EU Updates – October 2013 EU Institutions Members of the European Parliament's constitutional affairs committee want to the revise the EU treaties to put an end to the monthly trek to Strasbourg. The European Parliament is located in Brussels but deputies are required to hold plenary sessions in Strasbourg, located some 435km away, 12 times a year. Dubbed the ‘travelling circus’, the moves are said to cost the EU taxpayer up to €200 million every year. MEPs have agreed to a 5 percent cut to EU spending in 2014, as the bloc scrambles to get its books in order in time for the next seven year budgetary cycle. Deputies in the Strasbourg Parliament voted to cut EU spending by more than €8 billion to €142.6 billion in 2014. All budget headings, apart from administration, which covers the costs of the EU institutions, are set to be cut. However, EU cohesion funds, which includes structural funding to the bloc's poorest regions, face the deepest cuts of over €7 billion. Economy The EU’s new banking watchdog, the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), will come into force in November 2014. Five years after the financial crisis erupted, many European banks remain in trouble. The EU is trying to agree the next big step in its integration by creating a banking framework chiefly for the euro zone, which would both police the banks and find joint solutions to their problems. Spain has seen its first quarterly economic growth since 2011. The country's GDP grew 0.1% in the July-to- September period, after contracting for the previous nine quarters. EU Trade EU-US trade talks suspended after US government shutdown. Due to disagreements over federal government spending, the US Congress failed to pass a budget before the fiscal year ended on 30 September. As a result the White House budget office issued orders for government offices to start shutting down, with workers told to stay at home without pay. As yet there are no indications of when the talks will be rescheduled. The EU and Canada have signed a trade agreement worth over €25 billion per year. The deal is the first such pact between the EU and a G8 country and should increase bilateral trade between the EU and Canada by 23 percent, and the EU's GDP by €11.6 billion per year, according to the Commission. Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) European Union mackerel fishermen have held the first round of talks with EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki over mackerel quotas issues in Brussels. Member states are trying to come to an agreement with Iceland and the Faroe Islands over the ongoing mackerel quotas dispute. The EU and Norway have been locked in a four-year-long dispute over mackerel with Iceland and the Faroese after they both unilaterally raised their quotas by considerable amounts without putting an international management plan in place. Technology The European Commission wants to fingerprint anyone who enters the EU under its "smart borders" proposal, but critics say it is too costly and risks violating numerous privacy rights. The commission says the system is necessary to update border control checks, reduce waiting times, and help border guards better implement EU border rules by pooling the personal details of any non-EU citizen over the age of 12 into a database. Social EU Two European Parliament committees backed the Commission’s proposal to have 40% women on company boards, but failed to extend it to executive boards. The women’s rights and gender equality committee and the legal affairs committee approved the proposal for a directive that was presented by Justice and Fundamental Rights Commissioner Viviane Reding in November 2012. The proposal requires publicly listed European companies to make sure that by 2020 at least 40% of their non-executive board members are female. However, the vote excluded small and medium enterprises - companies with less than 250 employees or less than €50 million revenue - from the legislation. Foreign Policy EU auditors say that €1 billion of aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo has been wasted. Looking at €1.9 billion worth of aid in 16 projects in the country between 2003 and 2011, a report published by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg said: "Fewer than half of the programmes examined have delivered, or are likely to deliver, most of the expected results." Environment A report by European Environment Agency (EEA) states that carbon emissions across the EU's 28 countries will be 21 percent lower than 1990 levels by 2020. The EU is also on track to reach its target for renewable energy consumption – renewables contributed 13 percent of final energy consumption in 2011, which should increase to 20 percent by 2020. The so-called "20-20-20" targets for reducing CO2 emissions, increasing renewables and energy efficiency, were agreed by EU leaders in 2007. EU states Italy – Italian PM Enrico Letta's coalition government has survived a confidence vote after former leader Silvio Berlusconi backed down from plans to withdraw his party's support.The vote of confidence passed the Senate by 235 to 70 in favour of the government. Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right party National Front and Geert Wilders, head of the Dutch Freedom party, have joined forces to unite eurosceptics in Brussels under the political grouping the European Alliance for Freedom, in time for the European Parliament elections next May. The two leaders have confirmed support from the Belgian Vlaams Belang, Austria’s Freedom party and the Swedish Democrats. European Parliament Rules of Procedure state that at least 25 MEPs from seven countries are needed to form a party group. German Chancellor Angela Merkel phoned American President Obama to demand explanations about media reports that her phone was spied upon by US intelligence services. Earlier that day, Spiegel Online reported that the National Security Agency had tapped her phone, as part of its large-scale spying operations abroad, revealed by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden. The White House said President Obama sought to reassure the German leader that there is no current monitoring of her communications. Germany's centre-right CDU and the Social Democrats are currently negotiating the terms of a grand coalition following September's election. It would be the second grand coalition since Merkel first came to power, in 2005. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny announced that the country was at the end of its economic emergency, meaning that it couldn’t be the first country to exit its bailout programme. The date set for the exit is December 15th, which is 3 years after the country requested a bailout from the EU, following the colossal collapse of the banks in 2008. Ireland is hoping to leave the bailout programme without a precautionary credit line – that is, without additional financial aid from the EU’s rescue fund. Members of Estonia’s government accused neighboring Russia of interfering in local politics after a candidate for mayor of the capital, Tallinn, was placed on Interpol’s wanted list on the eve of municipal elections. Eerik-Niiles Kross, 46, of the junior coalition party Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit, who was a leading figure in the anti-Soviet resistance movement in Soviet Estonia during the 1980s, is sought by Russia on charges of organising piracy, according to Interpol’s website. Authorities in the former Soviet republic plan to file a protest with Interpol on the grounds that Russia’s actions are politically motivated. Czech Republic -With all the ballots counted, the Social Democrats have the most votes - just over 20% - but they do not have enough to form a government alone. Analysts say the result could pave the way for another unstable coalition, with the second-placed Ano party in a powerful bargaining position. The election has come after months of political turmoil. The centre-right government of Petr Nečas was brought down by a corruption scandal in June. The country has been without a proper administration ever since - and is currently being governed by a caretaker cabinet of technocrats. The centre-right Christian Democrat party of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has won snap elections but has lost three seats. His CSV party polled 33.7% of the votes, a fall of 5% since the last elections in 2009. The CSV appeared to lose most ground to the Liberal DP opposition, which gained four seats and came in third place. Mr Juncker's coalition collapsed in July amid claims he had failed to stop illegal security agency activities. The Prime Minister has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Juncker is the longest- serving elected leader in Europe, having headed the government since 1995. EU candidate states The stalled EU membership talks with Turkey are set to relaunch on 5 November. The three-year hold up was due to a lack of agreement among member states. Talks were initially scheduled for June but were postponed following a violent police crackdown on anti-government protests that kicked off in Istanbul’s Gezi Park in summer before rapidly spreading to other cities. Other States MEPs in a debate have condemned Russia's recent trade ban on Lithuanian dairy imports, the latest in a series of bans seen as attempts to torpedo the EU's Eastern Partnership policy. Lithuanian trucks entering Russia in recent months have been stopped by custom officers and subjected to lengthy checks, causing losses of over €2 million a day, according to the Lithuanian national association of road carriers. Moscow threatened to expand the ban on fish and meat products. The move comes after a similar ban was imposed last month on Moldovan wine and Ukranian chocolates.