Brussels briefing
Ireland came a step closer to losing one of its 12 seats in the European Parliament during the week, but was not alone as 11 other countries are each going to lose a seat while Germany will lose three.
With the next parliament capped at 751 members, down 15 seats despite the accession of Croatia, a new system had to be worked out.
Ireland came close to the top of its group but missed out on saving all its seats.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is under pressure to save it according to MEP Jim Higgins, or else the EU’s biggest constituency, Ireland North-west, will become even bigger as the country is likely to end up with just three instead of the current four constituencies.
Restraining, protection and barring orders will be able to travel with the victims of domestic violence they were issued to protect them into the future.
Member states and the European Parliament reached agreement on this new law during the week that will produce the EU-wide protection order.
Delighted with the agreement, Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, said: “Women who have suffered violence in their home do not want strategies — they want concrete rules they can rely on — and this delivers just that”.
A third of the value of euros in circulation is in €500 banknotes worth €291bn — a big increase over the past few years.
The increasing popularity, however, is not due to inflation but to criminal gangs’ fondness for the high-value notes which they can transport and launder easier than lots of smaller denominations.
In fact, in Britain, the Serious Organised Crime Agency estimated that 90% of €500 bills were in the hands of organised criminals.
The Bank of Italy has warned about them being favoured by the Mafia and Dublin MEP Gay Mitchell has repeated his call made in a report six years ago for the notes to be taken out of circulation.
It’s been taken up by the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Organised Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering and he hopes that this time, the ECB will listen.
There is a massive contrast between the battles over the EU budget for the next seven years, and the new rules on government budgets and giving a far greater say in how money is spent in the EU.
Many of the EU leaders fought to prevent having to pay what in reality were tiny sums into a common pot, much of which they would get back. They succeeded in striking down much of what the European Commission put forward to run the kind of programmes member states have said they wanted.
But they have given the EU a controlling hand over national budgets.
Irish authorities were very pleased that they managed to secure agreement on rules on safety of off-shore drilling. It was a big step and just needs the final approval of member states and the European Parliament.
But while the industry may be happy, environmental bodies like Oceana are not. This is because a proposed moratorium on drilling in the Arctic was dropped, and EU companies exploring outside the block will not be subject to the same standards.
However, in future companies in the 1,000 offshore installations in the EU will need to show they have enough money to cover accidents; and oil pollution will become a crime under EU law.
A bug-bear that caused so many problems a few years ago — the posting of workers — is acting up again as the rules are revised. The issue concerns companies hiring in workers for jobs in another country and deciding which laws apply for work conditions and wages.
Unions are furious that changes mooted by MEPs would, they say, remove protections to prevent the exploitation of vulnerable workers.
According to ETUC, which represents over 80 EU unions, national governments could use only a very few controls to halt fraudulent companies, on the basis that it would affect the single market. This, they say, would legitimise social dumping.
Dublin MEP Emer Costello, head of the European Parliament’s delegation to the Palestinian Legislative Council, raised the issue of four Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli prisons. She raised the issue not just on account of their long-term hunger strike but because they have been put in isolation, beaten, shackled to hospital beds, subject to almost daily cell and body searches, and denied family visits.
Two are being held under administrative detention, which means the reason they are being held is secret, and there is no trial, said Ms Costello.
No, they are not little green men who read your mind. These invasive alien species include fish, plants, bugs and animals and are posing a major danger to many of our local species and to the ecosystem generally.
Of the more than 10,000 thriving in Europe, 1,500 are known to be having a serious negative ecological or economic impact, estimated at €12bn a year.
Some are harming human health while some can devastate crops.
The threats are greater than previously thought, according to the European Environment Agency.
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