EU news in May 2019

What happened in the EU in May 2019?

Elections! Europeans voted for the European Parliament. What happened? The anti-EU political parties won a bit. Some, like in Italy, won a lot. Others lost votes. The traditionally pro-EU-parties lost a bit. Some, like in the Netherlands, won a lot (more).

And good news: many Europeans went to vote. More than half voted, compared to only 42,6% in the election in 2014.

But EU citizens can do more than just vote. If you make a petition that gets at least a million votes from at least 7 EU countries, the Commission will have to reply. And there might be an interesting one coming up. Airplane companies don't pay tax on airplane fuel, and citizens made a petition to tax it (more).

One couldn't be against the environment, right? Well, yes you can. Some lobbyists don't want too strong laws on clean water (more). About the same topic: a few EU countries want to make strong decisions on climate change in June. But they will probably fail (more).

And we end with good news: five banks got huge fines from the Commission. They were manipulating financial markets before and during the last economic crisis that started in 2009 (more).

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EU News in March 2018

What happened in the European Union in March?

The top politicians of the European Union organisations saw the Turkish president Erdogan in a meeting. Turkey and the EU have a long history. Turkey asked in 1987 (yes, that's right!) to be part of the EU. Today, they are still negotiating. One of the biggest problems is the situation in the north of Cyprus. Turkey invaded a part of Cyprus, and that part has no normal relationships with the rest of the EU. Recently, Turkey and the EU made a deal on migrants. The EU gives money, and the EU sends a part of the migrants that come via Turkey back (more info here).

EU leaders and Turkey's president (red tie, like the Turkish flag) © EU, 2018

And what happened at the meeting? Not much. The EU leaders and Turkey disagree on many things. However, the Turkish president said he still wants Turkey to be part of the EU in the future (article) (article).

The EU organised another 'summit' (see previous newsletter). The leaders of France and Germany want to reform the Euro. Both countries want to work more closely together (article), but many other EU countries didn't want that (article). On the summit, they did agree to some reforms. For example, there could be an EU guarantee for people having money in the bank (article). In the history of the EU, France and Germany have changed a lot together.

The most powerful person in the European administration has been replaced, but not in a very transparent way (see previous newsletter). Many politicians of the European Parliament criticised this way of doing business (article). They asked the European Commission to explain this (article). In April, the whole European Parliament will vote on a resolution. Which means it's probably not going to be an issue anymore.

One of the (good) arguments to have the EU, is that it keeps the peace on the European continent. Yes, since the invention of the modern state at the end of the medieval ages, there hasn't been such a long period of peace. However, critics say, the EU produces a lot of weapons and sells them abroad. Which is not so peaceful. The number of weapons sold abroad is increasing (article).

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EU news in October & November 2017

What happened in the European Union in October and November?

The European Parliament said Poland should watch out. The Polish government wants to change the way Polish judges work with a few laws. The European Parliament and the European Commission think the judges will be much less independent if the laws are in place. However, it's still a long way before Poland could get a punishment. The next step is that a part of the European Parliament (a Committee) will write a report (article).

Since the United Kingdom is leaving the EU, they have to settle their accounts. When the UK was still in the EU, they agreed to pay for the pensions of the persons working at the EU's government and for a lot of projects that aren't finished yet. So, should the UK still pay for those? And how do you calculate how much it is? That's the so-called 'Brexit divorce bill', and it's what is being negotiated now.

The EU first want a deal on this. And only when this deal is done, the EU wants to talk about how to trade with the UK after it leaves (article).

In other Brexit news, two EU agencies know where they will move. Because the UK will no longer be in the EU, the two agencies will go to Paris and Amsterdam. EU agencies are there to take care of specific tasks. For example, the agency that goes to Amsterdam is the European Medicines Agency. It checks the medicines in the EU (article). 

EU countries promised to spend more money in defence in order to work more together. This is part of a response to Brexit. The army is one of the areas in which the EU doesn't do much together, compared to the other areas like trade or farming (article).

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EU news in September 2017

What happened in September in the European Union?

• The president of the European Commission made a speech. This speech happens each year and is called the State of the Union. The president said he wants the EU to work more closely together (Full speech here​). The EU countries' reacted​ differently: some like the idea, others don't. 
• The UK's political leader Theresa May also gave a speech​ about an important EU topic: Brexit. The UK will leave the EU at the latest in March 2019. However, May doesn't want to change too much the two years after (article​). 

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These two negotiate Brexit... © European Union , 2017   /  Source: EC - Audiovisual Service   /   Photo: Lukasz Kobus​​

• Germany had elections​, leaving their political leader Angela Merkel fewer options to continue to rule her country. In other news, she said​ the EU should work closer together when dealing with countries like China and Russia, possibly because of the unpredictable president of the USA.
• Some in the European Parliament want to allow for European election lists, meaning a French person could for example vote for a Romanian candidate (article​). Because of Brexit, some seats reserved in the European Parliament could be used like this.

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Referenda in the EU: debate

Interesting lecture on referenda in the European Union. What do they change? And what's the Irish experience with their referenda, that the British could take in the upcoming referendum? These are some of the topics discussed in the lecture held at Queen's University in Belfast, presided by Lee McGowan.