WELCOME DELEGATES Regional Session Helsinki 2019
BOOKLET
FOR
Table of Content
Table of Content..................................................................................................... 2 Welcome Note....................................................................................................... 3 INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK & STAKEHOLDERS...................................................4 The United Nations (UN)..................................................................................... 4 Council of Europe............................................................................................... 5 The European Union........................................................................................... 5 TIPS ON RESEARCHING.......................................................................................... 8 UNDERSTANDING LEGISLATION............................................................................. 9 Committee on Foreign Affairs - AFET...................................................................11 Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development - AGRI...................................16 Committee on Culture and Education - CULT.......................................................23 Committee on Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety - ENVI....................30 Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection - IMCO.........................36 Committee on Industry, Research and Energy - ITRE..........................................42 Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs - LIBE.............................49 Committee on Security and Defence - SEDE.......................................................57
Welcome Note Dear Delegates, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome each and every one of you to Helsinki 2019! My name is Elisavet, I come for Greece and for the duration of this event, I will be serving as the President of the session. Whether this is a totally new experience for you or something you are already familiar with, it is my pleasure to have you join myself and the rest of our volunteers in what I believe will be an extremely impactful couple of days for you. The European Youth Parliament is an organisation run by people just like you. Young volunteers from all over Europe come together in every event to discuss, interact and bring forward the voice of the youth in regards to European matters. This session is an opportunity for you to learn and grow in a positive working environment where you will be heard, respected and encouraged. This document has been drafted by the Chairs’ Team of the session to approach each individual topic and give you more information that will enhance and support your own research. Make the best out of it and broaden your ideas with what the Chairs have prepared for you. I hope you are as excited as we are and that you will fully take advantage of this experience. Once more, I am happy to welcome you and I look forward to see what each one of you brings to this session for it to come to life. Enjoy the read and the ride! All the best on behalf of the Chairs’ Team, Elisavet Sidiropoulou (President)
INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK & STAKEHOLDERS When searching for the best solutions for the key questions of your topic, you can choose the right actor for a specific action. There is no strict rule that resolutions must be implemented only through European Union organs. The main stakeholders possible are: the United Nations (global level - 193 states out of approx. 195 in the world), the Council of Europe (European states - 47), European Union (28 members, potentially soon to be 27), individual states, civil society1 and individuals. Several other international organisations exist that might be of relevance to specific topics. Keep in mind that coordinated actions are often needed, and while on the ‘smallest’ scale, actions that individuals can take in their own communities can have a great impact. You are invited to reflect on the scope needed for your action to be feasible: Who is best to implement it? Who will be most successful in doing so? The following pages offer brief descriptions of the main stakeholders, topics covered and powers. The United Nations (UN) The UN is an international organisation comprising 193 member states. It aims to: maintain international peace and security; develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation in solving problems of concern to the entire world2. It has 6 main organs3, among which the following two are the most relevant: The General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN, where all members are represented. Its resolutions may not be binding on states, but they are useful in understanding the position of states, and carry significant soft power 4.
1 Non-governmental organisations and institutions expressing/advocating for specific causes. promoting the will of citizens.
2 See further UN Charter (1948), article 1. 3 See further, UN, Main organs. 4 In contrast to the coercive nature of hard power, soft power describes the use of positive attraction and persuasion to achieve foreign policy objectives. Joseph Nye’s three pillars of soft power are: political values, culture, and foreign policy.
The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Its decisions are binding on UN member states. It is formed of 15 members, including 10 rotating members and 5 permanent ones (USA, UK, France, Russia and China). The UN system consists of numerous specialized agencies, programmes, funds, as well as subsidiary organs of the main UN organs 5. The topic overviews point out the UN entities that have a mandate in a relevant area. Council of Europe The Council of Europe is an international organisation comprising 47 member states including non-EU states such as Russia. It promotes and protects human rights, democracy, rule of law and European culture through international cooperation in the areas of human rights, democracy and it is not part of the European Union. The general aims of the Council of Europe are to: • Protect human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in all its member states; • Promote awareness and encourage cultural identity and diversity of Europe; • Seek solutions to (social) problems facing European society; • Consolidate democratic stability in Europe; • Promote social cohesion and social rights; and • Promote and develop a European cultural identity with emphasis on education. The Council of Europe: • Is an international organisation; • It is not a part of the European Union; • Does not have legislative power - its member states are cooperating on a voluntary basis. The European Union The European Union currently has 28 Member States. It is a supranational organisation with the ability to create legislation which all members must obey. It is the primary platform for European cooperation. Knowledge of the specific details of how the EU functions is not directly relevant for most of our topics. Instead, this section will cover the actions the main EU institutions can take. 5 For a comprehensive overview, see UN, Funds, Programmes, Specialized Agencies and others; UN, The United Nations System chart.
European Council - Setting the strategy Role: Defines the EU’s general political direction and priorities; Members: Heads of state or government from each member state, the president of the European Council and the president of the European Commission; Actions you can ask the European Council to take: • Decide on the direction for the EU and EU foreign policy; • Ask the European Commission to initiate proposals for legislation. European Parliament - The voice of the people Role: Directly elected legislative arm of the EU; Members: 751 directly elected members; Actions you can ask the European Parliament to take: • Amends and adopts the proposed legislative acts; • Supervise other institutions; • Ask the European Commission to propose legislation; • Debate on international agreements. European Commission - Promoting the common interest Role: Executive arm of the EU that proposes laws, policies agreements and promotes the Union’s general interests; it is the political leadership of the Union; Members: College of Commissioners, one from each member state - each commissioner is assigned a specific policy area; Actions you can ask the European Commission to take: • Propose legislation to Parliament and the Council; • Represent the EU internationally; • Negotiate international agreements; • Implement EU policies. Council of the European Union - The voice of the member states Role: Deciding on policies and adopting legislation, coordinating actions in member states; Members: Government representatives on a ministerial level from each member state; Actions you can ask the Council of the European Union to take: • Pass legislation together with the Parliament; • Coordinate actions in member states; • Conclude international agreements. Competences of the European Union In some policy areas, the EU has exclusive competence, which means that decisions are taken at EU level. In other policy areas, there is shared competence between the Union and the member states. This means that if legislation is passed at EU level, then these laws have priority. If no legislation is adopted at EU level, then the individual member states may legislate at national level.
Note that there is often a nuance in the overlap between these. For example, although fisheries is a shared competence, the conservation of fisheries is an exclusive competence. In all other policy areas, the decisions remain with the member states. Exclusive
Shared
Support, coordinate and supplement
Customs
Internal Market
Most human policies
Eurozone policy
monetary Social policies pertaining Industry to aspects defined in the TFEU
Conservation of marine Economic, social resources territorial cohesion Common policy
health
and Culture
commercial Agriculture and fisheries
Conclusion of Environment international agreements Consumer protection under certain conditions
Education and training Civil protection disaster prevention
Transport Trans-European networks Establishment of Energy competition rules for the functioning of the internal market Area of justice Certain policies
Tourism
and
Administrative cooperation Coordination of economic, employment and social policies
freedom public
and
health
Research, technological development and space Development cooperation humanitarian aid
and
TIPS ON RESEARCHING Why research? At an EYP event you have the exciting opportunity to share opinions on interesting topics which are of concern to our generation and the world. It’s not only about discussing, it’s about coming up together with solutions to the key question of your topic. In order to make discussions more interesting, to enable you to fully take part in them, and to make sure your ideas for solving the problem are feasible, you need to have a good understanding of the current state of affairs and what has already been attempted, what has worked and what has not. What to research Start from the Topic Overview. Make sure you understand the concepts and phenomena revolving around your topic. The topic overview should offer concrete leads for you to follow, offering food for thought based on the aim to be achieved and what the situation is, as well as material indicated in the footnotes. How to research - Tips & tricks • Have a system - write down things you want to look into. Do it one at a time. There is so much information, it’s easy to get distracted and lose focus. • ‘There’s nothing new under the sun’ - chances are, whatever you’re wondering about has already been asked, and potentially already answered. If you can’t find what you’re looking for at the first go, it might be worth rephrasing your search terms. • If you can’t find it on Google, try Google Books and Google Scholar. • Make sure to distinguish facts from opinions (even if of experts/academics). • It’s all in the sources - is the information confirmed by other sources? Are they reliable, trusted sources? Have you ever heard of the website before? Do they make wild claims you can’t find elsewhere? What potential bias should be considered (could the source be pushing for a certain side to a story)? Check the (legal) notice at the bottom of the website to find out more about the author/initiator. • Check the date of the source - if it’s from 2002, chances are more things have happened since then. • Keep track - you know that website where you found an idea that you thought was interesting but not essential to the topic? The idea that you realised later on it was actually crucial? We’ve all been there. Write it down - keep track. You can add a bookmark folder for the session where you bookmark websites you come across as interesting. Or you can use a word document where you list the links with a few quick words on what you found there. You’ll thank yourself later.
• You’re not alone - your chair is always there for you and happy to assist you throughout your research process. Don’t hesitate to ask what and how and where to research certain things if you feel you are stuck. Share with other delegates what you found and what you’re missing - discussing what you found so far will help you process the information and better identify what else you want to look into.
UNDERSTANDING LEGISLATION Step One - Don’t Panic! Most laws you will find are written in plain, clear, and simple language. You need no prior experience or knowledge to understand them. In fact, most of the Officials learnt to read legislation through EYP, just like you are about to. Step Two - Be Prepared Research the context of the law - and read a summary before you read any actual legislation. You can find good summaries for EU law on the europa.eu website, often either beside the text or in a press release. Try searching on Google “(name of legislation) summary”. You can even find decent summaries on Wikipedia and in legal journals and blogs, but be careful about opinions being presented as facts. For this reason, you should also be careful if using news articles to get your legislation summaries. Step Three - Get a Rough Idea This may sound obvious, but read the Table of Contents (this might be a list of Articles or similar, depending on what you’re looking at, but you get the idea). This will give you an idea of the structure, and an overview of what is covered. It is useful to know the outline of what is included and what is not, and you can use this knowledge to make decisions in the final step. Step Four - Get Straight to the Point Before reading anything, think about what you want to learn. You don’t have to read the whole thing, and legislation is rarely read for fun. You are probably looking for something in particular, like a specific detail. You should already think about what kind of answer will satisfy you. Once you know what you’re looking for, use Ctrl + F to literally find what you’re looking for. Step Five - So What Does This Mean? In most cases you can interpret legislation literally - it should mean what it says. If it is not clear what the legislation means, you have to work out the intention behind it, and try to interpret it accordingly. You might consider: • Who does this legislation apply to? • Who would be impacted by this legislation being enforced; or not enforced? • What was the intention behind setting this?
• Was this replaced by a more recent piece of legislation? • What is the power of the act: is it legally binding (mandatory) or advisory?
Material made available by the Governing Body based on the academic prep kit for Trondheim International Session. You are more than welcome to make use of this section for any future EYP event, for the purpose of facilitating academic preparation of participants. If you do so, please include this footnote. For any questions, reach out to gb@eyp.org.
Committee on Foreign Affairs - AFET “From West to East: With China covering the role of one of the EU’s biggest international trade partners, how can the EU foster deeper economic cooperation with China while upholding its high standards of human rights and the rule of law? ”
Dara Cindrea (RO) and Emily Kautto (FI)
Relevance of the topic With China being the EU’s second biggest trading partner after the United States, fostering good economic relations with the country is of utmost importance for the EU. Over the past few years, China’s global political influence and economic power have grown considerably, causing both positive and negative effects. Given the difference in the models of governance, the relationship between China and the EU is a very complex one. The alliance that has been formed in regards to trading, tackling climate change and attaining world peace is in balance with the rivalry that exists in terms of technological advancement and the fundamental ideologies that both parties are trying to get across. The EU’s objectives are very clear: deepening the engagement with China so as to promote common interests on a global level and seeking a more reciprocal governing of the economic relationship. Aside from that, it is of the utmost importance that the domestic policies of the EU are adapted for such cooperation, as full unity throughout the European Union is the only way to find the right political balance that will allow the EU to prosperously cooperate with China.
Core concepts ● Rule of law is one of the fundamental values upon which the EU is based. It is one amongst several principles that are together regarded as defining to the EU policy and common to the Member States. The rule of law guarantees fundamental values and rights, supports an investment-friendly business environment and allows the application of EU law.
� EU’s trade policy is used to promote social and safety standards, human rights, sustainable development and environmental safety. � Model of governance is the mechanism used to translate governance framework into actual practices and procedures, determining structures as well as how decisions are being made.
Stakeholders and measures in place
The European Commission is tasked to promote an international system based on stronger multilateral cooperation and global governance, along with upholding and promoting its values in foreign affairs. It has the right to make recommendations to the Council of the European Union, which might authorise it to open the necessary negotiations. The European Commission has the right to negotiate trade agreements on behalf of the Member States in accordance with the special committees.
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is a multilateral agency overseeing national policies in relation to trade. It is founded on core principles, that include free trade, non-discrimination, and predictability through transparency. It does not allow its members to benefit from its system to enforce the rights and obligations other than defined in its legal order, which is based on international laws. It sets international trade regulations and rules. Some of them are aimed at less discrimination as well as for freer trade. More predictability, promoting fair competition and encouraging development and economic reform have been goals for some rules as well.
The European Parliament strongly encourages the implementation of human rights and sustainable development linkages in trade negotiations. The EU officially handles external trade negotiations on behalf of all Member States, and it advocates for the harnessing of globalisation and
free trade market, whilst
aiming to maintain the high standards of labour that are ensured by the European Charter of Human Rights. In order to ensure the accomplishment of the aforementioned goals, The Trade Policy Committee has the duty to assist and advise all trade
negotiations and is tasked with dealing with bilateral trade relations and new EU legislation within trade policy areas.
The EU also set a new strategy with China, called the EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation. This new strategy promotes fair competition in all areas of cooperation as well as includes a trade agenda with the goal of improving market access opportunities, accelerate economic, social and environmental rebalancing and a shift to consumption-driven growth, as well as to continue rule of law reform and anti-corruption efforts.
At the United Nations Human Rights Council 25 countries have issued a joint statement, due to the recent Xinjiang scandal, in which over 1 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims have been held in mass detention in what were called “political education� camps. In the joint statement, the humanity of the arbitrary detention of such a large religious minority was called into question.
China and Russia recently released a joint statement where they committed to deepen bilateral economic and financial relations. After the crisis in Ukraine in 2014, the European Council suspended the negotiations it had with Russia on a new agreement on trade and investment relations. After this, the willingness of the EU to cooperate with Russia has dropped, as both Russia and the EU have filed four disputes against each other on the World Trade Organisation. Russia and China have agreed to aim to double their trade volume and this has contradicted the EU's stance on cooperation with Russia.
Key conflicts The biggest conflicts between China and the EU come down to the models of governance of the two parties. With China being a communist federation and the EU wholeheartedly advocating for democracy, issues such as civil liberties, human rights and economic development remain far from being common ground.
China has committed to upholding the rules imposed by international law. Nevertheless, it seems that in the process of doing so, China has become somewhat selective. One example of this is the recent Xinjiang scandal, in which over 1 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims are held in mass detention in what were called “political education” camps. The issue has called into question the humanity of the arbitrary detention of such a large religious minority, and is justified by the fact that even though the Chinese constitution ensures freedom of religious belief, over a dozen religious groups are banned and seen as “evil cults”.
The EU also has freedom of speech as one of its core values, whereas in China, the only people allowed to publicly express any criticism on the Communist Party are the Senior Members of that same Party, ordinary people benefitting from no kind of freedom to political expression. In addition to that, there are strict regulations in regards to media exposure, causing certain aspects to be kept hidden from the general public. A good example is the censorship of the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody”, where any LGBT scenes were cut out of the movie before it was released to the Chinese public. With the EU advocating for freedom of speech and religious expression the discrepancies in ideologies cause major gaps in the relations fostered with China.
Furthermore, China is an extremely relevant actor when it comes to maintaining peace
and
security
on
a
global
level.
Its
involvement
in
the
Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action for Iran and the denuclearisation of North Korea have been crucial. Nevertheless, its maritime claims in the South China Sea have set barriers in resolving the tension within the sea-lanes of communication that the EU needs for a prosperous economy.
From an economic standpoint, China has invested in many developing countries, including the Western Balkan States, thus helping them attain a certain level of economic stability. However, this has set several barriers for the EU, as China’s loans ensure that the Chinese market in developing countries benefits from state-backed loans, which is something that the EU cannot compete with. What is more, with the Chinese government intervening strongly in all economyrelated
aspects,
the
Chinese
market
is
monopolised
by
state-owned
companies, this being in contradiction with the EU’s goals to make the free market accessible.
Food for thought
● Given the vast differences between the ideologies of China and the EU, finding a middle ground is crucial. How can the EU fruitfully collaborate with China, while upholding its trade policy? ● Can third parties such as WTO be of assistance? ● How can the EU further perpetuate its high standards of human rights? ● Keeping in mind all of the existing dissonance, how can the EU define its relationship with China? ● What are the risks of losing China as a pa
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development - AGRI “Food no more: With glaciers melting, record-high temperatures and a burning rainforest, global warming is changing the conditions for agricultural farmers rapidly. How can the EU support farmers efficiently while promoting a more eco-friendly way of farming within the EU?�
Aarni Rantanen (FI) and Dimitris Dimoulios (GR)
Relevance of the topic
For decades now, EU agriculture has been one of the most significant producers of food in the world. Therefore, it is no surprise that the EU's farm sector feeds over 500 million citizens every year and consequently covers about 48% of all the land area and gives employment to 44 million people in the EU. Clearly, agriculture holds a very significant role in the European economy, welfare and culture. This significance is furthermore underlined if one were to look at emission statistics from the EU: agriculture contributes to the EU's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with a staggering
ten percent, whereas industrial
processes only hold eight percent, for example. Additionally, concerns over fertilizer-driven eutrophication, loss of biodiversity, and soil degradation are becoming increasingly louder.
Even though farming is essential to human life and the EU must meet the needs of its ever-growing population, something is going to have to change because the current methods used are placing an unsustainable burden on the environment and depleting scarce natural resources. Interestingly, the farming sector is also one of the most vulnerable sectors when it comes to weather and natural catastrophes. As the EU wants to meet its set emission targets, protect its nature and biodiversity but also its millions of farmers, and of course avoid problems with food
shortages, solutions for sustainable productivity growth must be created quickly. This is no simple task as there seems to be a trade-off between efficiency and greenness. What are the mitigation actions the EU can take that are cost-effective and robust enough and yet, do not compromise the quality or quantity of agricultural production? Are the solutions in policies and strict quotas or should consumer behaviour and innovation be emphasized? Only one thing is clear, if the EU wishes to still be able to feed its people in 100 years, decisions must be made.
Core concepts ● Natural Greenhouse Effect: Refers to the way the Earth's atmosphere traps some of the energy from the Sun. Solar energy radiating back out to space from the Earth's surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases and re-emitted in all directions. The energy that radiates back down to the planet heats both the lower atmosphere and the surface. Without this effect, the Earth would be about 30°C colder, making our planet hostile to life. ● Climate change: This term states a climate transition. It refers to the increase of average temperatures at the atmosphere and the oceans. This is caused by the addition to the natural greenhouse effect with gases released from industry and agriculture, known as emissions, trapping more energy and increasing the temperature. Large scale changes such as deforestation, soil erosion or machine-intensive farming methods contribute to increased gases concentrations in the atmosphere. On the other hand, the consequences of climate change to agriculture vary. For instance, more droughts and floods in agricultural regions, reduction of corp diversity due to the above circumstances. As a result, the prices of everyday agricultural goods are increased because of the adversity of growing crops. ● Sustainable Intensification: Aims to have a smaller environmental footprint by minimising the use of fertilisers and pesticides, generating lower emissions of such greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide and, at the same time, contributing to the delivery and maintenance of a range of public goods, such as clean water, carbon sequestration, flood protection, groundwater recharge and landscape amenity value.
Stakeholders and measures in place
The European Commission is the major EU institution that both creates and enforces legislation and treaties in the union. The EU holds a shared competence in the area of agriculture so the European Commission is free to propose legislation as it sees fit in this case. The European Commission has already
launched
multiple
programmes
that
aim
for
sustainable
intensification in the EU, the most significant of them being the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This policy has been in place since 1962 and has seen a progressive shift towards tackling the environmental effects of farming as
the older model completely overlooked these issues and only supported efficiency. However, the effectiveness of these new measures has been debated on as significant
results are yet to be seen. The Commission also invests in sustainable farming in its 2020 Climate and Energy Package that includes such programmes as the EIP-AGRI innovation project that aims to bring together stakeholders such as farmers, businesses, non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The continuation of these programmes after 2020 is still uncertain. Additionally, the Commission supervises the organic farming schemes in the EU that also contribute to sustainability. The
United
Nations (UN) with organisations such as the
Food
and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims to tackle many problems relating to sustainable farming in the EU. These international organisations have played a key role in knowledgesharing between countries to find the best practices for farming. Additionally, the Paris Agreement of the UNFCCC in 2015 is nowadays the base for many climate policies like the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) which include a variety of policy suggestions relevant to sustainable farming. This is a promising start but as the NDCs are not legally enforced and are quite heterogeneous among the Member States, the effectiveness of them is being questioned.
The Member States put EU policy in action and may additionally set other incentives and policies for agriculture. It is important to note that Member States face largely different challenges when it comes to sustainable farming and have varying amounts of resources to tackle these issues. A country like the Netherlands has been able to set strict
zero-emission
goals
for
the
near
future,
whereas for Eastern-European nations this would be impossible to implement currently.
The agricultural sector is at stake in this topic as farmers themselves have the most to lose and gain in the short run. It is a fact that the farmers will naturally favour the most cost-effective options for farming. These decisions are affected by their education and knowledge level, amount of technological research and development (R&D) and incentives or disincentives from the government.
The consumers are the final important stakeholders as their behaviour directly affects the markets. Those products that have a higher demand will be produced more, whether they are sustainable or not. The question is, how can consumer behaviour be changed so that the EU goals for sustainable farming are met.
Key conflicts The world’s population continues to increase. It is estimated that in 2050 the world population
reaches about 10 billion people.
At the same time there is
going to be less food because, due to the climate change, there is going to be be less available arable lands. To make matters worse, farmers still prefer the traditional way of farming using conventional fertilizers and pesticides. In order to increase their profit, they are unwilling to engage in innovative and sustainable farming techniques. They lack the appropriate training, the means and the motivation for a more eco-friendly way of farming. The EU and its Member States have a lot of incentives for being green but these do not affect farmers’ mindsets about greenness and the need for sustainability in the long run. The farmers lack of the right theoretical education and practical training concerning the eco-friendly farming. Although, there have been efforts from the EU to update the knowledge of farmers through a lot of seminars or vocational programs, the results remain the same; the farmers continue
cultivating
the
fields
without
thinking
about
greenness
and
sustainability. It is very difficult for agricultural companies and farmers to be eco-friendly. Following green and sustainable methods of farming has proven to be more timeconsuming and less productive. This is why farmers still prefer conventional ways of farming. In case they decided to implement organic farming they would be obliged to stop using fertilizers and pesticides, which contain chemicals. Instead they would use composted fertilizers, manure and biological pesticides. In that way the production would be healthier. On the other hand, the output of such a kind of farming would probably not be enough for the increasing population needs as it is more time consuming to wait for these methods to prove their efficiency. Further, common policies such as the CAP cannot be implemented in the same way in different Member States. Agricultural policies within Member States are followed differently, because the needs are different, such as a varying soil texture and morphology, climate and farming conditions. Finally, there are a lot of differences among Member States regarding the amount of money that is spent on agricultural research as well as the grants and subventions that are given directly to the farmers.
Food for thought As it has now become evident, agriculture has a very significant role in the EU and its environment. Many measures have already been tried to increase the sustainability of farming. To improve, it is key to learn from the past and recognise what did not work in these policies. What are the specific weaknesses of the policies? There has been a mindset that greener farming will be paid for with efficiency. Are there win-win policies that tackle both and what is a good balance between hard monetary incentives and laws compared to more soft approaches? And what soft approaches can the EU take and with what stakeholders so that it does not overstep its boundaries? These can, in theory, include research and development, education, and creating cooperation, for example, but what are they in practice? And one must give some thought for what actions are prompt enough so that the EU can meet its climate goals in time but that do not compromise the farmers’ income or food security in Europe.
● AGRI YouTube playlist – This is a playlist that contains multiple interesting videos that explain core concepts and conflicts in this topic. ● The consequences of climate change for EU agriculture – A PowerPoint presentation prepared by the European Parliament and the Institute for European Environmental Policy ● Policy support for productivity vs. sustainability in EU agriculture – An academic study written by the policy department of the European parliament. (Only read summaries and key findings sections.) ● CAP indicators – Visualised data about CAP performance in the EU as presented by the European Commission ● Environment and Agriculture – An environmental fact site on the European Commission’s website ● The state of food and agriculture – A briefing of FAOs SOFA report for the year 2016 ● Why it’s been so lucrative to destroy the Amazon rainforest – A Vox article written by Umair Irfan ● 115 NGOs call for major review of EU food & farming policy – A European Environmental Agency article about CAP and a few NGOs’ opinion about the policy
● Reporting on sustainability – A report on auditing sustainability in the EU made by the European Court of Auditors. (Only glance through main points.)
Committee on Culture and Education - CULT “Linguistic heritage: With 24 recognised official languages, the EU’s multilingualism goal is for every European to speak 2 languages in addition to their mother tongue. How should the EU foster language learning across Member States in order to improve social integration and enhance its citizens’ skillset on the job market?”
Julie Heroldová (CZ) and Neil Faber (BE)
Relevance of the topic The language we speak plays a key role in our communication with the world. It provides us with the ability to shape our thoughts and ideas, express our emotions and create a relationship with society. It is also an undoubted part of every culture’s identity. With the European Union having the status of an intergovernmental supranational organisation, one of its founding principles is multilingualism. In 2019, 35.2% of the EU's citizens were reported to be bilingual, 21% trilingual and 8.4% possessed the knowledge of 3 or more foreign languages. This means that 35.4% of the EU's citizens were reported not to know how to speak a language other than their mother tongue.
EU citizens’ knowledge of languages other than their mother tongue is necessary for
both
individuals
and
businesses.
Not
only
for
improving
the
competitiveness of the EU’s economy and the effectiveness of the trade across the EU, but also to enhance individuals’ skills and mobility, thus increasing their value on the job market and expanding their horizons of further opportunities. Learning another language increases one’s awareness
about the world around them and makes them more open-minded to other people and their cultures as well. The EU’s long-term goal for the future is for all citizens to speak at least 2 foreign languages in addition to their mother tongue. To fulfil this goal, the European Commission in cooperation with the Member States focuses on increasing the language learning efficiency in schools, empowers young people by creating various opportunities to study or work abroad and helps the language industry, in general, to grow in the future. How can the EU Commission in cooperation with the Member States ensure quality education for every citizen and what further steps can it take to meet the bold goal as soon as possible?
Core concepts ● Multilingualism - Crucial in understanding the topic, multilingualism can be defined as “the ability of an individual speaker or a community of speakers to communicate effectively in three or more languages.” Because of the cultural diversity of the EU, multilingualism is protected in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. ● Importance of multilingualism - In a global economy, multilingualism is an important asset to keep the European workforce competitive. Furthermore, according to a 2010 Eurobarometer study, over 60% of employers consider foreign language skills an important asset for job applicants on the labour market. ● EU 2020 goals - Europe 2020 is a 10-year plan for the EU that the aim of “Smart inclusive growth”. One of its main targets is to reduce unemployment from its current 31% to a maximum of 25%. To do so, one of its bigger initiatives is to improve European education systems. ● European Strategic Framework for Education and Training (ET 2020) - This framework adds on the Europe 2020 strategy and aims to promote life-long learning and mobility, as well as improve education quality in the EU. ● Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) - European indicator made to provide a clear and coherent structure to language learning and teaching.
Stakeholders and measures in place
N.B.: To start with, it is important to acknowledge that, as this is a cultural matter, the EU has only a supportive competence on the subject. This means that an “action taken by the EU does not prevent a Member State from taking action of their own; ” it cannot enforce a harmonisation of individual national laws. Put simply, the Union can only “support, coordinate or supplement” Member States’ decisions. To do so, it has set up several cooperation initiatives between Member States, starting with Working Groups to work on achieving the ET 2020 goals.
The Education, Youth and Culture Council (EYCS) - Made up of the ministers of education, culture, youth, media, communication and sport of each EU
Member
State,
the
council
works
with
incentive
measures
and
recommendations. The projects it funds and creates, such as Erasmus+, can have a very direct impact on EU citizens. The EYCS is the parent organisation of most of the stakeholders listed below.
Relating language curricula, tests and examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference (RELANG) initiative - RELANG is an initiative that aims to provide training to local actors in the language teaching field, and hence uniformise language test all over Europe so they meet the CEFR requirements. To achieve this, RELANG has already created and given several modules on teaching foreign languages and adapting language examinations to CEFR regulations. They have also developed an online platform to aid said actors in making language tests in connection with the CEFR. European Language Label (ELL) - The ELL is an award given to local, regional and national projects in Erasmus+ countries that have found ways to better the quality of language teaching, or the number of languages taught, in creative ways in an effort to motivate students to learn a foreign language. They have also made these initiatives accessible to the greater public by creating a database with the prize’s winners to allow the greater public to gain inspiration from them.
The Erasmus+ programme - Erasmus+ is a conglomerate of several former organisations that has the aim of contributing to the EU 2020 et ET 2020 goals for social inclusion and mobility through learning. Erasmus+ is best known for its student exchange programmes. They allow students to learn a
new language and experience a new culture, which a 2017 study showed increased their employability significantly. But Erasmus + also works on a variety of other projects that promote social mobility, such as “Let Us Speak”, a project that aimed to improve the level of english of primary school students from four different countries by encouraging them to speak up and learn the language that way.
Key conflicts Contrast in language skills across Member States While monolingual EU citizens (36%) are a minority today, there is still an apparent contrast between certain Member States. For example, in Romania (64.2%) or Bulgaria (50.5%) over half of the citizens aged 25-64 don’t speak any language other than their mother tongue, while in Sweden it’s only less than 4% of citizens. In Luxembourg, 51.2% of work-aged citizens were reported to know three or more languages, while in Poland or Hungary it’s less than 3%. While bilingualism and multilingualism are common in certain EU’s countries (Luxembourg, Belgium, The Netherlands), second language learning is embedded in all countries. How can these differences be eliminated?
Efficiency of language teaching The efficiency of language learning in schools plays an important part in enhancing citizens’ language skills. It is closely related to the age when a foreign language is introduced in the school curriculum, the importance it gets compared to other subjects and of course, the quality of the teacher. It is widely believed that after the age of seven children start to lose the natural ability to reproduce new sounds, making the learning of another language slower and more difficult. How can the Member States improve the quality of language learning in schools?
The cost of multilingualism Bilingual schools are a great opportunity to start actively learning a foreign language at an early age, but the majority of schools of this type are private and
therefore not accessible to everyone, just like private language lessons outside of the school curriculum. Furthermore, while the average annual salary of a teacher in Luxembourg can get over 90.000 Euros, the average annual salary of a teacher in the Czech Republic can be up to ten times lower. An enormous difference like this can have a big impact on teachers’ motivation and thus the efficiency of their teaching performance. What can the European Commission and the Member States do to provide efficient and affordable language education for its citizens together with ensuring that teachers get a proper financial evaluation in every Member State?
Extinction of unofficial languages of the EU While there are only 24 official languages recognized by the EU today, 60 unofficial languages of certain regions or minority groups (Regional and Minority Languages - RMLs) are spoken by approximately 40 to 50 million of the EU’s citizens. The current political and economic situation in the EU makes it not able to fully support the preservation of RMLs and thus preventing the risk of their extinction and the loss of the EU’s cultural heritage. Should the EU recognize more languages as official? How can it support the minorities that use RMLs and prevent their extinction?
Food for thought How can the EU Commission in cooperation with the Member States eliminate differences between language learning efficiency across the Member States?
What further steps can the EU Commission in cooperation with the Member States take to meet its goal for citizens to speak at least two languages in addition to their mother tongue? In keeping with the ET goal of lifelong learning, how can the EU promote language learning outside the boundaries of the classic education system? And for further reading ● ● ● ● ●
Multilingualism Policy Foreign Language Learning Statistics New Perspective on Language Learning Competences Kristina Cunningham, Multilingualism and Straight Bananas, Youtube https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/j/dcse.2016.7.issue-1/dcse-20160008/dcse-2016-0008.pdf - Language education for sustainable development ● Mike Hammersley, A ‘Framework’ for Business Language? The Business Platform for Multilingualism and beyond, ● Report from the thematic working group "Languages for Jobs" European Strategic Framework for Education and Training (ET 2020) ● Should English be the official language of the EU
Committee on Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety - ENVI “Mens sana in corpore sano: Taking into account that one in nine Europeans suffer from depression and 90% of suicides are caused by mental disorders, how can the European Union ensure that people that suffer from such conditions receive quality treatment and support in workplaces and educational institutions?�
Loukia Batzili (GR) and Madara Kivleniece (LV)
Relevance of the topic
More than one in six Europeans had a mental health problem in 2016, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHEM). Statistics also show that 4 million patients with mental health illnesses were released from hospitals. Due to the lack of awareness concerning mental health quite a few people who are diagnosed with such disorders can be victims of bullying and harassment. They can also be denied to access basic human rights such as food, shelter, work and education opportunities. There are a variety of different mental diseases, including affective (mood) disorders like depression, anxiety disorders or substance abuse. In multiple cases, they occur alongside others. The right to mental health is one of the fundamental rights recognised by the international community. It is secured under Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a part of the right to health. Good health condition facilitates efficient involvement in society through learning, working, and other means of cooperation.
Taking into account all the facts, the questions remain: are good treatment and equal attitude towards mentally-ill people even possible in the near future? What can you, as an EU citizen, do in order to take a step in the right direction? https://www.ymadvocacy.org/about-us/
Core concepts ● Mental health: Psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness ● Good mental health: A vital component of the overall health level which is determined by many factors, including socioeconomic, environmental and biological. A social change, gender bias, unhealthy lifestyle, physical health problems, human rights violations and even stressful work conditions - these are only some of the factors associated with poor mental health. ● Prevention of mental illness (PMI) and mental health promotion (MHP): Successful attempts to reduce mental health problems and their negative consequences. ● Psychotherapy: A set of techniques to help a person change behaviour and treat mental health illness. Psychotherapy has many diverse approaches such as interpersonal therapy, cognitivebehavioural approach or attachment theories. Which form is suitable for an individual hinges on a personality and a disease, as well as its state. Stakeholders and measures in place
The European Union (EU) has shown great interest towards its citizens’ mental health and recognises its primary importance. However, the EU has a supportive role when it comes to health, which means that the EU cannot interfere with Member States’ laws but only support and compliment them. The Joint Action for Mental Health, that was running up until 2018, was trying to promote mental health in schools and workplaces amongst other things. There is also the EU-Compass for Mental Health and Wellbeing , which mainly collects and analyses information concerning action in mental health. Each Member State is responsible for drafting their own legislation about health and that includes mental health. In some states, immediate action in mental health is not as necessary as in others. However, the statistics show that nearly 84 million Europeans were diagnosed with a mental health problem in 2016. The States can focus on helping citizens through their healthcare systems and social services. Austria, for example, elaborated their goal concerning promotion of mental health to all citizens with a workgroup aiming at care, support and stigma.
There are quite a few mental health organisations on a European and local level that are trying to help people that are dealing with mental disorders as well as their families and carers. The Mental Health Europe (MHE) is a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) that focuses on raising awareness and removing discrimination that comes with mental disorders. Mind works mainly in the United Kingdom and tries to ensure support and respect for people who are diagnosed with a mental illness through raising awareness, trying to improve care and promoting anti-stigma.
Educational institutions and workplace are a big part of citizens’ life and therefore they can affect mental health. Attending school and working can be quite stressful and stress can actually lead to a number of different mental disorders. However, schools across Europe have taken measures concerning mental health and most of them had a positive impact. The same can be said for workplace since there have been a few different programs in different Member States such as Mental Health in the World of Work that aimed to promote mental health in the workplace.
Key conflicts
Lack of detailed governmental policies Governing bodies do not have well planned out policies on mental health resulting in negative consequences. As mental health is considered a category of public health, detailed articles or sections in governmental websites specifically dedicated to inform about mental health and related problems, such as stigmatising people with mental health issues, lack of support and professional mental health care and a lack of funding, are rare. But which governmental organisation should be responsible for this situation, and what can be done to improve it?
Medical costs and doctor availability
In the majority of European countries, going to a public doctor is financially covered by the state and no extra costs are due. However, a lot of best mental health professionals are usually private which develops in high fees for the patient. Moreover, mental health asylums are often overcrowded, denying the opportunity for everyone to access them. Of course, there are public mental health doctors, however, they are usually completely booked out for weeks, even months. This results in the inability to provide urgent help if a patient is suffering from a serious form of mental illness, such as depression or suicidal thoughts. Money and discrimination can significantly reduce chances to get great treatment fast. What actions should the public and private institutions take for the provision of mental health assistance?
Comparison to physical health In 2015, 84.000 people chose to commit suicide due to the suffering caused by mental disorders and not receiving expensive but proper treatment. In contrast, 20.000 people died from vaccine-preventable diseases, easily curable by relatively cheap vaccines. No doubt, the cost of mental health therapies is high, however, the treatment availability is low. This happens because mental health can easily be regarded as hypothetical and because declaring it as fake can be simple. The variety in these numbers and services provided leads us to the root of the unawareness and consequent stigma. Since everybody deserves equal treatment, how can the human rights of mentally-ill people be developed and protected?
Stigma For mentally-ill people to start seeking the help they need, they have to first come to terms with what they are experiencing. However, that can be further complicated by unaware individuals that stigmatise the mentally- ill and continue to believe in myths about mental disorders. People suffering from mental health problems such as depression, dementia or schizophrenia, are often not seen as individuals but are characterised by their mental illness and put into a stereotyped group. This stigma develops from
ignorance on mental illnesses, negative beliefs and views towards these groups, which creates intolerance and leads to discrimination and negative actions. Because of stigmatization, people tend to drop out of schools or early-leave work.
But even one person can start a change towards a better situation. So take a moment and ask yourself: what can I do to decrease stigmatization towards mentally-ill?
Food for thought
While researching mental disorders a number of questions come up,
you will
have to formulate your own stance and set priorities. Should there be more focus on treatments or raising awareness and destigmatizing mental illnesses? Why mental health problems are not treated equally to physical health problems and how can that situation change? How can individuals ensure that they will have the appropriate care and treatments but at the same time without having to pay the very high medical costs? How can we ensure that people who are diagnosed with mental disorders will be productive and their work will not be affected? What can actually be done by educational institutions, Member States and the European Union in order to ensure that this matter will be solved?
Further readings ● Infographic: 10 things you should know about mental health - Mental Health Europe (MHE) ● Understanding mental health problems - Mind ● Mental disorders key facts - World Health Organization (WHO) ● Mental Health Myths and Facts - Mental Health ● Imagine there was no stigma to mental illness - Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman ● How to promote mental health in workplace? - Mental Health Europe (MHE)
Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection - IMCO “The fifth freedom of Europe - free movement of data: With Finland’s presidency of the Council of the EU emphasising on a comprehensive and future-oriented single market, what measures should be taken to successfully develop and implement the Digital Single Market in order to ensure that the cross-border e-commerce and e-services benefit consumers as well as producers in all Member States?�
Rok Milavec (SI) and Christina Bliss (FI)
Relevance of the topic With technological advancement, the digital economy is becoming an increasingly significant part of the European economy. In the near future, more than 90% of the jobs will require a degree of digital skills. However, with digitalisation,
many
traditional
business
barriers
are
removed,
making
competition easier than ever. Those include non-digital advertisement, more complicated bookkeeping, post-purchase communication between the provider and the consumer etc. With a true Digital Single Market the EU will be able to better compete with other major players, such as the US, Japan and South Korea. Nevertheless, only 19% of Europeans buy cross-border and only 9% of EU based companies sell cross-border nowadays. When it comes to EU based online stores, only 37% allow cross-border purchases.
Seeing from the habits of the younger generations, the trends continuously point towards digital. It is becoming increasingly popular to shop online. Thus, the EU
has to find solutions to the problems remaining unsolved to be able to create a true Digital Single Market.
Core concepts ● 5G or “fifth generation” of telecommunication systems is one of the critical building blocks of our society and the digital economy in the near future. It will provide ultra-high bandwidth and low latency connectivity both to individuals and industry. This type of network connection will help us access the information very fast, giving a new level of significance to artificial intelligence and cloud services. Implementing a 5G network is necessary to support the traffic volume expected by 2025. ● The European Cloud Initiative will provide European researchers, businesses and Member States’ public sectors with data infrastructure to store and manage data, high-speed connectivity to store data and highperformance computers to process data. It will also make research data openly available to help boost Europe’s competitiveness. ● Geo-blocking - Prevention of access to online content, services or goods to EU customers based on their physical location. ● The Digital Single Market Strategy (DSMS) is meant to achieve seamless access to digital services and transactions for both the consumer and businesses. Since 2014, 30 legislative proposals for DSM have been made and so far 28 have been agreed upon by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The DSM is meant to guarantee the free flow of capital and services, better accessibility to online services, and facilitate the growth of the digital economy. ● Cybersecurity is a field of security that tries to make a safe electronic and digital environment and society. Cybersecurity tries to recognise, stop, and prevent any attack, damage or unauthorised access to any electronic or digital sector. ● Copyright is the legal right of a creator (e.g. artist, author, influencer, etc.) to have control over the distribution, publication and usage their intellectual property or content. Stakeholders and measures in place
EU Commission and Parliament As the digital economy of the EU was fractured to the individual Member States, the European Commission, led by Jean-Claude Juncker, decided to implement a
Digital Single Market. Having realised that the EU is at risk of falling behind other major digital economies such as the USA, Japan and South Korea, they decided to make it one of the top 10 priorities within their mandate. On the 6th of May, 2015, the Digital Single Market Strategy was published. It is a document outlining the plan for the creation of a single European market with harmonised rules for digital
products and services. It intended to boost European jobs and growth, to open up digital services to all citizens and strengthen business competitiveness of the EU within the global digital economy. Since then, the Commission has achieved the abolition of network roaming charges, cross border portability of online content (consumers will be able to enjoy films, music, sports, and broadcasts while on holiday or temporarily abroad) and much more, as seen in the timeline below, but the EU is still far from a true Digital Single Market.
The
European
Union
Agency
for
Cybersecurity
(ENISA)
has been
responsible to make EU cyber-secure since 2004. It actively contributes to the European cyber-security policy and helps Member States and EU stakeholders respond to large-scale cyber attacks that target at least two EU Member States. Since the Cybersecurity Act (Regulation 2019/881) was brought into force earlier this year, ENISA has been tasked to develop ‘European cybersecurity certification schemes’ that serve as the basis for certification of products, processes and services.
The European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) represents the industryled part of the contractual Public-Private Partnership (cPPP) on Cybersecurity. It is a joint effort of the public and private sector for cybersecurity within the Digital Single Market. ECSO brings together various businesses of different sizes and areas, to help increase the level of cyber-security in the EU.
The
European
Economic
and
Social
Committee
(EESC)’s
opinion
commends the Commission on the DSM Strategy, in unifying the digital market and levelling the playing field for opportunities for both citizens and businesses. However, the EESC finds fault with the proposal for lacking a social agenda, since the DSM can change the nature of the economy affecting the livelihood of many.
The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is a directive that came into force on the 7th of June 2019 and extends the preexisting European Union copyright law. The European Council’s goals with the directive are protecting press publications, reducing the "value gap" between the profits made by Internet platforms and by content creators and encouraging collaboration between these two groups.
New Deal for Consumers allows you to access content from your subscriptions (e.g. Spotify, Netflix, etc.) wherever in the MS. It has also implemented more transparent parcel pricing and delivery in online shopping. The New Deal also helps both consumers and businesses with specifying their rights in the trade, from purchase to returns.
The Single Digital Gateway will allow consumers and companies to access information about their rights, regulations and procedures in place both on the national, and the EU level, by the end of 2020. It will also allow cross border data access and storage aiming to diminish the costly duplication in data storage facilities. The Single Digital Gateway aims to make all digital content available universally across the MS’. By allowing all data to be shared, even online legislative services become more efficient since the aim is for all information to only be entered once. This diminishing of bureaucratic procedures on a national level will help the citizen as well as businesses.
Key conflicts Seeing the latest trends and with the constant technological advancements, the economy is moving more and more into the direction of digital. In the near future, 90% of jobs will require a certain degree of proficiency in digital skills. However, 47% of the EU population do not possess technical skills in the digital sphere. Current taxation has been designed for businesses operating with a physical presence, which gives online retailers benefits. This is problematic since most of the taxation cost falls on the shoulders of physical retailers. In 2017, EU leaders proposed a new taxation scheme to balance out the playing field between physical and online businesses. Currently, a company can only be taxed on the profits it derives in a country where it has a physical presence, such as offices or factories. However. taxation cannot be applied if the company only does business in that country digitally.
Although initiatives and regulations that are in place seem good on paper, the implementation to the MS on most of them is lacking:
� Despite the New Deal for Consumers, the price of shipping offered by courier companies can be between 3 to 5 times the price of domestic shipping since there is no cap on how much a courier can charge. This impacts consumer behaviour since, in the survey conducted by AlixPartners in 2017, 95% of consumers said that the shipping rates affect their purchase decision. � In May of 2018 e-services like Spotify, or free radio and television services were supposed to be rid of geo-blocking and accessible to all within the MS. Currently, many of the national level tv- and radio e-services are still being geo-blocked. Being a part of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, article 13 (article 17 of the directive) has caused a lot of controversies. It tasks service providers that host user-generated content to employ "effective and proportionate" measures to prevent users from violating copyright. The affected tech companies have expressed their concern that such measures would require the implementation of upload filters, which could limit the users’ right to free speech. On the other hand, actors like Universal Music Group, Warner Music
Group and the Society of Authors have declared their support for article 13 in protecting their content from being exploited.
Food for thought
● With an increasing demand for digital skills, what can the EU do to ensure people possess those skills? ● What can the EU do to reduce the costs of cross border shipping? ● What can the EU do to ensure a higher level playing field for both online and physical retailers? ● What measures can be taken to further spread access to high-speed internet in areas that do not yet have it? ● How can the EU further facilitate the process of implementation of 5G network across member states? ● The EU is not the only party trying to create a better environment for econsumers. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has organised negotiations between 76 countries in hopes of making a safe online consumer environment world wide. How can the EU be impact the possible new global set of rules for online shopping? ● WIth inconsistent copyright laws in the EU people with hearing or visual disabilities cannot equally get access to audiovisual services or products for the disabled. Since October 2018 the EU joined 42 other countries in the Marrakesh Treaty. The Marrakesh Treaty lets audiovisual content for the disabled or impaired bypass traditional copyright laws to a certain extent. Could some of these exceptions be applied to DSM copyright problems?
Links for further research
● https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/free-flow-nonpersonal-data ● https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/e-commercedirective
● https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/reports-andstudies/76026/3786
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy ITRE “The future of energy: With EU’s battle against Nord Stream 2 coming to an end and the transportation of natural gas being predicted to begin at the end of 2019, how can the EU develop a coherent European energy strategy to continue the shift towards alternative energy sources and prevent monopoly in the gas market?”
Marios Panayi (CY) and Xin Ye(FI)
Relevance of the topic
With the new gas pipeline that extends from Russia and reaches Germany, Europe is more dependent than ever on Russia for its gas supplies, although new interconnections within the EU have been constructed. The objective for building Nord Stream 2 is to reduce the usage of coal for energy production by replacing it with natural gas. This project is led by the company “Gazprom”, the monopoly of which over the gas market may have negative impacts on the economy. Without competition, the prices of energy can be too high, although the Austrian Mineral Oil Administration (OMV) stated that the gas will be competitively priced. This may lead to consumers demanding a smaller quantity of gas, which brings us to the question of how effective Nord Stream 2 is.
In 2017, the gross inland energy consumption of the EU was around 1600 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe), where 24.8% of the energy consumed was from the use of petroleum products, 23.8% from natural gas, 13.6% from
fossil fuels. Altogether, 72.2% of all energy produced was from coal, crude oil,
and
gas. 13.9%
natural
Additionally, of
the
energy came from renewable sources, while the three main sectors that use the most
amount
energy
of are
transportation (30.8%), households (27.2%) and industry (24.6%).
In 2018, around 401 billion cubic meters of gas was imported to EU countries, with Russia and Norway as the main gas suppliers. Furthermore, 39% of the gas was imported from Russia and 27% from Norway. The main importers in the EU are Germany, Italy and France, which together made up half of all natural gas imported into the EU. As the reliance on gas has increased in the past few years, this will hinder the EU's objectives of cutting down CO2 emissions.
Core concepts
●
●
●
●
●
Nord Stream 2: A pipeline that starts from Russia and reaches Germany (thus Europe) through the Baltic Sea. Its purpose is to export twice as much natural gas as imported through Nord Stream 1 into Europe. It is estimated to export 110 billion cubic meters per year. Natural gas: It is a fossil form of energy source, found underneath the earth’s surface, mainly in reservoirs, and it was formed millions of years ago. The main component is methane (CH4) but it also contains other different compounds (hydrocarbons). Alternative energy: Any source of energy but fossil fuel-derived. Often referred to as renewable energy (e.g. hydroelectric, solar, biomass). They are also known as less polluting or clean energies. Energy Charter Treaty: ECT is a multilateral agreement in the energy industry. It is considered to provide protection to foreign investors, hence, promoting collaboration and operation of numerous energy markets. It facilitates the liberalisation of international trade energy. Liquefied Natural Gas: LNG is formed when the natural gas is cooled down to -162ºC. During its liquid stage, the volume of the gas shrinks
around 600 times and will not ignite. This is a safer and cheaper procedure of storage and shipping it.
Stakeholders and measures in place
European commission is an organization where the EU's priorities and political goals are developed and are translated into policies. One of the most important goals for the European Commission is to create a new gas market with decarbonisation as its core objective. This goes hand in hand with the 2050 long-term strategy to create a climate-neutral economy and the 2030 climate and energy framework with targets including cutting down emissions and increasing the usage of alternative energy. To reach these goals, Energy Roadmap 2050 has been published, where the European Commission plans on using gas as a “transition fuel� to replace coal for the time being as a way of reducing emissions, since gas is 50% less carbonintensive than coal and is seen as a short-term alternative. However, beyond 2030, the source of energy remains unclear. Bringing emissions to net-zero is one of the objectives in the Paris Agreement, and this will be a huge challenge for the EU.
The European Commission has tabled an amendment to the EU Gas Directive in 2017, addressing third-party access, ownership unbundling and transparency. However, experts have said that this amendment was designed so that all other pipelines can enjoy a derogation from the EU gas market except for Nord Stream 2. This will affect Nord Stream 2 and its shareholder Gazprom, as well as the five European financial investors, including Engie, OMV, Shell, Uniper and Wintershall. Gazprom funds 50% of the Nord Stream 2 project, while the 5 main European investors fund the rest of the 50%. Gazprom aims to supply the EU with natural gas with a shorter route, while investors such as OMV aims to secure the supply for its customers and be able to control the gas prices.
Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) is an agency created by the Third Agency
Packet.
Their
targets
include
creating
a
more
competitive,
integrated energy market that offers more choices for consumers, building
efficient
energy
infrastructures,
as
well
as
making
the
monitoring of energy markets transparent. This agency may ensure that the gas market will not be monopolised.
Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic countries and the United States of America are opposing the construction of Nord Stream 2. These countries state that Nord Stream 2 will cause the EU to be more reliant on the Russian Federation regarding energy supplies. Additionally, this pipe will cause Ukraine to lose around 2-3 billion dollars of income due to the transit of blue fuel in gas transportation. This is around 3% of Ukraine’s annual GDP.
Sweden was initially opposed to the construction of Nord Stream 2, as the pipeline will extend through its economic zone. However, Sweden has now given its permit, although with reluctance. Denmark was also the last to agree to the construction, as they initially had security concerns.
Germany and Austrian gas hub in Baumgarten will be the main consumers of natural gas imported from Russia through Nord Stream 2. Natural gas will be one of Germany’s main energy sources and the country will continue to be dependent on natural gas. Austrian gas hub in Baumgarten will be strengthened by the transport of natural gas and will enhance the supply of gas for central and South-Eastern Europe.
Key conflicts Russia and Germany reached an agreement for Nord Stream 2, which will be beneficial for both sides. In 2017, 40% of total gas consumption in Germany was provided by Russian gas. Nord Stream 2 is about to double the amount, making Russia the major provider of natural gas in Germany, hence, to the European gas system.
However, countries like Ukraine and Poland consider the Nord Stream 2 pipeline a threat to energy security in central and eastern Europe. Ukraine fears that the new pipeline will allow Russia to limit or even cut off the gas flowing through their land – that could cost Ukraine billions and important transport fees. The planned route of Nord Stream 2 bypasses Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine leaving them without a chance to collect lucrative transit fees.
With Nord Stream 2 being the second pipeline built by Gazprom, Europe is becoming dependent on Russian gas. Germany’s dependence on Russian gas concerns the EU and the Member States on how this can be used as a tool to extend Russian influence over Europe. In 2009, Gazprom halted nearly all its gas exports into Europe showing their confrontational posture. In April 2018, the European Commission declined to back up the project, since it is not compatible with the EU’s plans for diversifying gas supplies – preventing the upcoming gas monopoly. The European Commission stated amendments to the EU Gas Directive in November 2017, in order to legislate gas pipelines such as Nord Stream. The Nord Stream 2 chief, Sebastian Sass, characterised the acts of the European Commission as “discriminatory legislation”. He further stated that it will cause the projects of all the investors to become problematic, with the destabilisation of the confidence for the market getting in place. The EU has been into vital legal risks, with the projects to have the right for potential claims for damages under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). Last but not least, the USA tries to claim a key role, suggesting selling liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe. The prices of US gas are still higher than what Gazprom has to offer – which also lower the prices more to compete with the US gas import possibility. The USA suggests Qatar as the top LNG provider to Europe, as a way of challenging Russian’s dominance. Another perspective of natural gas supply that EU takes into consideration comes from the Eastern Mediterranean reservoirs (water territories fall in Cypriot, Egyptian, Greek, Israeli waters).
Food for thought
Even with all the information above, there are major questions that need to be answered:
● To what extent have we been able to take advantage of the alternative energy sources? Should the EU take into consideration the progress that nations or regions have made upon this matter? Which policy and research models are the most effective? ● What kind of new legislations and regulations can be implemented to provoke the use of alternative clean energy resources? ● How can the EU support member states drive a more sustainable energy production? ● Should the EU work on strategic interventions to be less dependent on energy sources outside of the EU? ● In which ways can the EU member states exercise their own competences to fulfil the clean energy strategy for the future? ● Considering the legislation that has already been implemented, what further regulations can the EU member states apply to prevent complete gas monopoly? Further reading: ● ● ● ● ●
Nord Stream 2 - Part of Europe's energy future - Nord Stream 2, video European Union Energy Market Liberalisation - Navitasoft, video Gas wars: The problem with Nord Stream 2 - BBC News, video Guidance for renewables support schemes - European commission, article EU funding possibilities in the energy sector - European commission, article ● How Europe is faring on renewable energy targets - Camille Camdessus, article ● Labour plans billion pound public investment in offshore wind and electric cars - BBC news ● BBC Briefing: Your energy and climate facts guide - BBC news
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs - LIBE “Moving forward: Although Finland amongst 14 Member States has legalized same-sex marriage, many European countries remain opposed to providing equal legal rights for the LGBTQ+ community. How should the EU seek to further protect the rights of its LGBTQ+ citizens?”
Lemonia Papadopoulou (GR) and Riccardo Rastello (IT)
Relevance of the topic
The Declaration of Human Rights by the UN in 1948, was an important step towards a world where no human being would ever have to face discrimination. However, this has yet to be realised. Minority groups are still called to deal with discrimination of all forms in their everyday lives, with members of the LGBTQ+ community still trying to conquer their basic rights in some countries. The community’s population in Europe is of an noteworthy amount, ranging from 30 to 50 millions according to a 2016 survey, with 1.5 million being transgender individuals as reported by an Amnesty International study. So what is the current situation within the EU in regards to protecting this community’s rights?
The protection of LGBTQ+ rights in Europe has seen huge progress in the last years with the Netherlands being the first country in the world to have recognised same-sex marriage and both joint and stepchild adoption in 2001. Today more than half of the countries recognising homosexual marriage across the world are in Europe. However, the results of an EU-wide survey in 2012 revealed that around half of the respondents had felt discriminated against or harassed having been perceived as LGBTQ+ within the previous year and that a quarter of them had experienced attacks or violent threatening, a figure that rises to 35% when talking about
transgender individuals. Moreover, the study found that reporting to the authorities is rare. Adding to this kind of discrimination, there is also the one that derives from missing legal recognition of LGBTQ+ unions or gender change, when, for example, having to apply to services through documents that do not match one’s gender identity and the harassment that derives from it. Furthermore, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) in Europe has denounced in May 2019 that “countries are moving backwards on equality”, rendering Europe “increasingly unsafe and unsustainable” for the LGBTQ+ community.
Core concepts
● LGBTQ+: This is an acronym formed by the words “Lesbian”, “Gay”, “Bisexual”, “Transgender”, “Queer”. “Queer” means “strange” and it has been adopted by the LGBTQ+ community as a broad term including every form of sexual orientation or gender identity that does not identify with heterosexuality. The plus stands for the many other existing sexual orientations and gender identities, such as pansexual, asexual, non-binary and intersex. ● Sexual orientation vs. gender identity vs. biological sex: Sexual orientation defines a person on the ground of whom that person is sexually or romantically attracted to, for instance, heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual; gender identity determines who a person feels to be, for instance, male, female or non-binary. Gender identity can differ from the biological sex that person is, which is defined by the genitalia that person has. ● Transgender: This is the term that is used by people who feel that the sex they were assigned at birth doesn’t match their gender identity. The term can also be shortened to just trans, or trans male/trans female. ● Legal Rights: They are rights that exist and function under the rules of a legal system. ● Human Rights: According to the United Nations (UN), they are the rights that any human being has regardless of any of their characteristics such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education. ● The Right to Marry: According to the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights , Article 9, the right to marry, the right to found a family and all
family and marital law work and are exercised according to each Member State’s national laws. This means that only the Member States can legislate on them.
Stakeholders and measures in place
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA): It is an EU decentralised agency, which deals with the protection of the EU citizens’ basic rights. It does so by providing EU institutions and the Member States with expert knowledge, advice on policy-making and data collections and analyses. For instance, in 2012 the FRA conducted the first ever EU-wide survey on the living conditions of the LGBTQ+ community. Moreover, in 2015 the FRA took part in an expert meeting in New York with the aim of drafting the first Global LGBTQ+ Inclusion Index, on which the UN is still working nowaday s.
European Commission: It is the executive body of the EU, therefore it is its duty to make sure that the provisions of the Treaties at the basis of the EU are respected. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights prohibits discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and to achieve this goal, the European Commission drafted the Employment
Equality
Directive
in 1999, which prohibits
discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation in
employment, occupation and vocational training. Moreover, the
European Commission has launched the List of Actions to Advance LGBTI Equality in 2015, which collects the activities that the European Commission has been carrying out to foster equality for the LGBTQ+ community. They cover many areas, amongst others, non-discrimination, education, employment, health, free movement, asylum, hate speech and hate crime, enlargement and foreign policy.
Member States: Since family and marital law lie in their competence, they constitute another major stakeholder. There are very different legislations regarding LGBTQ+ individuals’ rights, especially regarding same-sex relations’ legal recognition within the EU. This leads to serious practical issues undermining LGBTQ+ community members’ freedom of movement in the EU, one of the four freedoms of the Internal Market. However, even though this competence belongs
to the Member States, the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) provides for a special legislative procedure to tackle discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation at European level. It needs the consent of the European Parliament and the unanimous favour of the Council of the EU.
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association in Europe (ILGA-Europe): This is an international non-governmental umbrella association that keeps together many organisations from Europe and Central Asia dedicated to the advocacy for LGBTQ+ community’s human rights and equality and the strengthening of the LGBTQ+ movement. It does so by closely working together with the EU and the Council of Europe, monitoring and assessing the implementation of legislation and providing studies and analyses.
LGBTQ+ community: It is a community that consists of people who identify as one the sexualities the acronym stands for. The community is on a constant battle for its rights and is trying to embrace them through various ways, one of the most widespread and common ones being the pride parades, for instance, Euro Pride or World Pride.
Key conflicts One of the most visible conflicts regarding LGBTQ+ individuals’ rights regards the divide between Western and older Member States and Eastern and newer ones. As a matter of fact, fourteen Member States do not recognise same-sex marriage and just one of them, Italy, together with Northern Ireland is in Western Europe. Moreover, all six Member States that do not recognise any kind of legal same-sex union are located in Eastern Europe. According to a 2018 Pew research highlighting people’s different opinions regarding same-sex marriage, in all thirteen Member States considered as Western by the study the majority of adults were in favour of same-sex marriage. On the contrary, in all countries catalogued as Eastern, except Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the majority of adults opposed it.
Pew Research Center
Moreover, according to the Rainbow Europe 2019 Index, fourteen Member States allow joint adoption for homosexual couples, and once again they are mainly Western and older Member States. The situation is slightly different when talking about
stepchild
adoption,
with
Slovenia
and
Estonia recognising it together with the other 14 Member States named before, except for Ireland, which allows only automatic co-parent recognition. The difference between Western and Eastern Member States’ approach towards LGBTQ+ rights results all the more problematic since the EU needs the unanimous agreement of the Council of the EU to carry out reforms against discrimination on a EU level. It has already happened in the past in the past that advancements regarding the protection of LGBTQ+ individuals have been hindered by the absence of this unanimity.
Another major debate regards transgenderism and the process of changing gender which is very different across Member States. Today, twenty-one Member States require a mental health legal diagnosis before enabling the change of documents and six of them require sterilisation before allowing the change of documents, even though the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in April 2017 that such a condition violates human rights law. There are, however, growing calls from both governmental and civil society LGBTQ+ organisations for the abolishment of the requirement of a mental health diagnosis to change gender. For instance, the Council of Europe has affirmed that it breaches art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for
the
right
to
respect
private
and
family
life
while
Belgium,
Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal have already implemented a “demedicalised� process to change gender, which only requires a selfdeclaration. At the same time, there is strong opposition to this reform, for instance by feminist associations and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Some of their representatives believe that implementing such a system would risk undermining women’s rights, as according to them, potentially predatory males would have access to one-sex facilities for vulnerable women, such as rape-crisis centres.
Food for thought
The conflicts about LGBTQ+ rights raise urgent questions that need to be addressed for instance, the difference in the way the two sides of Europe see and manage homosexuality. In a situation where the majority of the population opposes same-sex marriage, what can be done to ensure that the LGBTQ+ community’s rights and democracy are respected? How can the EU make sure to take effective action even though the Council of the EU needs unanimity? Moreover, should people have the right to self-declare their gender? If not, would that be a violation of a person’s human rights? And if so, should self-declared women who still present male genitalia be allowed to use women’s facilities? Regarding refuges for the victims of domestic violence and rape, would they be enabled to attend or work in them? Would it be considered discrimination not allowing them to do so? Under a self-declaration system, could governments make sure to avoid the danger of easing the access to only-women facilities to predatory males? If so, how?
● EU LGBT survey infographic summary ● The European Parliament’s LGBTI Intergroup ● EU Equality Law: Looking ahead after twenty years of policy making Article by Sara Benedi Lahuerta and Ania Zbyszewska, European Law Blog ● There’s a problem with the LGBT rights movement – it’s limiting freedom Article by Professor of Law Ratna Kapur (Queen Mary University of London), The Conversation ● Why the “Born This Way” Argument Doesn’t Advance LGBT equality TedxTalk by Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies Lisa Diamond (University of Utah) ● Yogyakarta Principles - Set of international principles regarding the respect of human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity developed by a panel of human rights experts ● Mom tells transgender woman not to use women’s bathroom - What Would You Do? ● Gay marriage cake: customer takes case to European court - Article by Henry McDonald, The Guardian. ● London bus attack: Arrests after gay couple who refused to kiss beaten Article on BBC ● Fact Sheet on Gender Identity Issues - European Court of Human Rights
Committee on Security and Defence - SEDE “European defence: Considering the Permanent Structured Cooperation’s (PESCO) establishment in the area of security and defence policy and the growing conflicts at EU borders, how should the EU move forward in shaping its defence strategy?” Labiba Abdul (FI) and Marija Erić (RS)
Relevance of the topic The volatile events of the Second World War resulted in a global paradigm shift; today, we live in the “era of peace”, wherein the unity of world affairs is maintained by collective security.. However, there has been a recent awareness of the ambiguity that is present in the current defense strategy of the European Union. Primary concerns relate to the United Kingdom’s plan to leave the EU, while being the largest provider of the bloc’s total expenditure on defence. Defence is quickly becoming the primary focus of all EU citizens, with 56% of Europeans being in favour of creating an EU army. Additionally, there is an urgent need to reinforce the policies against organised crime groups smuggling illegal drugs, the prevalence of human trafficking, and the increased movement of terrorists within European borders.
Following this trend of increasing joint cooperation in order to preserve security, 25 Member States have signed the Permanent Structured Cooperation, which allows for a foundation within which Members States are able to mutually develop defence policies and enhance security. Could closer cooperation with NATO facilitate the EU’s plan to expand its defence protocols? What other measures should be taken to ensure the security of all European citizens globally?
Core concepts ● European Integration: Process of industrial, political, legal, economic, social and cultural integration of states in Europe. ● Supranationalism: An approach to European Integration where different stakeholders work together in achieving common set, cross border goals. Regarding the supranational approach, great examples so far would be, apart from a common border or a common valuta, the fisheries policy. ● Intergovernmentalism: An entirely different view on structural cooperation and integration in which case all of the actors have to consent to any action ought to be taken. Although opposing this idea, in regards to foreign affairs-also known as High Politics, all of the 28 Member States would have to agree to any defence policy reforms. ● Intervention: A set of actions, most commonly carried out by states or International Organisations, aimed at solving a conflict to which they are not a party. Intervention usually consists of peacemaking and, ideally, also of peacekeeping. Peacekeeping, obviously, requires the availability of deployable troops but peacemaking, too, is more successful when a mediator has military leverage over the disputants.
Stakeholders and measures in place The European Union (EU) has taken numerous steps in assuring successful security coordination among the Member States. Such a case would be Article 188 of the Lisbon Treaty that contains a clause commonly known as solidarity clause by which all Member States are expected to react and defend one another in case of an attack; a similar concept to that of the NATO. Moreover, other institutional and cooperation structures have been put in place as well. Apropos the EU’s foreign affairs, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is a policy that outlines the EU’s and Member States’ common vision,
goals and strategy, however it does not include in-depth, legally binding commitments for Member States. As a part of the CFSP, the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) concerns itself with matters specifically relating to, as the name suggests, security and defence and is an instrumental part of the CFSP. To further improve structural defence integration, in 2017 the Common Security and Defence Policy (PESCO) was established as a part oIf CSDP, creating a common platform for Member States to invest in defence programs. Although of voluntary nature, under PESCO Member States participate in legally binding projects with a common goal of increasing their military expenditure and harmonising military needs.
European Defence Agency (EDA) is a supranational agency whose mission is successful implementation of existing security policies through improving military cooperation between Member States, defence Research and Technology (R&T) and overall execution of military policies on an EU level. The EDA also reviews Member States’ defence expenditure under the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD). The EDA is headed by the High Representative.
Member States: Since the EU does not have permanent military staff of its own, it entirely depends on the States which hold full autonomy over all matters regarding international relations and security policy, among which are military affairs as well, extremely limiting the EU’s effectiveness in
this field.
Furthermore, any suggestions involving a change of the status quo must be acceptable to all, since every single Member State holds an effective veto in this field.
North
Atlantic
Treaty
Organisation
(NATO)-Although
not
a
European
structure, every Member State is either a member or a partner of NATO. The organisation currently plays a key role in the European defence structure, and is the closest the EU comes to having a military establishment.
Key conflicts
The topic of defense and security policies is of quite a complex nature, and there is the question of whether to approach this issue in smaller steps. While reasonable, recent events have demonstrated the urgent need for adaptation from the European Union in order to counter the instability of contemporary threats to security.
With various European Union leaders, such as Macron and Merkel voicing their support for the creation of an EU army, this is a strategy that comes with a multitude of issues and consequences which are both erratic and irreversible. Additionally, the centralization of military power is a complete disregard for the individual intricacies of all the Member States, making the process of taking military actions increasingly difficult and both time and resource demanding. Contrarily, the PESCO agreement is a clearly laid out mechanism with which the Member States are able to jointly cooperate and integrate their actions and policies related to defense strategies and military. PESCO can also be seen as a means through which the European Union can align their military plans and employ their respective military resources towards common objectives, which would increase the effectiveness of the EU’s defense sector. Despite this, this is not to say that the PESCO agreement remains a flawless strategy for the European Union. Due to the agreement’s recency, there is still no clear evidence of its efficiency and effectiveness. Additionally, the agreement itself requires that the respective Member States act on their own accord with regards to the creation of objectives and policies to be implemented, which can cause dilemmas as the Member State’s do not always align the protocols to comply with the EU’s directives.
Food for thought The topic of the EU’s Foreign Affairs presents quite a complicated field, but with complicity comes coverage! To help you understand the subject better, we would like to give you some guidelines for further research:
After getting familiar with the basics of the topic, it would be good to think about what kind of approach should the EU take to improve its defence cooperation, and what are the pros and cons of them: ● ‘EU defence policy is becoming increasingly supranational’, Pierre Haroche ● ‘’Means identified’ to create European Union defense directorate with Commissioner’, TheDefensePost ● 'Why Is The European Union Creating Its Own Military', NowThisWorld
Taking into account that every conflict is different, meaning that the EU does not have a set response to it, is there a better way for the EU to react than it has done in the past: ● ‘The EU’s Responses to Conflicts in its Wider Neighbourhood: Human or European Security?’, Argyro Kartsonaki, Stefan Wolff ● ‘The
EU
Response
to
the
Ukrainian
Crisis:
Testing
the
Union’s
Comprehensive Approach to Peacebuilding’, Maryna Rabinovych ● ‘The EU's Crisis Management in the Kosovo-Serbia crises’, EUNPACK
Do you feel that the EU and its partners have done a successful job at achieving and maintaining peace abroad? How could they potentially further improve their work in the future? ● ‘The EU as peacemaker’, Maastricht University ● ‘EU
as
Peacemaker
Transatlantic Studies
and
Peacekeeper’,
Center
for
European
and
● ‘Mediating International Conflicts: The European Union as an Effective Peacemaker?’, Julian Bergmann, Arne Niemann