News

EU Agriculture Ministers meeting this week set out a series of initiatives to reduce food waste and losses in the future. These measures include calls on member states and the Commission to improve monitoring and data collection to better understand the problem, to focus on preventing food waste and losses and enhancing the use of biomass in future EU legislation, and to facilitate the donation of unsold food products to charities. Every year nearly a third of all the food is lost or wasted.

Trinity College Dublin is a partner in an EU-funded project that has developed a system capable of exploiting the widespread use of mobile electronic devices and social media to improve the official response to emergencies and other crises. The EU-funded iSAR+ project has shown that mobile devices and online systems can be integrated with existing emergency response systems for the two-way flow of information between emergency teams and the public, for the benefit of both. By sharing messages, emergency teams can get valuable information from people on the ground at incidents, while the public can receive advice, such as on what to do to make themselves safe and how to help fellow citizens or the emergency services.

We note the media reports stating that in the event of a UK withdrawal from the EU, English would cease to be an official language of the EU. This is incorrect. The Council of Ministers, acting unanimously, decide on the rules governing the use of languages by the European institutions. In other words, any change to the EU Institutions' language regime is subject to a unanimous vote of the Council, including Ireland.

EU Finance Ministers have agreed a new set of proposals to tackle corporate tax avoidance. Under new measures agreed in Brussels earlier this week, each EU Member State will have to impose greater transparency to ensure that corporate companies pay their fair share. The new measures, which are expected to take effect next year, are designed to prevent "profit shifting" to no-tax or low-tax countries. Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, said: "Today's agreement strikes a serious blow against those engaged in corporate tax avoidance. For too long, some companies have been able to take advantage of the mismatches between different Member States tax systems to avoid billions of euros in tax."

The European Personnel Selection Office has launched a competition to recruit Irish language translators to work in Brussels and Luxembourg. To apply you must hold EU citizenship and have fluency in English, as well as French or German, in addition to Irish. The deadline to apply is 12 July 2016.

The consultation aims to allow all European citizens to express an opinion on the way in which levels of fishing effort and quotas are set according to the new Common Fisheries Policy and in relation to scientific advice about sustainable fishing. The consultation is open until 1 September 2016.

The purpose is to evaluate the implementation of the LIFE Programme for the Environment and Climate Action, with a view to taking a decision on the renewal, modification or suspension of the measures, as well as taking into account evaluation results on the long term impact of LIFE+. The consultation runs until 9 September 2016.

Matthias Ruete, Director General for Migration and Home Affairs at the European Commission to address the Institute of International and European Affairs on Challenges for the European Agenda on Migration, Dublin

Slovakia will take over the six-month rotating Presidency of the European Council from The Netherlands on 1 July.

This event is organised by the Irish Centre for European Law.

The European Council will discuss the outcome of the UK in/out referendum held on 23 June 2016. Leaders will address migration. In particular they will turn to situation in Central Mediterranean and cooperation with third countries of origin and transit. They will also take stock of the implementation of the EU-Turkey statement of 18 March 2016 and the closure of the Western Balkans route. Leaders will call for the deepening of the single market, with a focus on the digital agenda. They will also endorse the country-specific recommendations under the 2016 European Semester and assess the first results of the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

The Council will have an exchange of views on the market situation and the market support measures currently in place. The Commission will present to the Council its communication on a consultation on fishing opportunities for 2017.

The Council will prepare the European Council on 28-29 June 2016.

The EU is investing in research to help European manufacturers remain competitive in a growing market for personalised medical products. Two projects are developing ways to use 3D printing to make tailor-made components for the benefit of patients. The researchers plan to integrate the printer in a platform on which designers, engineers and other stakeholders can collaborate to customise prostheses.

Europe has begun to emerge from the prolonged slump and in 2014–2015, aggregate employment levels rose faster than at any time since 2008. So says the fifth annual European Jobs Monitor report. Irish employment growth has been significantly above average since 2011 (+5%), but that due to the severity of the crash we are still more than 100,000 jobs short of the pre-crisis employment peak (circa 2.1 million employed persons). However, most of the recent employment growth has been in low or mid-paying jobs – biggest increase in employment numbers has been in jobs in agriculture, construction, and food/beverages sectors – which might make the Irish economic vulnerable again.

The European Commission has found the prolongation of an Irish scheme for the orderly winding-up of credit unions to be in line with EU state aid rules, and in particular with the 2013 Banking Communication. The objective of the scheme is to safeguard financial stability when a credit union becomes unable to meet regulatory requirements. It allows Ireland to provide aid for transferring the assets and liabilities (with the possible exception of the premises) of a failing credit union to an acquirer through a competitive process.

New Eurostat figures show that Ireland and Malta harvested the lowest amount of fruit in the EU in 2015 at less than 0.05%. Poland, for example, accounted for 25% of the total number of applies produced in the EU in 2015, while Ireland accounted for a mere 0.1%. And Spain was the top EU producer of strawberries in 2015 at 29% of total production while Ireland accounted for only 0.5%. Vegetable production is also very low in Ireland – 0.2% of the total EU harvest. Italy was the EU's biggest producer of vegetables in 2015 at 20.2%. Ireland produces less than 0.05% of the EU's courgettes and tomatoes and only 0.7% of its carrots.

The European Parliament, Council and Commission this week reached an agreement on the Commission's proposal on a European Border and Coast Guard, paving the way for the reinforced Agency to be up and running starting this summer. The European Border and Coast Guard will combine a new reinforced Agency, building on the foundations laid by Frontex, with the ability to draw on a reserve pool of people and equipment. Member States will continue to keep their competence and sovereignty over their borders. They will continue to manage the external border day to day. But crucially, the European Border and Coast Guard will provide support to all Member States and be able to identify and intervene to address weaknesses in advance, and not when it's too late.

On Tuesday 21 June, the Managers from the Europe Direct Information Centres as well as the Managers of the European Documentation Centres met at Europe House in Dublin for their Annual General Meeting. The AGM had training, updates on topical subjects including the Investment Plan for Europe, and the opportunity to meet and exchange best practices. The meeting was also attended by the local Government Management Agency which coordinates the activities of the Europe Direct Information Centres in Ireland which are based in local libraries around the country.

Key Social affairs stakeholders met with Commission experts in Dublin this week to talk about a new European Pillar of Social Rights. "Economic convergence is not an end in itself. It needs to go alongside a social convergence and it also needs to be towards the top" said Head of Representation, Barbara Nolan, echoing the words of President Juncker in his 2015 State of the Union address. The new Social Pillar, covering 20 policy areas, aims to help Ireland and Europe strike the right balance between social and economic priorities.