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The European Union (EU) plans to revise their energy taxation rules by Summer 2021 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

In a poll Verdict has conducted to analyse peoples opinion on the EUs plan to impose bloc-wide carbon footprint taxes by Summer 2021, 43% of the respondents supported the plan, while 40% were against it.

The remaining 17% of the respondents did not have an opinion regarding the plan.

The analysis is based on 253 responses received from the readers of Offshore Technology, a Verdict network site, between 04 December 2020 and 30 March 2021.

The EU countries are undertaking various measures to fight climate change and have agreed to impose a bloc-wide tax on non-recycled plastic waste. Few countries have also introduced national environmental taxes.

The EU plans to begin imposing fees for importing goods in the core sectors, including steel, cement, and electricity industries, which could be later extended to aluminium, fertiliser and chemical industries. The levies should be overhauled to appear as climate and environmental expenses, according to the head of EU climate policy.

Brussels intends to revamp its policies, including Europes carbon market, carbon standards for cars, and farming subsidies to meet its net-zero emission target, while the Netherlands plans to levy CO2 taxes on industries and increase taxes on flight tickets to narrow the price gap between plane and train tickets.

However, the road to modification in the EU taxation rules will not be smooth as it requires approval from all the 27 member countries. The fuel taxation policies are expected to face the most resistance as countries and companies will likely raise concerns that the carbon-footprint taxes will increase product prices thereby impacting consumers.

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28 Aug 2020

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Mixed response to EU's bloc-wide carbon footprint taxes by 2021 - Offshore Technology

"Any suggestion thatI, in any way, made any criticism ofthe European Union yesterday wouldbe completely incorrect," Mr Morrison told reporters this morning.

"I simplystated a fact - that 3.1 million ofthe contracted vaccines that we hadbeen relying upon in early Januarywhen we'd set out a series oftargets did not turn up inAustralia. That is just a simplefact."

The EU has denied responsibility for the shortfall, with the chief spokesman for the European Commission telling a press conference there had been no "new decision to block vaccine exports to Australia".

So far 920,334 doses have been administered, with Mr Morrison blaming "a supply problem" for Australia's inability to hit its vaccine targets set earlier this year.

At a press conference, Mr Morrison described a timeline which he claims "sets out the facts" of the issue.

In September last year, Australia contracted AstraZeneca for 3.8 million doses to be delivered in January and February from the offshore manufactured product.

In late January, the EU introduced strict export controls which were further expanded on March 24.

In late January, AstraZeneca provided updated advice that only 1.2 million of the 3.2 million offshore manufactured product could be delivered in February and March.

That was because a range of issues, Mr Morrison said, which included not just the vaccine shortage in Europe but also AstraZeneca's awareness of the increasing restrictions on export controls.

In February, AstraZeneca made an application was made for 500,000 doses to be released to Australia. Those 500,000 doses were being manufactured in Italy.

On February 20, AstraZeneca was advised by the European Commission to withdraw their application and submit a revised application for 250,000 doses, manufactured in Italy.

On March 3, the European Union denied export of those 250,000 doses to Australia.

Appearing on Today this morning, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg backed the prime minister's version of events.

"The Prime Minister was absolutely right. Those 3.1 million doses didn't arrive," Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told Today.

"We have a request for a million doses of AstraZeneca that were destined for Australia to go to Papua New Guinea in a humanitarian mission where there has been an outbreak," he said.

"We are waiting on the Europeans to give us the approval for that."

Australia's own vaccine production by CSL in Melbourne has hit 1.3million doses.

The Health Minister said there will be at least three more batches rolled out in the next eight days.

Later this week, Mr Hunt said he expects 470,000 extra doses, then another 480,000 early next week.

The third batch is expected to be 670,000.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the Department of Health Professor Brendan Murphy said Australia was playing very close attention to concerns about a possible link between blood clots and the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"There has been some attention related to this issue with clots potentially associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, and clearly, there's been the reports of a possible case in Australia," he said.

"One case is not a strong signal."

He said the TGA was meeting regularly this week, and a joint meeting was scheduled for later this week with Europeans and UK regulators.

"We are taking this matter very seriously at the moment."

He said "the benefit of vaccination outweighs any potential risk" and the government was continually reviewing the situation.

Professor Murphy insisted the vaccine rollout is "going well" but acknowledged concerns over supply.

Link:
PM says he never criticised European Union over vaccine supply - 9News

European Union spending of hundreds of millions of euro on promoting agricultural products is at odds with warnings from scientists on the disastrous impact industrial animal farming has on nature, the climate and our health and is an irresponsible use of taxpayers money, according to Greenpeace Europe.

The European Commission spent 32 per cent of its 777 million five-year farm product promotion budget on advertising campaigns for meat and dairy that ran between 2016 and 2020, a Greenpeace report published on Thursday found.

In Ireland, 78 per cent of funded promotions were targeted at meat and dairy consumption over a four-year period up to 2019 the highest proportion of European Union countries analysed by Greenpeace.

Its EU agriculture and forest campaigner Sini Erj said: When all the science is telling us to cut meat and dairy for our health, and the planets health, its unacceptable that the EU spends a quarter of a billion euro to accelerate consumption.

Farming and eating industrial meat and dairy puts us at risk of new pandemics, wrecks the climate and destroys nature its irresponsible for the EU to continue promoting this with taxpayers money.

The research found the commission spent 146 million on campaigns for fruit and vegetables over the five years 19 per cent of advertising spend.

Leaked versions of the EUs flagship Farm to Fork strategy and the Beating Cancer Plan suggested the commission intended to stop funding promotion of red and processed meat, which are particularly harmful, Ms Erj said. The final versions of both strategies contained more vague wording on promoting healthier diets, she said.

The commission is reviewing its policy on the promotion of EU farm products, with a new proposal expected in early 2022. Last month it opened public consultation on promotion policy.

Greenpeace is calling on the EU to end public funding for the promotion of meat and dairy products and recommending it be used to support ecological, small-scale farmers in Europe, and to help conventional farmers to transition to ecological methods.

The numbers for Ireland are even more skewed in favour of meat and dairy products, Ms Erj said, as 78 per cent of the EU spending on projects run by Irish organisations was used to promote exclusively meat and dairy in the period 2016-2019 country-level information isnt yet available for 2020.

This was certainly not in line with encouraging consumption thats better for the environment and public health.

Ireland received 13.4 million in total EU funding, 10.5 million of which was to support meat and dairy promotion projects just 1.4 million was spent targeting consumption of fruits and vegetables. Of nine countries subjected to deeper analysis, Spain and Ireland were found to have spent nothing on promoting organic products.

While there are some differences between countries, the overall picture remains the same, the report concluded, much more funding is being used to exclusively promote meat and dairy products than is used to promote fruits and vegetables.

Objectives in the approved funding applications of several meat and dairy promotional campaigns funded by the EU explicitly state they aim to reverse declines in, or maintain the growth of, meat and dairy consumption in Europe even if this reduction is much needed according to health and environmental research.

More than 70 per cent of EU farmland is used to raise livestock or produce animal feed. Two-thirds of EU farm subsidies currently end up supporting the production of animal products, directly and indirectly, including by supporting feed production, the report said.

Europeans consume about twice as much meat as the global average, and about three times as much dairy. To protect public health and nature, and to tackle the climate emergency, scientists are recommending a reduction of European meat and dairy consumption by at least 70 per cent by 2030, Greenpeace said.

The report featured examples of promotions including a proud of beef campaign, with 3.6 million of EU funding, which promoted the idea of becoming a beefatarian, supposedly to promote balanced, healthy diets.

The campaign fails to make any reference to the widely-recognised health risks or environmental damage associated with red and processed meat, the report said.

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EU funding of meat and dairy promotions irresponsible Greenpeace - The Irish Times

Seeking a fresh start in relations under the Biden Administration, the United States and European Union announced on March 5a four-month mutual suspension of tariffs related to the ongoing Boeing-Airbus trade dispute (March 5 Agreement). The suspension, which will become effective when both sides complete internal procedures, will cover all tariffs related to the dispute on both aircraft as well as non-aircraft products. The four-month suspension paves the way for a negotiated settlement and will allow the U.S. and the EU to address challenges posed by new entrancessuch as China.

The Boeing-Airbus dispute dates back to 2004, when the U.S. challenged EU subsidiesof Airbus that had adverse effects on the United States. The EU filed a retaliatory complaintagainst direct support to Boeing in the form of regional tax breaks and government grants. In 2019, the WTO paved the way for the U.S. to impose tariffs worth up to $7.5 billionannually. In 2020, the WTO authorized the EU to impose tariffs worth up to $4 billionon goods as a countermeasure for illegal U.S. Government subsidies to Boeing (2020 WTO Ruling). The March 5 Agreement results in the temporary suspension of tariffs on a wide range of products, such as European wines, whiskeys, and cheese, and on American items such as tractors, orange juice, cheddar cheese, sweet potatoes, and ketchup.

The March 5 Agreement follows a March 4th announcementby the United States and United Kingdom in which both countries suspended retaliatory Boeing-Airbus tariffs for four months (though, as noted in the joint statement, the U.K. had unilaterally suspended the implication of its tariffs on January 1, 2021). Of course, since the U.K. was not named in the 2020 WTO Ruling, the U.K. might not have been able to impose tariffs even if it had wanted. Reportsindicated that the U.K. was exploring a legal provision that might enable it to argue it would have a right to a share of the $4 billion awarded to the EU, but that issue is now moot.

The four-month suspension will allow the parties to work towards a negotiated settlement, which would greatly benefit all parties and refocus them on new challenges posed by China, which has been developing its own aircraft in an attempt to rival Boeing and Airbus. Chinas aircraft maker, Commercial Aircraft Cooperation of China (COMAC), has developed two new aircraft the C919, a narrow-body aircraft with a layout of 157 to 168 seats and a range of 4,075 to 5,555 km (2,532 to 3,451 miles), and the ARJ21, a short-medium range turbofan regional aircraft with a layout of 78 to 90 seats and a range of 2,225 to 3,700 km (1,382 to 2,229 miles). COMAC is also working with the Russian manufacturer United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) on developing the CR929, a long-range widebody dual-aisle aircraft with up to 280 seats and a range of up to 12,000 km (7,456 miles).

In January 2021, the Trump administration imposed Department of Defense sanctionson COMAC due to its close ties with Chinas military. The sanctions require U.S. investors to withdraw their holdings by November 11 and could threaten the viability of both the C919 and ARJ21 due to their U.S. content.

Continued here:
U.S., EU, and UK ease trade tensions in Boeing-Airbus dispute and temporarily halt tariffs - JD Supra

A range of European Union institutions including the European Commission were hit by a significant cyber-attack last week.

A spokesperson for the commission said that a number of EU bodies experienced an IT security incident in their IT infrastructure. The spokesperson said forensic analysis of the incident is still in its initial phase and that its too early to provide any conclusive information about the nature of the attack.

We are working closely with CERT-EU, the Computer Emergency Response Team for all EU institutions, bodies and agencies and the vendor of the affected IT solution, the spokesperson said. Thus far, no major information breach was detected.

The attack was serious enough for senior officials at the commission to be alerted, according to a person familiar with the matter. The same person said the incident was bigger than the usual attacks that regularly hit the EU. Another EU official said that staff had recently been warned about potential phishing attempts.

Western institutions have uncovered at least two serious cyber-attacks recently.

The European Banking Authority disclosed last month that its systems may have been compromised following an attack on Microsoft Corp.s email software that was linked to China and exposed the data of tens of thousands of organizations, according to cybersecurity experts. The U.S. government was hit by suspected Russian cyber-attackers last yearafter systems at The SolarWinds Corp. were breached.

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European Institutions Were Targeted in a Cyber-Attack Last Week - Bloomberg