3rd Day
Monday, 23rd March 2016
MSOI Torino
MSOI thePost
DAILY EU MODEL
After the Training Session held in the Graduation Room, the second working session of the Council of the EU started at 11 a.m. The Commission expressed its opinion on the amendments that were presented yesterday by the representatives of EU member States, and provided some advices formulated by legal experts. The discussion on the amendments has shown the level of consensus that has been reached during the work of the Council, which has then entered a Q&A session.
involved the notion of religious fundamentalism as expressed in the directive proposal.
In particular, the debate developed around whether this restriction to religion was appropriate or not. Some States (notably Germany) suggested enhancing the definition to “any kind of fundamentalism�, whereas others stressed the importance of specifically addressing the kind of fundamentalism that Europe is now facing, which is guided As the discussion within the Council went on, by religious motives. certain points of conflict have emerged, Later, two contrasting amendments were put especially for what concerns Article 20. The forward by two groups of States. While the same Article was already the subject of a dis- first pushed for including a more comprecussion in yesterday’s session. Today, as the hensive definition of aggravating and mitamendments were presented, the discussion igating circumstances in the directive, the second would leave the matter to the discretion of member States.
The first moment of general disagreement came as parties like the EFDD (Europe for Freedom and Direct Democracy) and ENF (Europe of Nations and Freedom) saw most of their amendments totally deleted from the final proposal. The European United Left repeatedly asked Ms. Hohlmeier for explanations of such decision.
TURIN - The third day of EU Model Torino 2016 has been full of decisive and intense moments. The second working session in the European Parliament has substantially defined the most important issues and tried to solve them through an impressive debate in order to reach general and common guidelines on the amendments sent. The morning phase has begun with a training session hosted by Stefano Saluzzo from the Law department concerning the legal framework of the European Union and its relationship with the United Nations in the fight against terrorism. Mr. Saluzzo has focused his attention on the difficulties that exist in coope� rating -the European Union has no right to vote or become part of the United Nations as it is not a single State- and in managing internal legislations. As a matter of fact, a harmonization of common legislation in the EU regarding terrorism is hard to fulfil. On the other hand, conventions adopted in the General Assembly are not binding to those States who don’t ratify them. After the checking and printing of the amendments sent, the Commission started with a bit of delay to present the Parliament the draft proposal, which has been previously supervised and modified by EP Rapporteur Monica Hohlmeier.
During the afternoon works the Parliament was asked to revise the proposal and to send further amendments in order to solve those main points of conflict that clearly came to light with the first official draft. Themes like the so-calďż˝ led PNR, the dynamics of confiscation procedures of private assets and a legal regulamentation of hate speeches were the cornerstone of the unmoderated debates.
At nearly 4 PM the voting session was eventually opened to reassemble the latest decisions and changes. The voting system requires a 50%+1 majority to adopt an amendment. At the end of the session, a general agreement about hate speeches and confiscation was fulfilled, but other topics remained substantial during the trilogue in the late afternoon. Tomorrow at 9 AM, delegates are going to adopt a final directive proposal, in order to present it to the Council of the EU during the Plenary Session. See you all tomorrow for live updates and much more!