Brussels briefing
Tensions within coalition government parties are always interesting but Austria — that normally boring country — is currently having a spectacular row.
Maria Fekter, pictured, their finance minister — referred to by Minister Michael Noonan as “that woman” — wrote a letter saying Austria would not be swapping foreigners’ bank account details with its EU colleagues.
It was to be signed by Fekter and her coalition partner and prime minister Werner Faymann. However, within minutes the shrieks could be heard from the Bundeskaneler’s office where the leader of the main government party absolutely refused to sign it.
Austria has been experiencing a boom in banking since its eastern neighbours opened up, with its banks expanding into the new territories and the state facilitating low tax rates for trusts and foundations. And to change the bank secrecy rules would need a two-thirds majority in the parliament.
The Netherlands is turning orange for the coronation of their new king, Willem-Alexander, tomorrow — the first male after three queens. And he is likely to be a blip in the line as he has daughters.
He is a member of the Orange household that stretches back more than 500 years and whose members include the Battle of the Boyne’s William of Orange.
He has suffered from the usual impossible expectations set for royals — being portrayed as the Prince Pils (lager) in his student days, then falling for the daughter of a member of the Argentinean junta — her parents did not attend the wedding and will not see her crowned Queen Maxima.
But the latest row is as potty as it gets — one Dutch town celebrates his grandmother’s birthday by throwing orange-coloured toilet bowls. They are well known for their basic sense of humour. However, given that he is chair of the UN’s sanitary and water advisory board he said he was a little embarrassed by his role, thinking about the 2.6bn people without such conveniences globally.
Nessa Childers, Labour MEP, pointed out that drivers will save an average of €344 a year on petrol and €465 on diesel with new lower CO2 limits agreed by the European Parliament’s Environment Committee.
Unfortunately the new limits will not become law until 2020 but experience has shown that once new limits are set, car makers may fall over themselves trying to reach it first as a sales pitch.
Despite this evidence, however, Greenpeace points out that the MEPs facilitated the carmakers by being generous with loopholes, known as supercredits, that allows electric cars to count more towards the average emissions of a car fleet than SUVs.
They warn it would increase carbon emissions and raise costs for drivers and do little to cut the Union’s devastatingly high oil imports bill.
It will be up to the Irish presidency to broker the final deal on car standards between the Parliament, European governments and the Commission by the end of June.
Scotland wants to introduce a minimum unit pricing system for alcohol — which means the cost of a drink would be based on its alcoholic strength.
The European Public Health Alliance came out in favour of this approach during the week and wants the European Commission to adopt this, but the Scottish plan is being challenged in the courts by the Scottish Whisky Association and the European wine and spirits producers.
Emily O’Reilly’s bid to become the EU Ombudsman is slowly gathering support on the periphery, but the politicking is happening at a very high level in the European Parliament.
The Irish MEPs united to recommend her for the role. She needs the signatures of 40 MEPs, which should not be too high an obstacle, with Marian Harkin, Emer Costello and others pushing hard.
Britain claims that Passenger Name Records — the collection and exchange of information on airline passengers between the EU, the US and Canada — has helped catch 57 murderers, 175 rapists, 25 kidnappers, 397 drug offenders and 920 violent criminals — and led to 95% of Belgian drug seizures.
A proposal to extend the system to have all EU member states exchange such data was rejected, however, by the Civil Liberties Committee during the week, effectively killing it off. Sixteen countries say, however, they will put a national PNR system in place similar to that operating in Britain.
Supporters say more info is collected by your local grocery store for their loyalty card and does not reveal ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs. But the opponents of the draft law says it does not conform to fundamental rights needs and to the proposed data protection rules.
The Government has ten days left to update the Council of Europe, (the Strasbourg-based human rights body 49 countries are part of) on how it’s implementing their European Court of Human Rights ruling on abortion laws.
The court ruled last year that Ireland must provide “effective and accessible procedures whereby pregnant women can establish whether or not they are entitled to a lawful abortion, and that only the implementation of a statutory framework would provide a defence for medical doctors from criminal prosecution”.
The Sate is legally obliged to implement the court’s judgments.
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