Brussels briefing
The EU’s globalisation fund, which has benefited thousands of Irish and other EU workers whose jobs disappeared, is likely to disappear itself, fears independent MEP Marian Harkin, pictured right.
A number of states are blocking it continuing for the next seven years, despite EU leaders deciding to support it during their February summit on the EU €960bn budget from 2014 to 2020.
She said that there had been “plenty of noble words, but a pitiful lack of meaningful deeds” among EU leaders at this time of economic crisis and merciless austerity.
The Irish presidency, however, acknowledges that it is a very complex issue but they hope to pull the fat out of the fire before they sign off at the end of June.
More than 100,000 women across the EU, including about 1,000 in Ireland, have protection orders that are enforceable at home, but not in other EU countries.
Following agreement by the European Parliament and member states, this will change in 2015 when such orders will automatically travel with the victim.
Labour MEP Emer Costello says figures from Women’s Aid show one in five women in Ireland will experience violence in their lifetime. There are no domestic violence statistics collected separately in the country, but 1,686 women and their 2,142 children spent time in one of the 20 refuges in 2011.
Many more women were turned away from refuges, since they have only 138 places and an estimated 446 are needed. Ireland has not signed up to the Council of Europe’s convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
The EU’s globalisation fund, which has benefited thousands of Irish and other EU workers whose jobs disappeared, is likely to disappear itself, fears independent MEP Marian Harkin, pictured right.
A number of states are blocking it continuing for the next seven years, despite EU leaders deciding to support it during their February summit on the EU €960bn budget from 2014 to 2020.
She said that there had been “plenty of noble words, but a pitiful lack of meaningful deeds” among EU leaders at this time of economic crisis and merciless austerity.
The Irish presidency, however, acknowledges that it is a very complex issue but they hope to pull the fat out of the fire before they sign off at the end of June.
Twenty-two of the EU’s 23 official languages have their own European Parliament website — the odd one out is Irish.
However, following a delegation headed by Fianna Fáil MEP Pat ‘the Cope’ Gallagher, above, the president of the Parliament Martin Schulz said he will push this at his regular top level meeting next week.
Dúirt Pat the Cope: “Cuirim fáilte mhór roimh chinneadh an Uachtaráin agus tá mé muiníneach go mbeidh leagan Gaeilge an tsuímh ghréasáin beo agus á reáchtáil faoi dheireadh na bliana. Léiríonn cinneadh seo an Uachtaráin Schulz a thiomantas le hinstitiúidí an AE a thabhairt níos cóngaraí do na saoránaigh go léir. Cuirfidh sé seo deireadh le heasnamh a bhí ina idirdhealú i gcoinne na Gaeilge.”
With the turnout for European Parliament elections diminishing at every vote, May 2014 promises to reverse this trend, at least in Ireland, with 76% of young people saying they are very likely to vote.
The number comes second only to Belgium, where, under law, everyone must cast their ballot — and their federal and regional elections will be held on the same day.
However, just one in five said they would consider standing for national or EU elections, slightly higher than the average, while two thirds knew that MEPs are directly elected — a lot in other countries did not seem to know this.
As Russia increasingly uses its laws to restrict human rights and keep power in the hands of a few, the latest victim of its policies is Interpol.
The world’s largest international policing organisation, it helps to co-ordinate the work of the 190 countries that belong to it.
But recently there have been several incidents where they have been used by states to track, arrest, and return citizens for political reasons.
The most recent was Petr Silaev, a Russian activist targeted by Russian police after demonstrating against an environmentally destructive motorway near Moscow.
Finland gave Silaev political asylum, but on a visit to Spain, he was picked up by police acting on Interpol’s information, following an extradition request from Russia.
Fair Trials International, a British NGO, said there have been similar incidents on foot of requests from Indonesia, Iran, Venezuela, and Belarus — countries not well-respected for their clean politics.
Figures for the numbers unemployed, broken down by region, show that the best place to be if you want a job is Salzburg in Austria, with 2.5% out of work, and the worst place is Ceuta in Spain, where the figure is 38.5%. Ireland’s overall rate was 14.7%.
Indeed, the top 10 places for low unemployment rates are all in Austria and Germany, with one in the Czech Republic and one in the Netherlands, while the worst are all in Spain and Greece, with one in the French overseas dependency of Réunion.
The story is much the same for young people, with Germany and Austria having the lowest at around 4%-5%, but in Greek and Spanish regions they range from 60% to 72%. Ireland was at 30%.
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