Brussels Briefing

ANN CAHILL: Brussels Briefing: A weekly round-up of the most interesting news from Europe

Protection for online holiday bookings

Holiday makers booking through a traditional travel agent have had their rights protected for decades, but the rules did not extend to those people who were booking online.

About 120m people in the EU organise their holidays online and they too are about to be covered under new rules just agreed by the Council and the European Parliament.

However they will still have to be given a package —booking two or more services through the same provider, or through links on the provider’s site.

It will cover issues like who is responsible for mistakes, allow people to cancel if the price is increased by more than 8% or if there is a natural disaster in their holiday location and free travel home if the organiser goes out of business.

However, the new protections will not come into force until summer 2018.

Building on a circular economy

Built-in obsolescence is a thing of the past, says the European Commission that is consulting consumers, businesses and policy makers on a new ‘circular economy’.

With the increasing price and dwindling supply of resources such as metals, all aspects of products need to be considered, from devising alternatives to those requiring increasingly difficult to find raw materials, to ensuring they can be recycled at the end of their lives. It also deals with cutting the amount of energy needed to run goods to ensuring they can be repaired rather than replaced.

It calls for a new vision for designers, inventors, researchers and manufacturers.

The Commission has opened a consultation that will run until 20 August.

On June 25 it will host a stakeholders conference to feed into the consultation process.

In praise of Vladimir Putin

Being one of 89 people banned by Russia from entering the country is something of a badge of honour for most of those on the list. No Irish politician, diplomat or business person is included.

While left-leaning European Parliament members from the Green party are included, none of the far right, such as Marine Le Pen, accused of getting funds from Moscow, is on the list. Nor is Ukip leader Nigel Farage, high in his praise of Vladimir Putin.

Socialists consent in trade dispute row

The Socialists, the European Parliament’s second largest political group, has buckled under pressure and agreed to allow some kind of investor-state dispute settlement system (ISDS) in the trade agreement being negotiated by the EU and the USA.

They have given the nod to a loosely sketched ISDS from trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, which opponents say opens the door to trade lawyers deciding what legislation government can and cannot create and enforce.

The Greens in the European Parliament, which have been very vociferous against the system, warn that it opens the way to a new world order where the demands of trade overrides the will of the people in a democratic system. Most business and many countries, including Ireland, disagree.

Cameron faces treaty dilemma

Speculation abounds on how British PM David Cameron will resolve his problem of promising his electorate to leave the EU unless it changes — and getting the other 27 countries to agree to the changes he wants.

Nobody wants to change the EU Treaty to deliver the kinds of changes Cameron wants, and many don’t want the kind of changes he wants either.

But an Irish solution is being mooted — with changes agreed for the UK to be written into the treaty — but not until the next time the treaty is being changed.

Another option is for Britain to just opt out of the areas it does not like, in addition to its current opt-outs.

However Danish foreign minister Martin Lidegaard, warned against this recently ,saying that the myriad Danish opt-outs have given them nothing but trouble.

New force in breathalysing

Alcohol interlocks — a breathalyser system that prevents those with too much alcohol driving a car — is under consideration as mandatory in the EU, especially for lorries.

Finland adopted this some years back, offering it as an option to losing a licence for those caught driving while exceeding the allowance. They reckon it has cut the repeat rate from 30% to about 5%, and Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden are considering following suit.

Car makers, however, are complaining about any such move while others point out that the alcohol interlocks makes stealing cars easier.

It is hoped that a new device will be ready in a few years that will simply measure blood alcohol level through the skin.

Bid to raise safety at sporting venues

There will be a special ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Heysel Stadium tragedy in Belgium at the end of the month, and the Council of Europe is revising the Convention to increase safety at sports venues and cross-border police co-operation.

However its Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions — relevant to the Fifa scandal — has so far failed to enter into force as it needs five countries to sign and ratify it. So far, Norway is the only one to do so.

Among the countries that have not signed it so far is Ireland.

Rare euro win for the Greeks

A €2 coin designed by Giorgios Stamatopoulos of the Bank of Greece was selected by the public from five possible coins in an online competition, winning 100,000 votes.

It will be issued in July to mark the 30th anniversary of the Irish-designed EU flag.

Commentators are hoping that it will not be the last euro coin to come out of Greece, struggling to finalise its EU bailout deal

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