 tonnes of asbestos and heavy metals in its structure and the French government had requested that the ship be dismantled at a European Union shipyard. Before the bidding was suspended, only one company was qualified for the bidding. São Paulo was first commissioned in 1963 by the French Navy as Foch and was transferred to Brazil in 2000, where she became the new flagship of the Brazilian Navy.

Middle East & Africa

Forces of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) started a five-day military drill, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said. Turkey’s hunt for gas and oil reserves in waters claimed by Greece has put a huge strain on the relationship between the two NATO members. The long-running dispute between Turkey and Greece flared after the two countries agreed rival accords on their maritime boundaries with Libya and Egypt, and Turkey sent a survey vessel into contested waters this month. Both sides have held military exercises in the east Mediterranean, highlighting the potential for the dispute over the extent of their continental shelves to escalate into confrontation. Two weeks ago Greek and Turkish frigates shadowing Turkey’s Oruc Reis oil and gas survey vessel collided, and Turkey’s Defence Ministry said Turkish F-16 jets on Thursday prevented six Greek F-16s entering an area where Turkey was operating.

Europe

Germany has decided to drop the Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft from a list of contenders to replace its P-3 Orion. Berlin and Paris are shopping for a new aircraft that will enter service in 2025. This new aircraft will be a stopgap measure until 2035. However, Germany is worried that the P-1 might not be able to obtain a military type certification within five years. This will push the operational date beyond 2025.

The French Navy has formally retired its last Lynx Mk 4 helicopters, bringing the type’s 42-year Aeronavale service career to a close. A last embarkation at sea was completed from 18 to 23 July 2020, when the frigate Latouche-Tréville , the last remaining F70 Georges Leygues Class frigate in Marine Nationale service, sailed with a detachment of two Lynx helicopters for an operational/training mission off Brittany. Forty Lynx helicopters were purchased by the French Navy from the UK as part of a multinational agreement that also involved Puma and the Gazelle helicopters. Entering service in 1978, the Lynx has fulfilled a wide range of missions including anti-submarine warfare (ASW), maritime surveillance, over-the-horizon targeting, search-and-rescue, vertical replenishment, maritime counter terrorism, special forces operations, and disaster relief. In June 2019, it was announced that the retirement of the Lynx Mk 4(FN) would be brought forward from 2022 to 2020 to save money.

Asia-Pacific

The Australian government has launched a grants scheme to support skills development in the defense industry, the country’s Department of Defense announced. The ‘Skilling Australia’s Defense Industry (SADI) Grants’ programme is aimed at supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A statement said that such firms can apply through the programme for grants worth up to $363,000 to support skills advancement. As agreed, the government will allocate $28.32 million for the SADI programme in the next three years to support the development of a skilled workforce.

Today’s Video

Watch: INDIA JOIN ELITE HYPERSONIC CLUB WITH ITS WEAPON TRAVELING AT MACH 6 – MESSAGE TO PAKISTAN & CHINA !

A parlament szeptemberi ülése után kerül sor a mandátumvizsgáló és mentelmi bizottság ülésére, amelyen Milan Mazurek (ĽSNS) parlamenti képviselőnek kell magyarázatot adnia a ruttkai (Vrútky) iskolai tragédia kapcsán tett Facebook-bejegyzésére.

Ouest-France - Le roi Salmane d’Arabie saoudite a déclaré au président américain, Donald Trump, qu’il n’y aurait pas de normalisation avec...

Valószínűleg nem használják többé hivatalos eseményeken a holland királyi család aranyozott hintóját (Gouden Koets) a gyarmati rendszert megidéző díszítése miatt.

Le tribunal de Ryad (Arabie Saoudite) a prononcé hier, lundi 7 septembre, le verdict final dans l’affaire de l’assassinat du journaliste Jamal Khashoggi en 2018 à Istanbul (Turquie). Le tribunal saoudien a annulé, ce lundi, les peines capitales prononcées contre les cinq agents des services de sécurité accusés d’avoir exécuté l’opération visant à « liquider » le […]

L’article Assassinat de Jamal Khashoggi : L’Arabie Saoudite prononce le verdict final  est apparu en premier sur .

Longer term investments are needed to enable the over 500 million small holder farmers in developing countries to grow more food, thus increasing their incomes and resilience. Credit: Miriam Gahtigah/IPS

By Timothy A. Wise
BOSTON, Sep 8 2020 (IPS)

African organizations are demanding answers after a recent report found that Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) strategies have failed spectacularly to meet its goals of increasing productivity and incomes for millions of small-scale farming households by 2020 while reducing food insecurity on the continent.

The theme for the tenth annual African Green Revolution Forum, a virtual weeklong event hosted by Rwanda that opens September 8, is “Feed the Cities, Grow the Continent.”

Based on the findings of a recent report on the host, AGRA, a more appropriate theme would be “Failing Africa’s Farmers, Starving the Continent.” The report, “False Promises: The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa,” found that the 14-year, billion-dollar AGRA initiative has failed spectacularly to meet its self-proclaimed objectives.

My background research, which contributed to the report, showed that yields have risen slowly, poverty remains endemic, and there has been an alarming 31% increase in the number of undernourished people in AGRA’s 13 focus countries.

After AGRA offered no substantive responses to the findings from the July 10 report, three African organizations are issuing a public letter to AGRA demanding it release internal documents on its impacts.

They demand that AGRA provide “evidence to refute the study’s findings that AGRA and the larger Green Revolution project are failing to meet its goals of doubling yields and incomes for 30 million small-scale farming households by 2020 while reducing food insecurity by half.”

As Zambian researcher Mutinta Nketani told the German outlet DW, when an organization like AGRA “fails to achieve the goals it had set itself, all alarm bells should go off — not only amid civil society, but also amid AGRA itself as well as its donors.”

Failed policies of the past

The annual Green Revolution Forum brings together (virtually this year) leaders from government, business, civil society, research institutions, and the donors who have funded the latest effort to promote commercial seeds, fertilizers, and the markets that deliver them to Africa’s millions of small-scale farmers. Since its launch in 2006, AGRA has received about $1 billion in funding to lead this productivity revolution in its target countries.

African governments, though, have provided the bulk of the Green Revolution funding. Many use significant portions of their agricultural development budgets to subsidize the purchase of these commercial inputs for farmers who otherwise would not buy them. Collectively, those subsidies have totaled as much as $1 billion per year.

The strategy promises that commercial seeds and fertilizers will dramatically increase yields, allowing small-scale farmers to sell surplus crops, increase their incomes, and improve their food security.

According to the False Promises report, none of that has happened as AGRA reaches its self-declared 2020 deadline:

• Instead of doubling yields (a 100% increase), yields have gone up only 18% over 12 years for staple crops. Even for maize, heavily promoted by AGRA and subsidized by governments, yields increased a disappointing 29%.
• All the subsidies to maize diverted land and investment from other crops, some more nutritious and climate-resilient than maize. Millet production fell 24% under AGRA with yields declining 21%.
• Not only did farmer incomes fail to rise, hunger increased dramatically in AGRA countries, rising 31% since 2006 according to United Nations estimates.
These policies, heavily funded now for 14 years, have failed.

Rwanda: “AGRA’s hungry poster child”

Not only does AGRA have a lot to answer for at this year’s forum, so does Rwanda, which now hosts these annual gatherings. According to former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who is now chair of AGRA’s board, Rwanda was selected to host the AGRF because “Rwanda has shown the best example in agriculture transformation.” Based on that reputation, Rwanda’s former Agriculture Minister Agnes Kalibata now leads AGRA.

According to the False Promises report, Rwanda is a very poor example for sustainable and inclusive agricultural development. Under the government’s strict mandates to increase maize production, crop diversity declined dramatically.

Kalibata may point to a 300% increase in maize production and a 66% increase in yields, but traditional and nutritious crops like sorghum and sweet potato withered from neglect.

Overall yields for a basket of staple crops increased just 24%. And according to the latest U.N. figures, the number of undernourished Rwandans increased an alarming 41% since 2006 in spite of the boom in maize production.

The report calls Rwanda “AGRA’s hungry poster child.”

A former U.N. official recently decried Rwanda’s approach under Kalibata as “replacing hunger with malnutrition.” He and others have questioned her appointment by the U.N. Director General to lead next year’s scheduled Global Food Systems Summit.

Demand for accountability

In the public letter, PELUM-Zambia, BIBA-Kenya, and HOMEF of Nigeria ask Andrew Cox, AGRA’s Chief of Staff and Strategy, to provide evidence from AGRA’s own monitoring and evaluation to address the serious concerns raised in the False Promises report.

They note that AGRA refused researchers’ requests for such data to inform the report. They pose a provocative series of concrete questions about AGRA’s impacts.

“African farmers deserve a substantive response from AGRA to the findings in the report. So do AGRA’s public sector donors, who would seem to be getting a very poor return on their investments. African governments also need to provide a clear accounting for the impacts of their own budget outlays that support Green Revolution programs.”

They conclude with a plea that could be addressed to all the esteemed stakeholders at this year’s Green Revolution Forum: “We hope this request can refocus this important discussion on AGRA’s 14-year record in increasing productivity, incomes, and food security for smallholder farmers in Africa.”

That would be a better theme for the forum to take up.

Timothy A. Wiseis a senior advisor at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the author of Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Future of Food (New Press 2019). He provided a background paper that contributed to the report, “False Promises: The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.”

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

The post Failing Africa’s Farmers, Starving the Continent appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Der Filmpreis des Europäischen Parlaments hat einige Veränderungen erfahren, um noch mehr europäische Filme einem noch größeren Publikum näherzubringen.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2020 - EP

Das Hotel von Schweiz-Auswanderer Urs Schmid in Costa Rica steht seit März leer. Die meisten seiner Angestellten musste er suspendieren.

Átalakul az Európai Parlament filmes díja, hogy még több emberhez eljussanak az európai mozit gazdagító alkotások.

Forrás : © Európai Unió, 2020 - EP

Lawmakers on the European Parliament's regional development committee are keen to see a quicker deployment of funds for the mitigation of the immediate effects of the COVID-19 crisis but they face an uphill battle with the member states who propose less money and potentially longer procedures.

Communication and Media Relations Section

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department, in co-operation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, organized an online train-the-trainer course aimed at strengthening Uzbekistan’s capacity to investigate terrorist financing. The event was held on 7 and 8 September 2020.

Participants were senior experts and practitioners from Uzbekistan’s Department for Combating Economic Crimes at the General Prosecutor's Office, the Academy of the General Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the General Prosecutor's Office, and the State Security Service.

Forming part of a multi-annual training programme, the train-the-trainer course follows previous courses delivered by the OSCE and the UNODC in 2019, in Vienna and Tashkent that focused on applying the latest tools and strengthening analytical skills to effectively disrupt terrorist networks.  

The training programme on countering terrorist financing aims to increase Uzbekistan’s capacity to detect and combat terrorist financing and strengthen compliance with international standards in this area. In particular, UN Security Council Resolution 2462 (2019), the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)’s standards, UN norms and OSCE commitments to promote human rights-based approaches in countering terrorist financing. Participants worked on real-life scenario-based exercises.

The course emphasized the key role of inter-agency and international co-operation and of multi-stakeholder approaches in countering terrorist financing.

Ein 40-Jähriger Deutscher bricht am Freitag zu einer Bergwanderung im Tiroler Karwendelgebirge auf. Unterwegs verläuft er sich und wird erst nach drei Tagen von der Bergrettung gefunden.

Die Finanzminister der EU-Staaten werden bei ihrem informellen Treffen in Berlin am Wochenende erörtern, wie schädigende Steuerpraktiken innerhalb der EU bekämpft werden können.

Über die Hälfte der Schweizer Firmen wollen wegen Corona auch künftig vermehrt Gewicht auf Homeoffice legen. Erste Unternehmen stellen auch schon wieder neue Angestellte an.