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Gender Power: la transition énergétique au prisme du genre

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EN (French Version below):

The issue of gender remains a blind spot in the energy and climate policies currently pursued by the Member States of the European Union. Yet women are more affected than men by energy poverty, are more likely to live in poor-quality housing, use public transportation more frequently… All while being underrepresented in energy-related professions.

How can we move away from fossil fuels and carry out a socially just energy transition while reducing gender inequalities? In her new essay, Gender Power, Barbara Nicoloso explores the deep historical links between gender and energy and skillfully outlines a path toward an equitable and just energy transition.

About

This essay is structured around three chapters that provide an overview of gender inequalities in Europe, analyse the connections between a carbon-intensive energy model based on fossil fuels and gender disparities, and identify how to avoid replicating these inequalities in a model based on energy sobriety and renewable energies. It also aims to show how transition policies, and especially those centred on energy sobriety, can serve as levers to reduce gender inequalities. Finally, it outlines the political conditions necessary to ensure that the fight for environmental protection goes hand in hand with the societal fight for gender equality.

The objective of this essay aligns with those pursued by the Green European Foundation: to advance political and public debate toward a more social and sustainable Europe, support elected officials and local stakeholders in implementing a just transition, promote inclusive policies to meet European climate and energy goals, and ensure that the energy transition does not exacerbate social, ethnic, and gender inequalities but instead contributes to reducing them. The essay is based on available scientific and institutional literature on the topic, as well as on interviews conducted with field actors as part of a Knowledge Community composed of representatives from associations, research centres, local governments, and elected officials. This group met from September 2023 to April 2024 to discuss the gender dimension of the energy transition in both the French and European contexts. This Knowledge Community also led to the publication of the policy brief “Putting Gender at the Heart of the EU Energy Transition”, co-authored by Barbara Nicoloso, which you can find by clicking here.

Author

  • Barbara Nicoloso is the director of Virage Énergie and a lecturer at Sciences Po Lille.

 

FR:

La question du genre est un angle mort des politiques énergétiques et climatiques actuellement engagées par les États membres de l’Union européenne. Pourtant, les femmes sont plus impactées que les hommes par la précarité, vivent davantage dans des logements de mauvaise qualité, utilisent plus les transports en commun… Tout en étant sous-représentées dans les métiers de l’énergie. 

Comment sortir des énergies fossiles et mener une transition énergétique socialement juste en réduisant les inégalités de genre ? Dans son nouvel essai, « Gender Power », Barbara Nicoloso explore les liens historiques profonds entre le genre et l’énergie, et esquisse habilement la voie à suivre pour parvenir à une transition énergétique équitable et juste. 

A propos

Cet essai est construit autour de trois chapitres permettant de dresser l’état des lieux des inégalités de genre en Europe, d’analyser les liens entre un modèle énergétique carboné basé sur les combustibles fossiles et les inégalités de genre, pour ensuite identifier la façon d’éviter leur reproduction dans un modèle reposant sur la sobriété et les énergies renouvelables. Il s’agira également de montrer comment les politiques de transition, et en particulier les politiques de sobriété énergétique, peuvent être des leviers pour réduire les inégalités de genre. Enfin, nous exposerons les conditions politiques nécessaires pour que la lutte pour la préservation de l’environnement et la lutte sociétale pour l’égalité de genre aillent de pair. 

L’objectif de cet essai rejoint ceux poursuivis par la Green European Foundation, à savoir, faire avancer les débats politiques et publics vers une Europe plus sociale et durable, accompagner les élus et acteurs locaux dans la mise en place d’une transition juste, promouvoir des politiques inclusives pour atteindre les objectifs climatiques et énergétiques européens et s’assurer que la transition énergétique n’amplifie pas les inégalités sociales, ethniques, et de genre et peut au contraire contribuer à les réduire. Il se base sur la littérature scientifique et institutionnelle disponible sur le sujet ainsi que sur des entretiens réalisés avec des actrices et acteurs de terrain dans le cadre d’une Knowledge Community (Communauté de connaissances) composée de représentant.es d’associations, de centres de recherche, de collectivités locales, d’élu.es qui se sont réunies de septembre 2023 à avril 2024 pour discuter de la dimension genrée de la transition énergétique dans le contexte français et européen. 

Cette communauté de connaissances a également donné lieu au policy brief « Le genre au cœur de la transition énergétique de l’UE », co-écrite par Barbara Nicoloso, que vous pouvez trouver en cliquant ici .

Autrice

  • Barbara Nicoloso est directrice de Virage Énergie et enseignante à Sciences Po Lille.

FR publication link


Published by the Green European Foundation with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation. The European Parliament is not responsible for the content of this publication. The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Parliament.  

Geopolitics of a Post-Growth Europe

By Uncategorized

Context

As it stands, degrowth fails to resonate with experts in foreign and security policy. It is easy to see why. In geopolitics, many determinants of power – trade, aid, tech nology, defence – are closely linked to GDP. If they do not ignore planetary boundaries altogether, geopolitical pundits trumpet the ‘green growth’ narrative so as to reconcile ecological and geopolitical security. It is this very narrative that degrowthers aim to refute.

It is better to manage the end of growth through democratic deliberation than to have it imposed on us by ecological breakdown.

 

Objectives

It is unlikely that we will be able to defuse the climate time bomb, let alone other ecological threats, as long as our economy continues to grow. But what would the end of economic growth mean for geopolitics? Could a European Union that is the first to embrace post-growth still be a global actor? Would it be able to defend itself, its allies, democracy, human rights, and the international rule of law at a time when aggressive autocracies are invading or threatening their democratic neighbours? This report addresses uneasy questions that few have dared to ask.

 

Project Background

This report is produced by the Green European Foundation. It is part of the project Geopolitics of a Post-Growth Europe. The project is led by Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks (NL) and supported by BlueLink (BG), Center for Green Politics (RS), Etopia (BE), Fondation de l’Écologie Politique (FR), Green House Think Tank (UK), and Transición Verde (ES). Check out www.geopoliticspostgrowth.eu for more interviews, videos, and other project outputs.

 

Available Translations

Dutch

Spanish

Serbian

French

Bulgarian

Czech

Portuguese


This report has been realised by the Green European Foundation with the support of  Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks and the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation. The European Parliament is not responsible for the content of this publication.

Metals for a Green and Digital Europe- An Agenda for Action

By Uncategorized

Context

The climate crisis leaves us no choice but to make a swift transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies. However, while energy from renewable sources such as solar and wind is nearly infinite, the resources we need to capture it are not. Solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and power cables all contain metals. Their various properties, including toughness and conductivity, make metals uniquely suitable for renewable energy technologies. But first they must be extracted from ores that are dug up from the ground. Because of its decentralised nature, a renewable energy system requires far larger quantities of metals than a fossil energy system.

 

The more energy we harvest from the skies above our heads, the deeper we will have to dig for the metals beneath our feet.

 

Objectives

Both the energy transition and the digital transition require large quantities of metals, such as lithium, cobalt, and rare earth. As a result, Europe must face up to various types of scarcity. This Agenda for Action sets out how we can achieve the sparing, circular use of metals and the responsible sourcing of the virgin metals that we really need.

 

Download

Available in Dutch

Available in Spanish

Available in Czech 

Available in French

Available in Polish

Available in Swedish

Available in Serbian

Available in Portuguese

 


This publication is part of the Metals for a Green and Digital Europe project. The project is led by Wetenschappelijk Bureau GroenLinks and supported by Fundacja Strefa Zieleni, Institut Aktivního Občanství, the Green Economics Institute, Etopia, Visio, and Transición Verde, with Cogito from Sweden providing additional expertise.

Freedom and Security in a Complex World (2021 edition)

By Uncategorized

Context

People all over the world are taking their future back into their hands. Together, they are taking initiatives in the fields of renewable energy, local food production, sharing tools, and so forth. This is the most hopeful movement of our time. Where the market and state fail, people are taking action. As free citizens, they are reinventing the collective, with open partnerships where personal development and social engagement go hand in hand. This observation seems to contradict what we experience every day. The system errors of our society model fill the newspapers: climate crisis, unstable banks, refugee flows. Accepted wisdom is that uncertainty is increasing. But both trends are happening, not by coincidence, at the same time.

 

Objectives

While examining the two interlinked concepts of Freedom and Security, this publication suggests that the answer needs to be the transformation into a socioecological society in the 21st century. It argues for the realisation of a societal project that strives for equal freedom for all people to flourish in security, within the boundaries of the planet, and proposes concrete steps towards it.

 

Download

Available in English here.

Available in French here.

Available in German here.

Available in Hungarian here.

Available in Spanish here.

Available in Macedonian here.

Available in Greek here.


This report presents a new and updated take on the 2017 version (Please see the English, French, German, Hungarian and Spanish editions from that year, which were part of the transnational project “A green transformation: Freedom and Security in uncertain times” ).

The 2021 report was developed in partnership with Oikos and with financial support from the European Parliament to the European Green Foundation. 

A Charter for the Smart City

By Uncategorized

People make technology, but technology in turn influences our lives, our societies and even our ethics. The development of new technologies therefore cannot be left to engineers and managers; it requires public debate and democratic control.

This Charter for the Smart City was produced as part of the project of the same name, and puts the values of democracy, connectedness, human dignity, privacy,  sustainability, and equality at the heart of smart cities. Local politicians and active citizens who share these values may use the principles in this Charter as starting points for democratic debate and informed moral judgment on technological innovations in their communities.

The Charter was developed through a series of roundtable discussions that took place in cities across Europe, as well as from online consultation, involving over 100 experts, (local) politicians and activists who shared their ideas.

 

Please find the Dutch version of this publication available to read here

Please find the French version of this publication available to read here

Please find the German version of this publication available to read here

Please find the Czech version of this publication available to read here

Digital Commons: A New Collaborative Dimension

By Uncategorized

Due to the digitisation of our societies, the way individuals act and interact in the private as well as the public sphere changes rapidly. Digital platforms and open source programmes as Commons can contribute to the transformation of our societies and will, wished for or not, change the modus operandi of our economy as well.

The approach of Governance of the Commons could be one solution against possible misuse and working towards a more just redistribution or a government that balances the interests of producers, workers and consumers better.

The objective of this short analysis is to address these aspects of remuneration and protection of digital tools.

Freedom & Security in a Complex World (2017 edition)

By Uncategorized

Context

People all over the world are taking their future back into their hands. Together, they are taking initiatives in the fields of renewable energy, local food production, sharing tools, and so forth. This is the most hopeful movement of our time. Where the market and state fail, people are taking action. As free citizens, they are reinventing the collective, with open partnerships where personal development and social engagement go hand in hand. This observation seems to contradict what we experience every day. The system errors of our society model fill the newspapers: climate crisis, unstable banks, refugee flows. Accepted wisdom is that uncertainty is increasing. But both trends are happening, not by coincidence, at the same time.

 

Objectives

While examining the two interlinked concepts of Freedom and Security, this publication suggests that the answer needs to be the transformation into a socioecological society in the 21st century. It argues for the realisation of a societal project that strives for equal freedom for all people to flourish in security, within the boundaries of the planet, and proposes concrete steps towards it.

 

Download

Digital version in English is available here.

Digital version in French is available here.

Digital version in German is available here.

Digital version in Hungarian is available here.

Digitial version in Spanish is available here.


This report was part of the transnational project “A green transformation: Freedom and Security in uncertain times” . An updated version from April 2021 is available here. 

Creating a Peoples’ Europe [VIDEO]

By Uncategorized

“Creating a People’s Europe” was produced and scripted by John Gormley, Irish Minister for the Environment (2007 – 2011).

The film is a project of the Green European Foundation for the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament. It was realised in cooperation with the Heinrich Boell Foundation and with the financial support of the European Parliament.

Subtitles available in Catalan, Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, and Spanish.

Green Values, Religion and Secularism

By Uncategorized

In the last decades, the relationship between religion and modern society has shifted. As a consequence, there have been fierce debates on issues such as ritual slaughtering, homosexual teachers in schools, the wearing of the headscarf in public institutions and the relationship between Islam and terrorism. In a new publication titled ‘Green Values, Religion and Secularism’, Green politicians from different European contexts reflect on the way their own religious or secular values influence their political attitude; the role of religion in the public forum; conflicts between fundamental rights, such as the freedom of religion and the principle of sexual and gender equality; the role of Islam in Europe and the question of whether religion is a source of inspiration or an obstacle for Green politics.

Religion and politics have much in common. They share the longing for another world, one in which peace and justice will reign. They also share the dangers of this desire: the temptation to force their own imaginative order onto others. Both religion and politics have to find a way to deal with the tension between the actual world and the world as they imagine it should be. The fact that they do this in very different ways is part of the explanation why religion and politics, by definition, have a difficult relationship. Modern political movements have roots that go back one or two centuries at most, whereas religious traditions have much older sources. However, this doesn’t discharge either of them from the task of interrogating and reinterpreting their traditions in the light of new challenges.

Although Green parties often have an uneasy relationship with religion, the debate about values, religious or secular, cannot be escaped within a Europe haunted by many different crises at the same time. This publication is an invitation to work towards a more coherent debate within the Greens on the changing role of religion in society.

The book is edited by Erica Meijers (De Helling) and Nuala Ahern (Green Foundation Ireland). It features conversations with politicians and activists from France, Turkey, Poland, Ireland, Greece, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

You can ready the publication by downloading the pdf below or order your own hard copy and support the project.

French version

The French translation of the book is available for download here.

Polish Version

The Polish translation of the book is available for download here.

Brochures in Polish

Agnieszka Kościańska: Poszukując kościoła otwartego

Bettina Jarasch: Jak Zieloni debatują o religii

Nil Mutluer: Świeckość w Turcji. Kontrolowanie wiary zamiast wolności

Yannis Paraskevopoulos:  Religie zmieniają się razem ze społeczeństwem

The Guide to EU Funding on Migration and Asylum

By Uncategorized

In the absence of a common European response that treats migration as a human phenomenon and manages it as such, the task of welcoming and accommodating migrants and acting as their first personal contacts has mainly been taken on by local and regional authorities, non-governmental organisations and activists, who continue to play a key role in providing initial reception and access to services and fundamental rights for migrants and refugees. In this context, this guide builds on the idea that the best practices of how to welcome refugees and asylum seekers and work towards successful integration can be found in local communities and initiatives throughout Europe.

Therefore, the objective of this guide is to actively support the work of these local actors, organisations and institutions with a one-stop source of information on additional financial assistance offered by the EU. This guide provides a quick and easy overview of the relevant EU funding opportunities, with key information and practical inputs in regards to accessing them. Special attention is given to projects that foster integration, social inclusion and a better quality of life for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

A hard copy of this guide can be ordered by sending an email to: info@gef.eu

This publication as a PDF file is available for download in following versions:

GDP and regional policy

By Uncategorized

EU regional policy continues to be based solely on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of each region. As is now accepted by many, there are serious flaws with the concept of GDP, such as its emphasis on economic production over other factors such as social equality. However, how else can regional policy be decided, if not by the GDP of each region?

This publication comes to the conclusion that the usefulness of GDP means it will continue to play a major role in shaping EU regional policy. However, its shortcomings can be compensated for by taking into account other factors, such as health and social cohesion.

As the European Commission prepares to review regional policy for the 2014-2020 period, this publication makes the case for a more nuanced regional policy that ensures European money is put to the best possible use.

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GDP and regional policy EN 3.70 MB 55 downloads

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GDP and regional policy FR 3.44 MB 85 downloads

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Work more? Work less? A report on working time

By Uncategorized

There are numerous reasons to assess “work” in the context of the Green New Deal. Clearly, a central goal of the sustainable transformation of our economy is to create quality green jobs. However, if we want to ensure prosperity and a decent quality of life for all, within the physical limits of our planet, old recipes will not work.

Working time could play an important role in the system change that is required. Working less is likely to improve the quality of life for all, ensuring a better balance between work and leisure or family time. By giving priority to free time over productivity and consumerism, a collective reduction of working time could promote more sustainable consumption patterns, increase community involvement, and achieve a better distribution of roles between women and men.

This publication addresses the multiple issues that are involved when considering changes to working times. It also looks at some of the challenges when considering this policy instrument. For example, what vocational training is needed to avoid skill shortage; how to finance such changes; and how flexibility should be organised at the micro and macro level in order to ensure collective as well as individual benefits? This publication aims to start a debate on what changes should be introduced to working time in Europe.

Read the publication in English here. 

Read the publication in German here.

Read the publication in French here. 

Funding the Green New Deal: Building a Green Financial System

By Uncategorized

The need to invest in a Green New Deal – a transformation to a more equitable and sustainable economy – is now more clear than ever. The current economic crisis is the result of short-term thinking and speculative investments, which have directly contributed to creating an unequal society and environmental harm.

The Green New Deal is a stark contrast to this. It is an essential change that will create an economy fit for today and for future generations. However, such a transformation will not come cheap. This report estimates that investment amounting to 3% of GDP per annum is required.

Given the state of many national budgets, it may not be possible for this investment to come directly from public funds. This report therefore examines how public and private capital can be leveraged to make the necessary investment in a Green New Deal.

Learn more about the Green New Deal at www.greennewdeal.eu.

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Funding the Green New Deal EN 2.28 MB 138 downloads

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Funding the Green New Deal FR 1.95 MB 113 downloads

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Funding the Green New Deal DE 2.02 MB 56 downloads

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A Post-Growth Society for the 21st Century: An executive summary

By Uncategorized

The study suggests that low growth rates are likely and that there is even fundamental uncertainty about future growth prospects. The challenge for European citizens and politicians is to accept this uncertainty and to create a society that frees itself from the shackles of looking at growth on its own – a society which focuses on other ways to ensure wellbeing and prosperity. This is what the study calls a “post-growth society”.

The key for the future is to develop a collective proposal in which the economy and society would no longer be dependent on the need for a sustained increase in GDP. Growth in GDP depends on many factors, including the extraction and use of many natural resources (e.g. oil, coal or gas). A big challenge for Europe and the world is the rapid depletion of available stocks of such resources.

Under pessimistic but plausible assumptions for the coming decades (concerning energy resources, the cost of renewable energy or lifestyle changes), growth is likely to be significantly reduced. “In a nutshell, our analysis shows that it is not so much a society’s economic growth that matters for prosperity, but rather the economic and social regime that creates more or less prosperity”, conclude the authors.

Overcoming the Corporatist Economy

By Uncategorized

This publication is the first paper in a series of three papers, available in French and Spanish.

The second paper, “The Corporatist Economy and the Nanny State”, was published by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and GEF in September 2015, is available here.

The third paper,  “Beyond the Corporatist Economy: Impulses for a Green Economic Policy”, was published by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung and GEF in September 2015, is available in English and Spanish.

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Beyond the Corporatist Economy EN 274.23 KB 88 downloads

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Beyond the Corporatist Economy ES 294.48 KB 51 downloads

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European Citizens’ Initiative – updated edition

By Uncategorized

The European Citizens’ Initiative gives citizens the right to set the agenda of the European Union and establishes a truly multifunctional means of providing checks and balances for what happens in the EU. This Pocket Guide offers readers the knowledge and insights necessary to make effective use of this new instrument.

In the six months that passed from the launch of the ECI instrument, 25 European Citizens’ Initiatives have been filed. Of these, 14 were registered by the European Commission, while others were rejected or withdrawn. The main challenge these first initiatives faced was related to the establishing a functional Online Collection System of signatures. In order to support the first initiatives, the European Commission offered organisers free servers in Luxembourg and decided to postpone the official start for the collection of signatures to August 2012, to make up for these initial set-backs. Even so, to date, only one of fourteen registered ECI’s is able to collect signatures online.

With this new edition of the ECI Pocket Guide, updated with the latest news and links to further sources of information and support, GEF aims to assist ECI organisers in their difficult challenge of pioneering European participatory democracy.

This updated edition has been produced by GEF for the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament.

How to use this Pocket Guide?

The Pocket Guide is divided in 3 sections which address the following questions, respectively: how can you use the ECI? What are the requirements you have to fulfil to successfully complete an ECI? Where can you find assistance for your ECI?

The ECI KEYCHAIN helps organiser identify the most suitable approach to an ECI. It details the various goals that an ECI can serve, such as introducing new ideas on the European legislative agenda, stopping existing legislation or acting as a platform that mediates between different legislative approaches.

The ECI PATHFINDER is a manual to assist ECI organisers or potential signatories to find their way through the often lengthy and sometimes cumbersome procedure of an initiative. The manual develops the 10 step approach to a European Citizens’ Initiative, already detailed in GEF’s earlier publications: The European Citizens’ Initiative Handbook and the flyer 10 Steps to the European Citizens’ Initiative.

The ECI RESOURCE CENTRE provides a wealth of details on the constitutional foundations, legal statutes and procedural regulations of the ECI. This chapter has been completely updated.

Order your copy now!

Would you like an own copy of the Pocket Guide? Then send us e-mail at info@gef.eu and we’ll send you one.

Successful pilot ECIs

GEF’s Campaign Handbook covered a number of successful ‘pilot ECIs’. These were efforts by NGOs and civil society groups to gather 1 million signatures in order to influence the EU’s agenda. They were inspired by the ECI, but took place before the ECI comes into effect on April 1st 2012.

1 million European Citizens for better animal welfare
Europeans unite for fair roaming
European Disability Forum and their ground-breaking ECI

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Class of 2014: New Green Voices in the European Parliament

By Uncategorized

Back in 2009, when the Green European Foundation and the Heinrich Böll Foundation gathered, for the first time, the ambitions of newly elected Green Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in a yearbook, the European Union was a different type of affair. The effects of the financial and economic crises were not yet in full swing, austerity measures had not yet become the buzz-word of the political agenda, and the climate summit in Copenhagen was still preserving the hope that the European Union would deliver on its promises to be the world’s climate champion. Although clouds were on the horizon, the general mood in European circles was still very much business as usual.

Five years later, we are faced with a different scenario. The effects of the economic and financial crises, as well as the social impact of the austerity-driven response to these crises, had raised existential questions about the future of the European Union. Euro-scepticism reached unprecedented levels, and parties campaigning on explicitly anti-European platforms made gains across the Union. Citizens’ movements reacting to austerity measures imposed by “Brussels” made clear the popular disenchantment with a political establishment that seemed keener on bailing out banks than safeguarding jobs and welfare. There were times as recent as two years ago when the European Union seemed to be facing “make it or break it” types of challenges.

Even though this urgency has passed for now, the crisis is far from over. This is the background in which the newly-elected Green MEPs will be working over the next years.

New challenges, new voices

In a context where anti-European debates are likely to be placed in the spot-light, the challenge for the new Green Group will be to articulate their criticisms to the various EU policy approaches that venture off the paths of sustainability, equity, democracy and respect for fundamental rights, while keeping an overall pro-European narrative. Among this new Green group, there are many new, first-time parliamentarians. They will need dedication, imagination and an understanding of the need to reach out to civil society and grassroots movements to come up with successful policy approaches to the difficult tasks ahead: setting ambitious climate targets; tackling energy security and energy poverty; bringing prosperity back to the EU; ensuring a humane migration policy, and responding to new geopolitical realities.

The articles that make up this collection detail the new MEPs’ ambitions, expectations and analyses of the opportunities and challenges lying ahead in their specific policy fields. The articles discuss both the visions of the EU that they are bringing to Brussels, by reflecting on the messages picked up during the elections’ campaigns, as well as how these visions translate in a Green working project in the European Parliament. The contributions describe the biggest challenges for the upcoming years on topics such as greening the economy, transforming energy policy, building a democratic EU, creating a human-rights based migration policy, positioning the EU as a strong and fair global player in areas of trade, agriculture, foreign affairs – to mention but a few. Finally, the authors reflect on their ambitions from the various policies they’ll be focusing on and note their expectations for their parliamentary mandate.

 

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Class of 2014 EN 1.75 MB 45 downloads

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Class of 2014 FR 2.39 MB 99 downloads

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Class of 2014 DE 2.41 MB 47 downloads

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Read articles in other languages

Parts of the articles are available also in the respective native languages of the authors: Catalan, Croatian, HungarianSwedish and Spanish.

My data – my choice! Giving citizens tools to better understand their rights on data protection

By Uncategorized

New data protection laws, contrary to the 1995 Data Protection Directive that allowed Member States to individualise laws, have now been enacted across the European Union. The new data protection levels enacted will protect all 500 million EU citizens.

The new laws have been revised to protect citizens from the potential perils of the digital age; in particular for the EU Single Digital Market. New rights like data portability, principles such as data protection by design and high sanctions in the case of infringements are enshrined in the text, allowing citizens to browse the digital market freely, safely, and in knowledge of their protected rights.

GEF and The Greens/EFA have provided you with some tools: a cool educational video in English and German about what enhanced data protection laws mean for you; and a PDF outlining the study behind the reforms. The PDF is available also to read in French – both of which you may download below.

For more information you can also visit Jan Philip Albrecht’s website or see The Greens/EFA press release.

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My data – my choice! EN 3.19 MB 55 downloads

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My data – my choice! FR 2.84 MB 38 downloads

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Europe for Beginners: A Green Guide to the EU

By Uncategorized

It is more evident than ever that politics at a national level alone cannot provide the solutions for the most challenging issues of our time. In this sense, a true European response is fundamental in ensuring a success of the causes the Greens are fighting for: environmental protection, an efficient use and a safe and sustainable production of energy, a reorientation of our economy to guarantee social inclusion and social security and – on the world stage – peace, development and the consolidation of democracy and fundamental rights.

But all of this cannot be achieved without genuine conversation and participation of both European politicians and the citizens they serve. In order to inspire them to engage with the European Union and work with colleagues across borders, this book aims to change the perception of the EU as a complex institution, which is hard for citizens to interact with.

Through an accessible and reader-friendly format, Europe for Beginners presents some of the most useful information on how the EU operates: what the different institutions do, how decisions are made, how EU law is enforced and how the EU is funded. It also includes a discussion of the role of democracy, the rights of European citizens and the challenges for a true European democracy, such as the power of lobbies.

Downloads this manual in English, French, Spanish, Czech or German below.

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Europe for Beginners EN 3.22 MB 274 downloads

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Europe for Beginners FR 5.85 MB 180 downloads

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Europe for Beginners ES 3.24 MB 603 downloads

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Europe for Beginners DE 3.25 MB 119 downloads

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Evropa pro začátečníky 3.49 MB 118 downloads

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The commons: (co)managing commonly owned resources

By Uncategorized

The term “commons” is gaining increasing currency in political debates today, as thinkers and activists look for alternatives to what appears to be the failing model of the market economy. While many people have a broad idea of what the commons are – a means of co-managing a resource for the community as a whole – what does it mean in practice? And where and when can the idea of a commons be applied?

Many of these issues were discussed at the GEF seminar earlier this year. Since the idea of the commons was reintroduced to the public debate by the likes of Elinor Ostrom, many new forms of commons have become viable. An example discussed at the seminar was the idea of genetics and DNA as a type of commons.