Economy still at the centre

In an incandescent week for the European Parliament (EP), which saw the election of its new President and 14 Vice-Presidents and numerous significant debates (fiscal pact, situation in Hungary, programme of the Danish Presidency), the EP also voted on some important provisions and resolutions of economic, social and environmental interest. "This pact is no good". The pronouncement that caused major furore, also in the European media, was the substantial "no" expressed by MEPs, with an overwhelming majority (521 votes in favour of the resolution, 124 against) to the draft intergovernmental treaty that is supposed to regulate the "fiscal compact" for budgetary discipline. Too much austerity, too much rigour, and too little scope for growth, for investments and jobs: that’s the main objection to the treaty that will now pass to the discussion between member states of Ecofin next week and the European Council of heads of state and of government on 30 January. The EP, in line with the Commission, is demanding more muscle for the ECB, a boosted bailout fund for states in difficulty, and, not least, policies aimed at investments and growth. The resolution approved by the EP even places in doubt the need for an intergovernmental treaty, preferring the ordinary means of EU legislation. It also maintains that national parliaments and the EP should be "included in all aspects of future economic governance". A large part of the debate in the EU institutions and in the bilateral meetings between national leaders is concentrated on this question. Elmar Brok, German MEP, one of the four rapporteurs of the text, stressed: "This accord would not have been our first choice to tackle the question. We must avoid dividing the Union and guarantee the rights of all European institutions".Pesticides and electronic waste. With procedure of co-decision, the EP voted in favour of an agreement – already reached with the Council – relating to greater control over pesticides and pest control products in circulation in the EU, which ought to be authorized before being placed on the market. MEPs then expressed their views on the improvement of procedures for the recycling and disposal of so-called "electronic waste", deriving from the elimination of refrigerators, household appliances, cell phones and television sets. In this case it was a question of emending the Directive currently in force which dates back to 2003. The EP, in its plenary, also approved a resolution that tackles the age-old question of food wastage, typical of "affluent" societies, and for "too long underestimated by the institutions and by the political authorities" both at the national and at the European level. One person who is convinced of this is Salvatore Caronna, Italian MEP, and rapporteur on the question which was debated in the chamber this week. In his intervention during the plenary, Caronna pointed out that the question of food wastage is "an underestimation that we can no longer permit ourselves". According to the MEP "by now all the most accredited specialized sources says that one of the main problems of the immediate future will be that of coping with a new and very strong demand for food" that will outstrip the supply. That’s why "we can no longer permit ourselves the luxury of remaining idle when faced by a phenomenon, that of the waste of foodstuffs that are still perfectly consumable, which has assumed a gigantic and no longer sustainable dimension". Stop to food wastage. According to the data of the FAO a third of the food produced every year in the world, and destined for human consumption, is thrown away, binned among waste products in homes, restaurants and supermarkets; "in Europe the estimate is 50%: each citizen on average wastes 105 kg of food per year". So it’s a social and economic, as well as an ethical, problem which, as Caronna emphasized, requires an effective coordinated response at the EU level. The European Commission is thus asked to "adopt a common strategy to promote a real qualitative leap capable of reducing current wastage in a significant way between now and 2025". The resolution was passed in the chamber. Among its proposals is that of fostering the role played by volunteer-service associations and groups that are devoted to the recovery of foodstuffs to be distributed to the poor (70 million people in Europe are living on the poverty threshold). The rapporteur further explained that "it would be important to modify the legislation on public tenders for restaurant services in canteens and hospitals in such a way as to privilege, when it comes to awarding contracts, conditions being equal, those enterprises that guarantee a model of management committed to curbing food wastage". Caronna also underlined the "need to promote an awareness-raising campaign – especially among agricultural organizations, the industrial world, schools and universities – to promote the emergence of a civil and scientific culture aimed at a more sober and environmentally sustainable model of consumption". The Resolution asks that 2014 be proclaimed "European Year against food wastage". In this way "a signal would immediately be given to all citizens that the European Union is able to be in the vanguard in defining a fairer and more balanced model of development".