Local mafias illegally control and handle disposal of waste in the region of Campania. Tons of hazardous waste are concentrated into makeshift landfills or burned in bonfires. Brussels has already made itself clear – but what is the Italian State doing about it?
By Vlad Stoicescu
To get a glimpse of what is happening one should understand first the legal mechanisms that put in motion Romania’s anti-corruption framework. The National Anticorruption Directorate was set up in 2002. Back then it was a step towards judicial reform and compliance with European standards in a period in which Bucharest was negotiating the country’s accession to the EU. For a couple of years it was just a “showcase institution”, formally highlighting the political will to combat Romania’s pervasive corruption.
By Manuel Ruiz Rico
On 13 January, by a large majority, the European Parliament in Strasbourg adopted a regulation that had little impact but which is bound to change the whole picture of GM crops in Europe. The House gave the green light to Member States, empowering them individually to approve or ban the cultivation of GM crops in their national territories, rather than this being decided by the EU. Across the breadth of Europe, due to the broad social rejection of these crops, GM is virtually banned. But everything could change from now on.
By Clément Fontan
On 16 March 2015, ECB chairman Mario Draghi delivered a speech at the Süddeutsche Zeitung Finance Day. Eurozone economic governance reforms were the topic of the day. The structural reforms proposed by Mr. Draghi are ideologically loaded and the creation of new institutions might worsen the democratic troubles in Europe rather than solve them. The ECB and other EU institutions have already been exploiting the financial crisis as an opportunity to implement structural reforms in a coercive manner for more than four years. The results have been worrying, to say the least.
By Driss Ouazzani
Josep Borell, a Spanish politician of the Worker´s Socialist Party (PSOE), was President of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2007. Here he speaks from his heart on a range of issues that concern Europe, from the financial crisis and euroskepticism to fiscal evasion and TTIP, with special references to Spain and the European South.
Shlomo Ben-Ami is an old hand in Israeli and international politics. He has been Minister of Internal Security and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, and now serves as Vice President of the Toledo International Center for Peace in Madrid. This is a summary of a 30-minute discussion with him following the 17 March 2015 Israeli election. He talks about Mr. Netanyahu’s reelection, the state of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and possible steps by the international community to move things forward under the current circumstances.
Jean-Claude Juncker can sometimes be very daring. But words count, and should be used with precision. Speaking to a German newspaper, the President of the European Commission has called for a ‘European army’ to help cope with the challenge posed by Russia, to defend European ‘values’ and for the EU to take up its ‘responsibility in the world’ and be able ‘to react to a threat to peace in a Member State or neighbour’. He even said that ‘it would have been useful during the crisis in Ukraine’. But how?
Thousands of migrants die every year trying to cross into Europe. But exactly how many?
A consortium of over ten journalists managed to answer this question by joining efforts in a pan-European project that tracks the deaths of migrants seeking refuge in Europe. From January 2000, over 28,000 people have died trying to cross into Europe. Their locations vary from detention centers to territories and seas. The ongoing project shows that, so far, the highest number of people dies on Libyan land and coasts and in the seas of Western Sahara. The deadliest route is crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya into Italy.
Europe’s security, just like its economy, should be integrated for greater efficiency and impact. United, Europe’s defence mechanism could deter any potential outside threat. The idea is not to merge all national armies or replace them by a pan-European one, rather to create a force that will complement and assist them in case of emergency. Hopefully Mr. Juncker’s call will find strong support from the majority of EU members. We should not wait for a crisis to come to our door to try to tackle such important issues under duress. Now is the time to lay the foundations for the future continent that we would like our children to live in.
The implementation of European Energy Security should become an imperative priority of the EU member states in order to reduce their dependence on Russian gas and secure alternative energy sources. In parallel, European Energy Security should be related to an effective Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), as the protection of critical energy infrastructures is vital for the undisrupted flow of gas and oil.
