NO ‘REWIND BUTTON’ ON CLIMATE CHANGE AHEAD OF POST KYOTO TALKS

With the Kyoto limits on greenhouse gases due to expire in 2012, the debate on what should replace
them has moved centre stage in the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee on Climate Change.
A United Nations (UN) panel of experts told MEPs that to avert catastrophic climate change, temperatures must rise by no more than 2 degrees celsius.  A top expert on global warming told the Committee members that we all needed to see climate change as a current, rather than a future problem.  Addressing the Parliamentary Committee John Ashton said: “we don’t have a rewind button. We have to get it right first time”.  The briefing was ahead of a UN meeting in Bali in December on a post-Kyoto future.  According to the UN panel, achieving a temperature rise of no more than 2 degrees celsius would mean halting increases of C02 emissions by 2015.  Keeping within a 2 degree increase in temperature would also mean further reducing C02 emissions between 50% (globally) and 85% (for industrialised countries), below the 1990 level, by 2050.  The policy and message was clear, according to Mr Ashton: “the key problem was not a dearth of wisdom but a lack of political will in some quarters to adopt the appropriate policies to tackle climate change”. 

TORIES AND LIB DEMS WEAKEN CLIMATE CHANGE TARGETS

The Liberal Democrats and the Tories led moves in the European Parliament to water down European proposals to cut C02 emissions from cars.  Cars account for 12% of C02 emissions in the European Union (EU) and cuts are vital to meet the climate change goals signed up to by all EU countries, including the UK, in March this year.  As a result of Conservative and Liberal Democrat collusion a European Commission proposals to reduce C02 emissions from cars to 120g by the year 2012 were watered down.  Instead, following the lead of the Lib Dem and Conservative MEPs, the majority in the Parliament voted to delay reaching climate change goals by three years and to weaken the reduction to 125g C02.  Labour MEPs backed the original Commission target for reducing C02 emissions.  Although the Lib Dems and Cameron’s Tories talk a lot about tackling climate change, when it comes to voting for concrete steps to cut emissions they fail to deliver.  This blow comes at a crucial time in the run-up to the Bali Summit, where the European Union needs to show leadership on climate change     

TEMPORARY AGENCY WORKER DIRECTIVE STILL HELD UP IN COUNCIL

It is nearly 20 years now since the European Parliament first adopted a resolution in favour of action to protect temporary agency workers, yet it still has not become law.  The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is pushing for the Portuguese Presidency of the EU to make headway on the Temporary Agency Worker Directive at its December Employment Council meeting. Protection for agency workers remains minimal and foreign workers are often most at risk.  Temporary agency work is the most rapidly growing form of atypical work in the EU over the last 20 years.  The use of temporary workers has increased five-fold in some Member States and has at least doubled in most others.  Each year some 6 million people in the EU are on agency books at some time or another.  The current Draft Directive which aims to prevent the discrimination of temporary workers in the fields of wages, paid holidays, working hours, overtime, maternity pay and pensions has been stalled by some Member States in the Council for nearly five years.  The draft Directive’s principle of non-discrimination aims to set minimum EU-wide standards and create a level playing field for companies in different Member States.  It states that temporary agency workers may not be treated less favourably in terms of basic working conditions than a permanent member of staff doing a comparable job in the same firm. 

PARLIAMENT BACKS BETTER ACCESS TO MEDICINES FOR POOR COUNTRIES 

At the October session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg MEPs gave the green light to an international protocol designed to facilitate access to cheaper medicines for poor countries.  The International Trade Committee had signalled its agreement by a big majority, bringing to an end several months of wrangling with the EU Council of Ministers and the European Commission, which had previously rejected the improvements being championed by MEPs.  This was a historic victory and an extraordinary advance in democracy for the European Parliament.  It is thought to be the first time the Parliament has extracted concessions from EU governments over an international agreement.  Under the agreement Member States can produce generic medicines and export them to poor countries with no production capacity of their own.  The EU has also agreed to fund projects for the development of research and production capacities of pharmaceutical products in poor countries and made a commitment not to bring measures relating to public health into negotiations over trade agreements.  However, the struggle for real access to medicines to combat epidemics such as HIV/Aids for the poor of the world is not yet over.  This agreement will need to be applied to start with and it is clear that other advances in this field are necessary in order to respond to the scale of the challenge 

THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN GAZA

At a mini session of the European Parliament in Brussels I joined others in calling on Israel to fulfil its obligations under the Geneva Conventions to guarantee the flow of humanitarian aid, humanitarian assistance and essential services, such as electricity and fuel, to the Gaza Strip.  Israel needs to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip, and ensure the movement of people and goods at Rafah, in compliance with the Agreement on Movement and Access and the EU Border Assistance Mission, as well as movement of goods at Karni.  All the Union’s institutions, including the Council, the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Commission must face up to their full responsibility on the implementation of this Agreement.  There was also a call on Israel to guarantee the flow of financial assets to the Gaza Strip, given that the lack of access to any financial assets has a serious negative impact on the economic, social and daily life of the Palestinian people. 

MEPs CALL FOR INVESTIGATION INTO ABUSE OF POSER BY SUPERMARKETS

Two Socialist MEPs from the Employment and Social Affairs Committee have called for the European Commission to investigate the abuse of power by large supermarkets.  They believe that throughout the EU, retailing is increasingly dominated by a small number of supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco.  These retailers control the access farmers and other suppliers have to shoppers.  The Commission has been asked to propose appropriate measures, including regulation, if necessary, to protect consumers, workers and producers from any abuse of supermarkets’ dominant position and any other form of negative impacts revealed in the course of their investigation. Although some EU Member States have introduced national legislation attempting to limit such abuse, large supermarkets increasingly operate across national boundaries, making harmonised EU legislation desirable.  Evidence from across the EU suggests that the squeeze big supermarkets put on suppliers has a knock-on effect on both employment rights and environmental protection.  Consumers also face a loss in diversity of products.  

EUROPEAN COMMISSION TAKES ACTION ON SHOOTING OF BIRDS IN MALTA

Every spring since Malta joined the EU in 2004, the Maltese Government has allowed its hunters to shoot and trap turtledove and quail in direct contravention of European law.  Following a huge public letter writing campaign the European Commission has declared that they will no longer tolerate illegal bird hunting in Malta and have issued a final warning to the Maltese Government.  Malta is located on an important bird migration route in the Mediterranean and the European Union’s Bird’s Directive specifically protects birds during their perilous spring migration from Africa to their breeding grounds further north in Europe, including Scotland.