EU poised to unveil green-friendly investment list

By Monitoring Desk

Brussels: The European Commission will next week present the first part of a “green taxonomy” list of energy sources and technology to be labelled as sustainable investments, but a question mark hangs over the inclusion of natural gas.

The classification system, to be published on Wednesday, is mandated under a 2019 agreement between member states and the European Parliament meant to define durable economic activities and green finance.

It seeks to define what the EU would deem as sustainable as it moves towards a goal of Europe becoming carbon-neutral by 2050, with criteria focusing on mitigating climate change or preparing for it.

The EU’s “sustainable finance taxonomy” is a long list of economic activities and the rules they must meet to be labelled as sustainable investments in the EU from next year.

The landmark regulation aims to make green activities more visible and attractive to investors, and ensure that a sustainable investment label is only given to economic activities that comply with EU targets to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

A second commission proposal is to follow later this year covering four other subjects — protection of water and marine resources, the circular economy, preventing pollution and biodiversity — all part of the EU´s “Green Deal” to reach that ambition.

For an investment to be considered “green” it has to meet one of these objectives without hurting any of the others.

The proposal is to become a “delegated act”, meaning it becomes law unless member states or the European Parliament reject it.

But a leak of the commission´s taxonomy list last month raised an outcry from NGOs, experts and MEPs, in particular over the inclusion of gas as a partially sustainable energy source.

Nine experts the commission consulted threatened to break off cooperation over the perceived “greenwashing”, according to a letter sent to the commission and seen by AFP.

The commission plan, according to the leak, is to have gas-fuelled power stations labelled as “green” as transitional facilities up to 2025 where they replace ones using coal.

One of the experts signing the letter, Sebastien Godinot, economist at the environmental protection NGO WWF, said that would give a “blank cheque” to gas operators and risk a long-term dependence on fossil fuels.

“This proposal could potentially create a direct incentive to build even more gas co-generation plants than already planned”, Godinot warned.

A Green MEP from the Netherlands, Bas Eickhout said: “A gas-fired power plant built now is there to stay for 40 years. So brings you way over the 2050 deadline.”

As a result, “we are going to object” to the commission proposal, based on the version leaked in March, Eickhout said.

Several sources said that the governments of Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain had written a joint letter to the commission to voice their objection to including gas in the taxonomy.

Godinot noted that, while natural gas releases less carbon dioxide than coal, it also emits methane, considered a worse greenhouse emission.

Other points of discord are the commission´s approach to forestries and logging, seen by some as not rigorous enough, and it automatically classifying bioenergy as durable even when the biomass it uses comes from dedicated farmland.

A French news website, Contexte, said on Thursday that the commission has been forced to revise its document and could revert to an ordinary legislative process that would be much longer.

The commission did not confirm that. An EU source said the text it is to present is “still in development” and stressed how technical it was.

“Right now, we´re talking about a general approach to gas. Further analyses are needed,” the source said.

By cutting out gas and nuclear, the Commission aims to win EU countries’ approval for the rules. But the sectors of forestry and bioenergy have also proved contentious, with nine of the Commission’s expert advisers threatening to resign over its proposals for those sectors and gas, which they said would discredit Europe’s climate policies.

To earn a sustainable label, an activity must make substantial contribution to one of six environmental aims and not impede the other five.

The draft rules cover two of those six aims – fighting climate change, and adapting to its impacts.

EU electric-vehicle push short-circuits

BRUSSELS — In line with its ambition to make Europe a greener place, the European Union wants to drastically reduce gas emissions from transport by 2050 and promote electric cars. But according to a report from the bloc’s external auditor, it is lacking the appropriate charging stations.

“Last year, one in every ten cars sold in the EU was electrically chargeable, but charging infrastructure is unevenly accessible across the EU,” said Ladislav Balko, the member of the European Court of Auditors in charge of the report published last week.

“We think that the Commission should do more to support EU-wide network coverage, and ensure that funding goes where it is most needed.”

Transport accounts for about 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. The bloc has set itself the goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 90 % compared with 1990 levels as part of its effort to become climate-neutral by mid-century.

Noting that an essential part of this strategy is the switch to lower-carbon fuels and electricity, auditors said it’s now crucial to speed up the deployment of charging infrastructure “to promote breakthrough in electro-mobility.” Auditors acknowledged that the charging network is growing across the region, but said its deployment remains uneven.

“The EU is still a long way from reaching its Green Deal target of on million charging points by 2025, and it lacks an overall strategic roadmap,” auditors said. According to EU figures, there are currently 224,538 charging points across the 27-country region.

Among the major obstacles to electric travel across the bloc, they listed the discrepancies in the availability of charging stations and a lack of harmonized payment systems.

“In 2020, although there was an overall decline in new vehicle registrations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the market share of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles increased significantly. Charging networks, however, are not developing at the same pace,” they said.

According to the report, carmakers forecast that the production of electric vehicles in Europe will multiply sixfold between 2019 and 2025, reaching more than 4 million cars and vans per year, the equivalent of a fifth of EU car production volumes.

Auditors praised the EU for promoting a common plug standard for charging electric vehicles but said it did not properly identify how many, and where, charging stations were the most needed. They also said the EU funding “did not always go where it was most needed, and there were no clear and coherent targets, or any consistent minimum infrastructure requirements at EU level.”

They recommended that the European Commission proposed minimum standards and requirements, and that funding criteria should be defined.

Spain announced recently that overhauling its roads to handle electric cars is a leading priority of the payout it is set to receive as part of the European Union’s pandemic recovery package. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that he wants to spend $15.7 billion dollars of the $166 billion it is to receive from Brussels on adapting its roadways for electric, hybrid and plug-in vehicles.

In its response to the audit, the bloc’s executive arm accepted the recommendations but also pointed out that it is not entitled to coordinate the deployment of infrastructure, which is the responsibility of member states.

— Information for this article was contributed by Joseph Wilson of the Associated Press.

PH exporters to EU advised on ‘green’ trend

Philippine exporters are advised to consider the – Green Deal – principle in the 27-EU member countries as this new trend will affect buying preference. 

Commercial Counsellor Benedict Uy of the Philippine Embassy in Belgium & Permanent Mission to the European Union during a virtual webinar organized by the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (PhilExport) said that the overarching principle in EU is the Green Deal. 

“This is the common consciousness of people in EU from consumers, up to policymakers and government people, so everything revolves around Green Deal,” said Uy.

Because of this new consciousness, there are new regulations about the use of renewable energy about mobility, smart mobility, and climate action, to support the climate ambition for carbon neutral by 2030.

For example, he said, there is a new regulation that the Philippines is monitoring, about the carbon audit where companies in EU are being assessed as to their production method to make sure their product produces the minimum possible carbon emissions.

Implementation of these regulations are expected to extend to exporters, to suppliers from third countries like the Philippines and other countries where they source their product.

“Sooner or later you will also be imposing regulations to monitor and to control the emissions from all factories all over the world, and to what and whoever supplies them,” he added.

Already, EU has the so-called Farm to Fork strategy, which is a preference for organic food, meat alternatives, and artisanal products that come with a story. This is expected to create more regulations and controls to make sure that food is produced in a very sustainable manner.

Along with the green mindset in EU is the burgeoning e-commerce. Thus, Uy has urged exporters to set up their own websites for their products and for their companies.

EU has also big on Smart Mobility movement. Thus, Uy said there are opportunities in this space for Filipino bicycles and accessories products. 

In Brussels, where Uy is currently posted, speed limit for private vehicles is only 50 to 30 kilometers per hour to promote the use of public transport, bicycles and scooters to lessen the use of vehicles.

Meantime, Uy said that the EU-GSP Plus scheme will expire in 2023 and a  program will take effect in 2024, which is expected to run for another 10 years. All existing beneficiary countries, including the Philippines, will join the new system, wherein EU could add more products, liberalize more rules of origin rules, or maybe add more criteria and requirements.

EU will also a new convention – Paris Climate Agreement – to the existing 28 UN Conventions.  The EU GSP Plus provides us with zero tariff for more than 6,000 products from the Philippines going into the EU. The Philippines has exported 2 billion euros or one-fourth of the total exports in 2019 to the EU in 2019.

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Your report on 2020 elections is hopeless and useless – Kwesi Pratt to EU EOM

EU grants Turkish garlic geographical indication

KASTAMONU

The <a title="EU" href="/index/eu">EU</a> on April 16 granted protected <a title="geographical indication" href="/index/geographical-indication">geographical indication</a> (PGI) registration to the <a title="Taşköprü" href="/index/taskopru">Taşköprü</a> <a title="garlic" href="/index/garlic">garlic</a> from the Black Sea province of <a title="kastamonu" href="/index/kastamonu">Kastamonu</a>. 

Residents in the province celebrated the completion of a three-month waiting period for granting the registration.

The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli welcomed the move on Twitter and said: “Taşköprü garlic, the world-famous ‘white gold’ of Taşköprü [district of Kastamonu], received geographical indication registration from the European Union. I congratulate those who devoted efforts.”

Taşköprü district mayor Abdullah Çatal told Anadolu Agency that he hopes the registration will be beneficial to producers and the district.

“An average of 20,000 tons of garlic is produced annually, according to Çatal, who said 4,000 farmers in the area earn a living from the garlic. “New lands that could be used for garlic production have begun.”

    <p class="tags"><a title="Turkey" href="/search/Turkey">Turkey</a>, </p>

EU threatens to ban importation of cocoa from Ghana and Cote d’lvoire

EU delegation, others hold first multi-stakeholder roundtable

The Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Ghana, Ghana’s Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and COCOBOD, have held the first multi-stakeholder roundtable on sustainable cocoa in Accra.

A statement issued by the three institutions, copied to the Ghana News Agency, said social sustainability of cocoa production was at the heart of the first virtual thematic roundtable organised in the framework of the National Dialogue on Sustainable Cocoa on Thursday, April 15.

It said the National Dialogue was launched last March by the Delegation of the European Union and COCOBOD with more than 150 participants, clearly confirming the high interest around sustainability matters.

The statement noted that the cocoa value chain entailed particular risks relating to child labour.

It said the EU and the Government of Ghana recognised the importance of tackling root causes of child labour and promoting several complementary actions to increase farmers’ revenue, strengthening social protection services and increase access to education and health services.

It added, however, that the roundtable particularly focused on how traceability, transparency and accountability could be further enhanced to support a cocoa supply chain that was free of child labour.

The statement said representatives of a large spectrum of stakeholders involved in the cocoa sector – government officials, civil society organisations, trade unions, farmers’ organisations, private sector representatives and development partners – would share experiences and lessons learnt around traceability as a mechanism to identify, detect, monitor, prevent and remedy child labour.

The statement said the event was the first of a series of three thematic roundtables that would be organised in the country aiming at delivering concrete recommendations to advance sustainability – social, economic and environmental – across the cocoa supply chain.

It said the national multi-stakeholder process would finally feed into the broader dialogue launched last year by the European Commission together with Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

The statement noted that Ghana was the world’s second cocoa producer and the EU was the world’s first importer of cocoa.

It said the EU imported roughly half of Ghana’s cocoa exports and it was the main market for Ghanaian processed cocoa products, such as paste or butter.

Madam Diana Acconcia, the EU Ambassador to Ghana said: “We believe that a commonly agreed traceability system is essential to guarantee to all actors that Ghanaian cocoa is socially and environmentally sustainable.”

“We understand that child labour is a very complex issue and the EU is ready to support more than ever, countries’ efforts to end child labour.”

Mr Joseph Boahene Aidoo, the Chief Executive of COCOCBOD, said, “It is imperative to holistically address the challenges of sustainability in the cocoa value chain, paying equal attention to farmer income as well as social and environmental concerns.”

“An economical independent farmer is better placed to ensure the sustainability of the value chain, which Ghana is committed to.”

EU assessment of high-risk medical devices faces in-depth review

Sophia Antipolis, 16 April 2021: The methods for evaluating high-risk medical devices are set to be reviewed in the EU-funded CORE-MD project,1 which holds its kick-off meeting today.


The project launch comes as new EU medical device regulations come into force on 26 May 2021, increasing the requirements for clinical evidence on high-risk medical devices.2 However, there are no specific EU recommendations on the design and conduct of trials for high-risk devices. In addition, medical device developers have expressed concerns that the new rules may inhibit innovation and delay market access.

More than 50% of high-risk implantable medical devices in Europe are used in cardiology and orthopaedics – such as heart valves and hip replacements – and CORE-MD will focus primarily on these areas. The three-year project begins with a systematic review of methodologies used in clinical trials to evaluate high-risk medical devices, including statistical methods and the utility of patient-reported outcomes for regulatory decisions.

CORE-MD will propose how to generate evidence using innovative methodologies like randomised registry trials and how to assess artificial intelligence algorithms that are designated as medical devices. The project will also examine how to evaluate medical devices used in children. Advice will be provided on ways to extract maximum value from real-world evidence including medical device registries and clinical practice.

Recommendations from the CORE–MD consortium will be submitted to the Working Group on Clinical Investigation and Evaluation of the European Commission, so that they can be considered as the basis for developing EU guidance documents or common specifications.

CORE-MD Scientific Coordinator Professor Alan Fraser of the ESC said: “High-risk medical devices should be approved based on scientific and clinical evidence. Experts need to advise how regulators can achieve an appropriate balance between innovation, safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness. We look forward to doing that through our unique collaboration of medical associations, EU regulators, national public health institutes, notified bodies, academic institutions, patient groups, and health technology assessment agencies, with participation of manufacturers’ trade associations.”

Professor Rob Nelissen of EFORT said: “Ultimately, the overall impact of CORE-MD will be to improve the benefit/risk ratio of new implantable medical devices and other high-risk devices for patients. We aim to see wider adoption of optimal methodologies for clinical investigations by both researchers and manufacturers, fewer approvals with limited evidence, and greater transparency of standards.”

Funding:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 965246

About the European Society of Cardiology
The European Society of Cardiology brings together health care professionals from more than 150 countries, working to advance cardiovascular medicine and help people lead longer, healthier lives.

About the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT)
The European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT) works together with its membership network and partners to restore and secure mobility, musculoskeletal health and quality of life.

EU Says Zimbabwe Needs At Powerful Opposition

Head of the European Union (EU) delegation in Zimbabwe, Timo Olkkonen, has said Zimbabwe deserves a viable and people-driven opposition to effectively keep the government under check.

Speaking on HSTV’s FreeTalk on Thursday, Olkkonen said for democracy to prevail in Zimbabwe, a viable opposition must be able to stand up and challenge the Zanu PF government when it deviates from the norm.

His comments came amid reports that the bloc told MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora at their meeting a fortnight ago that it did not recognise his leadership because he did not participate in the 2018 presidential elections.

Mwonzora met the EU diplomats two weeks ago in a bid to facilitate dialogue between the bloc and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration.

“Having a viable opposition that challenges and questions the government is very important,” Olkkonen said.

“So I do recognise those concerns that when you don’t have that kind of an opposition that would have a mandate from elections. It’s an important issue and that’s why I can understand why those statements are being made.”

The MDC Alliance emerged as the biggest opposition after the 2018 harmonised elections with 2,1 million votes for its presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa. The MDC-T came a distant third with its presidential candidate Thokozani Khupe garnering a paltry 45 000 votes.

However, on March 30 2020, the Supreme Court ruling effectively gave powers to the MDC-T, leading to a series of recalls that have seen the faction, now led by Mwonzora with the majority in Parliament and priding itself as the biggest opposition outfit.

The MDC Alliance has accused the MDC-T of conniving with Zanu PF to decimate Chamisa’s party ahead of the 2023 harmonised elections.

Mwonzora, on his part, has warmed up to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, saying he was dropping the “politics of rancour” in favour of a non-confrontational approach.

The United States, in its latest report that summarises the situation in Zimbabwe since February 2020, dismissed the MDC-T as a “minor opposition” that was aided by the State to decimate the MDC Alliance.

Olkkonen called on the government to ensure that after the MDC Alliance MPs and councillors’ recalls, voters must be allowed to elect their preferred representatives.

“I would not want to go into partisan politics and comment on that. People’s representatives are lacking, which is the case now when the people have been recalled but there is need for a remedy and there will be need for elections, for people to express their will and that is why we hope that the situation will be addressed,” he said.

Olkkonen also warned that the proposed Patriotic Bill meant to criminalise, among other things, private citizens’ engagement with foreign countries, would further strain relations between Harare and the EU.

Diplomatic sources have warned that the re-engagement plan could go up in smoke if Mnangagwa persists with his push for the Patriotic Bill.

“The passing of the Patriotic Bill would change the relations between the EU, international community and Zimbabwe, that will hurt relations deeply. This is the general feeling in the discussions among diplomats,” a source said yesterday.

Olkkonen, however, refused to comment on the issue raised by other diplomats, but said the EU remains concerned about the Bill.

“We are closely following the political environment as we are moving to the next elections, and of course trying to play our part in the social and economic sphere and it’s important for us because the EU is planning its future co-operation with Zimbabwe,” he said.

The Patriotic Bill seeks to foster patriotism and criminalise talking bad about Zimbabwe. -Newsday

Related

European Union Commission urges Ireland to rethink hotel quarantine

BRUSSELS: The European Commission urged Ireland on Friday to pursue less restrictive measures than the mandatory hotel quarantine regime introduced last month and sought clarifications as to why some fellow EU member states were subject to the rules.
Ireland is the only one the EU’s 27 countries that forces arrivals from certain countries to pay almost 2,000 euros each to quarantine for up to 14 days in a secure hotel and this week added Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg to its list of designated states that initially also included Austria.
The EU executive wrote to the Irish government on Friday in relation to the criteria used to determine the list, a spokesman said.
“The Commission has concerns regarding this measure in relation to the general principles of EU law, in particular proportionality and non-discrimination,” the spokesman said.
“The Commission believes that the objective pursued by Ireland, which is the protection of public health during the pandemic, could be achieved by less restrictive measures.”
Exemptions should also be made for essential travel, he added.
The Commission sent similar administrative letters to six other EU countries in March querying Covid-19 related travel restrictions but has yet to start an infringement process against any member state on the issue.
Dublin has said that keeping new Covid variants out of the country, rather than high rates of disease, is the main criteria for adding countries to the list. The Italian ambassador to Ireland also criticised the regime this week.
Ministers had flagged in advance of last week’s decision that including fellow member states could be lead to issues around EU freedom of movement rules.
Health minister Stephen Donnelly said he “flat out disagreed” with the Commission if it was telling Ireland it cannot put such measures in place for countries that have been identified as having Covid-19 variants of concern.
“I make no apologies to the Commission, to the Italian ambassador or anyone else for putting in place the measures that we believe and our public health teams believe are the right measures to keep people safe,” Donnelly told RTE television.
“We are now leading Europe by a country mile in terms of the biosecurity measures we have in place. It’s something we should be very proud of and it’s something the people want.”

Successor to EU-Africa Cotonou treaty marks ‘turning point’, says EU

The EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific Community on Thursday (15 April) finalised the successor to the Cotonou agreement, bringing a close to two and a half years of negotiations and repeated delays.

Speaking at the initialling ceremony in Brussels, Commissioner for International Partnerships and EU chief negotiator, Jutta Urpilainen, said the agreement was a “turning point that will make our relationship more political and fit for the future”.

At the heart of the pact is the promise of greater political dialogue and development cooperation. It also includes text on security and migration, one of the most controversial issues throughout the talks, including new commitments from the ACP countries on return and re-admission of failed economic migrants. It also includes text on agreeing “circular migration” and legal pathways.

In a nod to another EU priority which has been controversial for some African states, it also includes commitments to gender equality and non-discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Meanwhile, in a bid to assuage concerns from African nations that the agreement should account more for the specific needs of three highly diverse regions, the deal involves a “3 + 1” structure based on a common foundation covering all 88 countries, which sets out the values and priorities, along with three regional protocols for Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific, tailored to each region’s needs. This will allow for an “unprecedented regional focus”, the EU claims.

In addition, EU and ACP leaders want their respective blocs to increase co-operation in international forums, having seen the EU support the successful candidacy of Nigeria’s former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who was appointed as the new Secretary General of the World Trade Organisation at the start of this year.

The refit of the Cotonou Agreement also sees the inclusion of the UN-agreed Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate change agreement in the text. The EU is keen to export the principles of its Green Deal, while African states, which are among the lowest contributors to global carbon emissions, are expected to request increased EU funding and investment for their own energy transition at a High-Level Forum between EU and African officials, scheduled for 23 April.

However, the new agreement will not change trading arrangements between the EU and ACP, which will continue to be based on the regional economic partnership agreements and the Anything But Arms agreement. Nor does it include a funding component.

Negotiations on a new Partnership Agreement to succeed the 2000 Cotonou Agreement started in September 2018. A political agreement between the negotiators, Urpilainen and Togo’s foreign minister Robert Dussey for the ACP, was concluded in December.

The ratification process will now start with a view to being completed before the end of November, when the Cotonou Agreement is due to expire. Like its predecessor, the new Partnership Agreement will be last for 20 years.

The new pact is expected to dovetail with the upcoming, and also repeatedly delayed talks between the EU and the African Union on a new ‘strategic partnership’ between the two continents.

[Edited by Frédéric Simon]

Britain must act jointly with EU on Northern Ireland – EU’s Sefcovic

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union will continue its legal action against Britain over the latter’s unilateral action in Northern Ireland and said only jointly agreed solutions to trading issues were acceptable.

European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic hosted British negotiator David Frost for talks on Thursday evening and said that only agreements by joint bodies established by the Brexit divorce deal could provide stability in Northern Ireland.

“The vice-president insisted on mutually agreed paths towards full compliance with the Protocol, which includes clear end-points, deadlines, milestones and the means to measure progress,” Sefcovic said in a statement, adding that legal action against Britain would “be continued as long as necessary”.

EU, UK step up Northern Ireland talks as EU continues legal action

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union insisted on Friday that Britain not change trading rules in Northern Ireland on its own and said it would continue legal action against unilateral British action in the province for as long as necessary.

European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic hosted UK negotiator David Frost for talks on Thursday evening and said that only agreements by joint bodies established by the Brexit divorce deal could provide stability in Northern Ireland.

The British-ruled province is in the EU single market for goods to ensure an open border with EU member Ireland and so requires checks on goods coming from other parts of the United Kingdom.

Britain in March unilaterally extended a grace period on certain checks to minimise supply disruption, a move Brussels said breached the Brexit divorce deal known as the Withdrawal Agreement and the specific protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

Sefcovic said in a statement on Friday there was no space for unilateral action. He said both sides had to agreed how to comply fully with the protocol, including “clear end-points, deadlines, milestones and the means to measure progress”.

Frost said the British government was committed to working through joint bodies and that all solutions had to respect the Good Friday peace agreement “in all its dimensions” and to ensure minimal disruption to everyday lives in Northern Ireland.

Both agreed that Thursday’s discussion took place in a constructive atmosphere, that talks needed to intensify and that they would jointly engage with business groups, civil society and others in Northern Ireland.

Frost said that some “positive momentum” had been established.

“But a number of difficult issues remained and it was important to continue to discuss them,” the British government said in a statement.

The European Union, the Labour Party and the Liberal Left

    <strong>April 12</strong><br/><strong>Email</strong>

Contributor Robert Smith generously replied to my letter of a couple of weeks ago in which I criticised the current British Labour Party, the European Union political project, and the liberal left… the main thrust of his reply being that criticism of those organisations somehow implied a ‘hatchet job’ or ‘hate’ of those organisations. When a broad subject is condensed into a short letter, it’s inevitable that sometimes the point being made is unclear or is misunderstood, so here’s why criticism of those three organisations does not imply a hatchet job nor hate of those organisations.

Firstly, the Labour Party. The British Labour Party can be rightly proud of improving the lives of working people and the less well off from the time of its origin in the 1920s up until the late 1990s. Indeed, I voted for them a few times. However, during the Blair years in government from 1997 and up until the present day, the Labour Party has gradually become a fundamentally different party which is now very London oriented, very liberal left in outlook and concerned more with courting Big Business and champagne socialist ideas than with bettering the lives of ordinary working people and the less well off. In short, it has lost sight of its reason for existence, lost the confidence of many of its traditional voters and for the moment is unelectable. The current leader, Keir Starmer, seems to be little more than a less charismatic version of Tony Blair. It’s difficult to detect any appetite in the UK for a return to the Blair years, Blair’s ‘New Labour’ project is now firmly filed away at Labour headquarters in a dusty cabinet marked ‘Embarrassments never to be mentioned again’. The Labour Party has a great history but can be justifiably criticised now for temporarily losing its way and forgetting its core raison d’etre. That in no way implies a hatchet job or hatred of the Labour Party.

Next, the European Union. The European Union was originally set up in 1957 as a free trade, low or nil tariff organisation. It was an inspiring and admirable organisation coming so soon after the divisions of the Second World War, and for many years it facilitated the economic development and success of its participating countries and demonstrably improved the lives of its citizens. Certainly when the UK had the opportunity to join in 1973, I enthusiastically voted to join.

However, via the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 and the Lisbon Treaty of 2007 that generally admirable and successful free trade zone was transformed. The liberal left idea of creating one grand Pan-European country, run from one central government and absorbing the sovereignty of its constituent nations was now to be a major objective. This was the modern Liberal Left’s interpretation of a few words about increasing union in Europe mentioned in the original Rome Treaty which set up the then European Economic Community in 1957. But that plan to gradually the absorb the sovereignty of individual European nations has led to the current situation of an out of touch, overbearing, unelected and centralised European Commission trying to run the whole of Europe from a town in Belgium. That unelected European Commission is increasingly coming into conflict with individual member states, and is increasingly trying to impose its will by the mechanisms of ostracising individual nations, imposing fines, and withholding funds. The following words of Mikhail Gorbachev the former Communist Party President of the Soviet Union (you can’t get much further to the left than that) most succinctly sum up the problem…’The most puzzling development in modern politics is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to recreate the Soviet Union in Western Europe’.

It is perfectly possible to be an enthusiastic supporter of the successful European economic project of free trade, while at the same time believing that the liberal left driven political project to create a grand European state is an historic mistake, which will eventually lead to the EU’s demise. Criticising that latter aspect of the current European Union in no way implies a hatchet job or hatred of the European Union as a whole.

Finally, the liberal left outlook and its current predominance in European affairs. Some aspects of liberal left thinking are admirable… I still subscribe to some liberal left ideas myself.

However, in two important respects the influence of liberal left thinking is currently a negative not a positive force, or in the jargon of the liberal left, retrogressive not progressive. As mentioned above, the predominance of modern liberal left thinking in the British Labour Party has temporarily made Labour unelectable. Likewise, the predominance of liberal left thinking in Europe and its relentless drive to straitjacket the diverse nations of Europe into one grand conglomerate nation is ruining the European Union. If the liberal left continue to dogmatically pursue that European political project, it will eventually lead to the breakup and demise of the European Union. To criticise one aspect of the liberal left groupthink on Europe in no way implies a hatchet job or hatred of liberal left ideas in general.

Many on the liberal left these days identify themselves as Marxists so they will be very familiar with Marx and his sidekick Engels’ underlying philosophical stance of dialectical materialism i.e. the idea that when something consists of two irreconcilable forces the tension between those two forces will inevitably lead to its demise. In Marx’s theory, capitalism consisted of the irreconcilable interests of the factory owners and wealthy against the force of the workers, and his conclusion was that capitalism would inevitably fall and be consigned to history. Within the European Union, the two irreconcilable forces are the sovereignty of the member nations as opposed to the liberal left political project to swallow up the individual and diverse nations of Europe into one big Pan-European country that, they believe, will be on a par with the United States, China, and Russia. That political project is neither progressive nor is it a force for good. It’s a flawed historic mistake. It’s very telling that none of the other free trade organisations in the world such as those in Asia and South/Central America have chosen to emulate the European political project of gobbling up the sovereignty of its participating member states.

In conclusion, therefore, I suggest that criticising aspects of a political project or organisation in no way implicitly means doing a hatchet job or hatred of that project or organisation.

All the best. Regards.

Brian, Valencia

European Parliament gives initial backing to UK trade deal

The European Parliament’s committees on relations with Britain on Thursday (15 April) voted overwhelmingly in favour of the post-Brexit trade and cooperation agreement, clearing the path to its final ratification.

They had suspended voting in March in protest over British changes to trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, which Brussels says breach the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

The United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January after years of tortuous negotiations over their future relations but many details remain unclear, leading to acrimony.

The EU’s foreign affairs and trade committees backed the trade and cooperation agreement struck in December by 108 votes to one, with four abstentions, the parliament said in a statement.

The full chamber must still give its approval and, while it is clear the deal would receive majority backing, it is not certain that lawmakers will vote.

Parliament faces an end-April deadline but has said it wants to see Britain move on implementing the Northern Ireland protocol.

If there is no vote this month and provisional application of the agreement is not extended, then the trade deal would cease to apply, leaving Britain and the European Union to trade on World Trade Organization terms with tariffs and quotas.

Christophe Hansen, a lead lawmaker on post-Brexit ties, said Britain would not agree to another extension, meaning the end of April was a potential cliff edge. But he supported the agreement on Thursday.

“Plunging our companies into renewed uncertainty would be irresponsible and definitely in nobody’s interest,” he said.

Parliamentary leaders compromised this week by allowing the committee vote and could still decide to put the trade deal before the full chamber in its 26-29 April session.

The Brexit impact on Northern Ireland has helped fuel the worst violence in the province for years, but EU-UK rhetoric has dialled down and technical experts from both sides have sought to overcome differences.

British negotiator David Frost will meet European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic on Thursday evening. The Commission said the meeting was designed as a stock-taking exercise and to provide a steer for future talks.

Can the European Union prevent an artificial intelligence dystopia?

By Matthew Sparkes

                    <figure class="article-image-inline" data-method="caption-shortcode" readability="27"><img src="https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/ns-logo-for-featured-image.jpg?width=800" data-src="https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=300" data-srcset="https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=100 100w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=200 200w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=249 249w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=300 300w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=400 400w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=500 500w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=600 600w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=700 700w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=800 800w, https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/15115331/15-april_eu-ai.jpg?width=778 778w" sizes="(min-width: 1130px) 778px, (min-width: 1025px) calc(100vw - 352px), (min-width: 641px) calc(100vw - 30px), calc(100vw - 30px)" class="image lazyload " alt="Ursula von der Leyen" width="1200" height="800"/><figcaption readability="4"><p class="image__caption">European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen wants stricter controls on AI</p><p class="image__credit">Thierry Monasse/Getty Images</p></figcaption></figure>

A European Union plan to regulate artificial intelligence could see companies that break proposed rules on mass surveillance and discrimination fined millions of euros. Draft legislation, leaked ahead of its official release later this month, suggests the EU is attempting to find a “third way” on AI regulation, between the free market US and authoritarian China.

As presently worded, the rules would ban AI designed to manipulate people “to their detriment”, carry out indiscriminate surveillance or calculate “social scores”. Much of the language is vague enough that the regulations could cover the entire advertising industry or nothing at all. In any case, the military and any agency ensuring public security are exempt.

                
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Some “high risk” activities would be allowed, subject to strict controls, including measures to prevent bringing racial, gender or age bias into AI systems. As possible targets, the legislation mentions systems to automate job recruitment, assigning places at schools, colleges or universities, measuring credit scores or deciding the outcome of visa applications. Companies in breach could be fined up to €20 million, or 4 per cent of global turnover.

In a way, the news is no surprise, as the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised to urgently bring in AI legislation when she was elected in 2019. But Lilian Edwards at Newcastle University, UK, says the draft laws will concern the tech industry. “I applaud the ambition, but you can’t imagine it getting through in this state,” she says.

Edwards compares the approach to the way EU regulates consumer products, which must meet certain requirements to be imported. “That’s much harder to do with AI as it’s not always a simple product,” she says. “You’re heading inexorably towards a trade war with Silicon Valley or weak enforcement.”

China and the US have already made huge strides in implementing AI in a range of industries, including national security and law enforcement. In China, the everyday movement of citizens in many cities is monitored by facial recognition and there are many public and private trials of a “social credit score” that will ultimately be rolled out nationwide. These scores can be lowered by infractions such as playing computer games for too long or crossing the street on a red pedestrian light and can be raised by donating to charity. If your score drops too low, you may be denied rail travel or shamed in online lists.

Meanwhile, in the US, where many tech giants are based, a light-touch, free-market approach to regulation was encouraged by Donald Trump’s administration, while current president Joe Biden has taken no firm public stance.

Daniel Leufer at Access Now, one of the groups that has previously advised the EU on AI, says Europe has long had a strategy to take a third way between the US and China on tech regulation, and says the draft legislation has promise.

But he warns that there are “big red flags” around some elements of the draft legislation, such as the creation of a European Artificial Intelligence Board. “They will have a huge amount of influence over what gets added to or taken out of the high-risk list and the prohibitions list,” he says, meaning exactly who sits on the board will be key.

The EU has had previous success in influencing global tech policy. Its General Data Protection Regulation, introduced in 2018, inspired similar laws in non-EU countries and in California, the home of Silicon Valley. In response, however, some US firms have simply blocked EU customers from accessing their services.

It remains to be seen whether the UK will follow the EU in regulating AI now that it has left the bloc. The UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy told New Scientist that the government has formed an independent panel called the Regulatory Horizons Council to advise on what regulation is needed to react to new technology such as AI.

                    <section class="article-topics article-topics--row"><p class="font-sans-serif-xxs--bold">More on these topics: </p></section>                    

EU-UK trade deal moves toward ratification in European Parliament

The European Parliament’s foreign affairs and trade committees approved the EU-U.K. trade deal Thursday, moving the post-Brexit agreement a step closer to full ratification in the chamber.

The trade deal passed with an overwhelming 108 votes in favor, one vote against and four abstentions.

Earlier this week, leading MEPs once again refused to set a date to fully ratify the deal in plenary, saying they would wait until London gives reassurances it will apply the agreement. Political group leaders had decided in March to postpone their ratification vote after the U.K. unveiled plans to unilaterally extend grace periods on post-Brexit customs checks at Northern Ireland’s ports for at least six months.

“All progress could be lost, if the UK continues to unilaterally breach the Withdrawal Agreement and the Protocol on Northern Ireland,” said MEP Andreas Schieder, the rapporteur on the file for the foreign affairs committee, from the center-left Socialists & Democrats group. “We look forward to a workable plan on the implementation of the protocol.”

Both sides have been applying the deal provisionally since January 1, pending EU parliamentary scrutiny and ratification. But the temporary application period will lapse on April 30, meaning the European Parliament would have to greenlight the deal this month or risk causing major disruption in EU-U.K. trade relations and cooperation.

“No responsible politician will be able to justify [withholding ratification] after April because if we don’t ratify it, we will be back to zero, and the agreement will not be effective anymore, so this would damage majorly both economies,” said Christophe Hansen from the center-right EPP group, rapporteur for the trade committee.

Key MEPs are set meet on April 22 and to potentially schedule the plenary vote.

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European Parliament’s cinema prize receives revamp

Did you know that the European Parliament is the only institution of its kind that together with the European Film Academy presents a film award?

Established in 2007 as a symbol of the EP’s commitment to culture on the old continent, the LUX Film Award has helped promote more than 100 films. In 2021 the revamped “LUX European Audience Film Award” has welcomed European citizens in the winner selection process. The most notable change is seen in the voting system. Starting this year, the winner will be selected jointly by MEPs and the public.

“MEPs and the audience each represent 50% of the vote and I think this is extremely positive,” MEP Andrey Slabakov, who is also a director and screenwriter, says. “The voice of the audience has always been important for people who make movies. And I don’t mean commercial movies. We need to make films about thinking people; these are most of the people in the EU and on the planet as a whole.”

The three films – finalists for the LUX European Audience Film Award have been selected by a 20-member committee that includes representatives of the European film industry.

To be eligible for selection, films must meet certain criteria. One of them is that they should be the result of productions or co-productions that meet the conditions of the MEDIA Sub-programme of Creative Europe.

<p>"They should deal with universal topics  that do not have to be social. There are no specific genre requirements,”  Andrey Slabakov says. “What impresses me is that these are three completely  different films and that makes me happy.”</p>  <p>According to the Bulgarian MEP, the requirement  that the films should be financed under the Creative Europe program is a kind  of obstacle to the participation of Bulgarian films in the competition.  However, there is a Bulgarian trace in the competition.</p>  <p>LUX - the European Audience Film Award by the  European Parliament and the European Film Academy aims to support European  cinema in overcoming weaknesses in distribution. It is a fact that most  European films are not screened outside their country of origin. Andrey  Slabakov has told us what would happen to the winning film:</p>    <p>"It will be presented in all countries and  it will receive translations in absolutely all official European languages. It  will be screened in cinemas and I hope it would attract enough audience.”</p>  <p>May 23 is the deadline for voting. The winning  film will be announced at the LUX European Audience Film Award ceremony on June  9, 2021 in the European Parliament.</p>      <p>English: Alexander Markov</p>    Photos: europarl.europa.eu, Facebook /andrey.p.slabakov                <br/></span>

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