La dernière législation européenne en date prévoit que les bistrots devront bientôt embaucher un spécialiste de la protection des données personnelles :
Small businesses such as bed and breakfasts or cafes will have to hire a data protection officer (DPO) under new rules currently being fine-tuned by the European Parliament.
The parliament says any business that has 500 or more clients a year will require a data protection office to make sure data is secured and laws are being followed.
EU debates biopiracy law to protect indigenous people | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/may/01/eu-biopiracy-protect-indigenous-people
The European parliament is debating a draft biopiracy law requiring industry to compensate indigenous people if it makes commercial use of local knowledge such as plant-based medicines.
Under the law – based on the international convention on access to biodiversity, the Nagoya protocol – the pharmaceuticals industry would need the written consent of local or indigenous people before exploring their region’s genetic resources or making use of their traditional knowhow.
Relevant authorities would have the power to sanction companies that fail to comply, protecting local interests from the predatory attitude of big European companies.
#democracy, #solidarity and the European Crisis
http://www.kuleuven.be/communicatie/evenementen/evenementen/jurgen-habermas/democracy-solidarity-and-the-european-crisis
Lecture delivered by Professor Jürgen #habermas on 26 April 2013 in Leuven Tags: democracy solidarity #europe habermas
EU Parliament Opens The Door to Copyright Repression in TAFTA | La Quadrature du Net
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/eu-parliament-opens-the-door-to-copyright-repression-in-tafta
Paris, 25 April 2013 — Today, the “International Trade” (INTA) committee of the European Parliament adopted a resolution1 on the proposed EU-US trade agreement – the “Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement” (TAFTA), also touted as the “Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership” (TTIP). The Parliament unfortunately decided to ignore the calls of civil society groups to keep “IP out of TAFTA”.
via http://02mydafsoup-01.soup.io/post/309976336/EU-Parliament-Opens-The-Door-to-Copyright
EU travel restrictions to be eased for Ukrainians and Moldovans
http://www.enpi-info.eu/maineast.php?id_type=1&id=32759&lang_id=450
Il n’est jamais trop tard, mais c’est toujours trop lent, ces « améliorations ». En tout cas réjouissons-nous...
EU travel restrictions to be eased for Ukrainians and Moldovans
19-04-2013
Travel to the EU is set to become easier for people from Ukraine and Moldova after Members of the European Parliament approved plans for visa exemptions for holders of biometric service passports and a simplification of requirements demonstrating the purpose of their journey. EU citizens are already exempt from visa requirements when travelling to these countries.
#libre-circulation #europe #frontières #visas
A European Parliament press release said the new rules included an exemption from visa requirements for short stays for people from Ukraine and Moldova who hold biometric service passports.
Carbon trading: Below junk status | The Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/04/carbon-trading?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/belowjunkstatus
Below junk status
Apr 16th 2013
EUROPE’S flagship environmental policy has just been holed below the water line. On April 16th the European Parliament voted by 334 to 315 to reject proposals which (its supporters claimed) were needed to save the emissions-trading system (ETS) from collapse. Carbon prices promptly fell 40% (see chart). Some environmentalists fear that the whole edifice of European climate policy could start to crumble.
The Battle to Keep Water Out of the Internal Market - a Test Case for Democracy in Europe
http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/215-global-public-goods/52369-the-battle-to-keep-water-out-of-the-internal-market-a-test-case-
The European Commission has in recent weeks gone on a PR offensive in response to growing criticism of its pro-privatisation agenda for the water sector. The criticism centres around the water privatisation conditions attached to the Troika’s rescue packages for Greece and Portugal, and the proposed EU concessions directive, which could lead to increased privatisation pressure on public water municipalities across Europe.
The concessions directive, which has the stated object of opening markets and eliminating “discrepancies among national regimes”, would end the exemption that has so far existed for drinking water supply and for the first time bring it under the rules of the EU’s single market. Previous attempts to bring water under single market rules failed due to resistance from civil society and MEPs opposed to water becoming a commodity, but this time the European Parliament has been less vigilant. The directive would not directly force municipalities to privatise, but could lead to ’privatisation through the back door’.
The battle to keep water out of the internal market - a test case for democracy in Europe
http://www.corporateeurope.org/blog/battle-keep-water-out-internal-market-test-case-democracy-europe
The European Commission has in recent weeks gone on a PR offensive in response to growing criticism of its pro-privatisation agenda for the water sector. The criticism centres around the water privatisation conditions attached to the Troika’s rescue packages for Greece and Portugal, and the proposed EU concessions directive, which could lead to increased privatisation pressure on public water municipalities across Europe.
http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/884592_530172300359891_1714712624_o.jpg
#ue #eau #privatisation
La Suède estime qu’une énième directive européenne anti-transparence menace la transparence de leurs institutions http://euobserver.com/justice/119504
““With a regulation there is a need to make it perfectly clear that member states may keep their national rules on access to documents,” said David Torngren, an official at Sweden’s ministry of justice, in an email on Tuesday (19 March).
Torngren described the right of access to official documents as a cornerstone of the Swedish constitution for the past 250 years.”
étrange : on dirait que ta réponse ne s’est pas accrochée au bon message, je pense que tu répondais au sujet des bisous (http://seenthis.net/messages/123964) ?
Voilà qui est rectifié :) (bizarre, bizarre ...)
Europe Holds No Promise For the Middle East - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/02/europe-holds-no-promise-for-the-middle-east.html
Last week, they were uttered publicly by a senior German politician, Hans-Gert Pöttering, one of those closest to Chancellor Angela Merkel. Pöttering, who served for many years as president of the European Parliament, spoke at a packed auditorium in the center of Brussels. “Were it not for the Holocaust, Germany would not have abstained at the UN vote on the recognition of Palestine as a non-member state,” said the man who was appointed last year to chair the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, named after the first post-World War II German chancellor who was responsible for the reparations agreement between Israel and Germany. “It would have voted in favor.” Pöttering did not attempt to conceal his hope that Avigdor Liberman — whose name (meaning “a beloved man” in German) does not suit him, he said — would not be coming back to Brussels as Israel’s foreign minister.
He finished by saying that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict makes it hard for Europe to conduct a dialogue with the Muslim world. “Previously, the Israelis did not want European involvement, now you are also opposed to American involvement,” he lashed out.
On the stage, to the left of the German speaker, sat Adm. (Res.) Ami Ayalon, who has served as a cabinet minister, head of the Shin Bet security service and commander of the navy, and Gilad Sher, a lawyer who was Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s chief of staff and policy coordinator. In the front row were philanthropist and peace activist Orni Petruschka, Ayalon and Sher’s partner in the leadership of Blue White Future, [a pro-peace movement] and the organization’s CEO, Dar Nadler. They came to the capital of the European Union at the instigation of the Hanns Seidel Foundation to persuade the Europeans to exert their influence on the Americans. Ayalon and Sher sought to equip the Europeans with their diplomatic blueprint, the gist of which is Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state and the launch of negotiations on a permanent agreement, based on the Arab Peace Initiative (peace and normalization of relations with members of the Arab League in return for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders) and a declaration that Israel has no territorial claims on the eastern side of the security/separation fence.
The leaders of Blue White Future warned that European inactivity until the end of negotiations on land exchanges, the division of Jerusalem and a solution to the Palestinian refugee problem would bring about the demise of a Jewish and democratic Israel. They presented senior EU officials with a plan for the immediate evacuation of all settlements east of the fence, including a precise mapping of vacant lands within the Green Line [the de facto 1967 border] on which the Israeli evacuees could be resettled. They recommended that everyone learn the lessons of the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which dropped the Strip like a ripe fruit into the hands of Hamas (Europe supported the disengagement from Gaza) and replace that totally unilateral action with coordinated unilateral steps.
The Seidel Foundation invited me to join the fascinating three-day journey of the “Blue White Future” leadership through the endless corridors of the European Union. I participated in meetings with leading officials of the European Commission, with a senior official in the office of EU foreign secretary Catherine Ashton and with members of the European Parliament. I was exposed to the frustrations of the umbrella organization of 27 states, whose population is greater than that of the United States. Parliament member Ivo Vajgl, Slovenia’s former foreign minister, recounted how Israeli government ministers refused to meet the European Parliament delegation, which he headed, and Israeli members of Knesset [parliament] left them waiting a long time outside their meeting room. “Israel is humiliating us,” said Vajgl.
I was struck by the helplessness of the European Union, which was honored last year with the Nobel Peace Prize, regarding peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians, an end to settlements and to the occupation.
All the senior officials we met in Brussels, without exception, listened attentively to the guests’ plan, made remarks and at the end sent them to Berlin, Paris, London and Prague, too, which had voted at the UN against upgrading status of the Palestinian Authority. One journalist even asked angrily, “Why did you come here, anyway?” When Ayalon, Sher and Petruschka explained why economic sanctions would not jump-start the diplomatic process, the hosts said they were in complete agreement that there’s no chance the 27 countries represented in Brussels could reach agreement regarding punitive steps of any kind against Israel for its construction in the settlements.
Past experience teaches us that the recommendations of the European consuls to take steps against Israel, such as imposing economic sanctions on the settlements — as published this week in the Haaretz newspaper — are gathering dust in the desk drawers of the European Union.
On the other hand, they stressed that as long as Israel continues to expend settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, there’s not even a slim chance that members of the Union will arrive at a consensus regarding the upgrading of Israel’s position. In addition, a senior European official pointed with no small amount of embarrassment to the fact that the EU is incapable of agreeing to include Hezbollah in the list of terror organizations, even after the official Bulgarian government investigation concluded with certainty that the organization was responsible for the attack in which five Israeli tourists were murdered last year in a Bulgarian resort town.
Europe is mostly busy with its own problems, the financial crises and the integration of new members (next in line is Croatia. For the information of reader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — this was made possible after the Croatians met the EU’s demand to erase from their constitution the article stating that Croatia is the national home of the Croatian people). The Quartet, the mechanism established with the aim of advancing the diplomatic process, has turned into a joke. In answer to my question about former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s activity as the special envoy of the Quartet (the US, Russia, the European Union and the UN), the two officials sitting across from us exchanged meaningful looks and burst out laughing. They said the EU has decided to stop funding Blair, who has disappeared somewhere in East Jerusalem.
Thus, the Europeans are directing their eyes westward, to the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, US President Barack Obama. So far, the Union’s special envoy to the Middle East, Andreas Reinicke, is the only bearer of good news. He says EU’s foreign policy chief, Lady Catherine Ashton, and Obama have set themselves a one-year deadline to bring about a permanent settlement, not an interim arrangement, not a Palestinian state within temporary borders, but rather the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state side-by-side with the state of Israel. The impression in Ashton’s office, on the other hand, is that Obama will focus his meeting with Netanyahu on the Iranian nuclear issue. We heard there that at his last meeting with Ashton, each time the European minister wished to raise the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu said this was a marginal issue which deflects attention from the big Iranian threat. “If this is a marginal issue”, Ashton is said to have answered, “let’s get it out of our way so we can be free to deal with the main issue.” The prime minister, we were told, did not respond.
Brussels hopes the next Israeli government will have a response. They are not holding their breath.
La CIA, procureur, juge et bourreau
http://blog.mondediplo.net/2013-02-14-La-CIA-procureur-juge-et-bourreau
“The threat we face now is no longer the mistrust of the markets but that of the peoples” - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21336397
International data transfers: EU urged to scrap use of binding corporate rules and model contract clauses in cloud computing amidst concerns over US surveillance of data
http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2013/january/eu-urged-to-scrap-use-of-personal-data-measures-for-cloud-computing-amid-us
The report, ordered by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), said that the EU had created “derogations” from traditional rules governing international transfers of #personal_data that, in a #cloud_computing context, could not adequately protect the #privacy of that information. It said BCRs and model contract clauses were examples of the ’derogations’ created and that both are were “equally unsuitable to prevent the use of #cloud #data for #surveillance purposes”.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/libe/studiesdownload.html?languageDocument=EN&file=79050
“Both the [Article 29 Working Party] and the Commission place great faith in ’audit’ procedures to ensure Cloud services are compliant, but no commercial audit methodology can seek to uncover secret surveillance which is ’lawful’ under the national security rubric of a third country (especially if that audit is conducted by a company from that country). There is no way that an EU DPA can know whether this is happening or not, if the Cloud software fabric is designed and controlled from outside EU jurisdiction.”
#Lobbies on dataprotection - Wiki #veille de La Quadrature du Net
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Lobbies_on_dataprotection
This page lists the different lobbies’s documents calling for an extensive definition of personal #data, upon the adoption process of the European Commission’s Proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation.
#données_personnelles #législation #Europe
Et pour suivre les activités du Parlement européen : http://parltrack.euwiki.org
Parltrack is a European initiative to improve the transparency of legislative processes. It combines dossiers, MEPs, vote results and committee agendas into a unique database and allows the #tracking of dossiers using email and RSS. Most of the data displayed is also available for further processing in JSON format. Using Parltrack it’s easy to see at a glance which dossiers are being handled by committees and MEPs.
(liens vus sur la liste de diffusion de la Quadrature) #open_gov #transparence
European Union gives €2 billion to private security firms, with no control over how it is used. | Paul Murphy MEP
http://www.paulmurphymep.eu/european-union-gives-e2-billion-to-private-security-firms-with-no-cont
Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy spoke today in the European Parliament, questioning Maire Geoghegan-Quinn about the proposed funding to “Security Research” in Horizon 2020 (amounting to a total of €2 billion), the new EU Framework Research Programme, and detailed how the current funding has been given to two Israeli arms companies complicit in the oppression of the Palestinians. In the course of the exchange, Commissioner Geoghegan Quinn admitted that funding from taxpayers may end up being used for military ends by the major armaments companies. Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn responded by explaining that although the funds are provided to civilian security firms, the European Union has no control over how these funds are used once in the hands of these firms.
FISA renewal: Report suggests spy law allows mass #surveillance of European citizens.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/01/08/fisa_renewal_report_suggests_spy_law_allows_mass_surveillance_of_european.htm
[the report author is] Caspar Bowden, who was formerly chief privacy adviser to Microsoft Europe.
According to Bowden, the 2008 FISA amendment created a power of “mass surveillance” specifically targeted at the data of non-U.S. persons located outside America, which applies to cloud computing. This means that U.S. companies with a presence in the EU can be compelled under a secret surveillance order, issued by a secret court, to hand over data on Europeans. Because non-American citizens outside the United States have been deemed by the court not to fall under the search and seizure protections of the Fourth Amendment, it opens the door to an unprecedented kind of snooping. “It’s like putting a mind control drug in the water supply, which only affects non-Americans,” says Bowden. The lack of attention European data protection authorities have paid to this provision has been “shocking,” Bowden adds.
Drug-pollution law all washed up : Nature
http://www.nature.com/news/drug-pollution-law-all-washed-up-1.11854
la #pilule contraceptive pose des problèmes aux poissons ; l’Europe veut faire un truc
Europe is set to quash a precedent-setting initiative designed to tackle a disturbing side effect of common drugs — their impact on aquatic life. Nature has learned that landmark regulations intended to clean Europe’s waterways of pharmaceuticals are likely to be dead on arrival when they reach a key vote in the European Parliament next week.
Brevets logiciels en Europe
La présidence chypriote trouve que c’est le moment de forcer « un peu » la main au Parlement européen : il y tant d’autres préoccupations plus importantes... Et puis ces sales gamin-e-s doivent comprendre que ce qui compte c’est l’économie donc le business non ?
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Unitary Patent: Council asks Parliament to sign its death certificate in patent law ===================================================================================
Brussels, 21 November 2012 — This monday, the Cypriot Presidency stated in parliament that they are “aware of concerns that the legislator can be deprived of their legislative competence”. In fact the new patent compromise is similar to the “a death certificate in patent law” for the European Parliament, says Benjamin Henrion, president of the FFII.
According to leaks published by PCinpact, the latest compromise seeks to remove the role of the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice from any power in the proposed patent system (articles 6-8).
Benjamin Henrion, president of FFII, warns: “The Council asks basically to the European Parliament to sign their death certificate in patent law. No part of the proposed system will be under the control of an elected legislator. This is a disaster for all the people that believes in the power of the European Parliament.”
All red lines imposed by the Parliament has been broken by the Council
compromise:
the enhanced cooperation (art118), with reference to national law,
still does not create a title of the European Union;
the Parliament is deprived of its legislative competence in patent
law;
the European Court of Justice is forbidden to have a say on patent
law, especially on substantive matters, such as software patents.
The Rapporteur and MEP Klaus-Heiner Lehne has been pushing the “death certificate” proposal to be voted for in the next Plenary at the 10th December, refusing any reopening of the discussions at committee level.
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Links
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Cyprus press release: Unitary patent closer to the finishing line http://www.cy2012.eu/index.php/en/news-categories/areas/competitiveness/press-release-unitary-patent-closer-to-the-finishing-line
FFII: Klaus-Heiner Lehne: software patent legislator and lobbying consultant http://wiki.ffii.org/KlausHeinerLehneEn
PCInpact: Brevet unitaire européen : un compromis veut écarter l’Union européenne ►http://www.pcinpact.com/news/75393-brevet-unitaire-europeen-compromis-veut-ecarter-union-europeenne.htm
Max Planck Institut: The Unitary Patent Package: Twelve Reasons for Concern http://www.ip.mpg.de/files/pdf2/MPI-IP_Twelve-Reasons_2012-10-17_final3.pdf
Permanent link to this press release https://press.ffii.org/Press%20releases/Unitary%20Patent%3A%20Council%20asks%20Parliament%20to%20sign%20its%20de
=======
Contact
=======
Benjamin Henrion
FFII Brussels
Mobile: +32-484-566109
Email: bhenrion@ffii.org
==========
About FFII
==========
The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in twenty European countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. More than 1000 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions concerning exclusion rights (intellectual
property) in data processing.
_____________________________________________
FFII Press Releases.
(un)subscribe via https://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/news, or contact media@ffii.org for more information.
Je n’y comprends rien mais je crains que cela soit voté :
Texte adopté du Parlement, 1ère lecture/lecture unique T7-0385/2012 23/10/2012
Fiche de procédure : 2009/0155(NLE)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?lang=fr&reference=2009/0155(NLE)
Accord CE/Israël : évaluation de la conformité et l’acceptation des produits industriels (ACAA). Protocole additionnel à l’accord euro-méditerranéen
Catherine Ashton en Israël sur fond de violences à la frontière avec Gaza
http://www.romandie.com/news/n/_Catherine_Ashton_en_Israel_sur_fond_de_violences_a_la_frontiere_avec_Gaza
JERUSALEM - La chef de la diplomatie de l’Union européenne Catherine Ashton a rencontré mercredi les dirigeants israéliens à Jérusalem, dont le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu, sur fond de violences à la frontière entre l’Etat hébreu et la bande de Gaza.
Un porte-parole de M. Netanyahu n’a laissé filtrer aucun détail des discussions du Premier ministre avec Mme Ashton, arrivée mercredi matin en Israël dans le cadre d’une tournée régionale.
A l’issue d’un entretien entre la Haute représentante de l’UE pour les Affaires étrangères et le président Shimon Pérès, le bureau de ce dernier a qualifié d’inacceptables les tirs de roquettes contre Israël.
Alors que nous sommes en ce moment assis ici, il y a un million de personnes, y compris des femmes et des enfants qui sont bombardés (dans le sud d’Israël). Personne en Europe, en Asie, en Amérique ou n’importe où ailleurs n’accepterait cela, jour après jour, a déclaré M. Pérès, cité dans un communiqué.
Mme Ashton a quant à elle affirmé que selon elle, le bain de sang est la pire option et que la coopération et les négociations sont toujours préférables, a précisé le communiqué.
ACAA – Accord UE-Israël Les élus EELV dénoncent un vote indigne du prix Nobel de la Paix
Je n’arrive pas à trouver le résultat exact du vote :
Le Parlement approuve l’accord avec Israël facilitant le commerce de médicaments
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/fr/pressroom/content/20121019IPR54032/html/Le-Parlement-approuve-l%27accord-avec-Isra%C3%ABl-facilitant-le-comm
Résolution législative du Parlement européen du 23 octobre 2012 sur le projet de décision du Conseil relatif à la conclusion d’un protocole à l’accord euro-méditerranéen établissant une association entre l’Union européenne et ses États membres, d’une part, et l’État d’Israël, d’autre part, sur l’évaluation de la conformité et l’acceptation des produits industriels (ACAA) (12428/2012 – C7-0205/2012 – 2009/0155(NLE))
13.22. Protocole à l’accord euro-méditerranéen établissant une association entre les CE et Israël sur l’évaluation de la conformité et l’acceptation des produits industriels (CAA) (A7-0289/2012 - Vital Moreira) (vote)
PV
Protocole à l’accord euro-méditerranéen établissant une association entre les CE et Israël sur l’évaluation de la conformité et l’acceptation des produits industriels (CAA) * (vote)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=PV&reference=20121023&secondRef=ITEM-013-22&language=
Oh celui-là est une mine :
(Majorité simple requise)
(Détail du vote : annexe « Résultats des votes », point 28)
pas trouvé l’annexe « Résultats des votes », point 28
et en plus là il y a un résultat de vote :
Par AN (249 pour, 376 contre, 25 abstentions) le Parlement rejette la demande. Il est donc procédé au vote.
Résolution législative du Parlement européen du 23 octobre 2012 sur le projet de décision du Conseil relatif à la conclusion d’un protocole à l’accord euro-méditerranéen établissant une association entre l’Union européenne et ses États membres, d’une part, et l’État d’Israël, d’autre part, sur l’évaluation de la conformité et l’acceptation des produits industriels (ACAA) (12428/2012 – C7-0205/2012 – 2009/0155(NLE))
(Approbation)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P7-TA-2012-0385&language=FR Je n’arrive pas à trouver le résultat exact du vote :
Détail du vote
Protocol to the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the EC and Israel on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (CAA)
Belgrade pride ban slammed as ’victory for prejudice’ | Gay Star News
http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/belgrade-pride-ban-slammed-victory-prejudice041012
Belgrade pride ban slammed as ’victory for prejudice’
MEPs say Serbia must improve gay rights record if it wants to join the European Union
04 October 2012 | By Matthew Jenkin
Amnesty and EU slam Serbia’s decision to ban Belgrade pride parade
Human rights group Amnesty International has slammed the decision to ban a gay pride event in Serbia’s capital Belgrade as a ’victory for prejudice’.
The organization claims the Serbian government’s order not to allow the LGBT rights march to go ahead on Saturday (6 October) is in breach of the country’s law and constitution.
Europe may punish Ukraine for gay censorship law
European Union may put new visa rules on hold to punish Ukraine if it presses ahead with ‘homosexual propaganda’ law plan
03 October 2012 | By Tris Reid-Smith
Ukraine’s parliament has voted for a law banning homosexual ’propaganda’.
Photo by Jurij Skoblenko.
Foreign ministers could punish Ukraine for voting for a new law to ban ‘homosexual propaganda’ by not allowing it visa-free access to Europe.
GSN broke the news that the Ukrainian Parliament had pushed forward the bill, number 8711, with a landslide vote yesterday.
If it is passed, the new law would give up to five years jail to people importing, producing or spreading positive messages about lesbians, gays and bisexuals.
The laws authors even claim gays are a risk to Ukrainian national security.
They said: ‘The spread of homosexuality constitutes a threat to national security as it leads to an HIV AIDS epidemic and also destroys the institute of family and can trigger a demographic crisis.’
International bodies including Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have condemned the law.
But perhaps the most significant threat comes from Netherlands Foreign Affairs minister Uri Rosenthal.
Speaking in the Dutch parliament, he has already said that if the law passes the European Union (EU) should suspend plans to allow Ukrainians visa-free access to Europe.
His threat is significant because all European foreign ministers have to agree to visa changes. So just his one vote could push the visa liberalization off the agenda.
Ukraine’s relations with the European Union are already under strain after the EU shelved a landmark association agreement with Kyiv due to a seven-year prison sentence handed down to opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
The EU has rarely pushed LGBT rights so vigorously in the past but its diplomacy with Ukraine, which wants to join the EU, has the potential to be significant.
The European Parliament has already said the proposals breach free speech obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Meanwhile Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have been quick to condemn yesterday’s anti-gay vote in the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
Ulrike Lunacek MEP, co-president of the LGBT Intergroup in the European Parliament, said: ‘Ukraine has set itself on a collision course with the rest of Europe. This law is not only backward-looking; it is purely anti-democratic, informed by nothing else than prejudice, and fully disrespects Ukraine’s legal obligations.
‘I expected more from my Ukrainian colleagues, but in pre-election times, it is easy to score cheap points by witch-hunting the LGBT community. This is the 21st century, and diversity exists in all our societies.’
Sophie in ’t Veld MEP, vice-president of the LGBT Intergroup, added: ‘Rather than moving closer to Europe, Ukraine is taking a giant step away from Europe and its values. No country that restricts free speech and violates the rights of its LGBT citizens can expect to remain quietly in the family of European nations.
‘I am furious that Ukraine decides to blithely attack a vulnerable minority by denying them the right to free speech, and I expect the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly and Committee of Ministers to be strict and impartial in condemning this move.’
The International Lesbian and Gay Association in Europe (ILGA-Europe) has said the law is so poorly defined it would be open to challenge.
Others have even suggested that Ukraine’s proposals would criminalize children who deliver newspapers if they contained positive articles about gay people.
‘If voted into law, it would lead to the further marginalization of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community in the country and would limit the work of human rights defenders,” Evelyne Paradis, Executive Director of ILGA-Europe said.
And the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has also condemned the proposed law.
‘Restrictions on rights may not be discriminatory, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is clearly prohibited under international law,’ said Alli Jernow, senior legal adviser at the ICJ.
ILGA-Europe has also called for European institutions to take action.
They say if the bill goes further the EU should halt negotiations with Ukraine. And they want the Council of Europe to unequivocally denounce it to the Ukrainian government.
The bill is now due to go before a second vote, which is scheduled for 16 October but may be delayed.
After that the Chair of the Parliament and President Viktor Yanukovich would need to sign the bill before it would become law.
However, the country goes to the polls on 28 October to elect the new Verkhovna Rada parliament and with 78% of Ukrainians viewing homosexuality negatively, according to a 2011 poll, some say the bill could play well domestically.
The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights
http://www.lgbt-ep.eu
EU law to protect victims of crime due to sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression
Today the European Parliament agreed on a new Directive on the rights guaranteed to victims of crime in the EU. Notably, it provides specific assistance and protection to people who suffered crime because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or …
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Summary: Trans and intersex people – Challenges for EU law | The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights
http://www.lgbt-ep.eu/intergroup-documents/summary-trans-and-intersex-people-challenges-for-eu-law
ummary: Trans and intersex people – Challenges for EU law
September 28th, 2012
On Wednesday 26 September the LGBT Intergroup hosted the seminar Trans and intersex people: Challenges for EU law. The event was attended by Members of the European Parliament, the European Commission and Council, the EEAS, and civil society. The panel of speakers examined a new report on trans and intersex issues ordered by the European Commission, and discussed possible future developments for EU law and policy.
Glyn Moody’s presentation - Before and after ACTA : http://www.slideshare.net/glynmoody/glyn-moody-before-and-after-acta-final
Europe improves oversight of medicines : Nature
http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/09/europe-improves-oversight-of-medicines.html
The European Union (EU) has tightened oversight rules for drugs, in response to the scandal over anti-diabetic medicine Mediator that erupted in France two years ago (press release).
The European Parliament and EU council of ministers yesterday agreed amendments to a regulation and directive making evaluation and possible market withdrawal of a drug automatic throughout the EU if a safety alert is issued in one of the 27 member states.