European Union

Plenary sessions : A new agreement establishing police cooperation between Europol and Bosnia Herzegovina to step up the joint fight against organised crime, terrorism and other forms of serious international crime was approved by Parliament on Wednesday.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : "Raif Badawi was brave enough to raise his voice and say no to their barbarity. That is why they flogged him," said Ensaf Haidar, the wife of jailed Saudi human rights activist Raif Badawi, accepting the 2015 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on his behalf in Strasbourg on Wednesday 16 December. Badawi was honoured by the European Parliament for his fight for freedom of speech and thought in Saudi Arabia.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Plenary sessions : Ireland will get EU aid worth €400,000 for 108 redundant aircraft repair workers to help find new jobs, following a vote in Parliament on Wednesday. On 15 December, Parliament agreed to provide similar EU aid worth €2.6 million for 1,200 redundant IT workers in Finland. The two instances of European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid were approved by the EU Council of Ministers on 14 December.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Solemn undertaking before the Court of Justice of the European Union of the newly-appointed Member of the European Court of Auditors.

Europe needs a positive agenda to define its future. We need real innovation, intelligent product design and quality, and that means we have to stop using sustainability concepts, which are only trying to correct unfixable errors in our old system. Sustainability is not innovative by definition. Innovations are disruptive and change the status quo, whereas sustainability preserves it. Efficiency rhetoric isn’t getting us anywhere, and for us to aspire only become less bad at what we do is simply not good enough.

Today, we have a socio-economic system that creates waste and harms people and the environment, suffers from design errors and lacks real quality. We have no other choice than to leave that linear economy behind. We are capable of thinking in a circular way and creating high-quality alternatives that are beneficial for people and nature. This would be a ‘Cradle to Cradle’ economy in which material flows, products, buildings and cities support a symbiotic relationship between ecological systems and economic growth. All materials would maintain their status as resources and could then be used over and over. New business models will enhance this transition in which Europeans pay for the use of a particular service, and not the ownership. The Cradle to Cradle design frees us from our current responsibility to reduce any negative environmental effects from our behaviour.

Overcoming fear and feelings of distrust will need more than bureaucracy and rules as a response. However different our cultural backgrounds might be, we all desire to live in a safe and healthy environment. When you’re unsure if companies and institutes can guarantee you this, people worry about the health of their children, family and friends. We don’t want to live in a Europe where we have to distrust consumer goods and the people providing them. Those feelings are based on fear, and are poisoning our society with greed and anger. If people feel safe, accepted and valued, they are always warm-hearted and generous – even the poorest of the poor. This is why it is so important to celebrate our human footprint. Although it is difficult to step out of our comfort zone and dare to question the fundamental errors causing the latest crises, we need to counter fear and tradition with inspirational approaches.

Without defending the European Legacy, we are undermining our human rights. Our economies, cultures, social relations and political systems are so intensively intertwined that all European countries and citizens cannot exist without each other. This continent of economic possibilities, a high quality of life and human values should consequently be protected, otherwise we will lose our global credibility and right to speak. But lasting prosperity, solidarity and peace are not things we can take for granted. Every day, now and in the future, we have to fight for these European conditions. People are capable of doing this without losing their sense of nationality – a person can have more than just one identity. Europe must stay a safety beacon, and one that we’re proud of.

In Europe, we celebrate our individuality and freedom but it remains a challenge to think differently. With the ongoing unification of our educational systems, individuals have freedom but are taught to think within standardised concepts. We need to respect people, and look at what they as individuals can do instead what they cannot. New social models can make it possible for people to extend their contribution to society and increase their dignity at the same time. Instead of Al Gore’s global warning to fight overpopulation wherever we can, Cradle to Cradle has another message: “Welcome to the planet, how nice it is that you are here!”

IMAGE CREDIT: FLICKR/PLAN C Vlaams transitienetwerk voor duurzaam materialenbeheer

The post A ‘Cradle to Cradle’ economy is Europe’s only future appeared first on Europe’s World.

Sweden v Commission
Approximation of laws
By failing to adopt measures concerning the specification of scientific criteria for the determination of endocrine-disrupting properties, the Commission has breached EU law

So, according to the front page of today’s Daily Express, the EU referendum result is already done and dusted and Britain has decided to leave. Really?

Yes, a majority of voters want Britain to quit the EU, if the results of a poll by Survation are to be believed.

(Readers here will remember that last month the Sun newspaper commissioned Survation to do a poll and subsequently ran an entirely untrue front page story claiming that 1-in-5 British Muslims ‘have sympathy for jihads’).

Claimed the Daily Express on their front page today:

“Fifty-one per cent of people who expressed a firm opinion in a survey of more than 10,000 adults across the country supported exit from the European Union.”

Please look at the sentence above again. It is, actually, a classic example of how numbers can be twisted with clever words.

On first glance it may seem from the Daily Express report that just over half of those 10,000 people polled favour exit from the EU.

But actually, the Daily Express sentence didn’t say that at all. It said only that 51% of people who “expressed a firm opinion” want Britain to leave the EU.

It’s a convoluted and misleading way to present numbers. Let’s look at the facts.

Survation asked 10,015 people in an online survey the following question:

‘Imagine there was a referendum today with the question “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?” How would you vote?’

• 40% said they wanted Britain to remain a member of the European Union (-2 since the last poll, which is statistically insignificant and within the margin of error)
• And 42% said they wanted Britain to leave (+2 since the last poll, which is statistically insignificant and within the margin of error)

So where does the 51% figure come from? Well, 51% represents just over half of all those who provided either a ‘remain’ or ‘leave’ answer.

But many could be forgiven for thinking the Daily Express ’51%’ meant that just over half of 10,000 people polled wanted Britain to leave the EU.

That seems to be what Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU party, UKIP, wants people to believe. In a centre-piece article in today’s Daily Express – a major funder of UKIP – Mr Farage concluded from the poll:

“This new landmark poll of 10,000 people showing that the ‘leave the EU’ side is now ahead demonstrates that the tide has turned.”

There’s more…

There’s something much more interesting about the Survation survey that doesn’t get a mention on the Express front page, and is only briefly referred to at the end of their story.

It’s this: many Britons haven’t yet made up their minds about the country’s future in the European Union.

Almost a fifth – 18% – of those surveyed by Survation responded that they were “undecided” on whether or not Britain should remain a member of the EU. Furthermore, that figure hasn’t changed since Survation’s previous poll on the EU referendum question last June.

That almost-a-fifth-of-voters-who-are-undecided could dramatically and decisively swing the EU referendum result one way or the other (so long as they actually vote). And as yet, nobody, not the Daily Express, not Survation, and not even those voters themselves, yet know which way they will vote.

So rather than the EU referendum result being decided, done and dusted some two years before it might take place, the referendum decision is right now completely undecided. Despite today’s Daily Express headline, the referendum result is far from being ‘in the bag’.

This means that for both sides of the referendum campaign, there is everything to play for. Especially since we don’t yet even know when the referendum will take place, and neither the ‘Remain’ or ‘Leave’ campaigns have yet started in earnest.

And although today’s Daily Express editorial asserted, “Among people who have already made up their minds a majority now want us to leave the EU…”, there’s something that should never be forgotten:

In a democracy, those who have made up their minds today, can change their minds tomorrow.

*Join the discussion about this article on Facebook.

_______________________________________________

Related stories by Jon Danzig:

• Daily Express business model: selling prejudice and bigotry?
• Are some newspapers stirring up trouble?
• The value of being ‘citizens of Europe’

To receive regular updates on this and other ongoing stories, please click the ‘Like’ button on my Facebook page: Jon Danzig Writes

_________________________________________________

• Comments are welcome – but please read ‘The rules of engagement’ 

 

According to @Daily_Express #Britain is leaving the #EU. Really? Read my Facebook today: https://t.co/Oqf5fi4fsk pic.twitter.com/eGQXZdTXWK

— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) December 15, 2015

The post Britain is leaving the EU, says Daily Express. Really? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Mainstream Europe’s near-audible sigh of relief is premature. The failure of France’s militantly eurosceptic Front National to win control of any of the country’s 13 powerful regional administrations does not signal an end to the threat of right-wing populism. On the contrary, far from being defeated the FN is still set to be the standard-bearer around which Europe’s other extreme nationalist and anti-EU parties can rally.

This time in France, the centre-right and centre-left parties colluded in a tactical voting pact to block the FN. But they will not be able to do that in the presidential elections of Spring 2017. For those, they must each field a candidate knowing that one of the two mainstream presidential hopefuls may very well be knocked out for the final round of voting by FN party leader Marine Le Pen.

Her setback in failing to win outright control of any of the regions is a respite, but not a sign of dwindling FN support. The FN won a record 6.7m votes and its seats in the regional assemblies skyrocketed from 118 to 358. Marine Le Pen looks on course to be a serious contender for the Elysée Palace.

The French and German elections that will determine Europe’s political landscape are not due until 2017, but next year already promises to be turbulent. It will most probably see the long-awaited referendum on whether the UK stays in the EU, and Brexit fears are rising as the ranks of UKIP’s 4m voters in last May’s general elections are liable to be swelled by concerns over immigration.

Elsewhere in Europe, the anti-EU populists are in the ascendant. Some opinion polls in Germany put support for the right-wing AfD party at over 10%, creating major uncertainties about the outcome of the autumn 2017 elections. Anti-immigrant sentiment in Sweden and the Netherlands is powering respectively the rise of the populist PVV and SD parties. The hard right Danish People’s Party has forced itself inside the governing coalition and in Poland and Hungary the populists are in power.

How then, have all these shifts come about? Who or what is to blame for the new face of European politics and the seemingly inexorable decline in the progressive values that so many Europeans have long prided themselves on?

The blame game of 21st century European politics is complex, but deserves much closer analysis. The mainstream elites are being blamed for the woes that have befallen so many people in Europe; falling living standards since the financial and economic crises that erupted in 2008 have been paralleled by a widening wealth gap between rich and poor. Mainstream politicians who promise a better tomorrow cannot easily escape blame when tomorrow turned out to be worse than yesterday.

Many voters in Europe also blame globalisation, believing that the employment opportunities of youthful jobseekers are “stolen” by low wage competitors, either migrants or workers in the factories of Asia. As well as singling out their own governments and political leaders as having failed to defend their interests, disappointed voters are also placing the blame on “Europe”.

The European project may be the first victim of the new populism. So it’s up to the EU and its supporters and institutions to confront it and systematically demolish the arguments that Europe’s ever-closer union has somehow aggravated the problems of people in its member states.

Yes, Brussels is to blame, although not for the reasons its detractors advance. It is to blame for playing down the demographic dangers that confront Europe and the structural weaknesses slowing economic growth. The rapid ageing that within a quarter-century will cut the average ratio of Europe’s workers to retirees from four to two demands a major re-think on immigration. And so too does Europe’s steadily declining productivity.

This isn’t to say that the Commission and all the other players in EU institutions have actively disguised these major problems. But they have failed to highlight them; the EU’s impenetrable jargon and its reluctance to become embroiled in national politics have prevented it from rebutting the eurosceptics’ rabble-rousing accusations.

Like the politicians who promised golden tomorrows, Brussels is blameworthy for having oversold the EU’s capacity to deliver. But its value remains that of an honest broker that reconciles competing national demands in the wider interests of all 500m Europeans. That means naming and shaming member governments that don’t deliver, publicising league tables of successes and failures, and owning up to the EU’s own bureaucratic sins.

Above all, it means refuting far more forcibly than Brussels has ever dared the populists’ siren call that Europe’s economic weaknesses and security vulnerabilities are better addressed nationally than at a European level.

IMAGE CREDIT: FLICKR/BLANDINE LE CAIN

The post Ending Europe’s blame game appeared first on Europe’s World.