EU Renewable Energy: Share of renewables in energy consumption in the EU rose further to 16 % in 2014

In 2014, the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy reached 16.0%  in the European Union  (EU). Almost double that of 2004(8.5%), the first year for which the datais available.

The share of renewables in gross final consumption of energy is one of the headline indicators of the Europe 2020 strategy. The target to be reached by 2020 for the EU is a share of 20% energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy.

However, renewables will continue to play a key role in helping the  EU meet its energy needs beyond 2020. For this reason, Member States have already agreedon a new EU renewable energy target of at least 27% by 2030..

Almere Digest

Europe and US political alignment: Sanders, Trump, and Political Europeanization - by Ned Resnikoff

In nearly eight years since the start of the 2008 financial crisis, European politics has witnessed a remarkable surge in left-wing anti-capitalism and right-wing nationalism. With the 2016 presidential election, this ideological shift has arrived on American shores. Its heralds are the two expected victors in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.

Each of these candidates represents a particular political tradition that was, until recently, alien to national elections in the United States. Trump, whose disregard for the pieties of evangelical conservatism sets him apart from other GOP hard-liners, fits neatly into a European mold. His blend of hardline nationalism and ideological flexibility is similar to that of European right-wing populists such as Britain’s Nigel Farage of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and France’s Marine Le Pen of the National Front.

Trump, however, falls to the right of his closest European analogues. Both Farage and Le Pen, for example, have publicly distanced themselves from Trump’s call for a temporary ban on all Muslim immigration. Farage, in particular, said that Trump had gone "too far" with the proposal.

Sanders appears to be a more distinctly American type, a veteran of civil rights marches and the 1960's student movement. But his platform and ideology would be right at home among the moderate social democrats of Scandinavia. His calls for progressive taxation, a stronger labor movement, and an expansive public health care system are already commonplace to the point of banality in Sweden and Denmark — to say nothing of Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and other strong Western European states.

To his critics in the U.S., Sanders is a radical who threatens to ride a wave of popular discontent to upend the political establishment — as Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos parties have. But a closer European analogue to Sanders might be Jeremy Corbyn, the old-school trade unionist who seized control of Britain’s Labour Party amidst the collapse of the centrist wing.

European-style candidates are resonating with voters now because political parties in the U.S. are facing some of the same pressures as those in Europe.

Most obviously, American political parties have become more polarized. Whereas European parties have almost always tended to be defined by a shared political program, America’s peculiar constitutional system birthed sprawling coalitions with interests that frequently overlapped for members on different sides of the aisle. But that changed in the aftermath of the civil rights era, when the Republican Party succeeded in capturing the South and began moving further to the right.

Democrats eventually began their own leftward drift, albeit at a slower pace; by 2005, political scientists found that even the most conservative Democrat in Congress was nowhere near as right-wing as the most liberal Republican. The two parties had become ideologically discrete, much like the parties in parliamentary system

Read more: Sanders, Trump, and Political Europeanization | Al Jazeera America

Middle East: Netherlands probing civilian deaths in air strikes against ISIS in Iraq

he Netherlands is probing two incidents in which civilians may have been killed or injured in air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the government has said.

"Two incidents in which there may have been possible civilian casualties are being investigated in around 1,300 missions carried out by the Netherlands," The Hague-based government said in a letter to parliament late on Saturday.

Citing "operational reasons", the Defence Ministry said neither details of the incidents nor the probe are being made public.

The probe was prompted by a raft of  questions raised by lawmakers in parliament on the Netherlands' role in the fight against IS after The Hague announced last month it would  expand air operations into Syria.

Read more: Netherlands probing civilian deaths in air strikes against ISIS in Iraq

Israel: EU urges Israel to end demolition of Palestinian housing

EU diplomats with the European External Action Service (EEAS) on Saturday called for Israel to halt the demolition of Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank after more than 100 Palestinians were left homeless by demolitions on February 2.

"In the past weeks there have been a number of developments in Area C of the West Bank, which risk undermining the viability of a future Palestinian state and driving the parties yet further apart," the EEAS said in a statement.

"This is particularly concerning both because of the extent of the demolitions and also the number of vulnerable individuals affected, including children who need support," the statement noted.

The EEAS reported that "EU-funded structures" were also targeted by demolitions conducted by Israeli forces, saying they were built to provide "humanitarian support to most vulnerable people."

The diplomatic service reiterated the "EU's firm opposition to Israel's settlement policy" and actions taken in this context, including demolitions and confiscation, evictions, forced transfers or restrictions of movement and access, in line with conclusions made by EU foreign ministers on January 18.

"We call on the Israeli authorities to reserve the decision taken and to halt further demolitions," the statement added.

Read more: EU urges Israel to end demolition of Palestinian housing | News | DW.COM | 06.02.2016

Germany - TTIP: German judges slap TTIP down as not lawful

The German Magistrates Association (DRB) has delivered a slap in the face to the European Union, by coming out against one of the key planks of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - the special courts allowing investors and corporations to sue national governments if their policies happen to threaten their profits.

"The DRB sees neither a legal basis nor a need for such a court," the association said in a statement issued on Wednesday. The judges added that the assumption that foreign investors currently don't already enjoy "effective judicial protection" has no "factual basis."

Part of the TTIP deal proposed by the European Commission is a new Investment Court System (ICS) meant exclusively to protect investors. According to the DRB statement, the European Commission's definition of an investor's assets is so wide it effectively gives the ICS jurisdiction that "extends from civil law through to general administrative law and social and tax legislation." In other words, it potentially gives corporations the opportunity to sue governments over any piece of legislation it deems a threat.

The judges said the ICS represents a threat to the sovereignty of legal systems already in place in Europe, and they put little faith in the EU's ability to manage it:

"The German Magistrates Association has serious doubts whether the European Union has the competence to institute an investment court," the statement read. "An ICS would not only limit the legislative powers of the Union and the Member States; it would also alter the established court system within the Member States and the European Union."

The judges' statement is being celebrated as a serious setback for the TTIP negotiations by the deal's opponents, not least because the ICS was meant to be a compromise to assuage critics' concerns.

The ICS was proposed by EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström as a permanent and organized alternative to the improvised courts in the current investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and which are currently used in trade deals between individual countries.

"The EU offices must be in turmoil now," said Nick Dearden of UK-based campaign group Global Justice Now. "They were really nervous about ever getting through an agreement that had ISDS in it, because every time they've done consultations on it people have overwhelmingly said they don't like it. So they put this on the table."

Note Almere-Digest : click on this link to see what this so called TTIP treaty is all about and the dangers it entails

Read more: German judges slap TTIP down | Germany | DW.COM | 04.02.2016

US Politics: A European looks at the US political establishment and the upcoming Presidential elections - by RM

The US 2016 Presidential race has begun

A Dutchman who lived nearly half his life in the US was recently asked on a local radio show what his impressions were about the upcoming US Presidential elections and his perception on the two major parties involved in the elections.

"Looking at both US political parties, and mainly basing my observations on policy and  popular appeal , the Democratic party probably sticks head and shoulders above the Republican party, or at least what has become of this party over the years ."  

"Famous Republican politicians like Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan would probably turn over in their grave if they could see what has become of their party.".

"On the face of it,  the Democratic party seems to be more of a reflection/cross-section of America re: cultural, religious and ethnic mix, rich, poor, intellectual , less gifted, gay, lesbian and socially conscious."

Today's Republican party is mainly white, Judeo Christian, militaristic, reflects a preponderance of "doublespeak, and quite ignorant, as to the realities that are at play in today's world .

Rolling Stone magazine wrote about Republicans : "All you have to do to secure a Republican vote today is to show lots of pictures of gay people kissing, black kids with their pants pulled down, or Mexican babies at an emergency room. Then you push forward some "dingbat" like Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin to reassure everyone that the Republican Party knows who the real Americans are."

"Unfortunately, on the negative side, many politicians from both political parties are quite corrupt and over the years the US corporate establishment has developed a brilliant political strategy to capitalize on this  and benefit from this greed."

"Their scheme is quite simple - corporate America donates heavily to both parties, essentially hiring two different sets of politicians to market their needs and goods to the public. The Republicans, as a result,  give them everything that they want, while the Democrats give them "almost everything".

Corporate America, however, seems to get more in return for their bribes from the Republicans than from the Democrats, because Democrats and their special interest groups, given their diversity and more liberal leanings, often also happen to ask more questions."

Instead of having short, publicly-funded political campaigns with limited and/or free advertising (as a number of Western European countries do), the US has long political campaigns in which candidates need big bucks for advertising. They are therefore forced to spend much of their time fundraising, which is to say, seeking bribes. Consequently many US politicians are basically on the take. They are forced into it not only by the system but also by their own greed..

Former Republican  majority leader John Boehner actually once handed out cash on the floor of the US Congress from the tobacco industry to other representatives.

When French President Nicolas Sarkozy was defeated in 2012, soon thereafter French police actually went into his home searching for an alleged € 50,000 in illicit campaign contributions from the ’Oreale heiress.

Seriously? € 50,000 in a presidential campaign? US presidential campaigns cost at least a billion Euro's  each!  The George W. Bush campaign accepted millions from arms manufacturers and then created a war for them, and the police haven’t been anywhere near his home yet.

American politicians don’t represent “the people.” With a few honorable exceptions, they represent the 1% at the top  of the US financial ladder.

Bottom line: Bernie Sanders, one of the most progressive Democratic Presidential candidates noted in one of his stump speeches in the state of Ohio recently: "American democracy is being corrupted out of existence."

Will the American electorate elect Bernie as the first socialist President of America as a result? Probably not, but major changes are coming to the US political system. The "status quo" could be over.


EU-Digest

Refugees: Canada offers EU example in integrating Syrian refugees by Sarantis Michalopoulos

While EU politicians are still bickering over their share of the burden of refugees in Europe, Canada is seeking ways to rapidly integrate 25,000 Syrians into its society.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels last week, David Manicom, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, explained how his country managed to address the refugee crisis by building up permanent structures and institutions.

The government in Ottawa is committed to resettling 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February 2016. The number is small compared to the number of people arriving in Europe, but the total population of the North American country is only around 36 million.

Currently, Canada has accepted more than 13,000 Syrian refugees on its soil and the rest of the 12,000 are expected at the end of the month - while by the end of 2016 the country is planning to host between 35,000 and 40,000 refugees.

He continued, saying that all refugees have support services available to help them learn English and French, and prepare for employment.

“Behind refugee resettlement for Canada, a fundamental philosophy is the integration into employment and communities' Iit’s the best way to build communities.”

Asked by EurActiv to comment on the current refugee crisis deadlock in Europe, the Canadian official said that it would not be appropriate to have a strong opinion, but noted:

“There is one clear lesson: If you don’t provide safe and legal pathways people will pursue dangerous and illegal pathways.”

Read more: Canada offers EU example in integrating Syrian refugees | EurActiv