“The long-awaited proposals on raw materials are hampered by a lack of focus. While the communication has been improved in certain areas based on earlier drafts, the Commission has spread the strategy too thin and, in promising all things to all people, resorted to setting out half measures instead of developing a coherent focused strategy.

“Recycling and resource efficiency should be cornerstones of any comprehensive raw materials strategy, and the Commission communication remains weak on this. It does, however, represent an improvement on earlier drafts, which had widely ignored the role of recycling and efficiency. The Commission sets out some worthy concrete proposals like the creation of a global certification system for recycling installations for example. The strategy remains ignorant on the recycling of rare earths though.

“The EU will have to quickly act on recycling and efficiency if we are to tackle our unsustainable raw material dependence; the failure to do so risks Europe being left behind in the global move towards green innovation and technologies, and at the same time damaging our future competitiveness.

“The Commission has also fallen short of developing a convincing strategy for fair cooperation with countries that are rich in raw materials. A strategy for cooperation with China, which is responsible for over 95% of the global production of rare earths, is also lacking. While the rhetoric on raw materials diplomacy is less confrontational, the Commission has not set out a coherent political vision.”

In the run up to the EU-US summit the European Parliament sees the resuscitation of the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC) as a clear priority. The TEC was started at the initiative of Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2007, but it has done nothing memorable to date and has been repeatedly called into question by the US side.

Commissioner DeGucht is now trying for a new beginning. He has wide support for that in Parliament. At its next meeting in December the Transatlantic Economic Council must finally put its money where its mouth is. That includes a clear agenda regarding joint efforts to promote low-carbon technologies as well as shared priorities for global economic initiatives.

One gets the impression that Europe currently is not being taken seriously in Washington; Europe seems to be taken for granted there. At the TEC it remains to be seen if the US and Europe can at least find relevant common ground on economic issues.

Thursday, 10 June 2010, 9:30h-13:00h.
European Parliament, Brussels
Altiero Spinelli building, Room ASP01G3
Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in DE, EN, FR

Registration:
Please send a mail with your name, first name, birth date, nationality and place of residence to elisabeth.schroedter@europarl.europa.eu before Tuesday 8 June at 10:00am.

Flyer herunterladen (PDF)

Text from Wikipedia (License: GNU FDL)

The Democratic Alternative (Alternattiva Demokratika) is a Green political party in Malta, particularly dedicated to environmentalism.

Democratic Alternative was founded in 1989 when former Malta Labour Party President Toni Abela and former Labour MP and Parliamentary whip Wenzu Mintoff joined a number of environmental activists to form the new political party. Abela and Mintoff had resigned their posts in protest to the presence of certain elements in the Labour Party tainted with political violence and corruption. For this Abela and Mintoff were expelled from the Labour Party. Mintoff retained his seat in Parliament and, between 1989 and 1992 was effectively an MP for the new party as well as its first Chairperson.

Democratic Alternative first stood for national elections in 1992 when it obtained 1.69% of first preference votes (their best result so far in a general election) and no seats. In the subsequent elections of 1996 and 1998 the Party’s share of the vote declined. Following the 1998 result, Abela and Mintoff resigned from the party and returned to the Labour Party. Abela was to be elected to the post of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 2008. Harry Vassallo replaced Mintoff as Chairperson of the Party.

In 2003 the party campaigned for a Yes vote in the referendum on membership in the European Union but the declining trend in general elections continued and in election that year the Party obtained only 0.7% of first preference votes. In 2004 the party obtained a remarkable result in the European Parliament election with 9.33% of first preference votes cast and the party’s candidate, Arnold Cassola narrowly failing to be elected as MEP.

In the Maltese general election of 2008, the party increased its share of the vote to 1.31%. Following the result Vassallo resigned as Chairperson and was replaced by Cassola.

Democratic Alternative holds a seat in each of the local councils of Attard, Sliema and Sannat.

Bildnachweis: Going Green von papalars – Lizenz: CC-BY-ND