John Dali, the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, has stated that a blanked ban on Gay and Bisexual Men giving blood is against EU law. In an answer to Glenis Willmott (S&D) and Michael Cashman (S&D) he explained that EU law warranted the deferral of those “at high risk of acquiring severe infectious diseases” due to their “sexual behaviour”. Mr Dalli underlined that “‘sexual behaviour’ is not identical with ‘sexual orientation’”. The Commission also noted that when...
Image via Wikipedia Here is an interesting Press Release I got today from Maltese MEP Simon Busuttil of the European People’s Party. European Union Border Guard System proposed. Simon Busuttil MEP “Europe can no longer look on powerless at emergency situations because it is unable to muster resources or pool assets.” Simon Busuttil MEP Simon Busuttil MEP is proposing the establishment of a European Union Border Guard System that would bolster the EU’s external border agency, Frontex. Busuttil presented...
Image via Wikipedia A meeting of the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee has concluded that, “Croatian Accession negotiations can be concluded in the first half of 2011 provided that Croatia meets all the outstanding closing benchmarks in the remaining chapters.” Swedish EPP MEP, who co-chairs the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee stressed the importance to the Balkans of Croatia joining the EU. “Both for the EU and for the region, it is important that the conditionality linked to a credible EU...
Tomorrow the European Parliaments Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs will hear about the state of play on the first use of the Enhanced Co-Operation Procedure. 12 member states are proposing new rules in regards to Divorce and when it is of a trans-national nature. To me this is a perfect use of the Enhanced Co-operation procedure as it can mean couples can choose the law that suits them most. For example a German married to Italian...
Image via Wikipedia Last Tuesday I attended the Alliance Francaise de Cork/UCC European Symposium. In the afternoon we split into round-tables. I went along to the round-table entitled “The Question of the European Army”. This round-table was led by Quentin Perret of Atelier Europe, Nevin Power and Frank O’Callaghan. Quentin seemed to be on his own on the Pro-Army side. He based his arguments around four points. Security Influence Military Division Efficiencies from Commonalities On the other hand the...
Again this year DG Enlargement are running the European Young Journalist Award 2010. (post on last years competition is here). Its simple, if your aged between 17-35 you can enter the competition. All you need to do is send them a copy of your published work and your in the competition. The work must be published between the 1 October 2007 to 28 February 2010. This means you can still get stuff done for it. The 28 February is...
Where does Europe End, is one of the often asked questions when talking about the enlargement of the European Union. With the current negotiations with Turkey progressing (albeit slowly) the next challenge will be where next? Will the accession of Turkey see Syria (Middle East) or Armenia (Western Asia) applying for membership? That is of course dependent on Turkey being integrated into the EU’s structures as that itself will involve reform of the institutions. Turkey if its joins will...
Image via Wikipedia So Fine Gael’s Senator Eugene Regan made a formal complaint to the European Commission about NAMA. He claims the ‘scale and scope’ of the scheme is disproportionate to the size of the Irish economy, transfers too much risk from the banks onto the Irish taxpayer and does not contain sufficient safeguards that Irish depositors and borrowers will not be forced to pay for the huge mistakes by Irish banks. Now I think most people would agree...
So the Telegraph have a story on the fact that the new European Council President, Herman Von Rompuy, wants to bring in a new Euro Tax. This is to “bring transparency” to how the EU operates. This hasn’t gone very smoothly for the new European Council Preisdent, and this really is his own fault! He made the announcement at a meeting of the Bildenberg Group, conspriacy theorists would know of this group very well, which isnt the most transparent...
The European Year of the Volunteer 2011
2011 has been designated the European Year of the Volunteer by the European Union. This is following a campaign led by Marian Harkin MEP (Ireland/ALDE). She worked with the unofficial “EP Volunteering Interest Group” to lobby the Parliament, the Council and the Commission on this initiative. Volunteering is very important in many Member States. Across the EU 92 to 94 million adults are involved in volunteering in the EU. That is 23% of all Europeans over 15 years of...
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