EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at the doorstep before the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, January 19, 2015
The week started with EU foreign ministers talking about anti-terrorism strategies. Pressure on European Parliament rose to agree to an European passenger record system, while the European Commission struggled to save arbitration tribunals within the EU-US trade agreement and stood by its plan to withdraw a major environmental law package. Ahead of the Greek elections, the Euranet Plus weekly debate turned around the possible winners of more financial flexibility in the EU.
The EU foreign ministers met on Monday (January 19) to discuss anti-terrorism strategies following the Paris attacks and last week’s anti-terror raids in Belgium, France and Germany. Talk focused on the need to better share information within the EU, as EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini stressed the need for a security partnership with the Arab states to fight terrorism.
The EU countries also used the meeting to raise the pressure on the European Parliament to come up with a European passenger records system.
But in the European Parliament concerns remain about potential violation of citizens’ privacy.
Parliament under pressure
A shared European database of air passengers’ personal information, PNR (Passenger Name Record), has been discussed within the EU for the last three years. The issue has been stuck in the EU Parliament since last April when several Parliamentarian Committees voted against it.
Timothy Kirkhope, a British Conservative member of the European Parliament (MEP) who is the responsible negotiator in the Parliament for the issue, wants the topic to be tackled before summer. He got support for an European PNR within his own political family in the Parliament, the conservative European People’s Party (EPP). However, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) as well as the European Liberals are still hesitating.
“This is not a hasty decision. As I said, it’s a three year long report. So I just don’t see that at all. And as for the attitude regarding the data protection legislation, that is going to be some considerable time in arriving, so it’s not a question there of let’s just wait,” Kirkhope said.
According to MEP Sophie In’t Veld, member of the European Parliament, Group of Liberals, PNR is not a topic to be addressed in the discussion on anti-terror strategies. In an interview with the Belgian Euranet plus partner RTBF, In´t Veld expressed her irritation “that member states have again raised this point after the attacks in Paris, claiming that the availability of PNR data would have prevented the attacks.”
But for her the most important point is sharing the informations. (audio in French)
“The real problem is that we see every time, now with the attacks in Paris, but also the Jewish museum in Brussels, the attacks in Toulouse etc, that the terrorists were known by the secret services BEFORE the attacks. The biggest problem in my opinion is that all the information is collected, but not shared between the secret services or the police or between countries,” In´t Veld stressed.
If there is no agreement on the PNR text between the European Parliament and the European Council until May, then the Commission would be ready to reopen the legislative document on PNR, Frans Timmermans, the vice-president of the European Commission, stated on Wednesday (January 21).
Commission fights for compromise on ISDS
Within the EU-US trade deal negotiations, the key issue remains whether to include the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) or not. A public consultation launched by the European Commission revealed that a very large majority of the people who participated (97 percent) were against this instrument.
The European Commission “is taking note” of the results of the consultation, but insists that it was “a consultation, and not a referendum,” explained Daniel Rosario, the spokesperson of Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.
The challenge now is to find a compromise with the Parliament. With the Greens and the European United Left (GUE) strongly against including ISDS in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the Socialists & Democrats will play a key role in the final decision to be taken by the European Parliament.
“On TTIP, our position is totally clear: we don’t need ISDS”, stressed Bernd Lange, a German Socialist MEP, who leads the report of the Parliament.
On the other hand, for the US protecting investors through this mechanism is “a very important” issue they are not willing to give up easily, argued Peter Chase, vice-president of the US Chamber of Commerce in Brussels. He told Euranet Plus that the fact that countries have developed legal and justice systems doesn’t stop them from discriminating investors.
“All what an investment treaty does is that it prevents government from discriminating based on nationality, from denying fair treatment, from expropriating or not compensating if you take someone’s properties and from blocking money in transfers,” Chase explained. In his view, “it doesn’t stop the right to regulate at all.”
Strong opposition since waste package is still to be scrapped
The European Commission faced heavy opposition from the Parliament’s Environment Committee on Thursday (January 22) when announcing that the plans to scrap its proposal on new waste rules are still on the table. Massive criticism came from all political families, who urged the Commission to keep the existing proposal on waste management.
The responsible negotiator in the EU Parliament, the so-called rapporteur, Simona Bonafé, said the Parliament was waiting for explanations on the Commission’s reasons to withdraw the waste package.
“I think that we still don’t understand the real reasons why the new Commission wants to withdraw the proposal. And during this meeting, all political groups have said they want to continue to work on this proposal”, Bonafé told Euranet Plus after the debate.
Parliamentarians also criticized that the Commissioner Karmenu Vella did not show up in the Committee to explain his position.
Instead, the Commission’s environment director general, Karl Falkenberg, attended the meeting without coming up with new arguments, apart from underlining that a new future proposal would be even more ambitious than the previous one.
He announced that the Commission intends to make a final decision on withdrawing the waste package in February.
Winners of more flexible economic rules
France is one of the winners of the European Commission’s announcement to be more flexible on the Stability and Growth pact, said MEP Markus Ferber (centre-right) in our weekly debate “U Talking to Me?”
Ferber discussed the Commission’s economic programme with Euranet Plus correspondents and predicted that investors will be deterred by the new guidelines.
Asked whether France should be sanctioned, the German said that the rules should be the same for everyone.
“It happened that other member states thought, okay, even Germany and France are not being punished. Why should we be punished? And that brought us to the problems in the year 2010 and 2011 with Cyprus, Greece Portugal, Spain, Ireland,” Ferber explained.
“So my concern is, if we have a European Union in that way that those who are in the periphery, who are small, get all the pressure from the Troika and whatever. But those who are large and are in the centre and have founded the European Union, are out of the game,” Ferber carried on.
- Author: Danièle Weber, Euranet Plus News Agency
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