Dear President Juncker,

As has happened repeatedly since the decision was taken to ignore the European Parliament’s call for the overhaul of the Dublin Regulation, the fate of wretched people rescued at sea is being exploited for political purposes by governments and is the subject of disagreements between them. Every time a vessel reaches European waters, the same scene is repeated and the same rhetoric is spouted. The latest case involves the Open Arms, a boat with 121 people on board, which has nowhere to go.

The work the Commission has done in coming to the assistance of the Member States in such cases in recent years has been admirable, and entirely in keeping with the values underpinning the Union and international agreements. This time, however, there is no suggestion that assistance will be forthcoming.

According to press reports, the people on board include 31 minors, among them Ethiopian twins only nine months old, and women whose bodies bear the indelible marks of violence and mistreatment.

If the European Union were to remain indifferent to their fate, it would be piling suffering on top of suffering, and I am sure that this is not what the guardians of the European Treaties believe in their hearts to be right. ln recent years, a lot has been asked of the Commission you lead and the commitment to human welfare it has repeatedly demonstrated has done much to restore our sense of identity as Europeans.

At a time when self-interest seems to be the norm, we must do our duty to the full. I am convinced that your awareness of what is at stake and Commissioner Avaramopoulos’s commitment to helping refugees will ensure that you are up to the task of dealing with this emergency as well, by coordinating prompt humanitarian intervention and arranging for the fair distribution of the migrants.

I am aware that any response to this request for humanitarian assistance must be voluntary. The situation is serious and calls for immediate action, not least because, as you know both intellectually and emotionally, the poor cannot wait. As it has done so many times, the European Parliament will support you in your efforts.

Let us do it, Mr President, for Hortensia, the woman who, in trying to escape her tormentor, had petrol thrown over her and was set on fire.

If Europe cannot protect that woman and her companions who have set out in search of a better life, it will mean that it has lost its soul, as well as its heart.

Best regards,
David Maria SASSOLI

The post Open Letter from EP President calls for emergency assistance to migrants stranded on Open Arms boat appeared first on Brussels Express.

Appointed in early July by the 28 heads of state and government of the Union, Ms. von der Leyen obtained 383 votes to 327, with 22 abstentions and a zero ballot, 733 votes cast, announced the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli.

To be elected, she had to collect an absolute majority of 747 deputies, or 374 votes. The German leader counted in particular on the 443 votes of the three largest groups of the European Parliament, namely the conservatives of the EPP (182 elected), the socialists of the S & D (153 elected) and the liberal-centrists of Renew Europe (108 elected ) to reach this threshold.

The result, a narrow victory by 9 votes only, suggests that she suffered a significant number of defections in these three groups, who had assured her of their support.

« In democracy, the majority is the majority, » said Ms. von der Leyen, when questioned by the press about his poorer than expected results.

Ms. von der Leyen’s speech’s key points:

Having identified the collective need for “a healthy planet as our greatest challenge and responsibility,” Ms von der Leyen proposed bolder emissions targets, with a reduction of 50% to 55% by 2030 and committed to submit a plan for a “Green Deal for Europe” and a European Climate Law within her first 100 days in office. She also announced plans for sustainable European investment (also through the partial conversion of EIB funds into a “climate bank”) to provide €1 trillion in investments within a decade.

Ms von der Leyen also stressed that the EU must establish an economy that serves the people. In order for this to happen however, “everyone needs to share the burden” – including those tech giants that conduct their business (and should continue to do so) in Europe, yet do not repay the people of Europe for their access to EU human and social capital.

Reiterating her commitment for a gender-balanced College of Commissioners during her term, she also highlighted that violence against women has to be tackled decisively; she would therefore seek to define violence against women as a crime in the European treaties, in parallel to completing the EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention.

Ms von der Leyen declared her commitment to rule of law as a European value, announcing that she intends to establish an EU-wide monitoring mechanism in parallel to existing measures. She emphasised that these European values also include a duty to save lives at sea and should translate into a humane border policy. She stated her support for a “new pact on migration & asylum” and Dublin Regulation reform, adding that she intends to ensure that Frontex border guards number 10,000 not by 2027, but by 2024, and that all countries should shoulder their fair share of the burden based on the principle of European solidarity.

On the matter of European democracy, Ms von der Leyen announced a two-year Conference for Europe as of 2020, in which citizens will take a leading and active role. She also emphasised the need for the Spitzenkandidaten system to be strengthened and that transnational lists should be reconsidered in future European elections. She also declared her full support for a right of initiative for the European Parliament, committing to put forward a legislative proposal in response to every resolution that is passed with a majority of Parliament’s constituent members.

The post Ursula von der Leyen – The first woman to become President of the European Commission appeared first on Brussels Express.

To attend such a hearing is difficult. Only two political groups (Greens and the left-wingers from GUE) allow representatives from the public. I attended therefore the hearings of these two groups. After the two hearings, the leadership of both political groups recommended to their MEPs not to vote for Ursula von der Leyen.

If I were still an MEP, I would have behaved differently. Why? There are three key reasons why one should vote for her.

1. Open to Green politics: Everyone knows that the successor of Juncker will neither be a Green nor a person who will represent the broad range of Green programmatic ideas. Our historic task has to be to elect a new EU Commission President for the coming five years that has an open ear and mind for sustainabilty, the fight against climate change and social disparities. Ursula von der Leyen was quite clear that she is not a Green, but that she would fight in the Commission for most of the Green key issues (CO2 tax, Mediterranean refugees, minimum wage, transparency — to name some).

2. Experience: She was a minister in a vast and varying range of executive positions: family, youth, labour, social and defense. Collegues of mine, who met her professionally, describe her as a mix of a good listener, value-oriented, strong in looking for compromises, a tough cookie with empathy. I have not met a single person, who would not agree that such a mix would be the ideal profile for an EU Commission President in these shaky times (while listening to her, I imagined how she would be able to be a strong counterpart to Putin, Trump and Xi).

3. Pragmatic: If she will not get the necessay 50% of the votes next week in Strasbourg – what would be the consequences? Easy to predict: an extraordinary EU Summit of the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the 28 EU Member States would nominate another person with a Christian-Democrat background. Who will it be? Difficult to imagine that it will be someone with more environmental and social openess than Ursula von der Leyen.

If she will not become the next EU Commission President – due to a couple dozen Green votes – we will certainly be confronted with a much less sensitive male EU Commission President. In such a case, I can already imagine some of the Green MEPs regretting their Strasbourg decision from July 2019. Please don’t let that happen

The post Why Green MEPs should vote for Ursula von der Leyen appeared first on Brussels Express.

He has been sitting in the European Parliament since 2009.

None of the candidates managed to win absolute majority in the first round.

David Sassoli got elected with an absolute majority in the second round. The threshold was 332 votes, while he got 345 votes.

He will be holding this position for two and a half years.

.@DavidSassoli was elected President of the European Parliament with 345 votes out of the 667 valid votes cast pic.twitter.com/PBbOtUOBPF

— EP PressService (@EuroParlPress) July 3, 2019

The post David Sassoli elected President of the European Parliament appeared first on Brussels Express.

Dear MEP,

A new European Parliament has recently been elected. Some MEPs will stay in Brussels, others will now have various responsibilities in their own countries.

Whatever the future holds for you and your parliamentary staff, we really hope that you try to keep up to date with what’s happening in Brussels – and we hope you do it by reading the online newspaper Brussels Express.

Don’t hesitate to follow us everyday on Facebook @Brussels-express or directly via our website

Furthermore, if you want to contribute or write about your experiences in Brussels, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at: pgoergen@brussels-express.eu.

Send us your article, a picture, and that’s it!

We are a rapidly growing online newspaper, which is accumulated more and more views and subscribers every month. Last June, for instance, we had 98.999 views!

Some of you probably have already heard of us. But for those of you who haven’t, here is our media kit

We hope to hear more from you – and that you hear more from us – in the future!

Regards,

The Brussels Express Team

The post An open letter from Brussels Express welcoming new MEPs to Brussels appeared first on Brussels Express.

The message stated: “Bruselas (sic) will be attacked tomorrow at 6:00pm in Grand Place by a guy with a neon shirt,” and it was signed by “Abulah Hakimi”.

The screen is accessible by visitors of the European Parliament, who can leave messages upon their visit.

The Belgian police as well as European security have been notified. The surveillance cameras capturing all near-by areas of the European Parliament have been seized in order to identify the author of the message.

The OCAD and the Brussels’ public prosecutor are conducting an investigation as to determine the credibility of this threat.

The Brussels Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to us that « it is very rare that an attack announced in advance actually takes place ».

Menace d’attaque terroriste ce mercredi soir au centre de #Bruxelles.
C’est en tout cas le message inquiétant taggé hier sur le mur virtuel du Parlerment européen.
La police belge et les services de sécurité Européens ont été immédiatement avertis.#Alerte #Europe #Bruxelles pic.twitter.com/DWGYjCwfSS

— Emmanuel Foulon (@efoulon1) June 26, 2019

The post Threat of terrorist attack in Brussels displayed on a screen at the European Parliament appeared first on Brussels Express.

In Brussels and all the other European cities where the company operates, Lime will be offering free travel and helmets to EU citizens on the 26th of May, the date of the European elections.

To take advantage of the free service, simply download the Lime application. A promotional code will then be sent to you on the morning of election day, and will remain valid in Belgium between 6am and 9pm. (Similar systems will be implemented in France, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the Czech Republic.)

Lime is keen to remind scooter users to follow the rules of good driving. In particular, they wish to emphasise the importance of wearing a helmet, of driving on the road and bike paths, of obeying the rules of the road, of not driving faster than 25 km/h, and of parking one’s scooter responsibly (that is, without hindering the passage of other road users).

The post Lime offers free trips on May 26th to encourage voting in European elections appeared first on Brussels Express.

Flanked by four colleagues from the party “Junts per Catalunya” Gorka Knorr, Erika Casajoanna, Calara Ponsati and Toni Comin, Puigdemont was upbeat about his chances and thought that the party would win 2 electoral seats.

He said that his party embodied Europe’s democratic values, and that he wanted to bring the voice of the people to the centre of the EU institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg. He expressed the importance of the principle of self-determination, and the need to strengthen Europe’s fundamental democratic values through diversity by letting the voice of all the people to be heard.

When asked if he would support an application from Scotland to rejoin the European Union, should today’s Brexit Summit in Brussels not prove successful, Puigdemont replied that of course support from the Catalans for Scotland would be forthcoming, and that Scotland and Catalonia were brothers in support of recognising individual citizens’ rights.

The post Carles Puigdemont announces candidacy in European Parliament Elections appeared first on Brussels Express.

A press conference will be hosted on Wednesday 10 April at 14:00, at the European Committee of the Regions (Room JDE52, 5th floor), in the presence of Catiuscia Marini, PES Group President and President of the Umbria Region (Italy), Constanze Krehl, S&D Group REGI Committee Coordinator, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the European Committee of the Regions, and Peter Kurz, Mayor of Mannheim (Germany) and member of the PES Group.

Ahead of the European elections and in view of the future debate on the Multiannual Financial Framework and the future of European funds, the two progressive groups join forces to put pressure on the European institutions and national governments to make cohesion policy the main investment policy for sustainable development at local level.

The initiative is part of the call to action for a radically different Europe based on the Report of the Independent Commission for Sustainable Equality and follows the Appeal launched by the two groups in February 2019 “No Places and No People Left Behind.”

Catiuscia Marini, president of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions and president of the Umbria Region (Italy), said:

“Regions and cities are Europeʼs drivers of change. It is in our territories that we found concrete solutions to the two biggest challenges facing our societies: climate change and rising inequality.

“We are launching this initiative against the background of uncertainties on the future of the EUʼs main investment tool. We want that the next EU Cohesion Policy 2021-2027 enables cities and regions to build a sustainable Europe, so that ending poverty, taking climate action, and building sustainable communities become a reality. For this, we need a revolution in the EUʼs economic governance that fully involves the local and regional levels and makes sustainable development the overarching objective.

“Europe needs a territorially-rooted economic development that is both socially progressive and sustainable in environmental terms. Progressive leaders, at local, regional, national and European level, are the ones providing answers for a just transition that leaves no one behind. With todayʼs appeal, we want to gather forces to bring together our sustainable know-how to change Europeʼs future.”

The coordinator of the S&D Group in the European Parliament for the REGI Committee, Constanze Krehl MEP, said:

“Cohesion policy is a very successful instrument to invest directly in the region. Therefore, we are fighting for a budget where all regions can get funding. We have to ensure that what we achieved through cohesion policy in the past years is not at risk through growing inequalities and a divide within the Union.

“Cohesion policy as an instrument of solidarity is of critical importance for the future of Europe. One in three euros spent by the EU is invested in EU regions and cities. It is money well-spent as it supports important projects to improve the wellbeing of our citizens. We Progressives call for maintaining the funding at least at current levels and reshape cohesion policy to the new challenges of our time.

“Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, we want to help every region to become excellent – every region has something specific to bring to the table, something they do better than everybody else. Cohesion policy must foster these traditions and talents, these innovations and ideas to ensure that no people and no places are left behind.”

The post Call for a Sustainable Future that Begins in Europeʼs Cities and Regions appeared first on Brussels Express.

Background

The seringueiro movement was conceived in the mid-1970s, when global demand for cheap synthetic rubber began to increase, causing a corresponding decline in the demand for the natural latex found in Brazilian rubber trees. Consequently, the Brazilian government, having deemed cattle farming to be more profitable than rubber tree tapping, began to incentivise cattle ranchers to purchase, and clear, rainforest land that had previously been used for the cultivation of rubber trees.

Massive deforestation of the Amazon rainforest ensued, as did the widespread forced displacement, beating, and even murder of numerous seringueiros.

The most famously effective, and symbolic, form of resistance used by the seringueiros against this government-sanctioned brutality was the empate, which translates, roughly, as “standoff”. Often accompanied by their wives, parents and sometimes even children, the seringueiros would form a human chain around those areas of the rainforest that had been designated by the government to be cleared by loggers.

“Empate means risking our lives, our wives’ lives, our children’s lives, our parents’ lives, in order to preserve our way of life,” says one seringueiro interviewed in the film. “That’s what empate means to us.”

During its peak period of international fame in the 1970s and 80s, the seringueiro movement won many plaudits, both in Brazil and internationally, for its non-violence and environmentalism. Nevertheless, the internationally renowned and recognised leader of the movement, Chico Mendes, was eventually assassinated by a rancher’s son – with possible Brazilian government complicity – outside of his home on December 22, 1988, in Xapuri, Brazil.

Empate, renewed

Empate is a deeply moving, often tragic, and expertly shot film, which makes for compelling, and occasionally unsettling, viewing.

In particular, one of the film’s core theses is that the seringueiro movement is, worryingly, far more fractured and isolated than it was 30 or 40 years ago. This is in spite of the fact that the movement, and the Amazon rainforest more generally, are possibly facing a more serious threat than ever before in the form of Brazil’s new anti-environmentalist President, Jair Bolsonaro, whose expressed intention is to open up the Amazon rainforest to exploitation for the benefit of Brazilian and international agribusiness.

“Forty years ago we were unified, connected,” explains one seringueiro during the film. “Now we feel disengaged, separated. People forget that what we achieved was not a gift, but a collective triumph. We need more empates.”

This sentiment was echoed during the Q&A which followed the screening, in which Angela Mendes – the daughter of the murdered Chico Mendes – spoke, as did Portuguese MEP Marisa Matias (who chaired the event) and the film’s director, Mr Carvalho. All of them emphasised the seriousness of the threat currently being posed by the Bolsonaro government to the inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest, many of whom are still being murdered, beaten, and forcibly displaced.

Furthermore, all of them stressed the need for the international community to act, and aid, those currently struggling to protect the rainforest, including the seringueiros. Mr Carvalho, in particular, warned of the “environmental catastrophe that await us” all if the international community fails to act.

The final scene of Empate symbolically – and beautifully – captures this alarming predicament: it is an aerial shot of a moonscape-like, completely deforested area, separated from the lush green of the Amazon rainforest by a thin dirt path, along which walk a small group of aging seringueiros: the last, vulnerable line of defence against further destruction of the rainforest, and a group which is, right now, visibly and painfully alone.

Undoubtedly, a luta continua: the struggle continues.

The post « Bolsonaro government is trampling on the human rights of many people in the Amazon » — activist Angela Mendes at the European Parliament appeared first on Brussels Express.