Brussels Briefing: The other side of Europe
Ireland’s vested interests were mostly protected by the Government when they helped write the country’s austerity programme, an extensive review of the programme by the troika indicates.
The health sector was not even included in the first version of the programme, they noted.
Changes intended to reduce legal costs and create some more competition were not front loaded and were not achieved at the end of the programme.
The cost of pharmaceuticals is still much higher than in most of the rest of the EU, while the health budget had to be increased by €500m this year.
The troika blames itself for allowing the vested interests to largely escape the kind of cuts that most of the rest of the population suffered, saying it was relying on the Government’s ability and intentions to deliver reform.
Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary appeared at a press conference in Brussels during the week sporting a broken shoulder.
He told journalists that in his new ‘nice guy’ guise he took the fall playing football with his young son, rather than risk him being injured.
And in the latest public relations offensive he announced Ryanair was bowing to airline travellers’ wishes and ending their landing bugle — as passengers had said it was annoying and irritating.
He brushed off questions about Ryanair’s issues with Denmark and their system of agreeing wages which the government leaves largely to employers and unions.
Ryanair says none of their crew belong to a trade union so the system has nothing to do with them.
And to avoid a full-scale clash, they have shut down Copenhagen as a ‘hub’ and just fly in and out of the airport.
SpiritsEurope, a representative body for spirits producers, is aiming to lead the way on letting consumers know about how, when and what to drink on their website, responsibledrinking.eu.
The European Commission is preparing a report on energy and ingredients labelling. The website also has a handy reckoner of the amount of calories in a normal quantity of alcohol, including the usual 40ml of whiskey and small and large glasses of wine.
The Germans are getting a hard time from many people because of their hardline attitude towards the Greeks taken by the creditors. But apparently while they are the most powerful in the EU, they are not the toughest.
At the summit to decide whether it was Grexit or Grein, the Dutch turned out to out-German the Germans.
In fact they were so troublesome that their prime minister, Mark Rutte, was even invited into one of the negotiating sessions with Alexis Tsipras, French president Francoise Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Finns were fussing also, but most others did not want to side with them as part of their coalition government don’t just want the Greeks out, but an end to the euro and to the European Union.
The long-awaited agreement with Iran on the nuclear issue boosted the reputation of the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini.
However, her initial plans on how to revive the Middle East peace process is not meeting with widespread approval. Many countries, including Ireland, sense she is making too many concessions to Israel and want her to go ahead with a boycott of goods from illegal Israel settlements. She appeared to ignore the the letter from former foreign and prime ministers including John Bruton to call Israel to account for increasing their settlements, depriving Palestinians of their state in the proposed two state solution.
Ukraine is not officially on the agenda of today’s foreign affairs meeting, despite the fact that the OSCE reports many breaches of the ceasefire every day on the border with Russia, by both sides.
The idea is that they are giving time for the Minsk peace plan to work. The plane has a deadline of January.
Russia, however, has not ended its ambitions and is extending its occupation further into Georgia in the South Ossetia region.
It now occupies 20% of Georgia and is pushing to control areas surrounding the Caspian-Black Sea and other oil pipelines.
In parts of Bulgaria where Roma live, electricity meters are six meters above ground, at the top of concrete poles, whereas in the rest of the country, they are less than two meters where residents can check them.
The European Court of Justice found this was discrimination despite allegations that the Roma tend to interfere with the boxes.
Bulgaria is in the spotlight again for violent attacks on Roma, especially in villages where they are the majority population. The government is not helping by demolishing homes they say are illegal, but without providing any alternative accommodation.
According to the Open Society European Policy Institute, politicians, sociologists, and artists are making racist statements without any fear of criticism.
Ireland so far is not one of the 17 EU countries to produce a European Mobility Card, MEP Marian Harkin points out.
The card aims at allowing locals and visitors with mobility issues to benefit from special concessions in the countries holding it.
These can include reductions in the area of culture, leisure, sport and transport and special facilities such as on public transport.
Each country is responsible for issuing the card, which is similar to the Blue Badge EU Parking Card and the European Commission is providing €1.5m to launch it.
Mr Harkin wants Minister Kathleen Lynch to include Ireland in the scheme early next year.
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