Brussels Briefing - A weekly round-up of the most interesting news from Europe
The high cost of food cannot be blamed on farmers, says MEP Mairead McGuinness who takes a strong interest in agriculture.
Figures she obtained from Eurostat for 2011 show that in fact more than half the price you pay for food in Ireland goes to the shops, supermarkets and distributors.
Farmers gets just about a fifth — 21%, which is a lot less than the close to a third they got on average in 1995.
Ms McGuinness, who is one of the vice presidents of the European Parliament, said that since farmers do the lion’s share of the work, they should be getting a greater share of the profits from their work.
However, instead the trend is going in the opposite direction.
The voluntary code that was to have given farmers more power in dealing with massive supermarket chains is not enough, she says.
Beware ‘greenwashing’ — the latest scam perpetrated by companies pretending their products are eco-friendly and energy efficient.
Light bulbs are under the spotlight of the environmental group Coolproducts.
They found that halogen bulbs are being labelled as ‘eco’.
However, they are way down the list where A++ is the best, rating just a C or D — one of the worst ratings for bulbs. In fact, according to Coolproducts, they use 10 times as much energy as the latest LED bulbs.
They have lodged complaints against the main manufacturers, Philips and Osram, in France and Denmark and say they will do the same in Germany, on the basis that they are misleading consumers.
The industry is battling plans to phase out energy-eating bulbs including, D- and C-rated halogens, from next year. They say 2020 will be time enough.
The old Belgian mint is housing an exhibition of art works from prisoners in 13 jails in five countries whose work has been funded by money from the European Culture Programme.
Normally education in prison does not include developing inmates’ artistic side, but this is different. As well as bringing artists into jails, some of the work does the round of the 13 prisons, with prisoners contributing to each others work.
The fact that the biggest bondholders owning Irish bank debt were not burned is a major bone on contention with the electorate. However, in Greece 15,000 ordinary people were ‘burned’, despite initial promises that they would be excluded, when they were forced to accept a 75% haircut during the restructuring prior to the second €170bn bailout.
While institutional investors got tax credits to help compensate for their losses, the private persons did not and many lost most of their savings and pensions.
A group of them came to the European Parliament to put their case hosted by Syriza — the main government party in Greece. They say the private bondholders will not lose everything as €100,000 will be safe plus a small percentage of the remainder.
One of the big populist selling points of the Lisbon treaty was that citizens could have the European Commission rewrite, introduce or even scrap EU laws.
All it needed was 1 million signatures.
However, despite 51 initiatives launched, only three have made it to the Commission’s desk so far.
The latest is to end animal vivisection.
However, many believe it could also mark the end of the initiative, Democracy International has warned.
It is to be reviewed next month and the complex, user-unfriendly way it was set up has ensured it has been anything but successful so far.
“Belt up” is the best advice to people travelling on the roads, says a report from the European Transport Safety Council.
Around 1,900 people died on EU motorways in 2013 — and up to 60% were not wearing a seatbelt.
The European Commission is reviewing the safety requirements for new vehicles and the council says in future all passenger seats should have an intelligent seat belt reminder.
Only driver seats are required to have this annoying noise to remind them to belt up.
They say GPS and sign- recognition cameras to help drivers stick to speed limits could cut deaths by 20%.
People suffering the effects of robbery, domestic violence, rape, trafficking and other crimes frequently find they are subject to secondary victimisation when they come in contact with the authorities.
Whether it is reporting their crimes, giving evidence in court or just seeking medical or psychological help they are often wittingly or otherwise put through further suffering.
The European Crime Prevention Network discussed how to prevent secondary victimisation in Riga during the week and will hold a further conference to learn from experiences of what works and what doesn’t in countries later this year.
Maira McDonald, the coordinator of the Victims’ Rights Alliance, told of the Irish law to come into force in November. The law and the preparations for its introduction were especially praised by the Fundamental Rights Agency.
Want to show solidarity with Greeks who have suffered even more than Irish people from austerity? Well you can. Solidarity4all has a crowdfunding platform with help from French supporters and have been collecting money to support grassroots social projects such as kitchens and health centres in Greece for the past two years.
It maintains its independence and guarantees the funds go only to finance the projects with full transparency. Info at: www.kisskissbankbank.com/en/projects/de-peuple-a-peuple
Syriza members of parliament when in opposition gave 20% of their pay to help it. However, they have lost their president, Tehano Fotiou, who as minister for social solidarity and as a member of the government had to resign.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
