Brussels Briefing
As usual, the EU is having problems sticking to its principles on foreign leaders. A press conference with US president Barack Obama and two EU presidents took place last week only after much negotiations — and was limited to two questions.
No conference is so far scheduled for Chinese president Xi Jinping’s first official visit to the EU. The visit sees Xi meet commission president José Manuel Barroso (pictured) and EU Council head Herman Van Rompuy.
In the past, the Chinese wanted to censor what media could attend press conferences. Thankfully this has been ruled out by the EU, but, as a result, the Chinese refuse to take part in such exercises and EU presidents don’t bother.
In another development, Belgian police were asked to remove posters along the president’s cavalcade route that were advertising traditional Chinese dance in a Brussels theatre as it is sponsored by Falun Gong, which has faced crackdowns in China. Now, apparently, the posters can stay.
Globalisation has benefited advanced economies much more than developing countries and newly industrialised ones — at least between 1990 and 2011, according to the German Bertlesmann foundation.
Per-capita GDP rose in the top 20 industrialised nations by €1,000 per year on average due to globalisation, but it rose in Mexico, China and India by less than €100, the study found.
Of 42 countries studied, Ireland was 27th, with the average gain per person put at €970 a year.
UP IN ARMS: EU countries were upbraided for cutting their military spending by US president Barak Obama, especially in light of what many see as a real threat from Russia, emboldened by the knowledge that spending is at an all time low and that Nato’s future was in the balance.
As it happened, the annual European Defence Agency conference in Brussels brought together more than 500 high-level participants from government, military and the industry.
They were discussing the priorities set out by EU leaders at their December summit which was the first time that defence was the main item on their agenda, thanks to the Lisbon Treaty.
Hungarian architect Erno Rubik called to the European Commission during the week to celebrate the 40th birthday of his cube puzzle.
He met Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the science commissioner, among others, to discuss how to attract young people into careers in science, engineering, and maths.
José Manuel Barroso, the commission president, described the cube as an iconic symbol of European ingenuity, and “the ultimate metaphor for bewildering complexity and triumphant intelligence, creativity and innovation”.
A group of volunteers is descending on a field of leeks in Brussels this week to rescue the vegetables from being ploughed into the ground.
The farmer said the vegetables were too big and ugly to meet supermarket demands for dainty, pretty leeks, and he was happy to see them picked. They will provide lunch for 5,000 people in the appropriately-named Marché Aux Herbes in Brussels, where rescued food is being used to raise awareness of food waste.
Environment Commissioner Janez Potcnik will attend and it is hoped he will demand an end to the EU ban on feeding catering waste to pigs.
In what must be a first for cybercrime police, Europol has issued a warning to all users of Windows XP that from April 8, the operating system will become a security risk, and its users potential victims.
From that date, Windows will stop supporting it, leaving vulnerabilities unfixed and computers open to attack — and easy targets for hackers.
Given that Windows XP is the second most popular operating system in use in the world, this could constitute a field day for hackers, or a bonanza for Windows as people upgrade or change their system.
With fragile banks desperately hanging on to their money and the need for funds to invest in growth and jobs becoming ever more desperate, the European Commission has adopted measures to kickstart ways of financing long-term investment.
As well as encouraging greater reliance on raising money from the markets rather than banks, utilising gigantic occupational pension funds, and attracting private finance for infrastructure, it is also putting forward crowdfunding as a viable alternative.
In 2012, more than a million crowdfunding campaigns around the world raised up to €3bn. The biggest recipients were video games; the likes of Star Citizen raised over $14m — 28 times its original aim.
Farmers have ramped up their campaign for the European Parliament to implement laws to remove dangerous chemicals from pesticides used on everyday crops.
A number of farmers suffering the effects of the endocrine chemicals turned up for a screening of the documentary, Death is in the Meadow, in Brussels last week.
The EU has introduced legislation to remove the potentially deadly chemicals but it has not been implemented because MEPs have been unable to agree on the criteria to identify the relevant substances.
Sweden is threatening to sue the commission for the delay.
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