Brussels briefing
Malta’s prime minister Laurence Gonzi has been explaining to fellow island leader Enda Kenny, pictured, the real effects of being an island nation in the middle of the Mediterranean.
The smallest country in the EU is desperately seeking solidarity from the rest of the union to share responsibility for the thousands of Africans who arrive on its shores annually.
“Many are fleeing conflicts, such as in Somalia.
“They have a right to protection, to refugee status and they cannot be sent back. They are mostly young men and mothers with children,” Mr Gonzi told the EPP meeting in Malta.
“I told Mr Kenny it’s as if he had 2,500 people arriving regularly. We receive understanding from some member states, and nothing from others,” he said, adding that the US has taken 1,000 from Malta for resettlement, but the EU is failing to show solidarity.
Half of Europe’s water is so polluted that it can no longer provide a safe and healthy home to life that usually depends on it.
Rivers, lakes and wetlands are suffering not just from pollution, but from water over-usage and degradation much of it due to construction.
The “Blueprint to Safeguard EU’s Waters” released by the European Commission is an attempt to reverse the damage.
But so far, plans from member states show a ‘business as usual’ approach according to the World Wildlife Fund.
And with a large measure of success depending on farmers and agriculture ministers renegotiating the CAP, ordinary citizens need to keep up the pressure, they warn.
EU suits decided they would collect the Nobel Peace Prize rather than hand it to the next generation and symbolically allow young people from all the member states do the honours.
Young people are being offered a pretty pathetic chance of attending the event — but it’s an effort to include them. Independent MEP Marian Harkin, pictured, encouraged all to enter, saying “Remember, you have won the Nobel Peace Prize”.
Four young people from three age groups 8-12, 13-17 and 18-24 will be in Oslo on the Dec 10. To get there they need to deal with the issue, ‘Peace, Europe Future: What does Peace in Europe mean to you?’
The younger group should submit a drawing and the others a text of no more than 120 characters.
Some of the 40 or so Dutch fishing vessels operating off the South West coast have found a new way to cover their tracks when they dump fish back into the sea.
According to Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly, they are mincing them. Up to now the illegal practice was exposed when Irish vessels caught the dead fish in their nets. But not any more.
Mr Kelly wants the practice to be investigated and those responsible prosecuted.
A rap song aimed at bridging the gap between young and old proved a winner for Millstreet Community School and its pensioner collaborators.
Its entry took second place in this year’s EU-wide Active Ageing competition, chosen from more than 1,300 entries. The teens and retired adults had regular brainstorming sessions to come up with multi-media projects and their creation included an ‘intergenerational rap song’, a book, Two Generations, One Road, and a permanent display about crossing the generation gap, using clay, wood, tiles, glass, and metal.
First prize went to a Finnish grandfather and 12-year -old students who built a gravity racing car. RTÉ picked up third prize for a four-part radio series that looked at the subject of growing old in a city.
An attempt to introduce legislation forcing publicly listed companies to have at least 40% women on their boards was defeated by member states largely organised by Britain just a few weeks ago.
But European commissioner Viviane Reding has reintroduced it, along with five other commissioners.
The Socialist group in parliament is behind her, but the European People’s Party is not so sure. Currently 13.7% of board members in PLCs across the EU are women In Ireland, it’s less than 9%.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has looked at social spending following the crisis.
Ireland gets quite a few mentions, with the bill for unemployment benefits almost doubling — second only to the increase in Iceland.
Ireland and Britain now spend more than any other country on family benefits and are the only countries that means test these benefits.
Forcing companies to buy permits to emit different amounts of greenhouse gases was one of the innovative ways the EU came up with to force industry to cut pollution.
However, a mixture of being over generous to some industries and the effects of the economic crisis means that it’s become cheap to pollute.
Carbon credits were to be €30 a tonne by 2020 but today are as little as €8.50 a tonne. Big polluters deemed important to the economy, such as steel and cement, were given lots of free allowances.
The commission has announced their plan to temporarily reduce the glut and increase the carbon emission target from a 20% cut to 30% by 2020.
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