Astroturfing in the EP

Shale Gas Industry dresses up in sheep's clothing before votes

This week's plenary session in Strasbourg came to and end with questions hanging over the presence of the shale gas industry outside where MEPs vote. Posing as civil society before crucial votes took place on fracking We...

Brussels agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 26-30 November 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include humanitarian aspects of border control, rejecting the EU-Colombia/Peru free trade agreements, funding European research and innovation, limiting hazardous substances in water, the EU budget, financial transaction tax, EU banking supervision, the euro crisis, promoting European economic recovery

Social partnership under threat

Open Letter to Commission President Barroso

In the report it published on "Labour Market Developments in Europe 2012", the European Commission set out a series of so-called "Reforms potentially leading to better employment outcomes". The Greens...

Strasbourg Flash

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 19 - 23 November 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the Strasbourg Plenary include the reports on the EU's economic and monetary union, rules for marketing agricultural products, shale gas, enforcing EU law, future EU budget, vote on new EU commission candidate, situation in Gaza, UN climate talks and the EU position, banning shark finning, the external dimension of EU fisheries

GMOs and food safety

More transparency and independence!

Concerned by the health implications arising from the only life-long GMO feeding study on rats and the immediate trashing of the study from industry-influenced scientists, a number of MEPs, under the initiative of Green...

Rally against austerity

We need European solidarity

Europe itself is not the problem; it is the choices that have been made. Strengthening the union is essential but it will only succeed if we refocus and commit ourselves to a recovery rather than austerity, to solidarity, and build a more social and democratic Europe. Only then can it face the economic and environmental challenges

Road safety

EU-wide 30 km/h speed limit for urban areas - citizens' initiative launched

Another important milestone in the push for an EU-wide urban speed limit of 30 km/h has been reached, with the European Commission having accepted a proposed EU citizens' initiative on the subject. The Greens/EFA group h...

10th anniversary of ICC

Budget cuts send wrong signal

On Wednesday, the Assembly of State Parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will meet in The Hague to celebrate its tenth anniversary. Only recently, Germany and the UK have both asked for cuts to the ICC budge...

10th anniversary of the EFSA

Agency must finally meet expectations

Green MEP Jose Bove has been invited to a conference in Parma, Italy today to mark the 10th anniversary of the General Food Law and the creation of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). The Greens are convinced that mo...

e-fa: News Round-Up

news bulletin from the European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament

October 2012 Round-Up The European Free Alliance (EFA) draws together political parties fighting for democracy and self-determination for the stateless nations and regions of Europe. European Free Alliance MEPs sit in a ...

Brussels agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 12-16 November 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include the new EU commission candidate, the Euro crisis, boardroom quotas for women, completing the EU's internal energy market, migration, global climate talks, the end of oil and EU enlargement

Agroecology

Alternative to a failed CAP - Public Conference

As the European debate on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy reaches a crucial stage, the Greens continue to insist that the new CAP must be fair, green, young, democratic, healthy and easy. If not, it will sim...

Climate campaign newsletter

Issue 59 - November 2012

UN climate talks

EU must prevent this decade from becoming a period of climate inaction!

From 26 November - 7 December 2012, the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held in Doha, Qatar. The Environment Committee has prepared a draft motion for a resolution, which will be voted in this morning...

Brussels agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 5-9 November 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include the EU position at UN climate talks, protecting endangered cod in the Baltic, limiting airport noise pollution, the car industry and CO2 emissions, the future EU budget 2014-20, the Greek crisis - Green solutions, and the food crisis and the role of agroecology

GMO (In)Digest

Issue 7 of the GMO Campaign Newsletter

EU Work: Conference: How GMO-free labelling of food products can contribute to increase GMO-free supplies for animal feed. Under the sponsorship of MEPs José Bové, Jill Evans and Bart Staes, the Greens/EFA group at th...

Greens/EFA Round-up

Debriefing of the plenary week Strasbourg 22-23 & 25-26 October 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the Strasbourg Plenary included the EU budget 2013, the future financing 2014-2020, the rules on data retention, the issue of the single seat of the European Parliament, the EU economic governance, the decision on the Sakharov Prize winner...

Greens/EFA Round-up

Debriefing of the plenary week Strasbourg 22-23 & 25-26 October 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the Strasbourg Plenary included the EU budget 2013, the future financing 2014-2020, the rules on data retention, the issue of the single seat of the European Parliament, the EU economic governance, the decision on the Sakharov Prize winner...

European Year of Citizens

EU must show that Citizens matter in 2013

Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Union citizenship under the Maastricht Treaty. This should be a time to celebrate the freedoms that we are entitled to as EU citizens and that we often take fo...

Beyond the ceasefire in Syria

International community must support peace plan

Since the beginning of the violence last spring, the situation in Syria has escalated and tens of thousands have lost their lives. The ongoing civil war in Syria is engulfing the region in a humanitarian catast...

EU should strengthen 'failed' Belarus sanctions

Op-Ed Werner Schulz

The persecution of opposition and civil society continues in Belarus, and EU member states should rise above national interests to sever the channels the Lukashenko regime uses to finance itself, writes Green MEP

Single seat for the European Parliament

Time to break the taboo

The long-running question of the European Parliament's multi-seat operation is again brought into focus this week, as the EP packs two Strasbourg plenary sessions into one week. The Greens/EFA group backed this innovativ...

Iran - death penalty

Greens deplore executions

According to official reports, ten prisoners were executed by hanging in the early hours of Monday, 22 October, in Teheran. The executions were initially scheduled for 11 October - one day after the World ...

Strasbourg Flash

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 22 - 25 October 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the Strasbourg Plenary include the EU budget 2013, the future financing 2014-2020, the rules on data retention, the issue of the single seat of the European Parliament, the EU economic governance, the decision on the Sakharov Prize winner...

World Summit on Biodiversity

News from Hyderabad

18 October 2012 We are on the eve of the closing plenary and thus the end of the international summit on biodiversity. Here is a summary of the state of the negotiations on the issues of financing and oceans. While some ...

Nuclear energy questioned by citizens

A debate in European Parliament’s Committee of Petitions

Last week the Committee of Petitions of the European Parliament hosted a debate about the nuclear energy in the European Union, based on some of the petitions received in the last months, concretely four. To start with, ...

Don't get bio-fooled

Why Greens are against biofuels

Agro-fuels or plant fuels - misleadingly called biofuels - have proved to be a tainted chalice. The expansion of plant fuels represents a serious threat to food security and the environment. This is true on European level but also on a global level.

Brussels agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 15-19 October 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include the Commission proposal on biofuels and indirect land use change, the EU Summit on the EU economic and banking union. Greens/EFA will also hold their study days in Ostend during the weekl

Bail out countries hit by water privateers

Commission promotes privatisation in Greece and Portugal

The EU is supposed to take a neutral position on the issue of water privatisation, but the European Commission seems to have forgotten this.  As part of the Troika, it has been pushing for the large scale privatis...

Land-grabbing in Hungary

Land for Local farmers?

State-owned land is being swallowed up in Hungary by corporations while farmers are prevented from creating a livelihood for themselves and their communities, delegates heard last week in Budapest. Green MEP Jose Bové a...

Human rights in Mexico Diary

Migrant hub & poisoned gold

Saturday 6th October "Migrant Hub" A large number of people are migrating from Central American countries to the USA due to the catastrophic situation in their home countries. One possibility to cross Mexico ...

Feminicide has reached "alarming proportions"

UN Special Rapporteur Rashida Manjoo to present her 2012 report in the EP

UN Special Rapporteur Rashida Manjoo honours a terrible fact in her latest report "Gender-related killings of women": more and more women are killed around the world, just because they are women. The vast majo...

Move along, nothing to see

EFSA's opinion on new toxicological study of GMOs

No surprise: the EFSA opinion, published without any clearly identified author, trashes Séralini et al’s work. The criticism of the study seems no more than a "cut and paste" from the biotech industry arguments.

Brussels agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 8-12 October 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include the committee votes on EU budget and future financing 2014-20, regulating offshore oil and gas exploration, keeping track of greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear safety and cooperation with other countries, tackling insider dealing and market manipulation, animal transport and welfare

GMO contaminated honey

EU Commission attempting to market-GMO contaminated honey

In the midst of a new controversy about the health effects of GMOs, the EU Commission is attempting to market-GMO contaminated honey without any information to the consumers

The Crisis and Beyond

Green MEPs meet national counterparts

Green MEPs met with their national parliament counterparts on Tuesday for a frank discussion on the Green way out of the crisis. With representatives from 13 different countries, both with and without Green MEPs and wit...

New study questions safety of GMOs for human and animal health

Oral question to be put to the Commssion

A new scientific paper, published in the peer reviewed Food and Chemical Toxicology journal ”Long term toxicity of a Roundup herbicide and a Roundup-tolerant genetically modified maize”, by Séralini et al. details a...

Climate campaign newsletter

Issue 58 - October 2012

Brussels agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 1-5 October 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include the EU budget for 2013, dodgy Nuclear stress tests, Nanomaterials, GMO health risks and discussions on the future of Europe.

Sakharov Prize 2012

Greens/EFA support two Iranian candidates - a film maker and a Human Rights advocate

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was set up in 1988 and is awarded each year by the European Parliament. The prize is awarded for a particular achievement in one of the following fields: defence of human ri...

Georgia

Long overdue penal reforms need to be put into practice

Demonstations continued in Georgia today as hundreds gathered in Tbilisi to protest prison abuse that has taken place under President Mikheil Saakashvili. The protests were sparked by video footage of Georgian priso...

Brussels agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 24-28 September 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include the presentation of Sakharov prize candidates, regulating financial markets and limiting commodity speculation, budget problems in EU agencies, air pollution and EU regulation, ICT possibilities and the case of Iceland, nanomaterial registers and transparency, the Commission brought to court, tackling airport noise - Human trafficking in the Sinai

GMO Campaign Blog

New study questions safety of GMOs for human and animal health

A new scientific paper is likely to cause a rethink of how the safety of GMOs is evaluated before they are placed on the market. Published in the peer reviewed Food and Chemical Toxicology journal ”Long term toxicity ...

The EU must provide the right legal framework on fracking

e-fa: News Round-Up

news bulletin from the European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament

September 2012 Round-Up The European Free Alliance (EFA) draws together political parties fighting for democracy and self-determination for the stateless nations and regions of Europe. European Free Alliance MEPs sit in ...

Good Food, Good Farming

Good Food March arrives in Brussels demanding real CAP reform

For the first time, the reform of the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will be decided by both the European Parliament and national Governments. The debate is going on right now which is why hundreds of civil so...

Shale Gas

Ban fracking and shale gas in Europe before it's too late!

Shale gas and fracking pose a direct and immediate threat to our drinking water, air, health, local communities and our climate. While the oil and gas industry try to convince the public and policy makers that the risks can be managed, we - the Greens/EFA group, the European Green Party, Friends of the Earth Europe, Food and Water Europe and HEAL - have decided to support the citizens in putting an end to this pro-fracking propaganda and make their voice heard even louder. It is now time to reveal the real truth about shale gas and fracking! We must stop investing in shale gas that would lock ourselves in another dirty fossil fuel cycle, and urgently promote and heavily invest in renewables and energy efficiency.

Stop Climate Change Blog

EP: Fierce backstage battle on the two shale gas reports

This week the European Parliament’s Industry Committee and Environment Committee will vote on reports on the ‘industrial, energy and other aspects of shale gas and oil’ and on the ‘environmental impacts of shale gas and shale oil extraction activities’ respectively. The backstage battle around the two reports is fierce...

Greens/EFA Round-up

Debriefing of the plenary week Strasbourg 10-14 September 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the Strasbourg Plenary included illegal CIA activities, energy saving, limiting pollution from shipping, tackling corporate tax avoidance, Russia and the rule of law, sustainable fisheries and consumption, democratic rollback in Romania...

Brussels agenda

Weekly preview of the Greens/EFA group - 17-21 September 2012

Greens/EFA priorities for the week include accounting transparency, reporting and conflict resources; the shale gas time-bomb and fracking; prioritising quality agricultural exports and sustainable farming; setting priorities for EU development policy; the EU-Israel association agreement; regulating offshore oil and gas exploration; Lobbying transparency;