Academic Issue - 32nd National Selection Conference of EYP Greece

fuse media

#thessaloniki15

academic issue –1–

We came in like a Fuse Fusion is normally conceived as a mixture, or a configuration of different and various specific pieces, ending up in an entirely new consequence. The person who acts in a way as the one above, experiments in the act of fusing.

Fuse, in our case, stands for a blend indeed. We see different capacities and various viewpoints in the very same rich team of individuals. When their efforts are mixed together, the outcome can be brought to an entirely different level.

And it seems it has already done so.

In the upcoming pages of the academic issue, you can roam through the work the 14 individuals of Fuse Media, the Media Team of Thessaloniki’s 32nd National Selection Conference of EYP Greece, have managed to put together before the session began.

Taking a stand on the modern topics that the session is based upon, our team members have thought, experimented and finally shaped into words their personal input in what seem to be longstanding controversial themes of debate in modern Europe. By affirming the need for a broader discussion on concrete aspects of the problem each committee is to consider during the session.

Fuse Media’s young individuals have put themselves in the position of active thinkers, challenging the status quo and seeking new ideas. They have indeed put effort into their research and now present us with the results from their own perspectives. Corroborating their active participation during the session in Thessaloniki, they are more than happy to be welcomed by all participants and very

–2–

enthusiastic and eager to collaborate, discuss and grow as individuals. In the end, the whole team hopes to inspire and be inspired.

We, the Editorial Team of Thessaloniki’s 32nd National Selection Conference of EYP Greece, are more than grateful to have all the journalists on board and to publish the Team’s output for all other participants to enjoy.

Furthermore, we share our high hopes and expectations to create together a session to remember during these upcoming days in Greece. In light of the culmination of such a wide range and number of eager young individuals, we also would like to welcome you to the session and wish you the most enjoyable and productive of times.

We urge you to get to know the Media Team members in person and to interact with the team’s output throughout the session.

Visit our website at https://fusemedia.eu for more output and keep an eye out for projects and in-session activities while Fuse Media members are around.

Take care!

Dimos, Panos L., Tom, Gregor

fusemedia.eu

4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22

Elegant Umbrella Democratic awareness in the EU A commonly agreed diversity Who is the real villain?

Re-inventing the wheel COP21 — A successful failure Childhood and nutrition Cells wide shut Myth busting the legal aspects of the refugee crisis Unregulated warfare or peace maintenance tool?

–3–

AFCO I Elegant Umbrella Comparing the Union with an elegant, yet deceptive, “umbrella” Joanna Hadjocosta (CY) further investigates in her article the accession process of independent regions, with the help of young people.

Union; a malfunctioning word used in our dictionary, a word that stigmatized Europe for over fifteen years and is not yet living under the elegant umbrella of cloned legislations and policies. It is a unity living in diversity, for it is necessary to face all the member states with the same criteria without prejudice.

“The European Union was founded under the purpose of binding countries which were once in conflict; its supporters envisioned an ultimately united community that treasures respect for fundamental freedoms, rule of law and shares common values, while at

–4–

the same time shows consideration for the national identities of the states.” AFCO I is at the start of figuring out ways of how to sustain cooperation while respecting peoples’ rights to self-governance and independence; a vital topic for discussion that directly connects us with the definition of “Europe à la carte”.

Ensuring understanding, as well as spreading the word to raise awareness of the topic is fundamental, and thus carrying out a mini interview to get in the minds of young people seemed to be an ideal approach.

“Should independent regions automatically be awarded EU membership and become part of the EU, or should they go through the accession process?”

“I consider the accession process a vital part of the EU membership, since it ensures that a region is ready to be part of the EU, economically, culturally and politically, and at the same time it helps the region reach certain standards” – Max, 16 years old “Of course they should go through the accession process! Bearing in mind that they become independent regions, it means that they automatically have different sets of rules and so on concerning their new country. These sets of rules and new systems need to be checked by the EU, so the accession process is the only way.”

– Andia, 27 years old

“In my opinion an accession process is necessary, due to the fact that the socioeconomic status of each country differs. In the same way that you can’t judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, you cannot assess countries in the same way. So yeah you need an accession process! I mean if you just keep adding countries you will have 100000 different statuses that do not completely follow the European Political ‘Mind-set’. Thus, it will be harder to control everything and you won’t be able to have the same EU law everywhere” – Maria, 17 years old

–5–

AFCO II

Democratic awareness in the EU Thanasis Theocharis (GR) analyses the results of the survey he created about the European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI) and the democratic deficit in the EU.

I have created a survey regarding the AFCO II topic. The group that mainly answered it were Greek university students aged between 18 and 24 years old. The purpose was to show the democratic deficit within the EU and the opinions of young Greeks concerning a more direct-democracy oriented Europe as a solution. In light of the recent referendum that was held in Greece, people tested the power which lies in direct democracy.

More than 80 % of the target group is not aware of the ECI. That means that an initiative created to help people participate in EU politics is not widely known, hence its purpose is not fulfilled.

The inadequacy of representative democracy can be seen in the second pie chart, as almost 95 % of young Greeks feel that their participation in EU matters is insufficient.

By analyzing the next two charts, it is revealed that, people would prefer to actively participate in the EU decision making process, although not all of them assume e-voting a possible solution.

The last two charts support the previous conclusions. A large portion abstained from the EU elections, thus showing indifference when it comes to EU matters. However, a staggering 90 % state that they would assist in tackling the EU’s problems, provided their participation could be facilitated.

The results show the need for change within the EU, as Europeans are often represented by decision making processes that do not always fit their true democratic needs of direct partipation in matters that concern them.

In light of the recent referendum that was held in Greece, people tested the power which lies in direct democracy.

–6–

–7–

AFET

A commonly agreed diversity In her article, Anthia Tourkomichali (GR) clarifies the contemporary issues the EU faces in terms of diplomatic and military resources.

Imagine a room of about 195 people sitting in nice comfortable chairs. As is only natural, different people talk to each other, thus creating multiple interactions, some positive some negative. Between different people friendships are created or enemies made.

interests of Member States. Contrary to the aforementioned criticism, the EU has, in fact, made taken numerous steps to reclaim diplomatic and military resources so as to contribute efficiently as a unified body to safeguard global peace. The provision of a defense alliance in the Treaty of the EU (Art.42), the common Foreign Security Policy (CFSP) or the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), are all indicative of the EU’s attempts to expand its peace keeping capacity while forming a more cohesive foreign policy. The creation and implementation of a European External Action Service (EEAS) in January 2010 was yet another step towards accomplishing these goals.

At a certain point 6 people sitting relatively close to one another in the middle of the room decide to form a group. The group is a success as more and more people sitting nearby join in. It is down to the dynamics of a group, however, that members behave similarly and have common approaches to outsiders so as to stay united, strong and better able to contribute to the wellbeing of everyone in the room. However, since the group is heterogeneous and the forming of relations between all 195 of them was a process which started before the group was generated, is it possible that all 28 members can behave –like and dislike, agree or disagree- in the exact same manner towards the rest of the people in the room, when for instance a fight breaks out…

However, multilateral relations and involvement in international conflicts require mutual trust, political will, and commitment to the aim - components which seem to be evident only to a certain extent to some Member States. On the other hand, the Union only shares competence in Security and Defense with Member States and can only coordinate and supplement policies, decisions and actions on diplomatic and military issues. The recent events in Crimea proved that military cooperation between Member States is still nothing but a distant vision. Although the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker, called for an EU military group to deter undesired advancements in Crimea, no common ground was reached and Member States were

This may be a simplistic yet quite accurate parralel of the foreign affairs issues the EU is faced with. In our turbulent times, the EU has often been criticized for giving an inefficient response to worrying armed conflicts, due to discordant national

–8–

unable to counteract the separatist advance.

In light of the above, European policy makers are still faced with the rather difficult and laborious task of creating suitable framework and propositions for the reclaim of available resources within the EU so as to fortify its peace-keeping capacity.

The committee on Foreign Affairs shall identify the main conundrums eroding the efficiency of the EU’s contribution to global peacekeeping, while bearing in mind the boundaries of the national sovereignty of all Member States, while coming up with viable proposals on this very crucial matter.

–9–

ECON Who is the real villain?

In this article, Dimitra Karakioulaki (GR) identifies the real villains of tax avoidance.

Financial havens, offshore accounts and tax avoidance pose a severe threat both to the economies of the Member States (MSs) and of the EU as a whole. According to Eurostat, the capital loss caused by tax avoidance and fraud is estimated above €1 trillion per year for the EU, an amount that evidently portrays how tax fraud is deteriorating the the MSs’ efficiency in raising money and enforcing their socioeconomic policies. Yet, who is really to blame for this loss of capital in the EU? Individuals tend to benefit from their spare income, investing in areas that lead to the discount of the total taxes they are obliged to pay. The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is a plan created to support prosperous individuals to invest in new businesses, and perfectly illustrates this point. Through the EIS, a person can evade up to 30 % of the taxes of the sum of money they invest, while there is also an annual surplus. However this is only provided the investment is profitable.

Many investors decide to borrow money in order to participate in the scheme and later be rewarded by the dividend, for which they usually pay little or no tax at all. Charity donations compensate people for their “lost” assets reducing their taxable income, for people can claim an income tax relief up to the entire price of their donation. The same applies to leasing,

– 10 –

where a person can keep the asset, gaining the tax relief only during the leasing period. People can avoid taxpaying also through employing their partner and thus bisecting their income tax bill or holding offshore accounts.

On the premise that companies are taxed on their profits and not on their gross income, as individuals are, they attempt to minimize their “paper-registered” profit in high-tax countries, shifting it to low-tax ones. At first, a multinational corporation founds a subsidiary company in a low-tax country, handing to it its rights on its intangible assets. The company in the high-tax country must pay royalties for using these assets to the subsidiary one, whose value cannot be easily estimated, allowing capriciously high royalty rates. As a result, the profits of the multinational company are shifted, for it has higher expenses and less paper profits due to the royalty payment.

This is the strategy Google preferred, saving an estimated $3.1 billion over the past three years. The same setup applies to trademarks, as well. On the same mindset, a company might choose to shift all of its real estate property to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), owned by one of its subsidiaries. In this case, the company is obliged to pay a rent on its real estate values to the REIT, essentially paying a rent to itself, lowering its taxable net income,

due to the rent’s high cost. In addition, the REIT can legally return all the rent income to the company without taxes, because REITs’s profits aren’t to be taxed, in condition that at least 90 % of their income is distributed to their parent-company as dividends, which are also non-taxable corporate entities.

Of course, the above-mentioned usage of legal loopholes to one’s advantage does not yet include the issue of illegal avoidance of tax liability. Tax evasion, a fraudulent act, could occur with any action, which does not abide the laws and is worth to be prosecuted. In these

cases tax-evaders are the subjects that practice an illegal act, whether they are the individuals, the corporations or the states themselves.

When dealing with tax avoidance one should focus more on the real villain itself: each individual state that allows these loopholes in its legislation. In reality it is the states’ financial policy that is fitted to attract companies It really is upon the governments to change the legislation and to combat tax avoidance.

Only through transparency and a revolutionary institutional framework will we be able to tackle tax avoidance efficiently!

– 11 –

EMPL Re-inventing the wheel In his article, Andreas Loutzidis (GR) looks for a more human-oriented approach to the technical issue of unemployment.

Unemployment. A word that, over the last few years, has successfully acquired a dominant place in our everyday conversations. This is especially the case when it comes to blaming someone or to analying the ongoing financial crisis.

Assuming that most of us follow the news and the current events to a certain degree, this article will not try to be yet another piece of opinion explaining why unemployment is so high or proposing how the government and the law-makers can eliminate it. It just would not make any sense to reinvent the wheel. In this article the goal is to approach this burning issue from a different perspective, the other side, with a hope that the reader can use it as a stepping-stone to see things differently.

This less visible aspect of unemploy ment is the cost that unemployed people have to pay in terms of demoralization and effects in a personal level. “Humans, after all, are not robots, and the loss of a job is not merely the loss of a paycheck but the loss of a routine, security, and connection to other people” says Yundra Thomas in The New York Times.

It is undoubtedly true that the success of a person within a society, let alone in modern societies, is highly connected with his ability to afford buying goods not only to meet his survival needs but also to fulfil the norms that

– 12 –

each society has established.

As an unemployed individual, the inability to meet financial obligations such as paying for electricity, water and other bills, as well as mortgage payments may lead to loss of some of the basic modern benefits and even resulting in homelessness through foreclosure or eviction. As a result, the person ends up deprived from basic things and “luxuries” of modern societies and feels isolated, socially excluded and tends to blame himself for everything.

Additionally, in a more health-concerned level the new routine and everyday life of the unemployed differs so much that those people have an increased susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases, somatization, anxiety, depression and even suicidal tendencies.

What is more, even those who lean on being mostly optimistic persons, according to a study published in “Social Indicator Research” , struggle to find any positive aspect of their current situation and tend to lose their faith when found unemployed.

But, as with most of the situations not every unemployed person reacts to the same way nor to the same degree to that particular situation.

Some see it as an opportunity to recalibrate their professional compasses and even try to enroll in an educational programme in order to enhance their personal or work-related

competences so as to be more competitive in the labour market and try to fight for a job in the future. At the same time, a study suggests that others suffer more, them usually being highly conscientious people in majority, due to making different attributions as to why they became unemployed or even due to sentimental overreactions following a failure in their previous job.

opportunities.

Ultimately, we need to understand that in this huge unified and vast system that we call “global economy”, people ,not numbers or statistical models, should be at the focal point of this system. Besides, we should not forget that people rule the economy not the other way round.

Taking into consideration how widespread unemployment is, the cohesion and the collective identity of the society could also not possibly remain unscratched and unharmed.

For example, high unemployment can trigger special behaviours such as xenophobia and protectionism where people fear that foreigners might come and “steal” their job

– 13 –

ENVI I COP21 - a Successful Failure?

Last week, the Paris Agreement was reached on how to limit climate change after the COP21. Torbjørn R. Fyrvik (NO) questions whether the agreement is strong enough to save our precious Earth. Less than a month after the City of Lights was attacked by terrorists, everything was set for the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21), and the expectations were higher than ever before.

Why were the expectations so high?

The most important reason was that for the first time since the COPs started in 1995, it seemed like the participants had realized that action is needed to limit global warming. The talks were expected to center around what to do rather than whether climate change is man-made. Furthermore, the attendants had set national climate goals before the conference,

– 14 –

leaving it up to the countries to define what they should do. In addition, leaders from most of the attending countries visited the opening of the talks, and it was agreed that the product, the international agreement of 2015, would be a non-binding agreement. This would mean that the Agreement didn’t have to go through the US Congress to be ratified and more countries would be able to ratify it.

How did the delegates tackle the great pressure to ensure a new agreement was made to replace the outdated Kyoto Protocol?

The optimism was evident during the talks and the final document, approved by the almost 200 delegating countries, has been congratulated. The agreement aims at “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.”

Encouraging and recommending rather than requiring action, the non-binding agreement lets each country make their own climate goals – the EU has set mutual goals – and these will be updated every 5 years. The 21st COP is certainly the most successful so far.

But is it enough?

Probably not. The agreement’s goal is to limit global warming to a 2 °C compared to pre-industrial levels. There are numerous Pacific island states that will disappear completely with a 2-degree increase and the

other countries were convinced to try and limit the change to 1.5 degrees. But even if limited to 1.5 degrees, global warming would have severe consequences, such as increase in frequency of extreme weather and entire maritime ecosystems could be eradicated.

Furthermore, the formal document contains no numbers or percentages. It states that the aim is to “reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible,” but nothing about when, how and where the necessary cuts will be done. It is up to the countries. Lastly, the agreement does not deal with the problem as a whole. Although it has some solutions to how to decrease the demand for carbon-emitting energy, it fails to tackle the problem at its root – no regulation of the supply is suggested.

Was COP21 a success?

Compare it to previous COPs – yes. Considering its purpose to limit global warming – no.

The (weak) International Agreement of 2015 is only successful because previous agreements have been even weaker.

– 15 –

ENVI II

Childhood Obesity and Nutrition Konstantina Kasiora (GR) took an interview from her professor, lecturer Dr Ilias Giannenas to outline the very important role of nutrition in health protection.

Obesity, a condition affecting both adults and children, is considered to be not only society’s major problem but one arousing in many developed countries, expanding increasingly and alarmingly each day. It can be a particularly dangerous, sometimes life-threatening, condition with adverse effects on someone’s health, which can lead to reduced life expectancy and increased health problems. As expected, the eating habits of people and obesity as a condition are very closely connected. Something not entirely clear, however, is how exactly is this connection functioning? And, more importantly, for all the European citizens called to be troubled with this matter, both individually and also collectively; how can a healthy and balanced nutrition contribute to the addressing of this serious problem that seems to be rapidly gaining more and more ground, nowadays?

Which foods pose the biggest threat to humans for the appearance of obesity, particularly amongst young people? Why those foods?

Foods that pose the biggest threat for the appearance of any eating disorders, such as obesity, are mainly processed ones, especially those that are rich in sugar and fat.

The reason is that processed foods have a greater energy rate relative to their weight, compared to unprocessed foods. Therefore, if someone, especially children, consumes a certain amount of processed foods, they will employ more energy and a greater amount of calories compared to foods with lower calorie content.

– 16 –

Which are the nutriments that help to better control weight and to prevent obesity and why?

One can control body weight and prevent the appearance of obesity with the help of certain nutriments such as, particularly, foods of plant origin that consist of a very high percentage of protein, minerals and macroelements, which cannot be found on any other raw materials, as well as water and vitamins. Moreover, foods rich in cellulose are just as useful for the metabolism, by contributing in the proper bowel function, while promoting the feeling of satiety and, at the same ti me, reducing the calorie content of the meal. Legumes are foods especially beneficial, since they, too, do not contain a great energy load than that of sweets or fried foods, the latter containing amazing amounts of highly saturated fats and big amounts of starch.

What do you consider the characteristics of a balanced diet?

A balanced diet consists mainly of staple foods such as milk, yogurt, legumes to a greater extent, white meat (one to two times weekly), red meat (once a week or better, perhaps, once every two weeks), more fish and more fruits and vegetables, and not many sweets. Also, a balanced and complete diet could not be missing salads, raw oil, non-processed foods and, finally, less saturated fats or fats that have undergone heat-process.

What mistakes are made concerning daily diet and what changes should be made in order to avoid those mistakes?

Breakfast is a very important meal, mainly because it mobilizes the body’s metabolism and boosts the combustion of more calories, by prompting the body to burn its calorie reserve during the long period between food intake (breakfast and lunch).

Conversely, forcing the human body in low food consumption, since the early morning, has an effect in the metabolism, which is not properly activated in this case. At lunchtime and, especially, in the evening there is a great consumption of food, more than at breakfast, usually. However, during these particular points of the day, people do not have many hours available for a proper digestion and utilization of the calorie intake from the meals eaten at this time of the day, and, basically, during sleep, these calories are converted into fat. In the end, breakfast should definitely be the richest meal of the day, richer than lunch and, especially, dinner, meals that ought to be more confined, and people should be more careful not to add any ingredients in their evening meals that are rich in calories.

What changes should be made, in your opinion, to eating habits followed by people in Greece to reduce the ever increasing obesity rates in our country and how could schools contribute to the promotion of proper nutrition for students?

Firstly, I believe that people should go back to eating habits that were kept two or three decades ago. These included a lower consumption of meat, fried foods, and more soups, stews and legumes. Although as a diet, it seemed more poor compared to modern eating habits, it did a wonderful job supplying the body with both proteins as well as a percentage of carbohydrates not excessive in proportion to the needs of the organism.

Also, schools could contribute excessively in the improvement of the eating habits of students with actualization of the availability of foods in the school cafeterias where fruits and vegetables are the dominant elements and of the usage of simpler foods, such as bread and cheese, less processed meat and fewer sweets, chocolates or candies.

– 17 –

JURI Cells wide shut Christina Georgopoulou (GR), in her article approaches a critic analysis of the detainees’ rights and freedoms in the EU. Imagine you are arrested and sent to prison. Everything changes, right? No matter what you have been accused of, all of a sudden, you cannot control your life; you are now in the hands of judges, prison staff, and the legal system around you. You are not sure about your rights: how are the prison staff and the other inmates supposed to treat you? What if something happens to you while in prison? What about health care?

Even you are being mistreated, you cannot just “call the police” any more. “I have been starved out, felt up, teased, stalked and threatened!” reports an inmate at Bronzefield Prison for Female Adults and Young Offenders in Surrey, UK. But what can you do about it?

It is disturbing how prisoners are stripped of their rights only because of their own ignorance. To what extent is it their fault, though? It is true that there is no clarified indication of their status, because, either in a regional or a global level, the system for prisoner’s rights is complex and fragmented among different initiatives and institutions social rehabilitation.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966) states the following: “All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the

– 18 –

human person”. It also specifically mentions segregation of juveniles from adults as well as the importance of social rehabilitation. It is binding only for those countries having ratified the Covenant: currently 168 states have done so, including all states in the European region.

However, review and monitoring mechanisms are ineffective and lack legal obligation; prisoners in a number of EU Member States suffer from inadequate health care and individual support, overcrowded dorms, and a lack of training opportunities. The recent case of Germany refusing to extradite Bulgarian nationals to serve out their sentence in Bulgaria due to poor prison conditions is only one of the latest alarming examples showcasing the problem.

Sub-human conditions of detention have been condemned numerous times, both nationally by associations involved in the defence of detainee’s rights, and internationally by the Commissioner of Human Rights of the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights. Such incidents have triggered international reactions like the European Prison Rules (EPR) introduced by the Council of Europe (CoE), and later some reforms in the Treaty of Maastricht and the creation of the European Arrest Warrant.

All the reforms undertaken have difficulties

improving significantly the conditions of detention. With the state of prison facilities and the rights of prisoners varying greatly across the EU, this topic poses a question of which common guidelines should the EU Member States agree on and follow regarding the freedoms and rights of prisoners, detention facilities and social rehabilitation.

Based on Article 4 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the EU has shared competence in the policy area of freedom, security and justice, in which prisoners’ fundamental rights and

freedoms falls under. However, in terms of its control over administration such as that of prison systems, the EU only has a supporting competence. Bearing in mind the lack of European initiative in this policy area, a key conflict could arise between the EU institutions responsible for establishing the framework and the prison systems of each Member States, which would need to carry out the implementation of the guidelines.

Thus, the issue of compliance needs to be closely monitored, and so it will be by the experts of the Committee on Legal Affairs.

– 19 –

LIBE Myth busting the legal aspects of the refugee crisis In this article Annie MacConnachie (UK) discusses the legal basis of the refugee crisis, clarifying the current relevant European legislation and its impact on the distribution of refugees.

With the legal framework (or lack of it) being a key part of the discussion on how the refugee crisis should be handled, it is important to determine exactly what is the current legal situation for those who seek safety within the borders of the EU.

imposed upon transport companies if they are found to be dealing with people who do not have visas. This leads to refugees using smugglers for highly dangerous journeys as they are unable to travel out by conventional routes without a visa.

In terms of EU law framework, the “Schengen Borders Code” was written as an adjunct to the Schengen Agreement (which comprises the conditions for crossing both internal and external borders). The Code makes exceptions to the normal protocol of border crossing for refugees and those seeking asylum and also makes exceptions on the subject of penalizing those who cross borders illegally. It does not require Member states to construct physical barriers to refugees at their borders (such as the Hungarian border fences). The Hungarian government has passed a law to put in place custodial criminal penalties for the refugees that cross its external border fence – which is in direct conflict with Article 31 of the Geneva Convention.

Article 31 of the Geneva Convention states that there will be no penalties upon refugees who have entered a country illegally (thus rendering the phrase ‘illegal refugees’ obsolete). So therefore it is not a prerequisite to be in the state legally in order to qualify as a refugee. However, the application of this rule is subject to several conditions and can be interpreted and applied differently by different states.

The EU’s asylum legislation (“Common European Asylum System”) crucially is meant to apply equally to all refugees regardless of whether they make their application already within the territory, or at the border.

The EU law’s Carrier Sanctions are – 20 –

The Dublin Regulation is an EU law which determines which Member State is deemed to be responsible to process an asylum application under the relevant Geneva Convention and EU Qualification Directive. Most usually, it is the state through which the asylum seeker first enters the EU that is decided to be responsible for those refugees. This has led to considerable problems for those EU countries that are in geographically ideal places to face the brunt of the refugee crisis.

The ‘Non-Refoulement’ rule in Article 33 of the Geneva Convention stops a state from removing refugees to an “unsafe state” but does not stop a state from removing refugees to another state that is deemed “safe”.

These rules however seem to be applied only to those refugees who have the legal status of being lawfully present in the host state, and the Geneva Convention does not directly impose that states bestow lawful status upon refugees under national immigration law.

The EU Charter of Rights disallows any form of discrimination on grounds of religion in the application of EU law (under which the asylum process falls). This therefore makes the claims of some EU countries only willing to take non-Islamic refugees a breach of EU law.

– 21 –

SEDE Unregulated warfare or peace maintenance tool?

Elissavet Sandaltzopoulou (GR) wrote an article regarding the very current matter of military drones and the great conflicts that revolve around them.

“Unmanned aerial vehicles”. Their name sounds pretty innocent and so they are. UAVs are not only used in many fields such as engineering, but they have also been proven crucial in cases of fire extinguishing or saving people’s lives when endangered in unreachable places.

BUT, what happens when innocent UAVs are “transformed” into “Military Drones” depending on their use? Due to technological development, drones have become the iconic weapon of our time and therefore, the very nature of armed conflicts is being significantly changed. UAVs are now increasingly used as warfare, especially by USA and Syria, rising important questions about their use, as many fear that the fine line between the right to wage war and the right to life is often crossed. Thus the situation urgently calls for EU to decide if drones will be incorporated in EU military policy and what regulations should be established regarding their use and development. That being said, it is understandable that a certain conflict lies beneath the matter of drones’ use.

Supporters of the military use of drones not only emphasize on their high accuracy and their fast deployment as weapons, but also on their low costs compared to other

– 22 –

means of warfare. Moreover military drones’ use lowers the risk to military hardware and losses in battlefield, as pilots control the drones from a great distance and their lives are not being endangered while in military conflict.

The essential outcome from the military use of UAVs, however, lies in their ability to kill a lower ratio of civilians to combatants than any other military weapon. According to the numbers from a ten-year period UAVs have been used, military drones are shown as less destructive than conventional airstrikes or ground assaults as the collateral damages are minimized.

On the other hand, counterparts of the military use of drones are far more than their advocates. They believe that drones lead to depersonalisation of the use of force by transforming the real battlefield to something that resembles the environment of a video game, as the pilot makes the killings through a completely lifeless computer screen. Another conflict that revolves around military drones is that because of the technology gap between developed countries and less developed ones, the use of drones by the first and the inability of their use by the latter will ultimately lead to asymmetric warfare.

What is even more crucial and needs to be answered is whether the military drones do violate human rights or not. The military use of UAVs, such as their use by USA for counterterrorist purposes, is an example of mild violation of the International Human Rights Law as target killings are performed during times when war is not openly declared.

As EU citizens, we should also be asking ourselves what economic interests hide behind the matter of military drones and if a certain “business” is evolving around them.

Does the EU want to participate in this “drone war game”? Or better, can the EU not be a part of it, when NATO is already implementing military drones? What lies beneath the increased development of drones in recent years? What regulations should the EU propose to its Member States to achieve balance between the right to life, the maintenance of peace and the superiority of EU’s military policies and security/ defence system?

– 23 –