EDITORIAL Aperture is an element of the lens which controls the light that gets inside the camera and also the focus. It has to be controlled manually and with the right care and attention, it will give the clearest and the best lit picture. We as a media team aim to that through the work of the journalists to enlighten you with the right amount of information and to help you focus on the real problems. You hold in your hand the first product of the Media Team of the Inter-Regional Forum of EYP Portugal. I would like to welcome everyone and I really wish that the following days will make some lasting memories for all of you. Media team is formed by 8 people who worked hard to bring this newspaper together: the Editor, the Editorial assistant and 6 Journalists. Each of the Journalists has been allocated to one committee. In this product, you can find theme-related articles, which will present you with another viewpoint on the topics you are about to discuss during the next days. That is why we would suggest you to keep it with you all the time. Last but not least, we wish you get the best out of this session. We as the media team, will make sure that through photos and videos, we will create some durable memories for all the participants. Yours, Adi Grishaj
The Committee on Transport and Tourism
pg 3 Laura Teixeira (PT)
The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety I
pg 4 Francisca PatrĂcio (PT)
The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety II
pg 6 Nuno Oliveira (PT)
The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs The Committee on Security and Defence 2
pg 7 Mariam Kapanadze (GE)
pg 7 Catarina Ferreira (PT)
pg 7, 8 MarĂa Granero (ES)
TRAN
by Laura Teixira
The Committee on Transport and Tourism
Decades ago films such as “Back To The Future” were presented to the public in order to give them a hint of what their future, our present, could look like. Flying cars and time travelling was not seen as impossible. Unfortunately, the future transport did not quite evolve as science fiction predicted. Mankind has always been a challenging nature. We made travel from one place to another in a very short time possible. It has helped us to progress in all areas, such as science, communication or aid. What most people do not know is that these transport ways that increased our life quality have also many downsides. Is our overuse of transports going to force our kids to walk to school wearing gas masks? It may not be the case if we put our big minds together and invest in green transportation everywhere in the world.
Nature has always been generous. It has given us everything we could have wished for: trees we manufacture into furniture and paper or atoms of hydrogen we turn into nuclear power. Nature sets the rules and humans adapt them. Maybe we can have our 2015 “Back to the future” in which we look at how transport will look in 30 years from now: flying cars and time travelling? Only the future can tell… The highest human speed was set by the crew of NASA's Apollo 10 moon mission, which reached a speed of 39,897 kph.
India’s air pollution is reducing the life expectancy of 660 million Indians by 3.2 years
In 2014 US companies spent 10321 million gallons of fuel on airplanes
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ENVI I
by Francisca PatrĂcio
The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is an emerging viral disease that first started in 1976 in rural areas of Central Africa. The last year events regarding the Ebola crisis attracted the attention to the catastrophic situation caused by this disease with pandemic potential. In 2011 it was said that Ebola would not become a threat to the population. However, instead it rapidly spread all over West Africa, striking the poorest areas of this continent and killing hundreds of human lives.
As this crippling disease caused thousands of deaths, Member States became more concerned about the possibility of spreading Ebola amongst the European countries. Starting from the idea that “every human is equal� it makes almost paradoxical how only two European citizens alarmed the EU while the disastrous impact on Africa was not getting the crucial attention.
At the time of death a patient can have one billion copies of the Ebola virus in one cubic centimeter of blood.
Why is one European life more appreciated than thousands of lives of the third world?
The Ebola virus outbreak that was spread in West Africa probably started with a single infected person. The impact of this illness have mostly been seen in the health sector of the affected countries. It did not only affect the organisational system, but also made other diseases difficult to treat. War, population growth and poverty, amongst other social conditions in the outbreak region have contributed to this unprecedented expanse.
The social, political and economic help given to developing countries has a positive impact. Why only five member states of the United Nations have reached the goal of the percentage of international aid established in 1970? Globalisation is putting its fingerprints in this situation, as the world is getting smaller. People have to rely on each other especially in such a crucial movement. Therefore, a life with dignity can be achieved.
A health worker prepares to inject a man with Ebola vaccine in Conarky,Guinea March the 7th
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ENVI II
by Nuno Silva Oliveira
The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety The European Union has set its mark: the objective is to reduce at least 80% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We could say that developed countries are the main ones responsible for the emission of Green house gases. More than 105 years of industrial activities make these countries the biggest contributors to the current environmental situation: the global warming, the destruction of the ozone layer or the rise of the sea level are some of the consequences. One of the solutions to these issues is the usage of the clean energies. However, the problem with these clean energies is that they are not developed enough. Therefore a big investment would be needed in order for them to start becoming more efficient. Another problem, which makes it more difficult to reach the strict goals imposed, are the industries. All industries are responsible for carbon emissions. It is impossible to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions without affecting the economy. Being aware of the big risk that every citizen is taking, it is urgent to think of innovative ways to improve the environmental situation, not only concerning ourselves with the environmental issues, but also bearing in mind the necessity for us to be concerned about the current economic situation.We have to strive in order to enlighten the environmental situation in the world.
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Is it possible to reduce these emissions without harming industries’ profits and the ability to compete internationally?
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Are we that committed to reduce GHGs that we can partially ignore the current economic situation?
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Already implemented solution
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty, that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gases emissions, based on the premise that (a) global warming exists & (b) man-made CO2 emissions have caused it.
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ITRE
by Mari Kapanadze
The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
Every living thing has an impact on its environment and, like all living organisms, humans exploit their surroundings for resources . Therefore, humans’ impact on the environment is imminent as they have learnt to change it for survival. In the past two centuries, humans have brought about the most dramatic changes in the environment. As the years pass, the Earth has fewer resources to satisfy the needs of the human population and other living organisms. SMEs (Small and medium-sized enterprises) have a crucial impact on the world’s economy as well as on social and environmental issues. Therefore, it might seem surprising that they have been relatively undervalued in the debates regarding the sustainability and corporate social responsibility* as well as ignored in the highlevel policy initiatives. Many SMEs have considered energy cost as one of the main inhibitors of their growth. Thus, they are aiming to reduce costs through application of the environmentally friendly practices which will allow them to use energy more efficiently while significantly minimize the total costs.
In the past few years SMEs have come to realise that the promotion of the environmentally friendly initiatives could bring a significant advantage and started to take effective action. The most common ones include the improvement in the energy efficiency, waste management and the reduction in the level of pollution. In addition, compared to the large companies, SMEs have a significant advantage in implementing environmental friendly practices due to their size. Indeed, there are evidences of the effective changes which have been made. The Green Action Plan** serves as a good example. It proposes SMEs to exploit the business opportunities such as building of more competitive lowcarbon economy that makes use of resources more efficient and sustainable as well as protecting the environment, reducing carbon emissions and preventing the loss of biodiversity.
“Earth has enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed” Mahatma Gandhi
* Corporate initiative to assess and take responsibility for the company’s effects on the environment and impact on social welfare ** GAP is a plan set to support Green business developments across all European regions
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ECON
by Catarina Ferreira
The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Money is the single word that can change everything. It is incredible how one simple word can mean so much to so many. Businessmen and women all over the planet know that the business world is about trading, being smart, practical and a little bit greedy. For them it would be appealing to have a single, easy to transfer and low-taxed digital currency. In the era of globalisation, any idea that has certain credibility can
“The power behind is the block chain”
existence of control or backing of any government or central bank (for example: the Euro is controlled by the European Central Bank). Instead, the transactions are based in an open code net in ciphered protocols that constitute the base of security and freedom of Bitcoin, making the transaction instantaneous between the users. Its present market value is around 8 billion dollars (more than 6 billion euros) with up to 80,000 transactions occurring daily. Despite all the attractiveness and initial dazzle, the “Bitcoin” has
become viral with the help of the precious technology. In 2009, Satoshi “It’s a major means of payment Nakamoto had the idea of gathering for e-commerce” the four characteristics mentioned above and create a singular digital been on the spotlight of the Eurocryptocurrency – the “Bitcoin”. pean Union and especially of its Unlike conventional money, the banking regulator but not for the “Bitcoin” is a virtual coin generated nicest reasons: the Mt. Gox Stock by computers which based on the Exchange, based in Tokyo, went into peer-to-peer system (P2P). The P2P bankruptcy after losing 650 million system does not predict the dollars (518 million euros) in cli-
ent’s bitcoins.The European Banking Authority (EBA) has proposed a new
“Major step toward globalised finance”
regulatory strategy together with the advice to banks to stay away from any virtual coins until certain rules are permanent. Amongst the new rules that the EBA wants to implement there is the rule on cosumer protection. “Bitcoin” is here to stay and with that different opinions start to become public. Consumer’s security and digital currencies security are some of the issues that are concerning the banking authorities. It is leaving us to conclude that the committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs is facing a dilemma not only with money and investments but also with something really difficult to conquer: trust!
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SEDE
by María Granero
The Committee on Security and Defence
Terrorism must not be ignored in our contemporary and evolved society and we, as a species, must do our utmost best to try to put an end to it. The term “terrorism” is normally associated with those of Arab decent, related to an Islamic fundamentalist group. However, it is not always right. Those who are identified as terrorists in the Western world, such as radical groups Al Qaeda, do not consider themselves of being terrorists. Instead they declare to be a freedom fighters, unwilling to accept superiority and constant interference in the world. What is necessary to understand is that rather than putting labels on each other, we must find an effective solution towards the threat of terrorism. As an example, with regards to the recent terrorist attacks suffered by France, instead of only having mass demonstrations against these terrorist organisations, the French population along with the rest of the Western countries, should find an effective and peaceful way to overcome the “enemies”. The Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), which is the integral part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is the accredited foreign policy of the EU and driving force behind many important measures which have already been implemented.
DUE TO TERRORISM : YEAR 2000: 3 361 DEATHS YEAR 2013 : 17 958
On 11 January about 2 million people, including more than 40 world leaders, met in Paris for a rally of national unity 8
Are there any solutions?
The The National Security EU is maintaining a Agency collaborates with many of policy created in 2005 by the EU the main social networks, including Faceand the UN focusing on 4 outcomes: book, Skype and Google. This collaboration preventing, protecting, pursuing and provides vast quantity of metadata and internet responding. history to ensure citizens’ security. It also involves However, at the moment this is not the sole the recordings of more than 70 million French and measure in place. Both the Council of Europe and 60 million Spanish phones, which has prevented 54 the European Commission have adopted measures terror-related activities all around the world, saving dealing with the action to be taken in the case of thousands of lives. However such policy could be terrorist offenses such as The EU seen as an invasion to the people’s Counter-Terorism Policy Responses to personal privacy, making it difficult the Attacks in Paris. to ensure the citizens’ The safety. European NeighIn the followborhood Policy is another iming months, the Europortant pact as it aims for closer politipean Commission is aimig to cal association and economic integration draft up and follow the European between the Union and its neighbors. Agenda on Security for 2015-2020. It will ensure that the EU’s internal Despite the numerous attempts security is ready to confront the at finding a solution to the terrorproblems and threats which they ist problem through talks and encounter from current negotiations, nothing of great criminals and terrorists. significance has ever been achieved. The EU itself need to find the alternative ways to improve relations between the Islamic fundamentalist states in the Middle East and the Western countries, by ensuring the commitment of both sides in order to come to the mutual satisfaction. Solutions to this issues seem distant at the moment. However it should serve as a stimulus to the society in the developing of more effective actions in the struggle against terrosism.
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Under the patronage of I.P.D.J. and the Municipality of Guimarães.
With the appreciated support of Hotel S. Mamede, Pousada da Juventude de Guimarães, Escola Secundária Francisco de Holanda e Paço dos Duques de Bragança.
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