Eurobloat #0070 • February 2016
February brought the great summit theatre, in which twenty-eight leaders sat up all night to grant Britain a "special status" that the voters would shred four months later. Between the all-nighter, a fresh data deal with Washington and a vote to let diesels carry on cheating, it was a vintage month for promises nobody intended to keep.
Folly of the Month: A new settlement nobody believed in
On 18 and 19 February the European Council pulled an all-nighter and produced a "new settlement for the United Kingdom within the European Union", complete with an emergency brake on in-work benefits, restrictions on exporting child benefit, and a "red card" letting sixteen national parliaments politely ask the Council to think again. It was hailed as legally binding and irreversible, which was true right up until the British public voted to leave in June, whereupon the whole thing ceased to exist. Brussels had spent two days bargaining over scraps of sovereignty it could have simply returned, then watched its masterpiece evaporate the moment real democracy was applied. A red card that lets sixteen elected parliaments file a complaint, rather than block a law, tells you everything about who is in charge.
1. Your data, now with extra ombudsperson
On 2 February the Commission announced a political deal on the "Privacy Shield" to replace the Safe Harbour scheme the EU's own court had struck down, then published the text on 29 February. Europe's answer to mass American surveillance was a promise from Washington, an annual review and a brand-new ombudsperson, an arrangement the same court would later tear up as well.
2. Parliament votes to let diesels keep cheating
On 3 February MEPs voted, by a thin 323 to 317, to wave through new "real driving" tests that conveniently allow new cars to exceed the legal nitrogen oxide limits by 2.1 times until 2017 and 1.5 times thereafter. Having spent years writing the limits, Brussels marked the Volkswagen scandal by quietly legalising the breach of them.
→ wsws.org
3. Austria does Schengen's job for it
On 17 February Austria announced border checks with Hungary, Slovenia and Italy and a daily cap on asylum claims, because the EU's open-borders system had collapsed under the strain. Vienna acting to control its own frontier was sound sense. The folly belonged to a Schengen that turned out to be a fair-weather arrangement with no plan for a storm.
→ hrw.org
4. The anti-tax-avoidance package grinds on
Through February the Council chewed over the Commission's Anti Tax Avoidance Package, a suite of directives on interest limitation, exit taxes, controlled foreign companies and a catch-all anti-abuse rule. Billed as stopping the multinationals, it was also a tidy step towards Brussels writing the tax rules that member states once set for themselves.
5. An energy "security" package, light on energy
On 16 February the Commission unveiled its Sustainable Energy Security Package: a gas supply regulation, a grab over member states' intergovernmental energy agreements, an LNG strategy and, naturally, a Heating and Cooling strategy. The chief novelty was the Commission insisting on vetting the energy deals that capitals sign, in the name of an ever-tighter Energy Union.
→ csis.org
6. MEPs cheer on a trade deal they then fence in
On 3 February, by 532 votes to 131, Parliament adopted its recommendations on the Trade in Services Agreement, urging the Commission to open foreign markets to European firms. Having demanded free trade in services, MEPs then larded the resolution with carve-outs for public, audio-visual and cultural services, lest anyone trade in the wrong ones.
7. Accelerating the EU border force
The 18 February Council conclusions called for negotiations on the new European Border and Coast Guard to be sped up so the agency could be operational "as soon as possible", with ministers due to discuss it on 25 February. The cure for a borders crisis caused by Brussels was, inevitably, a bigger Brussels agency with the power to deploy guards onto a member state's territory.
8. Dublin transfers, restored by recommendation
On 10 February the Commission addressed a recommendation to Greece on the "urgent measures" Athens must take so that the broken Dublin asylum transfers could resume. The country at the sharp end of the EU's collapsed asylum system was handed a list of homework by the institution that designed the system.
9. The plenary admires its own reflection
February's Strasbourg session also found time to adopt a resolution welcoming the mid-term review of the EU Biodiversity Strategy and praising the "State of Nature" and SOER 2015 reports. Few institutions can match the European Parliament's appetite for passing resolutions that congratulate the European Parliament on the strategies of the European Parliament.
Enjoyed this post?
Well, you could share the post with others, follow me with RSS Feeds and/or send me a comment via email.
Tags
Category:
Year: