State of the EU Energy Union

My first Energy Union blog articles, first in Finnish, EU:n energiaunionin puitteet and EU:n energiaunionipaketti, then in Swedish, Åtgärdspaketet för en energiunion and Kring energiunionen i Europaparlamentet, brought us from the political guidelines via the launch to the European Parliament.

Therefore, in English we fast-forward to collecting the materials needed for an Energy Union update to 2017.

Energy Union press release update

Where is the Energy Union? Thank you for asking. If you are willing to read, these press releases and fact sheets plus links should offer you some initial impressions:

The Commission’s 1 February 2017 press relase IP/17/161 combined with assorted links to the Energy Union web page, the first State of the Energy Union Report IP/15/6105, the Energy Union launch press release IP/15/4497, the Clean Energy for All Europeans package press release IP/16/4009, the fact sheet on reaching the  energy efficiency target MEMO/17/162, the fact sheet on progress regarding renewable energy MEMO/17/163, the press release on the transition to a low-carbon economy IP/16/2545, the web page on the Second Report on the State of the Energy Union (with further links leading to the official documents of the 2nd report) and the web page of Maroš Šefčovič, who leads the Commission’s Energy Union project team.  

Second Energy Union report

If you crave something more serious, let us highligt the official documents, beginning with the communication and the two annexes, plus the Commission staff working document (179 pages in all):

Second Report on the State of the Energy Union; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 53 final (15 pages)

Updated Roadmap for the Energy Union; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 53 final ANNEX 1 (21 pages)

The Energy Union’s five dimensions: policy observations at Member State and EU level; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 53 final ANNEX 2 (6 pages)

The hefty accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD) was not indicated on the cover of the communication, nor is it available on Eur-Lex, but we are able to access it through the Commission web page on the second report:

Monitoring progress towards the Energy Union objectives – key indicators; Brussels, 1.2.2017 SWD(2017) 32 final (137 pages)

Energy progress reports

Then we have 80 pages of  progress reports and the like:

Renewable Energy Progress Report; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 57 final (18 pages)

2016 assessment of the progress made by Member States in 2014 towards the national energy efficiency targets for 2020 and towards the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU as required by Article 24 (3) of the Energy Efficiency Directive 2012/27/EU; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 56 final (14 pages)

Report on the functioning of the European carbon market; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 48 final (34 pages)

Report on the functioning of the European carbon market; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 48 final ANNEX 1 (5 pages)

Report on Implementation of Directive 2009/31/EC on the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 37 final (4 pages)

Annex to the report; Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 37 final ANNEX 1 (3 pages)

Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the European Union (Reporting year 2014 and 2015); Brussels, 1.2.2017 COM(2017) 49 final (2 pages)

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That should keep us busy for a while.

Ralf Grahn

New EU Guidelines on international humanitarian law

The Council of the European Union explains the meaning of international humanitarian law:

International Humanitarian Law (IHL) — also known as the Law of Armed Conflict or the Law of War — is intended to alleviate the effects of armed conflict by protecting those not, or no longer taking part in conflict and by regulating the means and methods of warfare.

The Council sets out the purpose of its new guidelines on IHL:

The purpose of these Guidelines is to set out operational tools for the European Union and its institutions and bodies to promote compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL). They underline the European Union's commitment to promote such compliance in a visible and consistent manner. The Guidelines are addressed to all those taking action within the framework of the European Union to the extent that the matters raised fall within their areas of responsibility and competence. They are complementary to Guidelines and other Common Positions already adopted within the EU in relation to matters such as human rights, torture and the protection of civilians.

The following Guidelines and Common Positions are mentioned in the Council Notice:

EU Guidelines on Human Rights Dialogues (approved by the Council on 13 December 2001, updated on 19 January 2009); Guidelines for EU Policy towards Third Countries on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment or Treatment (approved by the Council on 9 April 2001, updated on 29 April 2008); EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict (approved by the Council on 8 December 2003, updated on 17 June 2008); EU Guidelines on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child (approved by the Council on 10 December 2007); Guidelines on Violence against women and girls combating all forms of discrimination against them (approved by the Council on 8 December 2008) and Council Common Position 2003/444/CFSP of 16 June 2003 on the ICC (OJ L 150, 18.6.2003, p. 67).

New IHL Guidelines



Updated European Union Guidelines on promoting compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL), published in the Official Journal of the European Union 15.12.2009 C 303/12.

The Annex to the Guidelines contains references to the Geneva Conventions and other legal instruments on international humanitarian law (OJEU page 16-17).



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Discover 494 euroblogs on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu.

EU codification and consolidation: Euro introduction

On the European Union’s portal for legal information, Eur-Lex, there is a useful sidebar with Preparatory acts.



It leads us to the reports and proposals of the Commission – COM documents – and to the accompanying SEC documents (often with more detailed background information).

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Codification

One way to simplify EU legislation is by replacing old legal acts, amended a few times (maximum ten), by new codified versions. Codification leads to a new act, although the exercise is technical. It does not change the substance of the original act, as amended, so the procedure is expedited.

A recent example of a proposal to codify EU legislation is the Commission’s Proposal for a Council Regulation (EC) No …/… of […] on the introduction of the euro (Codified version) (Brussels, 1.7.2009 COM(2009) 323 final). Procedure number 2009/0083 (CNS).



The proposal offers a clear example of the codification procedure.

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Consolidation

Eur-Lex often offers an unofficial consolidated (updated) version of a law. By using the simple search function for the legal act in question – in this case Regulation 974/98 – by year (1998) and number 974, the Bibliographic notice shows the existing consolidated versions.

In this case we find that the latest consolidated version is of 1 January 2009.




Ralf Grahn

European Parliament election results (updates)

Reporting on the outcome of the elections to the European Parliament has changed during the cause of the events. In some cases it started with exit polls, then partial results and projections, later provisional counts etc.

The European Parliament’s web page Election results: towards the new Parliament follows the developments, so minor changes were noted yesterday (provisional 8 June 2009 17:19 CEST). Yesterday’s figure for turnout was 42.94%.



The official, final results will be confirmed later in the member states.

The politically interesting events will take place in the negotiations to form the political groups in the European Parliament, ahead of the inaugural session on 14 July 2009.

Changes can take place in any group, but especially the large group Others (93), UEN (35) and IND/DEM (19) are worth following.

From the beginning of the new term, a political group needs at least 25 MEPs from seven EU member states.

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EP Rules of Procedure

The European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure are useful for those, who want to follow the decisions to be taken at the beginning of the new parliamentary term. The latest update posted on the EP’s web pages is of 6 April 2009.




Ralf Grahn

Lisbon Treaty: Aland Islands and Gibraltar

I have noticed that some people are looking for information about the approval of the EU Treaty of Lisbon in Aland and Gibraltar.

Finland and the United Kingdom have ratified the Lisbon Treaty, but these autonomous regions decide if the treaty is to be applied in their territories.

This post can be called an update ─ in theory.

Three weeks since my latest post on the Aland Islands and the EU Treaty of Lisbon, no report has emanated from the Legal Committee of the Aland Parliament. If the treaty reaches the plenary a two thirds majority is needed for approval.

The other self-ruling region with a population of 28,000 is Gibraltar. A government official was kind enough to promise an answer about the plans for the approval of the Lisbon Treaty as soon as possible, but nothing has been heard of since.

Scanning speeches, press releases etc. on the web pages of the Government of Gibraltar (no search function available) drew a blank, as did a search on Laws of Gibraltar, although at least the Wikipedia article on the Lisbon Treaty tells us that Gibraltar is supposed to decide on approval. The Gibraltar Parliament seems to have but one all-purpose home page, without any links to political business.

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The Treaty of Lisbon was signed 13 December 2007. It was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 17 December 2007. Fourteen months have now passed.

Self-rule, population count and discretion seem to be common characteristics despite the geographical distance between Aland and Gibraltar.

Small and agile? Open communications?


Forget it.


Ralf Grahn

Lisbon Treaty ratification tally

For or against the EU Treaty of Lisbon? It does not matter, but facts on the ratification processes do.

One of the best sources is the Ratification section of the Wikipedia web page Treaty of Lisbon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lisbon#Ratification

Quickly updated, with brief but sufficient remarks and exact parliamentary votes, Wikipedia serves an important information need.

Although parliamentary ratification is the essential requirement in political EU discourse, formally many member states provide for presidential signature, and the ratification instrument has to be deposited in Rome with the Italian government.

A short while ago the tally was: ratified 19 member states, not ratified 7 member states, rejected 1 member state. – The ratification instrument had been deposited by ten members.

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Readers interested in EU politics may care to study the outcomes of the parliamentary votes. If the national heads of state or government or even the national governments can somehow be contrived to be a mysterious ‘EU elite’, what can be said about the national parliamentarians, who in almost devastating numbers have voted in favour of the Lisbon Treaty?

Do the perceptions tally with the facts?


Ralf Grahn

Update 19 June 2008: European Union Law Blog is an excellent source of Lisbon Treaty ratification news and commentary in German. Plus there is a handy ratification list in chronological order at:

http://www.law-europe.eu/ratifikationsstand/

Especially during the last days I have noticed that EUbusiness.com has been very alert with news stories on the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty in English. Go to:

http://www.eubusiness.com/

Updated Lisbon Treaty in English

Yesterday evening I received a positive message from Peadar ó Broin, of the Institute of International and European Affairs (Dublin, Ireland): An updated consolidated English version of the Treaty of Lisbon has been posted on the web site of the Institute:

http://www.iiea.com

A Gaelic version will be posted, soon. That would bring the number of readable language versions to eight out of 23 official EU languages.

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In addition, Peadar ó Broin’s message was heartening personally, too. I take the liberty to repeat it here:

“Dear Ralf,
Congratulations on your blog, a much needed information resource! Just to let you know that I have placed an updated edition of the Consolidated Treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon on the website of the Institute of International and European Affairs ( www.iiea.com ). This is the English language edition; an edition in Irish Gaelic will be placed on the website shortly.
The Protocols, Charter and Declarations will also be available on the website in English, hopefully by tomorrow.
Good luck with your research and kind regards,
Peadar ó BROIN”

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I think that the citizens of the European Union are entitled to readable versions of the Reform Treaty, each in his or her language.

For the convenience of those readers who daily arrive at my blog, while looking for a consolidated version of the Treaty of Lisbon, I am going to present a summary of my findings so far:


Danish

Folketingets EU-Oplysning: Sammenskrevet udgave af udkastet til Lissabon-traktaten og det gaeldande traktatunderlag; Bind 1 Traktater, Bind 2 Protokoller og erklaeringer;
http://www.eu-oplysningen.dk/emner/reformtraktat/reform/sammenskrevet/


English

Institute of International and European Affairs (Ireland) updated version
http://www.iiea.com
Statewatch (professor Steve Peers)
http://www.statewatch.org
Markus Walther
http://www.mwalther.net/europa/eulaw-lisbon-mwalther.pdf


Finnish

Europe Information, of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has promised a consolidated version during the spring.



French

Assemblée nationale : Rapport d’information sur les modifications apportées par le traité de Lisbonne au traité sur l’Union européenne et au traité instituant la Communauté européenne, par M. Axel Poniatowski ; No 439, 28 novembre 2007 ;
http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/pdf/rap-info/i0439.pdf


Gaelic

A consolidation in Irish Gaelic promised shortly by the Institute of International and European Affairs, Dublin.


German

Markus Walther: Das Primärrecht der Europäischen Union; Endfassung, Stand 18. Dezember 2007; (updated after signing)
http://www.mwalther.net/union.html


Hungarian

Two sources have reported that the Hungarian government has published a consolidation of the Lisbon Treaty, although I have not been able to verify it.


Spanish

Real Instituto Elcano (updated after signing; note the introductory study)
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org


Swedish

Sieps – Svenska institutet för europapolitiska studier: Ladda ned Lissabonfördraget - Konsoliderad version av EU:s fördrag (pdf);
http://www.sieps.se

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I am most grateful if you want to share your knowledge on the Treaty of Lisbon with me and other EU citizens: consolidated versions, popular or scholarly literature and information on the ratification processes.


Ralf Grahn