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On Tuesday, MEPs paved the way for improved management of European airspace, enabling more direct flights and fewer delays, and supporting climate neutrality.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Tuesday, MEPs paved the way for improved management of European airspace, enabling more direct flights and fewer delays, and supporting climate neutrality.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Tuesday, MEPs paved the way for improved management of European airspace, enabling more direct flights and fewer delays, and supporting climate neutrality.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Dans une déclaration publiée lundi 21 octobre, la présidente du Parlement Roberta Metsola et celle de la Commission européenne, Ursula von der Leyen, ont jeté les bases d'un accord pour renforcer la place du Parlement dans le processus législatif de l’Union européenne (UE).

Das Europäische Parlament soll mehr Einfluss in der EU-Gesetzgebung erhalten. Die in der EU-Gesetzgebung oft vernachlässigten Abgeordneten hoffen damit auf eine stärkere Kontrolle über die EU-Kommission.

"In this unfair fight, Moldova stands as a symbol of resilience and determination. Despite being outgunned and outfinanced, we have not given up," says Gherasimov.

Europe trails other regions on cement decarbonisation—including the US, Latin America, and Canada—because of outdated industry standards that are not are not technology neutral. This blocks innovative low-carbon technologies from the market and prevents a level playing field.

578956 SDGs SDGs:  5 - Gender equality 7 - Affordable and clean energy

As part of the 2nd edition of the OSCE-GWNET Empowering Central Asian Women in Renewable Energy Mentoring Programme, the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OCEEA) organized a study tour in Vienna for female energy experts to gain hands-on experience in the renewable energy transition and strengthen the role of women in the sector.

The programme included training sessions on career development and advancements in clean technologies, alongside meetings with government officials and leading energy institutions. Participants visited key renewable energy sites, and had the opportunity to network with experts in the field, fostering the development of a community of female leaders driving the energy transition in Central Asia.

The study tour kicked off with an Experience Sharing Meeting hosted by Ambassador Bakyt Dzhusupov, Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities. The meeting was attended by Kate Fearon, Officer-in-Charge/Secretary General and Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre, as well as Permanent Representatives of Central Asian participating States and donors. It provided a platform for Central Asian mentees to share their personal stories, and discuss the challenges women face in the energy sector, including gender inequality, limited access to professional development, and the lack of female representation in leadership roles.

"The energy sector holds immense potential for growth, particularly in Central Asia, and by amplifying women’s voices and contributions, we can unlock new pathways for innovation and progress,” said Ambassador Dzhusupov, highlighting the broader impact of the initiative.

Kate Fearon reinforced this message, adding, "This initiative is more than a mentoring programme. It is a powerful step towards a sustainable, secure, and inclusive future."

"We are witnessing first-hand how these women are breaking barriers and becoming role models for the next generation," said Giulia Manconi, Project Manager and Senior Energy Security Adviser.

The study tour also featured an insightful exchange with Ambassador Fatène Benhabylès-Foeth, Permanent Representative of France to the OSCE, during which Central Asian mentees shared their views and explored the barriers to achieving gender equality. Other activities included a female leadership training led by coach Maren Wölfl at Climate Lab, participation in the 2024 Edition of the Vienna Energy Security Dialogue, and a site visit to the Austrian Institute of Technology, including the SmartEST Laboratory, which provides a simulation infrastructure to analyze the interactions between components and the grid under realistic conditions. Additionally, participants visited the 'Plus-Energie-Office Tower' at TU Wien, the world’s first office building that feeds more energy into the grid than it consumes, and the Spittelau waste incineration facility.

The study tour was implemented in partnership with the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET), and is part of the OSCE project ‘Promoting women’s economic empowerment in the energy sector in Central Asia’ funded by Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Poland.

Après les résultats très serrés du référendum et de la présidentielle de ce week-end en Moldavie, les dirigeants de Bruxelles redoutent que les législatives de 2025 puissent remettre en cause l’orientation pro-européenne du pays.

Die prominente bulgarische Fernsehjournalistin Maria Tsantsarova ist im Vorfeld zur Parlamentswahl am 27. Oktober heftigen Angriffen aus der kremlfreundlichen Vazrazhdane und populistischen ITN ausgesetzt.

Die spanische Regierung von Ministerpräsident Pedro Sánchez steht kurz davor, die Details einer umfassenden Regularisierung von Hunderttausenden von Einwanderern, die im Land leben, festzulegen. Dies steht in starkem Gegensatz zu den jüngsten Plänen zur Migrationskontrolle der italienischen Ministerpräsidentin Giorgia Meloni.

578938 Marina Živaljević

As part of the continuous support to the Ministry of Interior to improve its learning opportunities for police officials, in May and October 2024 the OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized three training cycles for 29 Ministry officials to create, maintain and manage the e-learning platform, developed with the Mission’s support.

The Ministry’s e-learning platform provides online and hybrid learning opportunities on a variety of topics relevant for policing, including non-discrimination, human rights, as well as lectures on combatting stereotypes.

In May, through the first training session, the Mission supported the Ministry’s officials who managed the e-learning platform in adapting and uploading the courses on “Safety and health at work and first aid assistance”, “Basic training course in the field of fire protection” and “English language course for police officers”. In October, two training sessions were organized for the platform’s content creators, which equipped them with skills to create and upload training content, as well as to use advanced options for video content to be inserted in the created course.

These training courses will be followed by a six-week mentorship process with the Mission’s experts, during which each of the participants will develop a course within their own field of expertise, to be posted on the platform or further developed by the Ministry’s Directorate for police training and development.

In 2022, the OSCE Mission provided to the Ministry of Interior the technical equipment to host the e-learning platform, while in 2023 it trained 15 officials on the platform’s use, thus reducing the government’s training and education expenses.

Pour le nouveau gouvernement travailliste britannique, le commerce international doit jouer un rôle clé pour stimuler la croissance et cela passe par une relance « urgente » des relations avec l’Union européenne après le Brexit, affirme à l’AFP son secrétaire d’État chargé du Commerce.

Beim Zusammentreffen von Bundeskanzler Scholz mit Finnlands Präsident Alexander Stubb dürfte am Dienstag auch der 'Siegesplan' der Ukraine auf der Agenda stehen. Die finnische Außenministerin richtete im Vorlauf deutliche Worte an die Bundesregierung, die sich verhalten zu Kernforderungen geäußert hatte.

Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret
Letelepedés szabadsága
Az olyan harmadik ország gazdasági szereplői, amely nem kötött nemzetközi közbeszerzésről szóló megállapodást az Unióval, e területen nem hivatkozhatnak az egyenlő bánásmódra

Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret
Liberté d'établissement
Les opérateurs économiques d’un pays tiers n’ayant pas conclu d’accord international avec l’Union en matière de marchés publics ne peuvent pas se prévaloir de l’égalité de traitement dans ce domaine

Kolin Inşaat Turizm Sanayi ve Ticaret
Freedom of establishment
Economic operators from a third country which has not concluded an international agreement on public procurement with the European Union cannot claim equal treatment in this area

578908 Marina Živaljević

The OSCE Mission to Montenegro and the Ministry for Culture and Media commissioned the Damar Institute to conduct research into self-regulation in Montenegro. The research showed that as many as 74% of respondents were not familiar with self-regulation of the media. On the other hand, the interviews conducted among media workers showed a relatively high degree of familiarity with the process of self-regulation and a limited level of trust in self-regulation.  The key findings of the research show what constitutes professional values and standards, including self-regulation. It was found that continuous dialogue and training are key to overcoming gaps and improving the effectiveness of the self-regulation framework.

Vuk Čađenović from the Damar Institute said that about two-thirds of respondents believed it would be better for all media in Montenegro to be part of a single joint self-regulatory body, while 34% disagreed with this idea. Just under two-thirds of respondents believe that the state should not increase regulations on social media content, while 38% think it should.

Speaking at conference, the Minister of Culture and Media, Tamara Vujović, said that the number of media outlets that are part of a collective self-regulatory body had increased from 17 outlets to 55. “The number of media with an ombudsperson or an internal body for monitoring compliance with ethical standards is constantly growing, which represents progress in strengthening responsibility and professionalism in the Montenegrin media space. Media self-regulation is a key mechanism for improving professionalism and ethics in the media,” said Minister Vujović.

The acting Head of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, Giovanni Gabassi, stated that the research indicated that the public needs more information about self-regulatory mechanisms. “Robust self-regulation empowers the media, leading to more responsible reporting and facilitating direct public feedback. Since 2017, through the Technical Working Group for Self-Regulation, the Mission has facilitated developments of manuals that offer practical guidance to journalists on interpreting and adhering to the Code of Ethics of Montenegrin Journalists,” said Gabassi, announcing that in 2025, based on previous results and in cooperation with the Council of Europe, the Mission will initiate an official review process of the Code of Ethics for Montenegrin Journalists.

The report implies that a single self-regulatory body led by independent experts, or the establishment of internal ethical guidelines and mechanisms for self-regulation, can improve the system of self-regulation and have a higher level of transparency.

The research was conducted in June and July 2024 using a combined method, with semi-structured qualitative interviews with journalists, editors, media owners and regulators, and public opinion research on a representative sample of 1,002 Montenegrin adult citizens.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Oct 22 2024 (IPS)

New institutional economics (NIE) has received another so-called Nobel prize, ostensibly for again claiming that good institutions and democratic governance ensure growth, development, equity and democracy.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson (AJR) are well known for their influential cliometric work. AJR have elaborated earlier laureate Douglass North’s claim that property rights have been crucial to growth and development.

But the trio ignore North’s more nuanced later arguments. For AJR, ‘good institutions’ were transplanted by Anglophone European (‘Anglo’) settler colonialism. While perhaps methodologically novel, their approach to economic history is reductionist, skewed and misleading.

NIE caricatures
AJR fetishises property rights as crucial for economic inclusion, growth and democracy. They ignore and even negate the very different economic analyses of John Stuart Mill, Dadabhai Naoroji, John Hobson and John Maynard Keynes, among other liberals.

Historians and anthropologists are very aware of various claims and rights to economic assets, such as cultivable land, e.g., usufruct. Even property rights are far more varied and complex.

The legal creation of ‘intellectual property rights’ confers monopoly rights by denying other claims. However, NIE’s Anglo-American notion of property rights ignores the history of ideas, sociology of knowledge, and economic history.

More subtle understandings of property, imperialism and globalisation in history are conflated. AJR barely differentiates among various types of capital accumulation via trade, credit, resource extraction and various modes of production, including slavery, serfdom, peonage, indenture and wage labour.

John Locke, Wikipedia’s ‘father of liberalism’, also drafted the constitutions of the two Carolinas, both American slave states. AJR’s treatment of culture, creed and ethnicity is reminiscent of Samuel Huntington’s contrived clashing civilisations. Most sociologists and anthropologists would cringe.

Colonial and postcolonial subjects remain passive, incapable of making their own histories. Postcolonial states are treated similarly and regarded as incapable of successfully deploying investment, technology, industrial and developmental policies.

Thorstein Veblen and Karl Polanyi, among others, have long debated institutions in political economy. But instead of advancing institutional economics, NIE’s methodological opportunism and simplifications set it back.

Another NIE Nobel
For AJR, property rights generated and distributed wealth in Anglo-settler colonies, including the US and Britain’s dominions. Their advantage was allegedly due to ‘inclusive’ economic and political institutions due to Anglo property rights.

Variations in economic performance are attributed to successful transplantation and settler political domination of colonies. More land was available in the thinly populated temperate zone, especially after indigenous populations shrank due to genocide, ethnic cleansing and displacement.

These were far less densely populated for millennia due to poorer ‘carrying capacity’. Land abundance enabled widespread ownership, deemed necessary for economic and political inclusion. Thus, Anglo-settler colonies ‘succeeded’ in instituting such property rights in land-abundant temperate environments.

Such colonial settlement was far less feasible in the tropics, which had long supported much denser indigenous populations. Tropical disease also deterred new settlers from temperate areas. Thus, settler life expectancy became both cause and effect of institutional transplantation.

The difference between the ‘good institutions’ of the ‘West’ – including Anglo-settler colonies – and the ‘bad institutions’ of the ‘Rest’ is central to AJR’s analysis. White settlers’ lower life expectancy and higher morbidity in the tropics are then blamed on the inability to establish good institutions.

Anglo-settler privilege
However, correct interpretation of statistical findings is crucial. Sanjay Reddy offers a very different understanding of AJR’s econometric analysis.

The greater success of Anglo settlers could also be due to colonial ethnic bias in their favour rather than better institutions. Unsurprisingly, imperial racist Winston Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples celebrates such Anglophone Europeans.

AJR’s evidence, criticised as misleading on other counts, does not necessarily support the idea that institutional quality (equated with property rights enforcement) really matters for growth, development and equality.

Reddy notes that international economic circumstances favouring Anglos have shaped growth and development. British Imperial Preference favoured such settlers over tropical colonies subjected to extractivist exploitation. Settler colonies also received most British investments abroad.

For Reddy, enforcing Anglo-American private property rights has been neither necessary nor sufficient to sustain economic growth. For instance, East Asian economies have pragmatically used alternative institutional arrangements to incentivise catching up.

He notes that “the authors’ inverted approach to concepts” has confused “the property rights-entrenching economies that they favor as ‘inclusive’, by way of contrast to resource-centered ‘extractive’ economies.”

Property vs popular rights
AJR’s claim that property rights ensure an ‘inclusive’ economy is also far from self-evident. Reddy notes that a Rawlsian property-owning democracy with widespread ownership contrasts sharply with a plutocratic oligarchy.

Nor does AJR persuasively explain how property rights ensured political inclusion. Protected by the law, colonial settlers often violently defended their acquired land against ‘hostile’ indigenes, denying indigenous land rights and claiming their property.

‘Inclusive’ political concessions in the British Empire were mainly limited to the settler-colonial dominions. In other colonies, self-governance and popular franchises were only grudgingly conceded under pressure.

Prior exclusion of indigenous rights and claims enabled such inclusion, especially when surviving ‘natives’ were no longer deemed threatening. Traditional autochthonous rights were circumscribed, if not eliminated, by settler colonists.

Entrenching property rights has also consolidated injustice and inefficiency. Many such rights proponents oppose democracy and other inclusive and participatory political institutions that have often helped mitigate conflicts.

The Nobel committee is supporting NIE’s legitimisation of property/wealth inequality and unequal development. Rewarding AJR also seeks to re-legitimise the neoliberal project at a time when it is being rejected more widely than ever before.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Das Migrationsabkommen zwischen Italien und Albanien sollte zum Vorbild für andere EU-Staaten werden. Doch die Einlaufphase ist mehr als holprig.