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Free immersive exhibition space in Paris helps you comprehend the European Union

Europa Experience makes the work of EU institutions enthralling, and that is quite the achievement

The European Union has a massive impact on the daily lives of nearly half a billion citizens on the Old Continent and yet, it remains somewhat abstract and elusive to many people. This is where the Europa Experience, an immersive exhibition space in Paris, founded a year ago, aims to solve this gap in perception.

This 1,500 m2venue, spread over three floors, takes the public on an unprecedented European adventure.Via a multimedia journey, augmented reality installations and a 360 cinema, visitors travel through the European Union, discover its challenges and successes, share the daily lives of other citizens of the continent and dive into the heart of European political functioning.

And best of all, its completely free and designed to really fulfil a mission of boosting citizenship awareness.

Who proposes the laws?Who votes on the budget?At the centre, two interactive tables allow visitors to understand the relations between the three main institutions of the European Union: the Parliament, the Commission and the Council.The augmented reality room invites the public to move around the map of Europe using a tablet and to discover the projects supported by the EU in the various member countries.

Even more, visitors can step into the shoes of an MEP! Groups of 16 or more people (over the age of 14) have the opportunity to participate in a role-playing game to better understand how decisions are taken at the European Union level.For two hours, participants become MEPs from different political groups. They get to examine, negotiate and adopt (or reject) European directives.

In the Europe in everyday life room, you can discover various testimonies of European citizens who evoke how the EU influences their daily life.

On the occasion of the upcoming Europe Day, 9 May, Europa Experience has also prepared a program of special entertainment.

The origin of the Europa Experience Paris project is directly inspired by the Parlamentarium located in Brussels, created by the European Parliament.Today, Strasbourg, Ljubljana, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Tallinn host similar spaces, with the aim of installing these immersive places in each European capital.In the reception hall, it is also possible to take a photo of yourself and send your selfie to the other Europa Experiences all over Europe!

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Free immersive exhibition space in Paris helps you comprehend the ... - TheMayor.EU

Security Operations , Security Operations Center (SOC)

The European Commission is proposing to spend more than 1 billion euros on cybersecurity operations centers amid long-standing worries that cyberthreats against the members of the continental alliance go undetected, concerns made more urgent by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

See Also: Live Webinar | Education Cybersecurity Best Practices: Devices, Ransomware, Budgets and Resources

The commission late last month introduced a proposal for a European "Cyber Shield" underpinned by a network of national SOCs and cross-border SOCs that are a consortium of at least three national centers.

The bill, the Cyber Solidarity Act, would also create a Cybersecurity Emergency Mechanism allowing governments to tap into private sector incident responses during emergencies.

Even before Russia's February 2022 attempt to conquer Ukraine, European officials lamented poor information sharing between national capitals on cybersecurity incidents, noting in a 2020 cybersecurity strategy that "no operational mechanism" exists to coordinate among member countries and European Union institutions in the event of "a large-scale, cross-border cyber incidents or crisis."

That omission has since grown more glaring for European Commission officials monitoring reports of suspicious critical infrastructure security incidents occurring since the Russian invasion.

The commission initiated a first phase of setting up cross-border security operations centers in November by soliciting interest in deploying and managing a platform for cross-border SOCs.

"Today, an average of 190 days elapse between the beginning of the spread of malware and the moment it is detected," EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in mid-April. "We want to drastically reduce this time, to a few hours."

The Cyber Solidarity Act also seeks to address the cybersecurity skill shortage by setting up a training academy. The bill is the latest in a string of efforts aimed at boosting European cybersecurity, including the proposed Cyber Resilience Act and an expanded cybersecurity directive known as NIS2 that went into effect in January.

The Cyber Solidarity Act is more "action-oriented" and focuses on "cybercrime prevention," said Simran Mann, security policy adviser at German industrial body Bitkom. The war in Ukraine has "boosted" the EU's efforts to tackle threatening cybersecurity events, she told Information Security Media Group.

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European Commission Proposes Network of Cross-Border SOCs - BankInfoSecurity.com

A group of Europe's major space and telecommunications players will bid for a proposed satellite constellation that could compete with SpaceX's Starlink system.

Companies including Airbus Defense and Space, Eutelsat, SES, and Thales Alenia Space announced that they have formed a partnership to respond to the European Commission's call for assistance in creating a future European satellite constellation.

Announced in late 2022, the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity, and Security by Satellite (IRIS) constellation will provide the European Union with internet connectivity from low-Earth orbit, a service similar to that offered by the ever-growing constellation of Starlink satellites operated by SpaceX.

Ars Technica reported (opens in new tab) this week that current EU estimates put the cost of Iris at around $6.6 billion USD (6 billion Euro). The EU hopes the proposed constellation could be operational by 2027.

Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky

The European Union (EU) will provide $2.64 billion USD (2.4 billion Euros) to the project with additional funding set to come from the European Space Agency and private investment.

"IRIS establishes space as a vector of our European autonomy, a vector of connectivity and a vector of resilience," Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union Thierry Breton wrote in a statement last Nov. (opens in new tab) "It heightens Europe's role as a true space power. With a clear ambition and sense of direction."

The partnership also includes communications giants Deutsche Telekom, Hispasat, OHB, Orange, Hisdesat and Telespazio, who have said that the proposed megaconstellation will encourage startups in the European space sector to join the coalition. This meets the wishes of Breton, who has expressed his desire to broaden the European commercial space sector, hoping start-ups will build 30% of the Iris infrastructure.

Named after the figure from Greek mythology said to be the messenger of the gods to humans, the Iris satellite constellation will provide connectivity for the whole of Europe, including areas currently not supplied by broadband Internet. In addition to this, Breton said in his Nov. 2022 statement that IRIS will also provide connectivity to the whole of Africa, using the satellites' North-South orbits.

The system will integrate with Europe's existing satellite constellations including Galileo, the region's global satellite navigation system consisting of 24 spacecraft at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and the twin Earth observation satellites Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B that comprise the Copernicus system. Breton said that the aim of this coordination between what he describes as Europe's "three pillars" in space is to reduce the risk of space congestion.

But, Iris has a long way to go before it catches up with Starlink.

SpaceX launched the first two prototype satellites of its satellite constellation, Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket in February 2018. According to astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, the megaconstellation currently boasts over 4,300 spacecraft (opens in new tab), most of which are operational.

SpaceX has plans to eventually send as many as 12,000 satellites to low Earth orbit as part of the Starlink megaconstellation which currently supplies internet to 53 countries, with the company estimating in 2018 this would cost around $10 billion USD (9 billion Euro). This population of satellites could eventually swell to 42,000 units, however; SpaceX has applied for approval for another 30,000.

The Starlink system has been controversial since its inception with astronomers, in particular, fearing that its size and scale could interfere with observations of the stars and other celestial bodies made from Earth. Spaceflight safety experts now consider Starlink as the number one risk of collision hazards in Earth's orbit.

Other scientists fear that as disused Starlink satellites, which have a lifetime of around five years, are deorbited metal burning up in the atmosphere could cause unpredictable changes in Earth's climate.

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Europe wants its own satellite megaconstellation to compete with ... - Space.com

(May 7, 2023 / Gatestone Institute) In spite of the Iranian regimes increasing involvement in the war against Ukraine, the European Union appears more than happy to continue appeasing Irans ruling mullahs, which should officially be considered an accomplice to war crimes committed by Russia.

While the mullahs have been busy supporting Russia against Ukraine, the European Union has also been busy increasing its trade with Iran. According to the latest report by The Financial Tribune:

Iran and the European Unions 27 member states traded 5.23 billion [$5.86 billion] worth of goods in 2022, registering a 7.95% rise compared with the year before.

New data released by Eurostat show Germany was the top trading partner of Iran in the EU region during the period, as the two countries exchanged 1.86 billion [$2.1 billion] worth of goods, 8.56% more than in 2021.

Italy came next with 713.17 million [$800 million] worth of trade with Iran to register a 13.32% rise. The Netherlands with 445.57 million [$5 million] (down 7.61%) and Spain with 378.46 million [$424.3 million] (up 12.67%) were Irans other major European trade partners.

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Croatia registered the highest growth of 48.84% in trade with Iran during the period under review and was followed by Bulgaria with 44.13%.

What is crushing is that the European Union is cognizant of the fact that some of its technology exports to Iran can be used for dual purposes: military and civilian. As The Jerusalem Post reported:

Germany exported 1.2 billion [$1.35 billion] worth of goods to Iran from January to the end of October in 2022. Germany exported 275 million [$309.3 million] worth of machines and engineering technology to Iran in 2021. Germanys non-transparent export regulations do not permit disclosure of the nature of the goods and material sold to Iransome of which has been used for dual-use purposes (military and civilian aims) over the decades.

The beneficiaries of the European Unions increased trade with Iran are most likely the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The European Unions trade with Iran, which helps increase the Iranian regimes revenue, is doubtless making it easier for the theocratic establishment to provide weapons to Russia as well. Iran also reportedly sent troops to Crimea to assist Russia in its attacks on Ukraines infrastructure and civilian population, and to increase the effectiveness of the suicide drones the Islamic Republic supplied to Russia.

The Iranian regime has, in fact, set up a specific route across the Caspian Sea in order to supply large quantities of munitions to Russia. An April 25 report by The Wall Street Journal stated:

Russian ships are ferrying large quantities of Iranian artillery shells and other ammunition across the Caspian Sea to resupply troops fighting in Ukraine, Middle East officials said, posing a growing challenge for the U.S. and its allies as they try to disrupt cooperation between Moscow and Tehran.

Over the past six months, cargo ships have carried more than 300,000 artillery shells and a million rounds of ammunition from Iran to Russia.

The Iranian regime, probably because it knows that the European Union will not take any action, is ratcheting up its engagement and weapons exports to Russia. Sky News also reported on this issue in March, writing:

Iran has secretly supplied large quantities of bullets, rockets and mortar shells to Russia for the war in Ukraine and plans to send more, a security source has told Sky News.

The source claimed that two Russian-flagged cargo ships departed an Iranian port in January bound for Russia via the Caspian Sea, carrying approximately 100 million bullets and around 300,000 shells.

Ammunition for rocket launchers, mortars and machine guns was allegedly included in the shipments.

The source said Moscow paid for the ammunition in cash.

The Iranian regime is simultaneously profiting from its trade with the European Union and from its weapons sales to Russia, thereby empowering Russian President Vladimir Putin to escalate his war against Ukraine.

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and adviser, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu.

Originally published by the Gatestone Institute.

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The EU's endless appeasement of the mullahs of Iran - JNS.org

BRUSSELS, May 3 (Reuters) - The European Union is considering a proposal to quit an international energy treaty that has become mired in climate change concerns, but leave an option for individual countries to stay in an updated version of the accord, a document showed.

The 1998 Energy Charter Treaty lets energy companies sue governments over policies that damage their investments, a system initially designed to support investments in the sector.

But in recent years it has been used to challenge climate policies that require fossil fuel projects to shut - raising concerns that the treaty is undermining efforts to address global warming.

The European Commission has said a coordinated EU exit from the treaty appeared "unavoidable", after member countries including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain individually announced plans to quit.

However, a handful of countries, including Cyprus, Hungary and Slovakia, have signalled they may prefer to stay in an updated version of the accord - leaving Brussels searching for a way forward that would appease all of its members.

A new proposal, which EU country diplomats will discuss this week, said the 27-country EU should agree to jointly leave the treaty, but at the same time, let some individual EU countries stay in a modernised version of the treaty.

This would provide EU countries and lawmakers in favour of leaving with "reassurances that there will be an early and swift withdrawal of the EU," said the proposal, seen by Reuters.

It could also unblock a planned upgrade of the treaty - which aimed to address some of the climate concerns, but has met a mixed reception from EU countries and criticism from campaigners - and then let some EU countries remain in the modernised treaty, the document said.

A decision by the treaty's roughly 50 signatories to approve a the upgrade has been on hold while EU countries debate their next move.

In its current state, the unreformed treaty has a "sunset clause" that would protect existing fossil fuel investments in Europe for 20 years even after the EU quit.

The EU says that undermines its climate change targets. The reformed version would let the EU shorten that protection, but it would still be 10 years.

The proposal was drafted by Sweden, which holds the EU's rotating presidency and chairs negotiations among EU countries. If it wins countries' support, Brussels would draft legal texts to proceed with the EU exit.

Reporting by Kate Abnett; editing by Jan Strupczewski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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EU mulls partial exit from energy treaty over climate concerns - Reuters