Brussels Briefing

Europe correspondent, Ann Cahill, delivers her weekly briefing on Euro affairs from the European Parliament.

Crack the code

Sick of sitting in the sun? Or fed up with holiday reading? Take up coding is the EU’s advice.

Lots of Irish kids have learned a new language through Coderdojo, but now thanks to a host of courses across Europe, and online, everyone can have a go.

The EU said coding is the literacy of today, as demand for the skill continues to grow.

For information on events and courses see: http://codeweek.eu

Protecting tourists from holiday horrors

Ever book that desirable holiday home to find the local drug dealer runs a thriving business from downstairs? Or been promised free wi-fi, to discover it costs an arm and a leg?

Members of the European Parliament say they get lots of complaints of this nature from their constituents, but because they are holidaying in an EU country other than their own, they have problems getting compensation, or indeed making sure the place is safe in advance.

Anybody with experiences, advice or suggestions can get involved in a consultation launched by the European Commission, that hopes to draw up some kind of code at least to protect tourists.

Deirdre gets off to a flying start

ALL THAT BAGGAGE: Almost one passenger in every 100 that checks in baggage has it lost, delayed or pilfered according to the latest research.

So far, improving the situation has proved difficult because of a variety of reasons, including national borders and ground-handlers strikes in the EU.

New Fine Gael MEP, Deirdre Clune, above, will be one of the reporters for the Transport and Tourism committee in the European Parliament for new legislation dealing with this and other issues.

EU sees its popularity soar in poll

The normally much un-loved EU is enjoying a huge boost in peoples’ estimation, though not so much in Ireland.

For instance two thirds say that their voice counts, the highest in the 10 years since they were first asked — probably due to the European Parliament elections. However only one third of Irish believe this.

But at the same time close to three quarters of Irish say they are optimistic about the future of the EU — third highest.

And 75% of Irish say they feel they are “a citizen of the EU”. Even in Britain, the majority say they do too.

Kelly demands ECB answers on bailout

Re-elected MEP Sean Kelly has returned to the fray of trying to discover just what the ECB told the Irish Government about its banks in the bad old days of 2008.

He has written to ECB president, Mario Draghi, reminding him that he refused to release that missing letter on the basis he needed “to protect the financial stability of Ireland”.

Now, he argues, that the financial position of Ireland has stabilised, and in light of his commitment to transparency, he should release the missing letter.

Know your RFID when making a purchase

Radio Frequency Identification tags are being increasingly used to protect against theft or identify goods — in clothes, supermarket items and electronic travel tickets and passes.

To ensure you know when these electronic tags are used, a specially designed logo must be used, and work is also afoot to ensure that they are not used to collect more than the allowed information about you and the purchases you make.

No ‘right to forget’

More than 70,000 requests to be forgotten online have been made in less than two months, following the European Court of Justice ruling that people have a right to have information removed.

But, says the British House of Lords in a well-argued piece of research, the court’s ruling on the 20-year-old pre-Google law, is unworkable and unreasonable, as are the new updated regulations.

They believe that people should not have a right to have “accurate and lawfully available information about them removed, simply because they do not like what is said”.

Cancer specialists also say the new rule is putting cancer research at risk.

Whistling in the dark against corruption

As most whistle-blowers in Ireland know, alerting the authorities to corruption in their ranks is not a win- win option.

Usually they find that those ranks are closed against them and they end up suffering for their honesty.

Nine EU institutions have promised to introduce rules for staff and contractors and now Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, pictured, has asked them to report on their progress by the end of October.

She has drawn up and published such rules on her ombudsman.europa.eu website, inviting feedback.