Brussels briefing
Ireland could shortly find itself under pressure to allow citizens based abroad to vote in elections.
Only army and gardaà serving abroad are allowed a postal vote — everyone else, including Irish civil servants representing the country abroad — must go back to their constituency if they want to ballot.
Launching 12 initiatives to make citizens’ involvement in society more meaningful, European Commissioner Viviane Reding, said that Ireland and five other countries that effectively exclude their citizens abroad from voting must change.
And independent MEP Marion Harkin sees such a move as a good way of maintaining contact with the 300,000 people who left the country during the current crisis, suggesting that a vote even in the Seanad elections would be a step in the right direction.
With austerity almost off the agenda for finance ministers as their governments deal with the policy’s fall out, they are finding themselves a new source of funds — hidden money.
The British are leading the charge and are doing their bit in the EU to clamp down on an estimated loss of a trillion a year in lost revenue for the 27 states.
Abolishing bank secrecy is one way and making sure companies pay what they should is another. It could put the spotlight back on Ireland’s corporate tax regime, but so far nobody has mentioned Britain’s off shore tax havens. It will be their main topic tomorrow when they meet in Brussels for their monthly meeting.
Lobbying is reaching frenzy pitch now over the data protection legislation update. MEPs, including Ireland’s Sean Kelly who has worked intensively on it, have trawled through more than 4,000 amendments.
But the result according to privacy NGPs could be a catastrophe for citizens, with questions like who has the right to know if your heart monitor is malfunctioning. At the moment it most likely is the company that made it — and not you.
To protest that the legislation will strip citizens of their privacy rights, a combination of NGOs is asking people to go to the website, www.nakedcitizens.eu and send a postcard to their MEPs featuring naked bodies. That should get their attention!
After many years of pushing and persuading, Ireland is to join most of the rest of the EU in a 27/7 Missing Children’s Hotline.
This service is operating in 22 EU countries and is unofficially also available in Ireland, but will be officially launched on June 5 according to independent MEP Marian Harkin.
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is operating the service, providing support when a child is missing. But, with a number like 116,000 as Ms Harkin points out, the success of the service will depend on the Government getting the number widely known.
Taxpayers are getting used to funding banks and their investors for bad decisions, but they may soon need to get used to subsidising energy companies too.
A trade agreement between the EU and Canada is coming to a close with clauses that will allow companies to sue governments if they enforce laws that limit that company’s investment plans. Designed to protect foreign investors from protectionist policies, the same clauses in the NAFTA trade agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico has seen millions of dollars paid out to companies mainly because of national laws designed to protect the environment, health and safety.
The trade agreement with Canada is to be a template for the EU’s agreement with the US.
Patents are one of the measurements by which the EU judges its competitiveness on the world stage. But the rash of patents issued by the European Patent Office might just not fit the bill.
Over the last few weeks they have been handing out patents to multinationals such as Syngenta and Monsanto for plants, fruits and vegetables derived from conventional breeding. The latest is for pepper plants, such as chilli, and according to the lobby group, No Patents on Seeds, these companies control more than half the tomato, pepper and cauliflower seed registered in the EU.
Negotiations on the common fisheries policy are at a critical stage and Fisheries Minister Simon Coveney is under acute pressure to find agreement in the next few weeks between the European Parliament and the member states.
Having got his fellow ministers to agree a plan earlier this year, after negotiations with the parliament he goes back to the ministers today with a 200 page revised compromise.
But with France and others looking to block the reforms Mr Coveney will have a difficult job on his hands.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney — one of the busiest ministers in this Irish EU presidency — has been widely lauded for getting agreement on both fish and agriculture reforms.
Some suggest the details may spoil the final effect.
The ‘greening’ of payments to farmers is looking a tad less green, says the World Wildlife Fund.
So far Mr Coveney has participated in no less than 12 trilogues — negotiating meetings with the commission and the parliament, but there is still some ground to cover.
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