No. 220 October 25Th 2020 Mairead Mcguinness and the Religions

No. 220 October 25th 2020

Mairead McGuinness and the religions lobby. The EU Parliament has backed Mairead McGuinness as Ireland’s new Commissioner responsible for financial services. However, during her hearing in the Economy Committee, MEPs failed to press her on her partiality in affording a greater voice to religious lobbies in EU policymaking. In 2019, an investigation by OpenDemocracy unearthed documents detailing McGuinness’s plans to open the Parliament’s doors to religious organisations seeking to

Another Irish voice in Brussels understood to have worked on the report is Faerghas O’Beara, who was McGuinness’s adviser. His LinkedIn page says that he coordinated “Parliament’s dialogue with religious and philosophical organisations, based on Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty (TFEU), under the political leadership of the First Vice-President.” He is currently Head of Unit (acting) Structural Policies Unit, European Parliamentary Research Service.

Read more here.

EU Council explores blanket telecommunications surveillance

The Presidency of the Council of the EU is planning a new working party, which will work on policy and legal initiatives aiming to reintroduce EU-wide blanket telecommunication surveillance.

Previous EU legislation on telecoms data retention was struck down by the Court of Justice in 2014, but many national laws remain in place and there are ongoing efforts to introduce a new EU-wide regime.

The proposal is to set up the WDPR for three years, and the mandate will be "subject to review upon its expiration and can be renewed or extended according to the needs and the objectives to be attaint in the area of data retention."

It has already been over six years since the Court of Justice struck down the notorious Data Retention Directive, and in the intervening period there has been little progress on establishing new EU-wide measures.

European Digital Rights (EDRi) an association of civil and human rights organisations from across Europe has recently published a new handbook, Data Retention Revisited, looking at the history, law and impact of data retention in Europe.

Read more here.

Click here.

Mick, Mikser and the militarists!

All Brussels’ documents relating to EU militarisation and global expansion are couched in language that deliberately aims to mislead and obscure. Nothing is presented as it actually is.

The latest such report, “The implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) 2019”, was presented at the Security Defence Sub-committee this week and proved to be no different.

A prime example of this misuse of words is reference to the “European Peace Facility”, which conjures up something positively tranquil. However, it is quite the opposite. Mick Wallace tabled a number of amendments to the report and unlike the official version of the EU’s “security and defence” actions in the world, there is no ambiguity, no attempt to obfuscate in Wallace’s account. Both reports will be voted on in the European parliament. It will be interesting to see how many MEPs genuinely wish a peaceful world and vote in favour the Irish MEP’s recommendations.

Read more here.

Here’s short video of Mick Wallace’ contribution to the ‘debate’ in the EU Parliament:

WhatsApp Video 2020-10-19 at 15.12.12.mp4

Lobbying against bendy bananas!

Few stories about the EU have been as persistent over the past decades as the tale of the 'bendy banana law', which first made its appearance in a story in The Sun in September 1994. Other papers followed-up with similar stories.

According to the article, "Brussels bureaucrats" created a pointless law that would "outlaw curved bananas. The impression it created persists to this day in tabloid stories and as a talking point. Even Boris Johnson cited 'crazy' EU rules about the shape of bananas during the Brexit referendum campaign.

The 'bendy banana' has become a folk-tale but the real story behind the 1994 banana law lies in the EU Commission archives. The commission papers, dormant for over two decades, were recently unearthed by journalist Alexander Fanta through a request under the EU's freedom-of-information law. They give a rare insight into the process of law-making and who is involved in it.

The EU does have a banana law. Regulation 2257/94 decrees that bananas should meet minimum quality standards such as being 'free from malformation or abnormal curvature of the fingers'.

Read more here

EU troops on the road to Mozambique?

The EU has agreed to assist Mozambique in strengthening the capacity in its fight against a rising Islamist insurgency in a region that is home to Africa’s biggest foreign investments. The EU gave a positive response to Mozambique’s request for assistance, EU Ambassador to Mozambique, Antonio Sanchez-Benedito Gaspar said in a statement on October 9th. Mozambique made the request in September.

Companies including Total SE plan to spend as much as $60 billion on liquefied natural gas projects in Cabo Delgado province, where Islamic State-linked militants have captured major towns.

Thomas Pringle, Independent TD for Donegal has raised the issue of EU troops for Mozambique in the Dáil during pre - EU Council questions. Here is what he said: “The EU Council is pushing for more and more militarisation. What is our role going to be in that? We have troops already in Mali, Libya is very prominent in the EU's sights now and Mozambique appears to be next 3 in line for EU troops.

Ongoing EU missions and operations (EEAS) Read more here

The embryo Irish military – industrial complex - a short introduction and a recent event.

In July 2011, the Government approved arrangements, whereby Enterprise Ireland supports the Defence Forces capability development, by raising the awareness of, and engaging with, Irish- based enterprise and research institutes, including third level colleges that are engaged in relevant and related activities.

This Defence Enterprise Initiative is achieved through the Defence Enterprise Committee overseen by the Defence Enterprise Co-ordination Committee. These committees comprise of personnel from the Department of Defence, the Defence Forces and Enterprise Ireland. All proposals are vetted and agreed by the Defence Enterprise Committee to ensure compatibility with the roles assigned to the Defence Forces by the Government and where collaboration with industry/ third-level institutes will support Defence Forces capabilities. The Irish Defence Forces Officers' Club (IDFOC) has been organising webinars in the context of the establishment of the pending establishment of the Commission. The Webinar (Business Leaders' Panel) on the Commission on Defence included as speakers, Dr Ray McNulty, former Price Waterhouse Coopers, Neil McDonald, CEO Irish Small and Medium Firms Enterprises Association (Isme) and Paul Farrell, General Manager IBM (IRL). You can watch their contributions here.

These are very instructive meetings and nobody who did not subscribe to a particular line was invited. It is obvious that industry sees an opportunity and has its cheerleaders in the officers’ corps. Perhaps even more serious is the invited list of speakers dubbed as “political insiders.” There were definitely no pro-neutrality voices there!

Read more here Remember him? He’s the one who told us we’d have to vote again!

French investigating magistrates have issued a fourth charge against ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy for allegedly accepting Libyan cash to fund his 2007 presidential campaign. He is accused of "membership in a criminal conspiracy", in the long-running investigation. The charges could lead to a trial. After four days of questioning he rejected all the charges. He was also questioned last year.

In 2008, during a meeting with deputies from his UMP party at his office in Paris, following the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish electorate, Sarkozy, who took over the EU presidency on July of that year said: “The Irish will have to vote again.” The UMP deputies repeated the remarks to journalists waiting 4 outside. Lisbon could not be implemented until it was ratified by all member states. Ireland was the only country to hold a referendum on the Treaty.

Read more here.

A Political thriller turned reality - the Common Fisheries Policy.

Fictional political thrillers are not the normal fare of the People’s News, but the publication this year of On the Green Hill of Tara by Robert Adam deserves a mention

Our hero Oskar needs to find a reason to travel to Ireland and decides that an investigation into potential border scams implementing the CAP should be the focus. In search of justification for the Irish trip leads him to the EEC’s Agricultural Commission and a leading young female bureaucrat.

It is this woman’s talk that is very revealing: “Take a look at the map of Western Europe. Even the simplest child can understand why a Common Fisheries Policy was agreed by the Six only a few hours before Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Norway deposited their latest application to join. The annual fishing catch of the Four is double that of the current member states.

“How did we manage to make fish appear in the European treaties where there hadn’t been the flash of a silvery fin before?

“Because we reinterpreted a reference to “fisheries products” in the original Treaty of Rome as implying that the signatories must have intended EEC law to cover the Fisheries themselves.

But fact is more devious than fiction!

The original six therefore drew up Council Regulation 2141/70 giving all Members equal access to all fishing waters, even though the Treaty of Rome did not explicitly include fisheries in its agriculture chapter. This was adopted on the morning of 30 June 1970, a few hours before the applications to join were officially received. This ensured that the regulations became part of the acquis communautaire before the new members joined, obliging them to accept the regulation.

Read more here

Arbitrary use of power by EU Parliament President Sassoli: outrage over the CAP votes. The EP President, David Sassoli, early last week decided to force the Parliament’s hand on the votes regarding the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). There were over 1,000 amendments and Parliament groups did not even have all the voting lists ready nor all the amendments translated. Yet president Sassoli decided to reschedule the votes on the CAP and to bring forward the votes on the compromises and declare split vote requests inadmissible to the amendments.

Mick Wallace said, “Backroom deals were done between the three big groups. Lots of nice talk about farm to fork, biodiversity strategy, the green deal. They've all been thrown to the wind. This is not democracy!”

Here’s Mick Wallace! His office had spent 700 hours working on the file and he got one minute to speak! Here’s the video of what he said in that minute.

Read more here The use of the passarelle clause in matters of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy.

Deputy Aengus O’Snodaigh asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs last week, “If he has outlined the Irish position on the move by the EU to qualified majority voting with regard to the EU and foreign policy to the EU Commission; whether he has reminded the EU Commission of Ireland’s sovereignty and of Ireland’s opposition to the EU moving towards qualified majority voting with regards to the EU and foreign policy, as was restated by the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has again this week when she said that European nations need “be courageous and finally move to qualified majority voting.” Germany currently holds the EU Presidency and von der Leyen is a former German Defence Minister.”

In his reply, it is notable that the Minister did not take the opportunity to state the government’s outright opposition, merely its preference. It certainly does not inspire confidence and suggests that this government will acquiesce if the bigger member states push hard enough.

Read more here

Lobbying against bendy bananas!

The EU does have a banana law. Regulation 2257/94 decrees that bananas should meet minimum quality standards such as being 'free from malformation or abnormal curvature of the fingers'.

For all the years of obsessing about 'bendy bananas', little about the making of the law has been reported and surely that’s the important point? A possible reason for that is that then as now, much EU law-making happens behind closed doors. That makes it very difficult to report on.

Read more here

So, what’s Charlie Mc Conalogue waiting for? Ban neonicotinoids now! The EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has decided that member states have the right to ban pesticides even if they are permitted at the EU level. They only have to officially inform the EU Commission.

The ruling, issued earlier this month, was taken after the French validly informed the Commission of the need to take measures intended, in particular, to protect bees. France had prohibited the use of active substances of the neonicotinoid family authorised by the Commission

This is an opportunity for our new Agriculture Minister to make his mark and in the process save the bees – at least in Ireland. Commission Vice-President Timmermans has warned that “No pollinators mean no agriculture”, so he needn’t be concerned about incurring the wrath of Brussels! And isn’t it time that the Green Party perked up?

Read more here Seanad ‘debate’.

Sharon Keogan (Independent) ...... we do not want to be a pimple on the ass of Europe.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) All I would say is that it is slightly unladylike.

Sharon Keogan (Independent)

Is the Cathaoirleach saying that I am unladylike?

And so it went on, in a rather lengthy exchange, ending with Michael McDowell even proposing that ‘posterior’ might be used as an alternative. Keogan started out her political career on the Fianna Fáil national executive; however, having failed to secure a nomination to run for Fianna Fáil, she left the party. So, there may have been a bit of tetchiness involved which served to obscure the reality of our real place in the EU with 0.8% votes in Council. A pimple on the posterior of Europe indeed!

Dan the man!

Dan O’Brien is chief economist at the Institute of International and European Affairs the government – funded EU propaganda centre in Ireland. Dan will soon to be a former columnist with Independent newspapers. In his penultimate article on Sunday last, he claims that joining the Commonwealth and NATO would bolster the security of the State. However, he doesn’t mention that it might drag us into conflicts or make us complicit in them. The big question is who are we afraid of? The article is accompanied by a photo of the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping, suggesting that that country poses a threat to us. Dan may be thinking of US tech multinationals based here as there is a perceived threat from Chinese industrial espionage activities. He’s definitely not thinking of the ‘security’ of the rest of us! Anyway, we’re practically a member of NATO already!

The EU battle for hearts and minds The German government is increasingly supporting the US Government campaign against China. The Washington line is that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory - possibly in bio-weapons laboratory. There is no evidence that the virus originated in a laboratory; on the contrary, scientific studies clearly conclude that it was transmitted from wild animals to humans. German media organs have increasingly been calling China the "culprits”. French President Emmanuel Macron has joined the campaign. Regarding the pandemic's alleged origin, he declared, "Clearly, there are things that have happened" in China "that we don’t know about." It is not clear how Macron can know something exists that he does not know about. But it is clear that he wants to implicate Beijing. Read more here Double Standards

“Britain’s word cannot be trusted”, the Financial Times informed its readers on October 12th. Such a statement about “Perfidious Albion” will come as no surprise. However, when one realises the complainants are “French President Emmanuel Macron and other EU leaders” one’s eyes irresistibly look towards the heavens.

The article continues in an equally incredulous vein: “What happened on Ireland has really hardened the Europeans’ [position], especially [that of] the Germans,” said one senior EU member state official. “It’s unimaginable for the Germans to breach an international treaty.”

Nine days earlier, 3rd October, Germany celebrated the 30th anniversary of the country’s reunification. It was the Soviet Union, under Mikhail Gorbachev, which cleared the way for that to happen with the Two plus Four Treaty - on condition, however, that no NATO troops were stationed on the territory of the sunken socialist state and that the military pact would not be extended eastwards. The West promised it, and broke it: today, German soldiers are again on the Russian border. No representative from Moscow was invited to the celebrations.

Failure exposed

The EU has failed in the Covid-19 crisis. According to the IMF, China will economically suffer less under the pandemic than western countries: its economic performance will bypass that of the eurozone quicker than expected and will approach that of the United States.

As the US magazine Foreign Policy writes, Trump’s handling of the crisis has been an "embarrassing debacle" that tarnished the United States’ reputation as a country "that knows how to do things effectively."

The western industrialized countries, and particularly those of the eurozone, will be strongly impacted by the global economy's dramatic crash, according to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) recent economic projections. Read more here

Pilatus PC-12 update.

Readers will recall that in the last issue, we reported the purchase of four PC – 12 aircraft by the Air Corps at a cost of €32 million.

On 23rd September Oriens Aviation, the exclusive Pilatus distributor for the UK & Ireland for PC-12 brought the third generation of the PC-12, the PC- 12NGX to Newcastle Aerodrome, Co. Wicklow for viewing by a number of interested parties, probably including the Air Corps.

Newcastle Aerodrome was the ideal location to show off the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6 powered PC-12NGX outstanding capabilities for short field performance, 6-8 luxury passenger capacity & quick configuration change to all cargo or combination passenger/cargo layout making use of the large cargo door & cargo tie-downs. Report is here

War in Yemen, made in the EU.

The UN calls the war in Yemen the “world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster”. In March 2015, the Saudi-led coalition launched its military intervention in Yemen. Despite the ongoing war and reports about the Saudi-led coalition breaching international humanitarian law, EU arms companies are profiting from the war in Yemen and the suffering it has caused, by supplying arms to members of the Saudi-led coalition.

By not stopping arms exports, EU governments contribute to the suffering of the Yemeni people. This war is also “Made in Europe” and we must resist it. 10

Ireland, being a neutral must raise its voice, not only at the UN but also at the EU Council. On the occasion of the 5th ‘anniversary’ of the beginning of the Yemen war, we call on the Irish government to bring pressure on the EU arms manufacturers: Stop Arming the Saudi-led Coalition!