Climate panade in parliament
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Translation by:
John Smith
Honour the sea, do your climate work and let Dominique Strauss-Kahn through - the latest news from Brussels
Poseidon's honour
This isn't a B movie! On 19-20 May, the European Union celebrated its first ‘European Maritime Day’. The goal is to honour the sea by showing what it brings us and what we have to do in order to protect it. Another important objective is to present the trades of the sea, and the crisis of vocations and recruitment facing the European maritime sector. This initiative is one of the first visible achievements of the new integrated maritime policy of the EU, which aims to co-ordinate all sectoral policies that affect shorelines and the sea
Hard truth about climate change
On 21 May, the European parliament adopted a report on climate change by German conservative Karl-Heinz Florenz. You could say that after one year of work, the first results from the intermediary report by the temporary Commission on Climate Change is not a groundbreaking one. In general, the report simply states that the reality of climate change is that we all have our own share of responsibility on this issue. Is that all? Looking at the amendments on the table, there is already a lot to be done. And yes, within the political sphere, the reality of climate change is always going to be a difficult one to accept. But, is this a generational problem?
Pulse of the cap : first orders
It's not a reform, it's a ‘health check-up’. Officially, agricultural policy will not be looked at until 2013. But as the world keeps changing, we still have to carry out some minor details. On 20 May, the European commission will bring forth three new propositions of ‘readjustment’ of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). On the menu: the simplification of patterns of support for a better redistribution of resources, a gradual deregulation in certain markets, including milk and cereal, and finally, preparation for ‘new challenges’ to better manage risks in climate, health and energy. These proposals should will be lead under the French presidency for the next six months of the EU.
DSK meets the MEPs
‘There are no dark robed speculators secretly plotting for the starving African children’ : essentially what Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK), the (French socialist) president of the International Monetary Fund, responded to the members of the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the European parliament. On 15 May they worked on ways to fight financial speculation on foodstuffs prices. DSK submitted responses to the crisis by the IMF. For him, part of the solution lies above all in a better transfer of information between the financial sphere and the real economy (which is often disconnected) and the rehabilitation of the political choices facing the excesses of the market
Translated from La panade du climat au parlement