European Union

General : Online platforms such as Uber, Airbnb and Deliveroo that match providers of goods and services with consumers have become household names in just a few years. The total transactions' value for the four main sectors involved in the so-called collaborative economy already reached €28 billion in the EU in 2015, nearly double that of 2014. However, this new business model also comes with challenges and opportunities, which are dealt with in a report adopted by the internal market committee on 3 May.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

DRAFT REPORT on arms export: implementation of Common Position 2008/944/CFSP
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Bodil Valero

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

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The Informal meeting of Competitiveness Ministers takes place on 3 May 2017, in Valletta.

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General : “When freedom of the press ends, so does democracy. We've seen this in the past,” said MEP Jaromír Štětina. The Czech member of the EPP group is a former journalist who lost his job during the Prague Spring back in 1968 when the Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014. On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, we asked him about the importance of free media. Watch our video to find out what he had to say.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : “When freedom of the press ends, so does democracy. We've seen this in the past,” said MEP Jaromír Štětina. The Czech member of the EPP group is a former journalist who lost his job during the Prague Spring back in 1968 when the Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014. On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, we asked him about the importance of free media. Watch our video to find out what he had to say.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

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Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

RECOMMENDATION on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union and its Member States, of the Protocol to the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, of the other part, to take account of the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Cristian Dan Preda

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

RECOMMENDATION on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union and its Member States, of the Protocol to the Framework Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Mongolia, of the other part, to take account of the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Helmut Scholz

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The EU should reap “collaborative” economy benefits while ensuring fair competition, workers’ rights and tax compliance.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The EU should reap “collaborative” economy benefits while ensuring fair competition, workers’ rights and tax compliance.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : World Press Freedom Day is marked every year on 3 May, but there is little reason to celebrate as journalists continue to be repressed and persecuted all over the world. The challenges facing the press are discussed by Parliament's human rights subcommittee on Thursday morning, with a special focus on the growing threat of disinformation. Check out our handy guide on how to spot fake news.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : World Press Freedom Day is marked every year on 3 May, but there is little reason to celebrate as journalists continue to be repressed and persecuted all over the world. The challenges facing the press are discussed by Parliament's human rights subcommittee on Thursday morning, with a special focus on the growing threat of disinformation. Check out our handy guide on how to spot fake news.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

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DRAFT OPINION on addressing shrinking civil society space in developing countries
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Francisco Assis

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Private security companies must respect minimum requirements on accountability, the screening of staff and reporting on misconduct, while staying away from tasks usually reserved for the military said committee MEPs on Tuesday.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Private security companies must respect minimum requirements on accountability, the screening of staff and reporting on misconduct, while staying away from tasks usually reserved for the military said committee MEPs on Tuesday.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Private security companies must respect minimum requirements on accountability, the screening of staff and reporting on misconduct, while staying away from tasks usually reserved for the military said committee MEPs on Tuesday.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Private security companies must respect minimum requirements on accountability, the screening of staff and reporting on misconduct, while staying away from tasks usually reserved for the military said committee MEPs on Tuesday.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

The centre of Malta’s foreign policy has always been the Mediterranean. In his day, Malta’s longest-serving prime minister, Dom Mintoff, single-handedly forced a Mediterranean chapter into the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. More recently, Malta has been active on a range of Mediterranean initiatives, such as the ‘Five plus Five’ dialogue and the EU’s various policies towards its southern neighbourhood.

Malta’s interest in the Mediterranean has traditionally been multidimensional, including trade, security and stability, maritime affairs and peace (Malta is a long-standing and active supporter of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). So it was only logical that Malta’s Foreign Minister, George Vella, stated on the first day of the country’s presidency of the Council of the European Union that “there is a definite sense of expectation in EU quarters that Malta should leave its imprint primarily on Mediterranean affairs.”

It is a measure of the extraordinary state of current European politics that the southern Mediterranean has, in practice, received only limited attention during the first months of Malta’s presidency. This is mostly due to factors far beyond Malta’s control. Looming Brexit negotiations, the strains on NATO and European security following the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, the rise of chauvinistic nationalism across Europe and its effect on European policy-making, the continuing policy failures around migration and escalating violence in Ukraine all compete for the attention of Europe’s leaders.

However, it is noteworthy that the Maltese presidency has so far been unable to stop a longer-standing EU trend towards viewing Euro-Mediterranean relations through one single lens: migration. Recent initiatives on Libya have, in practice, been focused on border control and migration, as this is perceived as being key to stabilising the so-called ‘central Mediterranean route’. The Maltese presidency has emphasised the follow-up to the Joint Valletta Action Plan on migration management and proposed new measures to disrupt the business models of human smugglers and traffickers, to mention just a few examples.

But discussing migration is not discussing the Mediterranean specifically. Migration is a much wider problem. A cursory survey of migrants’ and refugees’ origins, as well as their reasons for migrating, is enough to make that clear. And the challenges of the Mediterranean are so much vaster and deeper: peace and security, economic inequality, discrimination and intolerance, patronage-based politics, democratisation and social change. All are important in their own right – not only insofar as they affect migratory flows. Reinforcing a one-dimensional Euro-Mediterranean dimension would be an ironic and unfortunate legacy of the Maltese presidency.

IMAGE CREDIT: CC/Flickr – Juan Antonio F. Segal

The post The one-dimensional Euro-Mediterranean dimension appeared first on Europe’s World.

On 3 May 2017, EU ambassadors confirmed on behalf of the Council the informal agreement reached with the European Parliament on the proposal for a regulation amending regulation 1683/1995 laying down a uniform format for visas.

This regulation establishes a new common design for the visa sticker to update its security features in order to prevent forgery. The current visa sticker, which has been in circulation for 20 years, is considered to have been compromised given various serious incidents of counterfeiting and fraud.

“This is an important development - a more secure format of the visa sticker is another step forward in the fight against the counterfeiting of documents and therefore progress in our efforts to enhance the security of the EU and the Schengen area.”

Carmelo Abela, Minister for Home Affairs and National Security of Malta

Following this confirmation of the agreement, the text of the regulation will be submitted to the European Parliament for a vote at first reading and subsequently to the Council for adoption.

Ireland and the United Kingdom will not be subject to the application of the new measures, in accordance with the protocols annexed to the EU treaties. However, upon a request from these member states, the Commission shall enter into arrangements with them to exchange technical information in relation to the format for national visas issued by them.