Horizon 2020

New Year, Green Projects & EU Citizens

Posted on 12th January 2020 by Media Team

Happy New Year greetings to everyone. I won’t pretend that it’s not a little difficult to be happy about the UK leaving the EU at the end of this month or the general state of our politics. More another time about the dire need for proportional representation to ensure a fairer democracy, something which I will be looking to campaign on. For now though, I am coming to the end of what has been a wonderful and productive experience as Green MEP for the North West. However, I have a lot to complete both in the NW region and in EU Parliament – with the help of my fantastic staff, as we ensure we maximise our impact before the end of January and try to leave a positive legacy.

Looking Ahead

Transport

We will launch our detailed report on sustainable and active transport in the North West on Friday 24 January in Lancaster. This report follows up on the Green New Deal in the North West report, with more detail about the challenges and mechanisms for ensuring investment in transforming our public and active transport systems in the region.

Research and Innovation

The future of research and innovation funding…particularly as we will now no longer be a full member of the Horizon Europe research funding programme within the EU.

We have a report coming out imminently on this and I will also be following this up with an event in the European Parliament on Wednesday 22 January about the importance of research and innovation in meeting our climate targets and the policies described in the European Green Deal – the European commission’s first attempt to introduce such a concept (good news). With a range of policies across the board, as Greens we are not totally convinced that the proposals are deep enough or bold enough.

The Occupied Palestinian Territories

During my last week, not only will I finally publish a report on the occupied Palestinian territories using some of the information I gathered during my visit there in August and the numerous initiatives within the European Parliament, I will also be hosting an event in the Parliament looking at how trade in goods from the occupied Palestinian territories can be properly regulated according to the principles of international law.

The Green New Deal Presentation at Steady State Manchester

Just three days after the election, one of my MEP office team members, Laurence Adams, who was the key researcher behind our Green New Deal for the North West report spoke at a ‘Green New Deals and Greater Manchester’ event hosted by Steady State Manchester, a group working to promote alternative approaches to economic development that respects planetary limits.

Laurence gave a short presentation of our report, outlining what the challenges are in our region and how a Green New Deal of the kind put forward by the Green Party could be transformational. In particular, we made the point that we must work hard to retain ownership of the principles of a ‘Green New Deal’, which are at risk of becoming watered-down. It is fundamental to the Greens’ model that any Green New Deal worthy of the term must meet the six key principles we set out in our report:

-Recognising the Emergency
-Making a Fair Contribution
-Ensuring a Just Transition
-Investing Public Money for Public Goods
-Localising Democracy
-Rethinking Measures of Success.

A local member of Labour for a Green New Deal was also due to attend and put forward Labour’s position, but after the dire election result, was still too crestfallen to attend.

EU Citizenship

As the true impacts of Brexit unfold, one bad news story at a time, it is important that we pay close attention to what’s being offered. We’ve had much correspondence about the issue of ‘Associate EU Citizenship’ and my fellow MEP, Ellie Chowns has put together the following important information:

We continue to believe that the UK is best placed within the EU in terms of our economic interests, strong environmental and social standards and, of course, the benefits of freedom of movement. The proposal of associate EU citizenship is, therefore, at first glance, an undeniably attractive proposal for those of us who wish to stay a part of the European project and retain the rights we have long enjoyed as its citizens.

Associate citizenship isn’t a formal proposal. Charles Goerens, a Luxembourgish MEP, first proposed this amendment to a report on possible future changes to the EU treaties by the Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) in the European Parliament. This was not a legislative report and could not create the status of associate citizenship by itself, and the proposal was ultimately withdrawn prior to the vote with Mr Goerens issuing this explanation on social media.

So far it has been agreed amongst legal experts that to achieve associate citizenship for the UK would require a treaty amendment agreed to by all remaining 27 EU member countries, and then ratified by their national parliaments or by referendum. Unfortunately, this would take a long period of time and is unlikely to happen, and while we support freedom of movement, this right must be reciprocal and enshrined for both Britons and Europeans. In this respect, associate citizenship would discriminate against Europeans.

My Greens/EFA colleague, Jill Evans, commissioned researchers at Swansea University to explore this associate citizenship question and the House of Commons library published legal opinions on EU citizenship that is online here.

Despite the strict legal issues, remaining open to the idea of an associate citizenship, if anything, sends a clear message to the UK government that citizens want to be empowered and remain part of the EU.

I’m keeping a watching eye on this – among all the other Brexit-related developments!

Here’s a link to the GreenWave Voxbox, where we discuss citizen rights post-Brexit with other MEPs.

Meanwhile this week

Good

It is good to see this progressing and to have to opportunity to sign the declaration before my role here ends:

“The Intergroup on Welfare and Conservation of Animals launched DECLARATION ON A TRANSITION TO NON-ANIMAL SCIENCE calling on the EU Commission to establish a concrete strategy to phase out the use of animals in areas of research, education and testing.”

With more than 200,000 animals used each year in the EU for the primary purpose of education and training, this initiative will have a huge impact for good.

The link to the declaration can be found here.

Bad

You couldn’t make it up, but then again:

“Counter-terrorism police placed the non-violent group Extinction Rebellion (XR) on a list of extremist ideologies that should be reported to the authorities running the Prevent programme, which aims to catch those at risk of committing atrocities.

“XR featured alongside threats to national security such as neo-Nazi terrorism and a pro-terrorist Islamist group. The guide, aimed at police officers, government organisations and teachers who by law have to report concerns about radicalisation, was dated last November.”

This article, discovered by The Guardian, is dark and threatening to those who are simply campaigning to protect the life, nature and the environment and I am certain will be challenged. I agree with my colleague Molly Scott Cato MEP who said this is:

“A sign of a state out of control and failing democratic standards.”

Where hope lies

Localism!

I am being asked a lot about what I will do after the end of January.

I have of course kept both of my local councillor roles on at Lancaster City and Lancashire County Council during the last seven months, and will return to them with renewed determination (and I believe, support) to ensure local action by our councils on the climate emergency. As the MEP office, we will be producing a short report on good practice so far in the regions – and I have no doubt that people support local low and zero-carbon initiatives which can also transform our local economies, adding to the quality of daily life. Better public transport and support for active travel, more local services, expanding and promoting biodiversity in our public green spaces and supporting community initiatives just as a start.

I am sure many of us will be turning to the well established Green truism for creating a better future: “Think Globally, Act Locally.”

But first, this coming week will be my last visit to Strasbourg and the formal plenary of the Parliament and there is lots on the agenda I will be participating in.

Onwards

Women, Europe & Planet

Posted on 29th November 201929th November 2019 by Media Team

Most of this week was spent in Strasbourg, on a diverse range of important issues. From the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, consumer standards and how they’re impacted by big business, to the Green New Deal for Europe, a well deserved human rights award, holding the EU Commission to account with a ‘yellow card’, issues in the Middle East and the EU declaration of a climate emergency. These weekly summaries grow more difficult on weeks like this!

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

The European Parliament adopted a resolution by our Greens/EFA group for ratification of the Istanbul Convention: to add gender-based violence to the list of EU crimes and a directive to combat gender-based violence. We used the opportunity of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to urge the Council to stop blocking EU ratification and denounce this massive violation of human rights which is still very present in the EU. One in three women in Europe has experienced physical or sexual acts of violence at least once since the age of 15; 55% of women have been confronted with one or more forms of sexual harassment and in many Member States, over half of all female murder victims are killed by an intimate partner, relative or family member.

A Green New Deal for Europe

I am delighted to be involved in the Greens’ Climate Core Group discussion on the Green New Deal and European Climate Law. As the Commission begins to draft its proposal for a European Green Deal, Green MEPs are hard at work defining our demands on the contents of that proposal. Any Green New Deal has to recognise the scale of the challenge, and set out sufficiently ambitious proposals to meet those challenges.

As I showed in my report, The Green New Deal for the North West, the main sectors that constitute the bulk of the challenge and from which the vast majority of our carbon emissions come, are energy supply, industry, buildings and land use (farming and transport). In addition, at a European level, these sectors must be looked at through the lens of our trade and foreign policies. The role of an MEP presents a powerful opportunity to challenge proposals, to scrutinise and criticise anything that fails to meet the required standards until we get this right.

Greens Give Yellow Card to New Commission

A major vote took place this week and as Greens in Europe, we chose to abstain, effectively giving the new European Commission a ‘yellow card’. The new Commission, led by President Ursula von der Leyen, was voted through but our abstention was seen to be a sign of goodwill as well as an acknowledgement of serious criticisms including: the profound lack of will to seriously reform the EU’s trade and agricultural policies, the decision to link migration policy to the notion of “promoting our European way of life”, and putting a right-wing Commissioner in charge of EU enlargement.

However, we do recognise that the Commission has moved in a better direction concerning the climate. Announcing their intention to increase the emissions reduction target for 2030 to 55 per cent (previously 45 per cent) and pushing EU Member States to adopt a target of climate neutrality by 2050. This is not enough, of course, but it does represent progress. As the Greens/EFA group in Europe, our targets would be an emissions reduction of 65 per cent by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2040.

Greens are ready to work with the new Commission in designing an ambitious European Green New Deal, and raising our climate targets so we meet our commitments under the Paris Agreement. There is no time to waste and options are diminishing, so although we will work constructively with others, we will not shy away from criticism when it’s due.

Palestine debate

The Local Palestine Solidarity Group in Alsace was hosting two wonderful women from Palestine, Sahar Abbassi the Director of the MADA association in Silwan and Rania Mohjareb from Al-Haq, a human rights organisation based in the West Bank. I had met different representatives of both these organisations during my recent visit to Palestine and Israel in August. The situation following last week’s announcement from the US administration that ‘settlements are not illegal ‘ is serious and the statement from the US is a clear breach of international law. By contrast, in the EU last week, the Court of Justice said that products from illegal settlements must be labelled as such when sold in the European market. Rania also called for the publication of an existing report by the UN Human Rights Council that lists companies operating in the illegal settlements.

Palestine event

As part of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, an event was arranged to encourage an exchange of views on the situation for women in Palestine and I had the opportunity to speak:

“It is time for the EU to step up as the neutral peace broker in Israel and Palestine. That requires an unwavering commitment to international law.

“Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

“That is why last week’s ruling by our Court of Justice is so important. Products from illegal Israeli settlements must now be labelled as such. We now need to take concrete steps to enforce the court’s judgement.

“This is the first step. Going forward, the EU needs to impose a ban on all imports of settlement products into the EU. Similar measures have been taken with products from Crimea and Northern Cyprus. Why not from the settlements?

“The UN should urgently release the database of companies operating in Israeli settlements that are profiting from their construction and growth.

“It will send a clear message to the world: any attempts to legitimise annexation, and contravene international law, will have concrete repercussions.

“Finally, I would like to ask the High Representative: what concrete steps will the EU take to ensure international law remain a respected point of reference for the Middle East Peace Process?”

European Parliament Declares Climate Emergency

Another high point of the week was witnessing the European Parliament adopt the resolution declaring a climate emergency and urging EU member states to take immediate action to address the climate crisis. The flip-side of this though was the disappointment that the resolution itself did not contain the concrete actions the Greens are demanding.

This declaration is a step but not enough and will ring hollow if it is not followed by determined climate action. Therefore, the Greens have called on the Commission to present concrete measures before the climate summit in Madrid (COP25).

I was asked for comment:

“Today, the European Parliament declared a climate emergency. This is significant. The world’s second-largest economy now recognises the climate crisis.

“In the UK, meanwhile, we now know that the Tories are planning to sell out our NHS to Donald Trump. In that deal, Boris Johnson and President Trump are making sure to ban any mention of climate change.

“While the EU takes a firm stance on climate action, our Prime Minister is trying to silence the climate debate. He won’t succeed.

“We Greens won’t stay silent. And we will take every opportunity to give climate change the attention it needs.

“Because we are in a climate emergency. Silencing the debate won’t help us. Only ambitious climate action will.”

Meanwhile this week

Good

Ukrainian film-maker, Oleg Sentsov, has finally collected his human rights prize after five years in a Russian prison. Oleg received the (belated) 2018 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought this week, finally having the opportunity to collect it. He had been arrested by Russian authorities following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for “plotting terrorist acts”. The conviction has been described by a host of international organisations as being fabricated.
Oleg was finally freed due to a Ukrainian-Russian prisoner swap and able to come to Europe. He was keen to emphasise that Russian atrocities toward opposition figures and minorities in Crimea have not ceased since his arrest. At the same time, the war in Eastern Ukraine continues to rage. That Oleg Sentsov was finally able to collect his prize is a powerful symbol. In the face of aggression and injustice, The European Union continues to stand up for human rights, international law and justice.

Bad

As a representative on the European Union’s Horizon Research and Innovation Programme, I find it a fascinating and positive group which really tackles the issues. This week, the group published a report on ‘the innovation principle’ that’s been touted by major companies in the oil and chemical sectors. They’ve pushed for ’the innovation principle’ to be more widely accepted and given the same legal weight as the ‘precautionary principle’; an aim considered by many consumer rights organisations as a ‘Trojan horse’ that would enable businesses to undermine EU environmental and health regulations.

The precautionary principle should not be undermined. The recently released report was published by the Centre for European Policy Studies CEPS. CEPS has 14 companies on its corporate members’ list that lobby for this and they are the ones who stand to gain.

Asked for my view as the Greens representative on the Horizon programme working group, I said that this was nothing more than trying to give the same status to what amounts to an ’anti-regulation principle’ and a way for businesses to buy influence and weaken the precautionary principle. Innovation doesn’t need protecting by big business, but the precautionary principle is there to protect environmental public health and consumer standards. Yet again big business influence is trying to reach further into places it shouldn’t go.

Where hope lies

This week, 74 European students and teachers came to Strasbourg to present a ‘Declaration for the Planet’ which was contributed to by 310 students and 27 teachers: ‘The first European declaration of the rights for the planet and the living.’

It all started with Anaïs Willocq, a teacher at Montaigne’s school in 2017, raising awareness among her fifth-grade students of the threats facing them on the planet and went on to register them in the Children’s Parliament. The Lobby of Poissy laid the ground-work with educational projects, actions with the town hall, meetings of deputies in the National Assembly, demonstrations, meetings with experts and getting well-known personalities on board with the project: Hubert Reeves, François Hollande and Nicolas Hulot, who agreed to sponsor them and to write the ‘rights for the planet and the living’. Supported by the European Commission, this unique approach places the school at the heart of citizenship.

“It is natural that the Commission is associated with this initiative because it is a true example of what Europe must be: the meeting of Europeans from several countries who think together about solutions to build a better future.”

For Baudouin Baudru, Head of the Representation of the European Commission in France.

You can see a quick bit of my meeting with the children below.

Onwards