European Union

General : It’s time to put your knowledge of European languages to the test. Do you know how to say chocolate or reindeer in Finnish? Or gift in Portuguese? Test, learn and play.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Since Sunday night, Spaniards in Brussels must feel a little bit more at home. Following the announcement of electoral results, Spain follows the “Belgian example” meaning entering a period of what appears to be complex coalition negotiations in order to form a government.

Yesterday’s elections did not produce an outright winner. Rather, results highlighted the political impact of the European crisis. Prime Minister Rajoy’s People’s Party (PP) won just 29% of the vote or (123 seats out of the 176 needed to form a government) with the Socialists (PSOE) receiving 22% of votes (90 seats).

While traditional political powers (the Socialists scored their lowest percentage since 1989) lost part of their electorate, new parties capitalized on Spaniards’ austerity and unemployment fatigue. The radical left   Podemos, scored 21% or 69 seats with the liberal Ciudadanos at 14%, which amounts at 40 seats. As in many Southern European countries the political landscape is changing and two party systems are taking the biggest hit.

Similarly to SYRIZA’s successful strategy in Greece, Podemos and Ciudadanos campaigned against corruption and established societal mechanisms. In the backdrop of an economic situation slowly recovering and high levels of unemployment, political parties associated with the establishment gave space to new political powers.

So what comes next? Weeks of negotiations and potentially a new election in the next 3 months. Spain doesn’t have an imminent deadline (the King should appoint a candidate for Prime Minister on 13 January) in order to form a government; however no combination of parties seems to produce a viable solution at this point. What could initially be a minority government led by the People’s Party, could turn into a recipe for disaster facing opposition from the left on structural reform issues.

By contrast, a similar scenario to the Portuguese one in November could emerge. In spite of the conservatives’ winning first place, a coalition government would be formed with the Socialists and Podemos. However, being on the same side of the political spectrum does not equal automatic consensus. The Socialists and Podemos disagree on the contentious issue of Catalan independence, thus making difficult ensure their potential coalition’s stability; particularly considering they would need the support from the smaller regional parties to have a majority.

In these days following the vote, Rajoy would not be the only one scratching his head; Jean-Claude Juncker and his team at the European Commission must be waiting for the situation to unfold with caution, hoping that the Spanish rain would indeed stay mainly in the plains. A temporary political vacuum in Spain, would mean Rajoy remains as interim Prime Minister until a government is appointed yet has much less legitimacy to negotiate in Council and even if/when a “real” government would be formed, the difficulties of domestic alliance building would take precedence over active involvement in EU affairs, in areas such as state aid or agriculture.

With issues such as Brexit coming up in 2016, the benefits of having a stable government proactively working for the European agenda in one of Europe’s largest countries are undeniable; it would enable both for structural reforms to be carried out thus stabilizing the Spanish economy and giving fewer Eurosceptics the opportunity to capitalize on the South’s “lack of capacity” to reform.

In addition, depending on which coalition takes over the issue of Catalan independence could re-emerge. This is the last thing the Commission’s wants in a year where it will have to walk on eggshells in order to avoid the UK leaving the EU in the autumn of 2016.

In the year to come, what Brussels would like is for the EU to project an sunny image of unity over fragmentation. Seeing Spain’s election results, we’re not welcoming 2016 with the best of forecasts…. It looks like quite a bit of rain is coming our way…

Ilektra Tsakalidou & Martin Bresson

Despite the agenda, the Cotonou Agreement (signed in June 2000, entered into force in 2003; between EU and ACP countries) was not revised in 2015, but the preparation work of an Post-Cotonou Agreement will be launched.

Tag: Cotonou

On 21 December 2015, the Council prolonged EU economic sanctions against Russia until 31 July 2016. 

The sanctions were initially introduced for one year on 31 July 2014, in response to Russia's actions in the east of Ukraine.

On 22 June 2015, the Council prolonged the duration of the measures by six months until 31 January 2016. This followed an agreement in the European Council in March 2015, when EU leaders linked the duration of the sanctions to the complete implementation of the Minsk agreements, which was foreseen to take place by 31 December 2015. 

However, since the Minsk agreements will not be fully implemented by 31 December 2015, the duration of the sanctions has been prolonged whilst the Council continues its assessment of progress in implementation.

The measures originally imposed in July 2014 were reinforced  in September 2014. They target certain exchanges with Russia in the financial, energy and defence sectors and in the area of dual-use goods.

The 7th meeting of the accession conference with Montenegro at ministerial level was held on 21 December 2015. The conference opened negotiations on two chapters:

• Chapter 14, on transport policy;
• Chapter 15, on energy.

Accession negotiations with Montenegro started in June 2012. Twenty-two out of 35 chapters have now been opened, two of which have been provisionally closed.

The social, economic and legal aspects of transport networking companies like Uber were at the centre of a debate in the Transport and Tourism Committee on Monday. MEPs heard the views of Uber head of policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa, representatives of the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) and International Road Union (IRU) and European Commission.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The social, economic and legal aspects of transport networking companies like Uber were at the centre of a debate in the Transport and Tourism Committee on Monday. MEPs heard the views of Uber head of policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa, representatives of the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) and International Road Union (IRU) and European Commission.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

http://tvnewsroom.consilium.europa.eu/uploads/council-images/thumbs/uploads/council-images/remote/http_c96321.r21.cf3.rackcdn.com/15368_169_full_129_97shar_c1.jpg

Montenegro officially applied to join the EU on 15 December 2008. On 19 December 2009, it achieved visa liberalisation with the EU and on 1 May 2010, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), entered into force.

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1. The Council was informed by the Commission of latest developments in the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference. It shared the Commission's assessment of the overall package and welcomed the conclusion of the negotiations on the revised Information Technology Agreement.
2. In the absence of final texts, the Council agreed that the EU's position joining the consensus in the Ministerial meeting would be presented to the WTO and reflected in the written conclusions of the Conference, on the understanding that the EU will follow up the results of the Ministerial Meeting in accordance with its internal procedures and without prejudice to the division of competencies between the EU and its Member States.
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