Belgian liberal MEP Philippe De Backer optimistic about Europe’s future, despite atmosphere of crisis

“People realise that only a stronger European Union can solve the problems we face today”

Philippe De Backer, 37, is one of the younger members of the European Parliament (MEP). As a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the group led by Guy Verhofstadt, De Backer is a part of the most pro-European integration party in the Parliament. Europe HOpes on 8 December had a talk with the Belgian MEP in his office in the Altiero Spinelli building of the European Parliament in Brussels. A conversation about frustrations, hopes and a Christmas wish for the European Parliament.

Interview by Rick Van Assel

It does not happen very often that a PhD in biotechnology ends up being a member of the European Parliament (MEP). However, for Philippe De Backer this is the case. Fascinated by science, he started his academic career studying biotechnology at Ghent University in Belgium, while at the same time he became politically active. De Backer was a student’s representative at Ghent University and during his PhD he became president of the youth wing of Open VLD, a Belgian liberal political party known for its pro-European integration stance. Thus, a biotechnologist in the European Parliament (EP) does not seem so strange after all. “As a scientist, I was in contact with universities from different European countries when I was participating in a European research project. So I was aware of the scientific and economic opportunities that the European Union could offer. At the same time, I saw the political difficulties of the EU, that was in the process of its first big enlargement round. Those two factors combined have made me want to become politically active on a European level”, Philippe De Backer reveals. After completing his PhD, he started working for an investment fund specialized in health care for a few years. But in 2011, De Backer’s life drastically changed when he entered the European Parliament, replacing an Open VLD MEP that retired. Four years later, a combative and resolute De Backer has high hopes for the European Union’s (EU) future. “The EU is in crisis. Things are going bad on more than one issue. But at the same time I am optimistic. A big part of the European population realises that a strong European Union is necessary to tackle problems such as climate change, terror and migration. You do not think that a region as Flanders, or large countries as Germany and France, can solve these issues on their own? However, therefore the European Union needs to be given the instruments, so that we can implement strong policies.”

The turnout for the European elections has been decreasing ever since the first election. In 1979 62% of European citizens showed up, whereas in 2014 a small 43% turned to vote. At the same time the European Parliament has become an important co-legislator. How do you explain this paradoxical evolution?PHILIPPE DE BACKER: “I think that people are disappointed, because they expected more from the European integration project. We have promised economic stability and growth, but the EU has not delivered on these fronts. There are many explanations for these problems, but the main reason lies in the fact that the EU is an unfinished project. Europe lacks the necessary instruments to achieve such ambitious goals. It is still too dependent on the goodwill of the member states. So I do understand the disillusion of people. However, people do not see the advantages of the European Union anymore either. They do not realise how easy it is to cross boarders without passports or to be able to pay with a single currency.”

Education might also play an important role. Do you remember if you had any classes on European integration during your time in secondary school?

European Left Parties against the rise of extreme right

Author: Giulia Semeghini


The time in which the speeches of the Nazi and Fascist parties were given publicly or in parliaments is historically far. However, more and more often it is now possible to hear some ideas that have very much in common to the ones declared during that time, even in some parliamentary events.

In fact, as recently shown by the rise of Marine Le Pen and the National Front in France, political parties belonging to the extreme right are experiencing a new period of growth by gaining ground on the fears and problems emerging in Europe from the ongoing refugee crisis and the latest terrorist attacks.

A confirmation of this trend can be found also in the fact that after the European elections in 2014, 9 parties affiliated to extreme right have found a seat in the European Parliament. Among them, there are the Nation Democratic Party (Germany), the Golden Dawn (Greece), the Finns Party (Finland), the Danish People's Party, the Party for Freedom (Netherlands), Jobbik (Hungary), the Freedom Party of Austria, Lega Nord (Italy) and, of course, the National Front (France).

In view of this considerations, on the 8th of December 2015 the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) organized a conference to discuss about possible strategies against the rise of extreme right in Europe. The conference was held at the European Parliament and various politics and representatives of European left parties and other organizations were invited to come up with new ideas and propositions on the topic.

Refugee crisis and job are centrals in the EU budget 2016: will it be enough?

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/home.html

Author: Matteo Placidini

If we should prepare a list of the most critical issues Europe is currently living, we should certainly put on the first position unemployment  and the refugee crisis.  We could say that the EU is tackling these problems on two different fronts: the first one is internal, namely the economic crisis, and hits particularly young citizens and small-medium enterprises. The second one is external, since European countries must cope with a huge number of migrants coming from outside their borders.

This context requires a quick response and Europe needs a change of gear of its policies on these topics and, consequently, more significant investments.

Indeed, the EP must have taken in strong consideration these two issues in the last plenary session. As a matter of fact, the EU budget for 2016, approved on 25 November 2015, provides relevant changes.

Concerning the refugee crisis, the European budget has more than doubled, increasing from 658 million Euros in 2015 to 1,6 billion Euros in 2016. Furthermore, an amendment invites the member states to invest 2,3 billion Euros to finance the Africa Trust Fund and the Syria Trust Fund, two important instruments to tackle the problem at its origin.

Iratxe García Pérez urges for a European effort against gender violence

Author: Maria Dominguez Hervas

Brussels, november 25 - During the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, on November 25^th, Iratxe García Pérez, chair of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM), and Dimitrios Papadimoulis, the Vice-president of the European Parliament responsible for gender equality and diversity agreed on the fact that Europe has still a long way to go before ending with cruelty against women. During the conference on the elimination of violence against women organized in Strasburg by the FEMM committee, Pérez García urged EU institutions and Member States to commit and to take measures at European level in order to prevent the violation of women’s rights.

Even nowadays, 25 years after the United Nations launched the International Day of the elimination of Violence against women, “machismo kills.” The chair of the FEMM committee, Iratxe García Pérez, highlighted during the International Conference held the 25^th November in Strasburg that half of the world’s population is vulnerable face to an unequal society that still tolerates macho violence in its diverse forms. According to the 2014 report issued by the Agency of Fundamental Rights, at least 9 million women living in the 28 member states have suffered physical, sexual or psychological violence at work, at home or in the public space. For García Pérez, this is an extensive human rights violation that the EU institutions must not overlook. Greater efforts at European level must be made in order to end with “one of the largest social plagues that exists in the world at this moment.”

The Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee, claims for the need of a European Directive to guide member states’ legislation to prevent the violation of women’s fundamental rights. However, the European Commission excuses the lack of a concrete strategy against gender violence arguing that Europe has not competences to legislate on this topic.

In order to elaborate a European strategy against gender violence, García Pérez states, it is fundamental to establish common standards to recognize and act upon gender violence. At present, the Treaty of the European Union contemplates two terms: “victims of trafficking” and “victims of sexual violence,” but it does not include the more global notion of “victims of gender violence”. For Iratxe García Pérez this lack of wording hides the reality of millions of women and girls around the world who suffer diverse abuses for the mere fact of being women. García Pérez recommends, thus, including the notion of “victims of gender violence” in order for Europe to impulse member states’ actions to prevent this human rights’ violation.

The EU turns orange for the Elimination of violence against women

Author: Hanne Van De Ven

On 25 November the European Parliament building in Strasbourg lit up orange to show support for United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. While the building shined bright on the outside, a heated debate went on within. The facts do not lie: one in third of the European women have faced physical or sexual violence, or both, and every day seven women are killed by gender-based violence in the EU. In presence of Věra Jourová, the Commissioner of Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, the European Parliamentary Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) expressed the need for change.

Article 8 of the Lisbon Treaty addresses the equality between men and women in the EU. According to the Treaty, all Member States should take all necessary steps to fight domestic violence and support the victims. However not all Member States have introduced effective laws protecting women against violence. In some countries, a formal complaint must be submitted by the victim before legal action can be taken. This is inefficient as most crimes go unreported because the victims feel afraid or ashamed. For this reason, Iratxe García Pérez of the FEMM called on the Commission, the Parliament and the Council to give the EU the power to combat gender-based violence, by introducing legislation for all Member States.

We, the Young European, are not afraid.

Author: Gabriella Arcifa

Brussels, November 21th - We, the young Europeans, didn't really know the war until late this autumn, autumn that looks already like winter. It is a different war from the ones we studied in the history books, It is the War of Terror.  Brussels on November 21, at our wake up, under the first snow flakes, we heard that the city is controlled by police and manned by soldier patrols. They are searching for terrorists. This people, young people like us, between 20 and 30 years, were born and educated in Europe, just like us. The media says that in Molenbeek the searches are still continuing and the houses are rounded up one by one.  Many people were arrested, others are underway. A small arsenal of weapons, including chemical was founded. And now, while we are reading news from the Belgian National Crisis Centre, it is worth remembering that we are here in Bruxelles "pour l'Europe unie" and that we are not at all discouraged!  Coming from different European cities, we started on November 12, our project "Be Ready 4 EU", organized by the Association Europe HOpes. We are 10 young European citizens, interested in understanding the European Union functioning and inform the European citizens about how and if an integration among different national states is indeed possible.   And, why not, if we, young Europeans, may have our say to influence the decision-making process at the Union level, as the professional lobbyists do here in the Big Apple of Europe. We were excited and happy before the evening of November 13, when the events in Paris left a “wound” on all of us and the whole democratic world. That night our sleep was restless and for the first time in our lives, at the wake up, we were afraid of war at our door steps!

ICTs and internet access as tools for development and social change

Author: Giulia Semeghini

The world has never been more connected than it is today. Indeed, through new technologies and the use of internet it is now possible to communicate with everyone at a global level in just few seconds, making appear our world very small. But this is not valid for everyone.

As recently stated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) - the United Nations (UN) specialized agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) – there are four billion people in the developing countries that are still unconnected because they have no internet access. Consequently, this data points out that more than a half of the world population is totally excluded from this interconnected world and that digital divide still remains a core issue to solve.

 

With the aim to discuss about this topic, on the 17^th of November 2015, a seminar was organized at the European Parliament (EP) by the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Marietje Schaake on behalf of the Digital Agenda Intergroup, an informal network of MEP's, cross-party and cross-nationality interested in digital technologies and their role in bringing benefits to society. The seminar, entitled “Tech for change: ICT's, internet access and the post-2015 development agenda” and led by speakers from different organizations, initially was focused on the importance of making more efforts to improve the openness and accessibility of internet.

 

In this regard, Samia Melhem, as a Lead Policy Officer in the World Bank's Transport and ICT Global Practice, highlighted that ICTs can have an important role in supporting public sector transformation, innovation and in improving health and education services. Having the goal of ending extreme poverty and boosting a shared prosperity worldwide, the World Bank sees ICTs as a fundamental tool for transformation. Particularly, she emphasized the efforts made by her Institution to promote e-government, that consists in the use of digital technologies in public administration to foster public services and democratic processes. For this reason she underlined the necessity to promote broadband in every household and reduce disparities in digital access.

International Women's Day 2015. Empowering women and girls through education and mobilization.

by Sabrina Cocuzza 

Today, all the world celebrates the International Women’s Day, reminding the many achievements that women have sucessfully accomplished since 1995, when the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which represents the historic roadmap for women rights was signed by 189 governments.  Year by year, women's rights have been increasingly protected, but there is still much to do for accelerating this progress with a greater mobilization of the International Community. "When we unleash the power of women, we can secure the future for all," says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in his message for International Women’s Day 2015. Although this statement, we are still compelled to recognize the gap that hold back any pushes to gender-equality. I think of girls used as weapons by violent extremists, subject to female genital mutilation, child marriage, exploitation and discriminatory social norms. Some of this facts are no far from the EU and western countries where too many girls and women of every racial, ethnic, gender, age and socioeconomic group are still targets of domestic abuses, sexual assault, stalking, discrimination.  Furthermore, in times of recession and greater unemployment, the violence is known to increase, especially when community shelters and government assistance programs have fewer resources. 

European Union's secret receipt for a sustainable environment, public health and food safety

by Edoardo de Stefani

European Union's secret receipt for a sustainable environment, public health and food safety is simple enough to be replied at home. Indeed, citizens are the most important ingredients for the success of the "circular economy". 

On 29 January 2015 the European Parliament (EP) acknowledged the need to include citizens in the policy making process for exploiting the benefits of the "circular economy", through the technology of social innovation. What is really necessary in Europe, as mentioned at the conference, is to change mentality and to make use of all our assets, including the young generation and the Erasmus one: “Young people are said to be less politicized, but at least they maintain a strong idealistic push that can sustain Europe as a symbol for everyone". 

Though, civic engagement is not only about idealism or an institutional practice to increase the social acceptance of EU. People can contribute to the correct functioning of the delicate clockwork, for instance by participating at the design of those projects that aim at delivering community services. The general idea is that established decision-making structures can be sustained in policy formation and projects implementation by active networks of civic stakeholders.

The Revision of the Non-Proliferation Treaty: Prospects and Issues

by Angelo Amante

On Thursday 29 January 2015, the sub-Committee on Security and Defence of the EP hosted a public hearing on the review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Every year, the nine nuclear states, with America and Russia leading the way, spend $100 billion for the maintenance of their nuclear armouries, demonstrating their unwillingness to renounce in the future to their nuclear might. The discussions were focused above all on the position to be assumed by the EU on the subject, stressing the responsibility of the EU in fostering the international control of nuclear arsenals. The ninth conference for the revision of the NPT will be held from 27 April to 22 May of this year, with an array of issues to be resolved. Among the most important themes to be dealt with during the forthcoming negotiations there is the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on the nuclear agenda and the status of the so-called “deviant states”, that is North Korea and Iran. Moreover, the experts invited to take part in the public hearing also stressed the humanitarian aspect of nuclear disarmament, which will influence every future debate over non-proliferation.

The Syrian refugee crisis: Syria's neighbouring countries plea for more EU support.

By Ana Maria Sarmento

During the month of December 2014, the European Parliament (EP) has been discussing the critical situation of the Syrian refugees accepted by its neighbouring countries. Both in Committee on Foreign Affairs hearings as in several conferences, the EP has debated some solutions the European Union (EU) could develop to support these refugees, as well as the countries who host them.

Fleeing from the war, the Syrian refugees are being hosted by neighbouring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in the early 2011, 6.5 million of people have been internally displaced in Syria and a total of 10.8 million people have been affected inside of the country, according to latest statistics of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). So far, 3.2 million of Syrians have been registered as refugees in Syria's neighbouring countries. These numbers are overwhelming and they demonstrate clearly the enormous crisis that Syria and the region are facing.

The EU increases its humanitarian assistance and recovery aid to Ukraine

by Ana Maria Sarmento

The European Union (EU) is providing an additional €32millions to help Ukrainian citizens to survive the ongoing war in Eastern Ukraine, between pro-Russians separatists and the Ukrainian army.

With the approaching of the winter, Ukrainian population struggles to survive in the conflict and basic needs for provision of shelter, food and non-food assistance, health services and protection will be provided by the EU. According to Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, “The EU is ready to increase its support for the population affected by the conflict as part of its overall support for Ukraine.” The EU will also provide assistance to small-scale community development projects, such as medical facilities and schools. Moreover, the EU will continue to promote recovery and integration needs to IDP's (internally displaced persons), as well as communities who have been severely affected by this conflict, such as the Tatar. 

How the labor market will respond to the creation of more jobs that require higher qualifications by 2020

by Simona Rusu Beschia

from global.wfu.edu

The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs invited the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) at its meeting, of November the 4^th, to address some of the employability issues, within the framework of a mandate formulated by a newly appointed employment committee.

Seeking alternatives to Russian gas: the EU fighting its dependency



from rt.com

by Marco Quaglia

Brussels - The beginning of Juncker’s era has seen as one of the hottest topic the re-launching of EU’s energy security strategy. In this past week, just like in the weeks to come, there is almost no committee nor public meeting where this issue is not brought into discussion. It goes without saying that the bogeyman of the whole story is Putin’s Russia.

 

Grillo in Brussels: A referendum to leave the euro

from news.xinhuanet.com

by Marco Quaglia

Brussels - On 12 November, the morning at the European Parliament was more animated than usual. Beppe Grillo, the outspoken leader of the Five Stars Movement, hold a press conference to present the much anticipated proposal for an Italian referendum to abandon the euro. However, as it is often the case, especially for the Italian mainstream media, the main event of the whole conference according to televisions and newspaper seemed to be its ending.

Migration: the burden of Southern Europe?

by Antonella Masiello

from www.butac.it



A sequence of tragic events that took place on the Mediterranean coasts of Europe - by the Italian island Lampedusa, the Aegean Sea and the Spanish Ceuta coast -placed the Mediterranean migration between the priorities of the EU policy. The governing board of the EU underlined that migration policies should be based on principles like prevention, protection and solidarity but despite that they seem to be not efficient in the reality. 

The European Parliament and Development Cooperation

by Silvia Tovar

from www.astral.edu.ar

The European Parliament constantly tackles the problematic of development and poverty worldwide. Proof of this is the existence of the Committee on Development (DEVE) between the 20 committees that are permanents in this institution. These structures are of particular importance in the legislative work of the EP and also maintain relationships with other actors involved in the issues analyzed, as for example the UN, and with other EU institutions, as the European Commission. 

For its last meeting, on November 3rd, DEVE has included some issues of major concern for public opinion and governments such as the humanitarian crises of Ebola and the Syrian refugees.

Violence against women: A burning problem of the European Union

by Antonella Masiello 

from marciokenobi.wordpress.com

The conference hosted on the 6th of November by the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee represented another example to retake the never-ending debate about violence against women. In the words of Mr. Martin Schultz, the President of the European Parliament, at the conference, “ when a girl comes into the world, she already has less possibilities and less participation in economic, social, political and cultural life compared to a man”, and her fighting against these differences lasts all her life.

Many times what we see is this lack of rights is often expressed by violence against women, becoming a persistent and burning problem of the EU. Moreover, this reality is not only a serious violation of women's rights but also the root of gender inequality.

A women networking for helping women: spring forward for women

by Sara Borraccino

photo from www.usaid.gov

On the last 5th and 6th of November the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) of the European Parliament has hosted the “Spring forward for women” conference, co-organised by UN women and the European Commission. This event was part of the “Economic and political empowerment of women in the Southern Mediterranean region programme”. It aimed to bring together women parliamentarians from the States of the Arab Spring and members of the European Parliament.

European Parliament debating the EU engagement on helping the Kurds in Iraq and Syria

By Ana Maria Sarmento

Bruxelles - The European Parliament (EP) has been exchanging views on the current situation of Kurds in the regions of Syrian and Iran.

Last week, both Conferences and EP Committee hearings discussed the urgent need for European leaders to help Kurds. Masrour Barzani, Chancellor of the Security Council of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has expressed his gratitude towards the EU (European Union) and U.S. humanitarian aids.