Newsletter Fair Politics July 2011

Dear reader,

With this newsletter we like to keep you informed on the work of Fair Politics and recent developments around Policy Coherence for Development (PCD) and our policy case studies in particular. Last week the Award ceremony of the Fair Politician of the Year took place in the European Parliament. Furthermore, we closely followed the proceedings of the Raw Materials report in the European Parliament. Next to this, the Biofuels case is being updated and will be presented on our website soon! 

Enjoy reading!

MEP Catherine Grèze wins the Fair Politician of the Year Award.

On June 29th Fair Politics awarded the most ‘Fair Politicians’ of each political group in the European Parliament. The top three of each political group was invited and a total of eight MEPs were able to join us, for which we are very grateful. MEP Thijs Berman (S&D) welcomed this year’s nominees as the very first time winner of the Fair Politician Award in 2008. Read more »

24 NGOs file complaint with the European Commission for denying access to documents on EU fisheries agreements in developing countries

In March this year 24 organisations sent a letter to the European Commission's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) requesting access to all the reports held that provide evaluations and audits of their fisheries agreements with non-EU countries. The EU currently has agreements with 15 countries, worth 140 million Euro’s. The ex ante and post ante evaluation documents should contain information on the environmental, economic and social impact of these agreements in developing countries, as well as information on how EU money has been used by host governments.  Read more »

Raw Materials discussed thoroughly in the European Parliament! 

On behalf of the ITRE committee, Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens/EFA) wrote 'an effective raw materials strategy for Europe' as the European industry is facing an increasingly difficult situation with regards to the supply of raw materials. This is particularly the case for the 14 critical raw materials, which the European Commission identified. Increasing global demand coupled with a lack of supplies due to long lead-times in the mining industry and the increased use of export restrictions by resource-rich countries, are not only pushing prices to record heights, as is the case with copper, but are also leading to potential supply shortages. Read more »

Join us on Facebook!

With twittering politicians and revolutions being arranged via Facebook, Fair Politics cannot stay behind. Therefore, Fair Politics can now also be found on Facebook. Together with the division of Fair Politics in the Netherlands a Facebook page has been launched at the beginning of March. Become a fan of Fair Politics and stay updated on interesting news items, petitions and updates on the website. We would like you to become active in discussing and commenting on our Facebook page, and if you have interesting news in relation to PCD yourself, please let us know! 

Coming soon: an updated version of our Biofuels case.

With the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and the incorporation of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) in sight, Fair Politics took this opportunity to look into Biofuels again. These are interesting proceedings for Fair Politics as positive steps can be made to increase coherence with EU’s development policies. Currently, the RED may harm EU’s development objectives and environmental issues like biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions by neglecting ILUC. Next to this, doubtful land rights may lead to land grabbing which may have serious impacts on the food security in developing countries. The Biofuels case will be revealed soon on our website!

 

 

Kind regards,

Suzan Cornelissen and Wiea van der Zwan

The Fair Politics EU team