Council – The AEGEEan – AEGEE's online magazine – AEGEE-Europe ../../.. AEGEE's Online Magazine Wed, 04 Feb 2015 14:59:26 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.7 ../../../wp-content/uploads/cropped-The-AEGEEan_logo-FBprofile-32x32.png Council – The AEGEEan – AEGEE's online magazine – AEGEE-Europe ../../.. 32 32 Visa Directive proposal – the EU Council forgot the volunteers ../../../2015/02/04/visa-directive-proposal-the-eu-council-forgot-the-volunteers/ Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:59:08 +0000 ../../../?p=28585 A few days ago, the Council of the European Union published its proposal for “a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing”, resulting from the meeting in Brussels on the last… Read more →

]]>

A few days ago, the Council of the European Union published its proposal for “a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training, voluntary service and au pairing”, resulting from the meeting in Brussels on the last 9th of December.

 

The Council of the European Union, who was under the Italian Presidency back in December, made a further step in the legislative process which will lead to an update Directive on visa issues. In fact, back in March 2013, the European Commission (EC) published a Proposal for revising the existing Directive 2014/114/EC (dated December 2004) on the conditions of admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of studies, pupil exchange, unremunerated training or voluntary service, and Directive 2005/71/EC (Dating October 2005) on the conditions of admission of third-country nationals for the purposes of scientific research. The aim was to improve the legal framework applicable to third-country nationals, including also the remunerated trainees and au pair.

In February 2014, the European Parliament (EP) voted its first reading, serving as a mandate for the negotiations with the Council.

Despite its title, and the premises in the same text (point (2) of the Proposal: “[The Directive] should therefore simplify and streamline the existing provisions for the different groups”), this proposal was embarrassingly inadequate compared to the EC and the EP proposals.

In fact, already in the Article 1 (a) and in the Article 2 (1), the Directive makes a clear distinction between third-country nationals who apply to be admitted on the territory of a Member State for the purpose of research and study – for which the Directive shall compulsory apply –  and the ones applying in the frame of “pupil exchange scheme or educational project, unremunerated training or voluntary service”, for which “Member States may also decide to apply” (the Directive, ndr).

This reduction of the scope of the Directive, compared to the one proposed by the EC, is of huge concern. In fact, if we bring it to our association, it may mean that non-EU members may have burdens in participating in events taking place in all those countries who won’t extend the scope of the Directive to others than students.

The second biggest concern regards the fee for applying for a visa: not only is a fee foreseen, but, in its document,the Council does not foresee any limitation, but rather gives a suggestion for it not to be “disproportionate or excessive”. Again, the limit of the Council is clear: we all know how difficult, demanding and expensive it is to apply for a visa (if we didn’t apply directly, we for sure know stories from our friends in the Network), and this document proceeds in the exact opposite way than the Erasmus+ legal framework, where the learning mobility of individuals is one of the main actions to pursue the Programe objectives.

The list doesn’t stop unfortunately. Reading further in the document is clearly stated that “The competent authorities of the Member State concerned shall adopt a decision […] as soon as possible but no later than 90 days of the complete application being lodged”. Can you imagine applying for an Agora three months in advance to make sure to get the visa on time? Moreover, this provision extends considerably the “60 days” EC proposal, and even more the “30 days” framework suggested by the European Parliament.

The last remarkable point comes regarding the visa holders for studying and research considering to spend a period of time (up to 6 months) in another EU Country: despite the already long procedure spent to apply for a visa, the third-countries nationals may incur in a renew procedure for the second Member State, who is allowed to start further verification on documentation and purpose of stay.

Luckily, this is not the final version of the Directive. According to the Lisbon Treaty, this document has to go through the Parliament, who has the right not to validate it as such, but to propose modifications that will need to be then approved by the Council.

Of course, this doesn’t mean at all that there is an easy path ahead. Unfortunately, this document shares the fear to further concede facilitation for mobility in Europe. Let’s not forget that the Schengen agreement has been quoted and pointed out as one of the main factors allowing free movement to terrorists, and the happenings in Ukraine, Turkey, France, Libya (and the list may unfortunately go on) are misused and misreported to create a growing terror mood in Europe which is disruptive and mining the concept of United Europe.

That’s why AEGEE, together with the European Youth Forum and in all the possible platforms, is and has to continue campaigning for Youth Rights in Europe. An official statement has been presented, and a Policy Paper on Youth Mobility will be presented at the next Agora Asturias to be ratified.

Youth rights are at a stake, and we, European citizens, need to do as much as we can (and a bit more) to make sure we build up the Europe we want to live in.

You can read AEGEE-Europe Reaction to the Council Proposal for the Revision of the Visa Directive here.

Written by Alfredo Sellitti, AEGEE-Salerno, Policy Officer on Youth Mobility

]]>
Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union: boost to…commonplace ../../../2014/07/20/italian-presidency-of-the-council-of-the-european-union-boost-to-commonplace/ Sun, 20 Jul 2014 10:30:00 +0000 ../../../?p=24467 On the 1st of July 2014 a new Trio came on stage for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, starting with Italy (till the 31st of December) and will continue with Latvia and Luxembourg. While the Presidency itself carries on the tasks of preparing, coordinating and chairing the work of the Council, while also acting as honest… Read more →

]]>

On the 1st of July 2014 a new Trio came on stage for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, starting with Italy (till the 31st of December) and will continue with Latvia and Luxembourg. While the Presidency itself carries on the tasks of preparing, coordinating and chairing the work of the Council, while also acting as honest broker to promote legislative decision and policy initiatives and to negotiate with members states, each Trio agrees on a programme that will be further developed by each state during its own mandate.

The current Trio, taking the lead right after the European Parliament elections, promised a more concrete approach in focusing citizens expectations to overcome the economic crisis and ensure a positive job trend, with a strong support to Youth Guarantee schemes and the Youth Employment Initiative; other focus areas will be sustainable growth, cleaner energy and climate policies, Digital Single Market, migration and border control, neighbouring policies and much more.(1)

In this context, Italy presented a full programme (2) underlining the priorities for this semester:

– Employment and Economic Growth, with a particular focus on Small and Medium Enterprises (or SMEs) and sustainable development, to be linked to Expo Milano 2015;

– Protection of fundamental rights, with a special look to migration and asylum policies;

– A more integrated foreign policy, focusing mostly on the Mediterranean and the Europe Neighbourhood policies including enlargement, and with an eye on the strategic partnership with Asian economies.

The focus on SMEs is a clear and evergreen Italian standard: to get some figures, SMEs represent 99,9% of Italian companies, with the highest EU rate in terms of micro-entities (94% vs the 92% EU average), contributing to more than half of the total employment rate and one third to added value; SMEs provide occupation for around 80% in Italy, way more compared to the 68% average in Europe.(3)

Less evident is the link to EXPO Milan 2015, whose theme is Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life, even more after the recent scandal regarding a huge flood of bribes estimated on around 1 million Euros.

As well, the topic of fundamental rights is a very well known issue for Italy, considering the huge flow of illegal migrants coming from the southern bank of the Mediterranean sea, and the continuous and unattended requests for help and cohesion in adopting a shared solution to ensure the basic respect for human rights and a more coherent patrol of the EU borders.

Last but not least, the focus on Mediterranean is evident thanks to the strategic position Italy has; after the Arab spring spread over north Africa in the past years and the failure of Barcelona II and the Union for the Mediterranean, it is time to put a cooperative approach back on the table to make sure that both banks of the sea get closer and to enhance a mutual beneficial trade cooperation. Of course, Ukraine and Syria will not be forgotten, being the hottest issues on the foreign EU political agenda at the moment.

Italy drew a challenging programme, for which a budget of 68 million Euros has been foreseen (Latvia’s budget for its Presidency term after this year foresees 100 million Euros budget), and will have a hard way to go to lead both the Council of the European Union and solve the home affairs issues arising. Italy is currently under the third non-elected government, with a maxi coalition formed by the main centre-right party (Partito Democratico, or PD) supported by a new-born centre-right party (Nuovo Centro Destra, or NCD) from a scission from Forza Italia, meaning a constant mediation in terms of policies so far didn’t bring the expected results (Matteo Renzi, the current Prime Minister, promised his first results after one month in office), nor the light after the tunnel is visible.

Moreover, the Presidency started with the English speech of Renzi at “Digital Venice” (high level meeting hosted in Venice, to support a sustainable digital economy and promoted by the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union), where the Prime Minister showed a poor language knowledge; the only clear part of his speech has been the closing part: “as in Italy we value food, now it’s time for lunch”.

Hopefully the path will be smoother for the Italian government, which just recently saw the failure in getting Federica Mogherini (current Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs) nominated as high commissioner for EU foreign policy. Baltic States and Poland rejected her candidature because of her lack of experience and her inadequate response to Russia regarding the Ukrainian crisis, while she rejected the accusations as “manipulation” against Italy; in the end, the next European Commission  is still far from being formed, a further summit meeting has been called at the end of August.

The first delay of the mandate, not exactly the best to give a real boost compared to the need for “concrete measures” (as foreseen in Italian programme) but rather a well-known commonplace.

Written by Alfredo Sellitti, AEGEE-Salerno

]]>