In the European Parliament has passed a Non-legislative resolution calling for European Political Parties to get legal statue so that they can play the role set out to them under Article 10, paragraph 4 of the Lisbon Treaty whereby political parties at European level contribute to forming European political awareness and to expressing the will of citizens of the Union. The report by Marietta Giannakou (EPP, Greece) was passed by 560 votes in favour, 93 against and 22 abstentions. The...
A lot of people mentioned to me that were surprised that Simon Coveney was appointed Minister for Agriculture, Marine and Food. To me it was no surprise, not only is Simon popular with farmers, in a Red C Poll for the Irish Farmers Journal Simon was the most popular candidate for Agriculture Minister, but he has European experience. The majroity of legislations, rules and payments relating to Agriculture comes from the European Union through the Common Agriculture Policy. This...
Image via Wikipedia European Movement Ireland have launched a report on the campaign that they undertook in relation to the European Citizen’s Initiative. As part of this a poll was undertaken in Cork, Galway, Dublin North and Dublin South on May 7th 2010. The findings are very interesting. 86% of People had not heard of the ECI 70% of people would consider using the ECI The poll also found that under 18 (5%) and over 65 (4%) were least aware of the...
An interesting possibility has arisen from ALDE MEP’s. They want to move a meeting of the EU-African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Joint Parliamentary Assembly to Brussels according to Euractiv (original in French and English) thereby boycotting Hunagary. This is seen as a democratic protest against the recent media law in Hungary. This law has met with opposition from within and without Hungary. The idea of this boycott came after Belgian MEP Louis Michel, co-chair of the EU-ACP assembly, called...
Today the House of Commons will consider as a Committee of the whole house, the European Union Bill. This will mean that in future the United Kingdom will have to hold a referendum on future treaties which amend the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Function of the European Union Under the Bill the UK will have to hold a referendum if the treaty meets one of these conditions: (a) the extension of the objectives of...
Image via Wikipedia The National Media and Infocommunications Authority Hungary (Nmhh) have published the Act on Media Services and Mass Media on their website in PDF format. It is nearly 200 pages long and is a tough read. Article 187 is what sets out the fines which has a lot of people worried (3) The Media Council and the Agency — with due heed to paragraph (7) — shall have the right to impose the following legal consequences: a)...
Image via Wikipedia EUBusiness is reporting that the fact that Hungary is the current holder of the rotating EU Presidency will not hold them back from launching proceedings if the new media law is found to be in breach of Community Law. “If there’s an infringement of community law, the Commission will launch proceedings and the fact Hungary presides the European Union will have no bearing,” Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said. … Bailly said EU legal experts would scrutinise...
Image via Wikipedia It was has not been a great start to its Presidency, Hungary is now digging its heels in response to criticism of its controversial media law. “It isn’t necessary to change a Hungarian law just because it is subject to criticism from abroad,” Zoltan Kovacs, state secretary for communication, told national radio. “Before criticising, let’s wait and see how this law works. We are confident it will be up to the task,” he added. Source This...
Image via Wikipedia Radio Free Europe is reporting that the Government of Belarus has ordered the shut down of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe‘s (OSCE) office in Minsk. This was because it had fulfilled its mandate according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh. This is on top of the multiple arrests of activists and opponents of the Lukashenka administration. The OSCE has stated that Belarus is still “a considerable way” from holding a democratic vote. The...
The European Year of the Volunteer 2011
2011 has been designated the European Year of the Volunteer by the European Union. This is following a campaign led by Marian Harkin MEP (Ireland/ALDE). She worked with the unofficial “EP Volunteering Interest Group” to lobby the Parliament, the Council and the Commission on this initiative. Volunteering is very important in many Member States. Across the EU 92 to 94 million adults are involved in volunteering in the EU. That is 23% of all Europeans over 15 years of...
Read more »