Posts tagged ‘Europe’
Europe: Research in the marketplace
Friday, December 3rd, 2010Research Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn talks to Meadhbh Monahan about the need for more integration between researchers and business and the benefits of an EU patent. Europe’s Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner is “very impressed” with Northern Ireland’s progress within the ‘innovation union’. “If you look at the applications that Northern Ireland companies put in and the rate of success, Northern Ireland, like Ireland, [is] above the EU average,” she notes. The Commissioner was pleased at the UK’s decision not to cut research and innovation and she...[full story]
Europe: What should Europe be
Friday, July 9th, 2010Coolness and enthusiasm about the EU and its future can be sensed across the local political spectrum, as parties put forward their views on the purpose of the union. Alliance: Peace, stability and prosperity The main functions of the European Union are to provide peace and stability, to maximise prosperity of the region and to ensure that issues of mutual benefit and concern within Europe can be effectively addressed. The European Union was established after countries could see the benefits of co- operation following the end of the Second World War. Countries realised that working together...[full story]
Europe: Campaigners call for web freedom
Friday, July 9th, 2010The danger posed to human rights by internet censorship was the main topic under discussion by the Parliament’s Human Rights Sub-Committee on 2 June in Brussels. Finnish politician Heidi Hautala chairs the sub-committee. In a committee room in the European Parliament building – surrounded by 16 booths, each holding up to three translators – the sub-committee first heard from a representative of Global Solutions, a company who were commissioned to undertake an investigation of human rights abuses on the internet. Representatives from Nokia, Siemens and Google were in attendance. Examples...[full story]
Europe: Climate pressure
Friday, July 9th, 2010Time is running out in the fight against global warming, Bairbre de Brún tells Peter Cheney. The Sinn Féin woman is, though, pleased to see the Assembly taking Europe more seriously. Action on climate change is well overdue and voters must press governments for urgent progress before the Mexico City talks. That was MEP Bairbre de Brún’s main message as the clock counts down to the round, scheduled to start on 29 November. “People throughout the EU need to push their governments to ensure that the EU takes the steps that it needs to take,” de Brún remarks, “and that it takes...[full story]
Europe: An independent approach
Friday, July 9th, 2010One of the few independent MEPs, Diane Dodds finds this an advantage rather than a hindrance. Local farming and fisheries has made up much of her workload in her first year in office but she also casts a critical eye over the wider European project. “I deliberately went into the Parliament to be independent and to stay independent.” Diane Dodds’ approach to being an MEP differs from Northern Ireland’s other two representatives but she claims that this gives her more freedom and sometimes more influence in Europe. Dodds is one of 28 ‘non-inscrits’ or MEPs who have not joined...[full story]
Europe: The fiscal risk
Friday, July 9th, 2010Jim Nicholson warns that the euro crisis will impact on sterling and influence the UK’s economic recovery. Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s representatives must join up as they lobby the EU. Peter Cheney reports. A weakened euro will bring the pound’s value down too, Jim Nicholson has warned as the Conservatives prepare to cut the UK’s deficit. The problem has real relevance to Northern Ireland on the fringe of the euro zone. In the light of Greece’s troubles, the financial crisis is the big issue facing Europe over the next year. That country’s difficulties throw up questions...[full story]
Europe: Europe’s accountability
Friday, July 9th, 2010An overview of how the EU’s different parts are appointed, and their links back to the union’s states and people. Commission President: José Manuel Barroso (Portugal) UK commissioner: Baroness Catherine Ashton (foreign affairs) Irish commissioner: Máire Geoghegan-Quinn (research, innovation and science) The 27 commissioners are unelected, with each one nominated by a member state government. Once established, the Commission is independent of the governments and tasked with protecting the interests of the EU as whole. Its power rests in its ability to propose legislation, something...[full story]
Europe: Reviewing CAP
Friday, July 9th, 2010Richard Halleron explains the forthcoming changes in funding and farmers’ reasons for concern. The Common Agricultural Policy, or CAP, underpins the finances of farming in Northern Ireland and the rest of the European Union. Agriculture has been the one common policy area that has consistently been at the very heart of the European project, going right back to the foundation of the initial Common Market in 1957. But the vehicle by which money is made available to the farming industry from Europe’s coffers has changed significantly over the years. Yes, in the early days the CAP was...[full story]
