European Union

The Council has received 27 proposals by the member states, related to 23 cities, to host  the EU agencies currently based in the UK. There have been 19 offers to host the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and 8 for the European Banking Authority (EBA). All offers are available on the website of the European Council.

The two agencies will need to be relocated in the context of the UK's withdrawal from the EU. The future locations need to be decided by common agreement of the EU27 member states. On 22 June 2017, in the margins of the European Council (Article 50), the EU27 leaders endorsed a specific procedure for this decision. The first step was the submission of offers by the member states by 31 July 2017. 

European Medicines Agency

These are the cities proposed to host the EMA, as on 1 August 2017:

• Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
• Athens (Greece)
• Barcelona (Spain)
• Bonn (Germany)
• Bratislava (Slovakia)
• Brussels (Belgium)
• Bucharest (Romania)
• Copenhagen (Denmark)
• Dublin (Ireland)
• Helsinki (Finland)
• Lille (France)
• Milan (Italy)
• Porto (Portugal)
• Sofia (Bulgaria)
• Stockholm (Sweden)
• Malta (Malta)
• Vienna (Austria)
• Warsaw (Poland)
• Zagreb (Croatia)

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU. The EMA is essential to the functioning of the single market for medicines in the EU.

European Banking Authority

These are the cities proposed to host the EBA, as on 1 August 2017:  

• Brussels (Belgium)
• Dublin (Ireland)
• Frankfurt (Germany)
• Paris (France)
• Prague (Czech Republic)
• Luxembourg-City (Luxembourg)
• Vienna (Austria)
• Warsaw (Poland)

 The European Banking Authority (EBA) works to ensure effective and consistent prudential regulation and supervision across the European banking sector. Among other tasks, the EBA assesses risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector through regular risk assessment reports and EU-wide stress tests.

Assessment criteria

The applications will be assessed on the basis of six criteria agreed by the 27 member states: 

• guarantees that the agency will be operational when the UK leaves the EU
• accessibility of the location
• schools for the children of the staff
• access to the labour market and health care for the employees' families 
• business continuity
• geographical spread

Next steps

The Commission will publish an assessment of the offers based on the agreed criteria by 30 September 2017. Ministers will have a political discussion based on the Commission's assessment in October 2017 in the margins of the General Affairs Council (Art. 50).

The decision will be taken in the margins of the General Affairs Council (Art.50) in November 2017 by a vote of the 27 ministers. All offers will be submitted to the vote unless they are withdrawn by the countries concerned. The vote will consist of successive voting rounds as needed, with the votes cast by secret ballot and each of the 27 member states having the same number of votes.

The year 2016 will go down in European history as a time of striving to maintain the political, systemic, and social unity of the European Union as a community of countries, people, and values. It was a time of uncertainty and highly visible failures. But it was also a year marked by real achievements.

Above all, the United Kingdom's vote in June to exit the EU stands out as a bitter disappointment. And yet  a new pan-European consensus on the protection the EU's external borders, together with the conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada, warrants cautious optimism.

Most of the problems the EU has been grappling with for some time now have not been fully resolved. The migration crisis, tensions with Russia over Ukraine, and other external and internal security threats continue to test our unity and efficiency - and will continue to do so in the year ahead.

What we know from 2016 is that great change lies ahead - disconcerting, still unidentified, but nonetheless clearly palpable change. Indeed, the type of change that has been happening, and will happen in the future, is baffling political forecasters. It has been a long time since reality made such a cruel mockery of pundits and pollsters' predictions, even in the short-term context of upcoming elections or referenda. Politics has become as unpredictable as the weather in Brussels. And as with weather forecasts, if any predictions proved correct, it was the pessimistic ones.

The political tectonic shifts (and what else can one call the sudden drift of a huge island away from the continent?) now occurring are not just aftershocks of the financial crisis. Their source and essence are deeper than the anger of unemployed youth or the dissatisfaction with stagnant economic growth among European and American middle classes, although no sensible person would downplay these sentiments. But we all feel that these tremors may signal a more profound change: the end of an era, which in Europe could be called the Era of Great Stabilisation.

It is an era that has lasted 70 years, based on three pillars: an international order, in which the domination of the West commanded respect for rules and agreements, and which has protected Europe against global conflict; liberal democracy; and the relative prosperity of European societies.

The widespread anticipation of change should not frighten or, still less, paralyze us. As historians know all too well, it is stability, rather than crisis, that is transitional and short-lived. And, just as it is beyond our power to prevent crises, as they are inevitable by nature, it is not in our interest to cling to the status quo, as stabilisation sooner or later enters a phase of stagnation, when expectation of change becomes universal. This does not necessarily lead to catastrophe. But it may.

Everything depends on our collective ability to navigate stormy seas. The first prerequisite is to maintain the EU's basic unity. I will repeat this like a mantra: an internally broken EU will be incapable of rising to any of the challenges it faces, as will its member countries, including the largest.

The foundations of European solidarity remain fragile, and the real tests lie ahead. Without solidarity, Europe will have no influence over the direction of future changes, becoming their victim rather than their co-author. In order to avoid this bleak scenario, we must once again seek what connects us, what we have in common, what we are ready to defend with full determination, equal to that demonstrated by our opponents. We must once again define our territory, not geographically, but in a civilizational, cultural and perhaps even symbolical sense.

What we are observing today is that people, nations, and states are discovering the power of myth and simplification. This may foreshadow a politics, which is more brutal, rather closer to nature than to culture. The most important thing will be to distinguish accurately between what is shallow and unimportant in European tradition and what is lasting, valuable, and unique - what the historian Jacob Burckhardt called the freedom of spirit.

It is precisely in culture and freedom, where we will rediscover the essence of Europe. In politics this should mean that we must be prepared for change, on the condition that it does not restrict freedom as a core value. Before we overhaul the EU's structure, before we start solving fundamental dilemmas about the extent of integration, we must all agree that we want to carry the ideal of Europe as a continent of freedom from the past and into the future.

Today's world is full of barbarians, for whom freedom and culture, as we understand them, have become main targets of attack. Europeans will be able to overcome their current challenges only when we agree that we will not compromise in this confrontation. Symptoms of barbarity are around us, among us and within us. If we give in to external pressure and internal weakness, the coming changes may thwart Europe's most important political invention: the power of majority, the rule of law, and limited government, which only together guarantee human freedom and civil rights. This is why we must bravely and consistently defy those who stand up against our freedoms, whether from within or without.

https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/europes-values-are-its-best-defense-by-donald-tusk-2017-01?barrier=accessyef

During the extended period of crisis and recession which has eroded more than a quarter of its gross domestic product, Greece has gone a long way towards correcting its severe macroeconomic imbalances and implementing the structural reforms necessary to achieve economic stability and growth.

During 2016 fading fears over a possible Greek departure from the euro, or ‘Grexit’, and the easing of capital controls have helped release the growth potential generated by the adjustment process, bringing the country closer to what seemed like a turning point towards recovery. In the third quarter of 2016 a strong rebound in private consumption, investment and exports pushed the country’s rate of change of real GDP to an eight-year high – up 2.0% against the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Substantial improvements were recorded across indicators related to industrial production, retail trade, business and consumer expectations, and labour market conditions.

Although these developments suggest that Greece is moving towards recovery, more recent trends in both GDP and key indicators underline persistant fragility.  Current provisional GDP data points to a fall-back to negative growth during the fourth quarter of 2016 while the latest economic sentiment, consumer and retail confidence indicators show signs of weakening, in reaction to the uncertainty induced by delays in the completion of the second review of the Greek bailout programme. Nevertheless, recent official forecasts from domestic and international institutions agree on a positive outlook for the Greek economy, with the European Commission estimating GDP growth at 2.7% in 2017 and 3.1% in 2018. Some of the requirements to fulfil these prospects are already in place, including improved competitiveness and considerable opportunities for investment and exports. But other crucial pre-conditions are yet to be satisfied, with decisive policy action urgently required from both Greece and Europe.

There are immediate policy changes that could curtail uncertainty and provide a much-needed liquidity boost to the economy, such as completion of the bailout review and the inclusion of Greek sovereign bonds into the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing programme. Progress with structural reforms and major privatisation projects could promote investment and signal positive change.

Finally, the importance of deciding on a set of medium-term debt relief measures cannot be emphasised enough. This will be crucial for restoring confidence in the Greek economy and adjusting primary surplus targets to levels compatible with a sustainable economic recovery. Although debt relief will undoubtedly require some difficult decisions to be taken, it will ultimately be in the interests not only of Greece but of Europe as a whole, enabling Greece to safeguard the interests of Europe in a volatile region.

IMAGE CREDIT: CC/Flickr – Michael Korcuska

The post Emerging economic recovery depends on urgent policy action appeared first on Europe’s World.

The term ‘development aid’ is no longer in fashion in Brussels. Burdened by its history and ineffective results, the preferred term now is – as observed at the European Development Days (EDD) held on 7‒8 June this year ‒ ‘partnership’: among and between countries and the European Union, as well as between members of civil society, private sector and NGOs.

This approach was also conveyed by the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and reaffirmed by the leaders and spokesmen of the African countries: the countries no longer want neo-colonialist programmes but instead ask for actions in which they are treated as equals.

In this year’s EDDs, the ‘Davos of cooperation’ as some call them, it was Italy that gained a prominent place: not only because many of our leading figures working on international cooperation attended the event and have been involved in the various discussions, but also because three years after the introduction of a new law on development cooperation (Law 125/2014), Italy seems to have the necessary equipment to keep pace with international trends.

And perhaps Italy is even capable of something more: not only it has the tools, such as a dedicated deputy minister, its contribution to the European Migration Compact and the recognition of the private sector as an actor of cooperation, but also the ambition to conduct wide-ranging action. Or at least it wants to try.

“Migration cannot be solved by investing funds that should be used to fight poverty to increase the number of border police and controls”

Some international issues create cross-cutting crises that require innovative ideas and experience from the field. Migration and development, and migration and security, are often two sides of the same coin.

The issue of migration to Europe from Africa cannot be solved by moving Europe’s borders to Africa, or by investing funds that should be used in the fight against poverty to increase the number of border police and controls. This plan shows its weaknesses under demographic pressure, hunger, drought and wars. And in any case, migratory flows always find openings through which to pass.

But there is one key fact which echoes all other pulling factors for migration: jobs – an  essential condition to limit migrants’ departures and to facilitate their integration into destination countries. The External Investment Plan (EIP) that the EU is implementing, and which could mobilise US$60bn to be allocated to companies that intend to invest in Africa, could be a great opportunity to create real jobs with the involvement of civil society and other local realities and institutions.

The same reality also applies to refugees. Those working in refugee camps know from experience that a cash-for-work project may help those who are staying for endless periods in camps in Lebanon, Jordan or Kenya (just to mention some of the many cases) to recover their own dignity. This is proven in detail by a project implemented in Lebanon with the support of Italian Development Cooperation.

Cash granted for a job, which is often of public interest, is useful for both Europe and the migrants’ countries of origin. In fact, this kind of approach prevents the dispersion of ‘human resources’, a precious capital for countries like Syria that one day, once the war is over, will have to relaunch with the help of its people. Those who fled to Europe during the conflict are not likely to return.

“Work without education has a poor future”

But work alone is not enough. Work without education has a poor future ahead, just as the opposite does. Education used as a mantra in cooperation, but it is not just about schooling, but about inclusivity: in addition to the transmission of technical skills, education must provide a precise ‘essence’. Just consider that even those recruiting violent extremists open schools and invest in some forms of training.

At AVSI, we try to summarise the definition as follows: accompanying young people to think critically and discover that the other ‒ someone of a different culture or religion, for example ‒ is good, and should not be perceived as an obstacle to get rid of.

This is the challenge of the Back to the Future project, funded by the MADAD fund, which AVSI and other partners are implementing in Lebanon and Jordan. Numbers help to understand the extent of this: 30,000 children involved in Lebanon, 10,000 in Jordan, with a total of 200,000 indirect beneficiaries.

Work and education undoubtedly deserve the maximum investment that can be allocated to development and security.

IMAGE CREDIT: CC/Flickr – European Commission DG ECHO

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On 26 July, the Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) agreed on a mandate for negotiations on a draft directive covering entry and residence conditions for highly qualified  workers coming from third countries (blue card directive). Based on this mandate, the Council presidency will start negotiations with the European Parliament. 

"The purpose of the Blue Card is to attract highly qualified workers to Europe. The number of specialists and economic transformers in the world is limited and the competition for them is strong. Making them choose Europe will strengthen our competitiveness and contribute to economic growth", said Andres Anvelt, minister of interior of Estonia, which currently holds the Council presidency. "A common European residence and work permit that will facilitate and make conditions more flexible is necessary if we want to compete with the American green card or the Canadian point system”,  minister Anvelt added.

The reform of the blue card directive aims at making it more attractive for highly qualified workers from third countries to come to work in the EU. It will also aim to improve their mobility between jobs in different member states. It would replace the existing blue card directive, harmonising further conditions of entry and residence and improving the situation of highly qualified workers by the following means: 

• providing more inclusive admission criteria, including by reducing the salary threshold that member states can set for the admission of third-country nationals and establishing that member states may apply a lower minimum salary rule also to recent graduates, as well as by reducing the minimum length of the work contract to six months
• making the procedures faster, in particular by introducing the possibility to apply simplified procedures for recognised employers
• establishing that member states may allow EU blue card holders to engage in parallel in self-employed activities or professional activities other than their main activity
• facilitating intra-EU mobility, including by reducing the minimum period of legal residence in the first member state
• extending its scope to include non-EU family members of EU citizens and in certain cases, also beneficiaries of international protection  

The European Commission presented the proposal for a new blue card directive in June 2016 as part of the EU's efforts to develop a comprehensive migration policy, including in the area of legal migration. 

Coty Germany
Competition
According to Advocate General Wahl, a supplier of luxury goods may prohibit its authorised retailers from selling its products on third-party platforms such as Amazon or eBay

Slovakia v Council
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
Advocate General Bot proposes that the Court should dismiss the actions brought by Slovakia and Hungary against the provisional mechanism for the mandatory relocation of asylum seekers

Mengesteab
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
An asylum seeker may rely in legal proceedings on the fact that the Member State has become responsible for examining his application because of the expiry of the three-month period within which that Member State may request another Member State to take charge of him

A.S.
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice
Croatia is responsible for examining applications for international protection by persons who crossed its border en masse during the 2015-2016 migration crisis

Council v LTTE
External relations
The Court of Justice declares that the General Court should not have annulled Hamas’ retention on the European list of terrorist organisations and refers the case back to the General Court

The Court declares that the agreement envisaged between the European Union and Canada on the transfer of Passenger Name Record data may not be concluded in its current form

Report on arms export: implementation of Common Position 2008/944/CFSP
Opinion on shrinking civil society space in developing countries - 2016/2324(INI)
Opinion on European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) - 2016/0357(COD)
Report on EU political relations with Latin America - 2017/2027(INI)
Report on establishing an instrument contributing to stability and peace - 2016/0207(COD)
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk received the letters of credentials of the following Ambassadors:

H.E. Mr Rigoberto GAUTO, Ambassador, Head of Mission of the Republic of Paraguay to the European Union
H.E. Ms Gaitri Issar KUMAR, Ambassador, Head of Mission of the Republic of India to the European Union
H.E. Mr Nestor Gabriele BELLAVITE, Ambassador, Head of Mission of Plurinational State of Bolivia to the European Union

Joint statement by Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt following the 7th session of the EU-Egypt Association Council

After seven years since the Sixth session of the Association Council (AC) of the European Union and the Arab Republic of Egypt, the seventh session took place in Brussels on 25 July 2017. Both sides took this decision in recognition of the great importance of their partnership in addressing their political, economic social, security and cultural interests and in confronting their common challenges in the region. 

The seventh session was co-chaired by HE Sameh Shoukry, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt and Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, in the presence of Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner of European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations. 

The session confirmed the broader engagement of the EU-Egypt relations based on the resumption of the bilateral Association Agreement structure in 2015 and on the joint priorities identified in light of the revised European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) as well as the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030, which will guide our dialogue and cooperation for the next three years. 

The Association Council welcomed the adoption of the jointly negotiated EU-Egypt Partnership Priorities that pave the way for a reinforced and mutually beneficial bilateral partnership and towards a stronger strategic engagement in areas of common interest, to address common challenges, to promote joint interests and to guarantee long-term stability on both sides of the Mediterranean. This partnership will include support to Egypt's sustainable economic and social development, good governance, the rule of law, human rights, migration, security, counterterrorism, and cooperation in foreign policy through intensified consultations on regional and international issues. 

The Association Council welcomed the solid and accumulated EU assistance to Egypt which amounts to over EUR 1.3 billion, of ongoing grants to support Egypt's economic, social and political development to improve the future prospects of its people and contribute to stabilization and long-term prosperity. This work is carried out in parallel with efforts to help in particular youth and women. 

The EU reiterated its support to Egypt's efforts to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth, notably through the implementation of the IMF supported reform programme. Restoring macroeconomic stability, fostering sustainable economic growth and the same time mitigating the social impact of the reforms are all key priorities. 

The EU and Egypt remained committed to combat terrorism which threatens the social fabric of nations across both sides of the Mediterranean. Combating these threats represents an common goal of the EU and Egypt who can cooperate through a comprehensive approach that will address the root causes of terrorism with due respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, in order to enable both sides to successfully counter and prevent radicalization and enhance socio-economic development. 

The Association Council acknowledged Egypt's contribution in hosting refugees and migrants and working to prevent and combat irregular migration, trafficking and smuggling of human beings, including identifying and assisting victims of trafficking. It welcomes the adoption of a new anti-smuggling law that represents a key transformation in legislation through criminalization of smugglers. The EU and Egypt will strengthen their cooperation on migration. 

The Association Council provided an opportunity to identify areas where the EU and Egypt could enhance cooperation. In this regard, the EU and Egypt expressed their commitment to cooperate in diversification of energy sources, with a particular focus on renewable energy sources, energy efficiency actions and energy governance, where the EU could provide technical assistance to establish a regional energy hub in Egypt. Strengthening the energy dialogue is underway between the EU and Egypt and will contribute to the joint research, sharing experience and best practice, technology transfers, as well as sub-regional cooperation. 

The Association Council welcomed the commitment undertaken by both sides, faced with the common challenge of climate change, via ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The EU reiterated its willingness to support Egypt in this area. 

The Association Council also noted the importance of student staff and researcher exchanges and welcomed Egypt's active participation in EU programs such as ERASMUS+. In this regard, Egypt and the EU highlighted their interest in intensifying cooperation in the field of research and innovation, mainly through Horizon2020 projects and programs. Research and innovation has a key role in tackling issues of shared concern in the Mediterranean area. In particular, the Association Council welcomed the upcoming initialing of the international agreement between Egypt and the EU governing the participation of Egypt in the Partnership on Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA). PRIMA is expected to mobilize joint research and innovation in two fields of strategic importance for the Mediterranean area: water provision and food production. 

Egypt and the EU expressed their commitment to enhancing democracy, fundamental freedoms and human rights as constitutional rights of all their citizens in line with their international obligations, and agreed that human rights are a common value and constitute a cornerstone of a democratic, stable and prosperous state. 

The EU and Egypt agreed that civil society is an important and potent contributor to the implementation of their Partnership Priorities and to transparent, participatory governance and can support the sustainable development process underway in Egypt. They will work with civil society in contributing effectively in the economic, political and social development process in compliance with the Egyptian constitution and national legislation. 

The EU and Egypt have a shared interest in reinforcing cooperation in foreign policy at the bilateral, regional and international levels. In line with the Partnership Priorities, Egypt and the EU expressed their readiness for greater cooperation and a common understanding of a range of issues, including in the multilateral sphere. The Association Council noted the importance of the partnership between the EU and Egypt for the stability and prosperity of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Africa. Further cooperation between the EU and Egypt, including within regional fora, will aim to contribute to the resolution of conflicts, to building peace and to tackling political and economic challenges in these regions. 

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On Tuesday 25 July, the Informal Meeting of Competitiveness (Research) Ministers is held at Tallinn Creative Hub (Kultuurikatel). Ministers focus their discussions on the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020 and the future of European research and innovation funding.

Download this video here.

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The EU seeks to develop a particularly close relationship to Egypt, its geographical neighbour, and to support its domestic and political reforms. The relationship emphasises close cooperation on democratic reform, economic modernization, social reform, and migration issues.

Download this video here.

Janja Komljenovic and Susan L. Robertson

How are education markets constructed? What is the global education industry? How is education becoming part of global trade in services?  Who are the actors involved? What are the consequences and outcomes for the sector and for society at large? These are some of the key questions addressed in a recent special issue ‘Making global education markets and trade’ published in the Globalisation, Societies and Education journal.

 

This special issue had its genesis in two panels that we have organised at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Annual Conference in Vancouver in 2016. It aimed to generate theoretical, methodological and empirical insights into the very complex and new ecology of education systems that are being rapidly unbundled as largely state regulated sectors to functioning as a market. The authors identify a number of market devices and analyse how they work to set up and lubricate the ongoing workings of particular markets. They also analyse space and time as marketizing strategies to reveal complex modalities of power at play. And finally, they reveal networks of market-making actors who together work and invest to expand education markets as well as (re)structure national, regional and global political institutions.

 

Education market devices

A number of papers in the special issue focus on market devices and particularly elaborate (i) standards and standardisation, (ii) technology and infrastructure and (iii) data and metrics.

 

It is not surprising that standards are ‘normal’ elements of markets as they lubricate their smooth operation by increasing efficiency, reducing cost and enhancing trust. The papers analyse how education market-making actors intensively work to create industry standards, often without charging for this service. This is, however, also unsurprising as standardisation not only lubricates market operations, but also provides market opportunities for innovation and new products. In other words, standardisation in itself enables the creation of new commodities and markets.

 

Digital technologies and infrastructures are a second key group of market devices that are used both for and in countless particular devices and the same act as devices in their own right. Finally, data and metrics act as devices in that they convince buyers of education products of the trustworthiness of markets and their different products, acting, as one of the contributors to the issue describes it, as ‘epistemic objects’. Moreover, numbers give illusion of objectivity and are tools of the ‘governing by numbers’.

 

Spatial and temporal strategies for education market-making

Authors reveal the use of space and time as strategies for market-making; a set of processes that are often overlooked in the scholarly work on markets in education. Regarding spatial dynamics, particularly the use of space, scale, place, the nature of their social relations, and strength or weakness of their boundaries, are discussed. Regarding temporal dynamics, particularly the shift in temporal order towards the future is analysed to show how efforts to lock in a particular kind of future that privileges the interests of the investors, in turn helping to reproduce markets in education.

 

Networks and investors involved in education market-making

A number of papers also analyse those actors who are active in marketizing the education sector and the networks they form. They scrutinise the investment capital that seeks returns-on-profit, but also philanthropic donations that have particular connections to specific companies and the actors behind them.

 

Future research

Contributions to this special issue all in their own way engage with different sites and social processes as the basis for studying market-making and trade. An important endeavour of the authors was to theoretically and conceptually move beyond current approaches to studying market-making and trading in education services. As editors we endorse this endeavour and see that the complex processes are revealed in a novel way. As the editors, we wish to thank all of the authors for their outstanding contributions and look forward to wider ongoing conversations and future engagements with work on markets in education.

 

Janja Komljenovic and Susan L. Robertson are guest editors of the special issue ‘Making global education markets and trade’. Dr Janja Komljenovic is Senior Research Associate at the Lancaster University, UK. Professor Susan L. Robertson is Professor of Sociology of Educaton at the University of Cambridge, UK.

 

The post Making global education markets and trade appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Today's EU-Egypt Association Council endorsed the EU-Egypt partnership priorities for 2017-2020. The aim of the partnership priorities is to address common challenges, to promote joint interests and to guarantee long-term stability on both sides of the Mediterranean. 

The EU-Egypt partnership priorities are guided by a shared commitment to the universal values of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. 

The priorities cover three main areas: 

• Egypt's sustainable modern economy and social development

The EU and Egypt will cooperate in advancing socio-economic goals set out in Egypt's "Sustainable development strategy - Vision 2030", with a view to building a stable and prosperous Egypt. It willinclude cooperation on economic modernisation and entrepreneurship, trade and investment, social development and social justice, energy security, the environment and climate action.

• Partners in foreign policy

The EU and Egypt will reinforce their cooperation at bilateral, regional and international levels, working together on stabilising their common neighbourhood and beyond, and cooperating on crisis management and humanitarian assistance.

• Enhancing stability

Stabilisation is a common challenge facing the EU and Egypt. Establishing a modern and democratic state that delivers benefits equitably to all people is essential for this. Egypt and the EU will work together to promote democracy, fundamental freedoms and human rights as constitutional rights of all citizens, in line with Egypt's Constitution and international commitments. The EU and Egypt will also work together on security and terrorism, as well as on managing migratory flows for mutual benefit.

 

The partnership priorities set up a renewed framework for political engagement and enhanced cooperation. They were agreed in the context of the revised European neighbourhood policy and the EU's Global Strategy for foreign and security policy.

On 25 July 2017, the Council extended the mandate of the EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia until 31 December 2018. EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia is the EU naval operation disrupting the business model of migrant smugglers and human traffickers in the Southern Central Mediterranean. The operation has two supporting tasks: training the Libyan Coastguard and Navy and contributing to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya in accordance with UNSCR 2292 (2016) and 2357 (2017).

The Council also amended the operation's mandate to:

• set up a monitoring mechanism of trainees to ensure the long-term efficiency of the training of the Libyan Coastguard;
• conduct new surveillance activities and gather information on illegal trafficking of oil exports from Libya in accordance with UNSCR 2146 (2014) and 2362 (2017);
• enhance the possibilities for sharing information on human trafficking with member states' law enforcement agencies, FRONTEX and EUROPOL.

"Two years ago, the European Union's member states decided unanimously to tackle together one of the most despicable crimes of our times - the trafficking of human beings - by establishing EUNAVFOR Med - Operation Sophia. Many suspected smugglers have been apprehended and many lives saved in the Mediterranean Sea, and since last year our women and men serving under the European flag have been also training the Libyan Coastguard and enforcing the arms embargo on the high seas off the coasts of Libya. Today, I'm particularly proud to announce that the mandate of Operation Sophia has been unanimously renewed and again with additional tasks", said Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. "As a matter of priority, we will start in the coming days the revision of the operational plan in order to include the new tasks, such as the mechanism for monitoring the Libyan Coastguard and Navy activities post training, and to strengthen the effectiveness of the mission and the shared responsibility among member states", she added.

Background 

EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia was launched on 22 June 2015, as part of the EU's comprehensive approach to help better manage irregular migration and disrupt traffickers and smugglers' networks.

The operation entered its active phase in October 2015 enabling the identification, capture and disposal of vessels used or suspected of being used by migrant smugglers or traffickers. Since then, the operation has contributed to the arrest and transfer to the Italian authorities of 110 suspected smugglers and traffickers, and has neutralised 470 vessels. In addition, the operation has helped rescue close to 40 000 lives.

The Council added the two supporting tasks to the operation's mandate on 20 June 2016. Since then, the operation has trained 136 Libyan Coastguard and Navy personnel. It has also hailed over  650 ships, carried out 51 friendly approaches, 7 flag enquiries and 3 inspections within the framework of its contribution to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya.

EUNAVFOR MED's Operation Commander is Rear Admiral Credendino, from Italy. The headquarters of the mission are located in Rome.

PGNiG Supply & Trading v Commission
Energy
The President of the General Court rejects the applications for a stay of execution of the Commission’s decision that 50% of the transport capacities of the OPAL gas pipeline are to be subject to a bidding procedure