Brussels Briefing - Vice-president makes a bags of it
Reducing the 8bn plastic bags that litter Europe and which can poison wildlife was deemed to be another mad Brussels idea by the European Commission’s first vice-president Frans Timmermans, a few weeks ago.
Luckily, someone pointed out to him that it was a good idea and the man publically changed his mind when questioned about it by journalists last week.
A plan is now back on track to cut use by 198 bags per person to 90 by 2019 or charge for them by 2018. Ireland’s levy, which was introduced 12 years ago, helped to cut consumption of plastic bags by 90%.
Either 80% of those aged under 39 are hypochondriacs or they are all budding doctors, since they go online regularly to look for health information, according to an EU-wide survey.
Close to 90% said they were happy with the information they found, though many of them said it was not reliable and was too commercial.
Political scientists spend lots of time trying to explain the why of politics but seldom admit defeat.
Not so in a piece of research from a Munich university that notes the huge differences in the number of women from each country in the European Parliament and in their national parliament.
Almost all countries send more women to the European Parliament than to their national parliaments — and Ireland has the greatest difference after Malta.
Researchers admit they can’t explain the differences in the figures.
The awful truth, perhaps, is that women are sent to Europe because the male bosses think it’s not that important.
The confidence motion in the European Parliament on new commission president Jean-Claude Juncker turned out to be a damp squib, with his supporters winning easily by more than four votes to one.
The Irish MEPs mostly voted along party lines, with the four Fine Gael MEPs solidly voting in his favour, the three Sinn Féin and independent Nessa Childers abstaining.
Brian Crowley continues to be absent, while Luke Ming Flanaghan was also missing, as was Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP and instigator of the motion.
National parliaments can give yellow and even red cards to the European Commission over legislation it is proposing — so it’s understandable that commission president Jean Claude Juncker has decided that his team of commissioners should keep well in with them.
His first vice-president, Dutch man Frans Timmermans, hopes to hit them all at once during his visit to the Conference of European Affairs Committees in Rome this week.
Mr Timmermans has been tasked with strengthening the ties between the commission and the national parliaments to bring citizens closer to the EU.
Strangely enough, this was the role of the conference when set up in 1989 and it was given treaty status 10 years later.
European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker has given his team responsibilities for areas that turn them from poachers into gamekeepers — for instance, giving France responsibility for balancing budgets.
The European Alcohol Policy Alliance is doing something similar to Mr Juncker, who is renowned for liking a tipple.
They want him to stop exempting alcohol from having to list the ingredients; to regulate the online marketing of alcohol; ensure an EU-US trade deal does not interfere with countries’ alcohol policies; and consider adjusting the price of alcohol to cover the costs of the harm excessive drinking causes.
If the health arguments do not convince him, they are hoping that the sums will — the societal costs of alcohol in the EU in 2010 were an estimated €155.8bn.
Just as the US is pushing to adopt rules first set out by the European Parliament on keeping the internet free, EU member states try to rein it in.
The result is that the new rules, meant to ensure companies cannot limit anybody’s access to the internet either for commercial or propaganda reasons, will be delayed.
Countries like the Netherland, Slovenia, and Norway have introduced national laws to protect net neutrality.
But even so, this will still leave the issue of torrent sites — which allow illegal downloading and sharing of copyrighted material such as music.
Internet Service Providers in Ireland and Britain are either limiting these sites’ availability without as much as a court order, or are considering it — which leaves people trying to access through virtual private networks.
The number of farmers under 35 years of age is a paltry 7.5%, while close to a third in the industry are past retirement age.
The EU sees farming as a good way to reduce the 23% unemployment rate among young people — but they need land, knowledge and access to credit.
Agriculture ministers will be asked to vote on ways to give entrepreneur farmers access to these three requirements, when they meet in mid-December.
The idea, according to the Italian EU presidency, is to have the EIB provide funds; interest-free loans from member states to purchase land; and a type of Erasmus project for learner farmers.
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