, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20210322IPR00520/
Chemical status of European surface waters decreases while monitoring improves
Environment International (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106479″ width=”800″ height=”326″/>
Graphical abstract. Credit: Environment International (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106479
The Water Framework Directive was enacted in 2000 with the goal of protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems to a “good ecological status.” Alongside this monumental water policy effort, large amounts of environmental monitoring data were gathered to track the occurrence of organic contaminants in Europe. For the first time, this large dataset comprising of more than 8 million measurements of 352 organic contaminants in 31 countries over the last 15 years was comprehensively analyzed to deduce both the status and trends of European freshwater integrity.
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“We have analyzed several million of water quality measurements detailing the occurrence of organic contaminants throughout Europe over the last 15 years and assessed the risks that are posed to freshwater environments,” says the lead author Jakob Wolfram, scientist at the Institute for Environmental Sciences in Landau. “Our study found that governmental monitoring improves, yet freshwater systems remain frequently impaired by exposures to numerous organic contaminants and for some important organism groups these conditions continue to deteriorate.”
In this extensive analysis, it was found that most types of organic contaminants, such as industrial chemicals, pesticides and pharmaceuticals, are increasingly found in surface waters. Only one third of water bodies were not contaminated by any organic contaminants in a given year. Upon closer inspection of these sites, it was found that monitoring was substantially less reliable there, likely resulting in failure to detect many relevant contamination events. As a result, the quality of monitoring was compared between countries and shown to be linked to the degree to which contaminants were found in the field. These results suggest that in many countries the true exposure of organic contaminants remains severely underestimated until monitoring efforts improve.
Pesticides remain the dominant factor adversely impacting European freshwaters, causing 85% of ecological threshold exceedances. As a result, water bodies in areas dominated by agriculture were shown to experience the highest pollution that threatens ecosystem integrity. Overall, at 35% of sites an ecological threshold was exceeded in a given year, resulting in 38% of waterbodies being impaired ecologically. While pharmaceuticals did not appear to pose substantial short-term risks, their regular presence could cause long-term effects in aquatic communities that are currently still mostly unknown.
According to the authors, freshwater ecosystems remain at risk in Europe, particularly for aquatic fish, insects, and crustaceans. Jakob Wolfram adds: “Our results highlight that despite the concerted effort of the Water Framework Directive, further invigorated efforts are now needed to curb the environmental pollution of freshwaters.”
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Jakob Wolfram et al. Water quality and ecological risks in European surface waters – Monitoring improves while water quality decreases, <i>Environment International</i> (2021). <a data-doi="1" href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106479" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106479</a>
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Global COVID-19 infections rise for fourth consecutive week, deaths level off
The number of new deaths from the coronavirus levelled off after a six-week decrease, with just over 60,000 new deaths reported.
Europe and the Americas continued to account for nearly eight in 10 of all cases and deaths, while the only region to report a decline in fatalities was the Western Pacific, down nearly a third, compared to the previous week.
No region untouched
Infections rose notably in South East Asia, the Western Pacific, Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, according to the World Health Organization’s Weekly Epidemiological Update.
In the African region and the Americas, infection numbers have remained stable in recent weeks, although WHO pointed to “concerning trends” in some countries within these regions.
These include Brazil, where the highest numbers of new cases were reported (508,010 new cases in a week, representing a three per cent increase)
The United States saw 374,369 new cases – a 19 per cent decrease – while India saw 240,082 new cases, a 62 per cent increase, France saw 204,840 new cases (up 27 per cent) and Italy saw little change, with a recorded 154,493 new cases.
Variants of concern
WHO said that latest data on coronavirus variants of concern, indicate that the so-called “UK” strain is present in 125 countries, across all six global regions.
This variant – VOC202012/01 – may be associated with an increased risk of hospitalization, severity and mortality, WHO noted, pointing to a study involving 55,000 COVID-19 patients between last October and January, where deaths from the UK variant were 4.1 per 1,000, compared with 2.5 per 1,000 among those infected with the previously circulating coronavirus.
Vaccine efficacy
On a more positive note, data from vaccine tests conducted in England from December 2020 to February 2021 – when VOC202012/01 was very prevalent – “showed the early real-world effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech – BNT162b2 vaccine and AstraZeneca – ChAdOx1 vaccine against confirmed COVID-19, hospitalizations and deaths”, WHO explained.
Variant 501Y.V2 predominant
The so-called “South African” variant – 501Y.V2 – is now present in 75 countries across all regions, WHO continued, in “over 90 per cent of sequenced specimens in some settings”.
Highlighting the results of a study comparing hospital admissions in South Africa during the peak of the first wave of the coronavirus in mid-July 2020 with the second wave that peaked in January 2021 – when variant 501Y.V2 was the predominant variant – WHO pointed out that “the risk of in-hospital mortality increased by 20 per cent”.
Third variant of concern
The third variant of concern, P.1, was reported in three additional countries in the last week, bringing the total to 41 nations across all regions.
WHO cited a recent analysis of hospitalizations and frequency of P.1 in Manaus city, Amazonas State, Brazil, where it was first detected, noting that it has spread widely.
“Based on the preliminary findings, P.1 is found to be 2.5 times more transmissible … compared to the previously circulating variant, while the reinfection probability was found to be low (at) 6.4 per cent.”
Globally, on 23 March, there have been 123,419,065 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,719,163 deaths, reported to WHO.
As of 22 March 2021, a total of 403,269,879 vaccine doses have been administered
COMECE to EC “A step for a more inclusive and fairer EU”
COMECE welcomes the European Commission’s Action Plan on the Social Pillar: “A step for a more inclusive and fairer EU”
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) welcomes the long-awaited Action Plan delivered by the European Commission in March 2021 to further implement the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR). EU Bishops: “It is an important step to build a more inclusive and fairer European Union”.
The Action Plan sets out three EU targets to achieve by 2030 in the areas of employment, skills, and social protection. Concretely, the European Commission proposes to reach an employment rate of at least 78% for people aged 20-64, to improve adult participation in training each year to at least 60%, and to reduce the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million.
COMECE welcomes this new Action Plan as a path to preserve the dignity of work and rights for workers, to strengthen intergenerational solidarity, and to rethink the notion of Education as “a constant element that is part of working life” – as called for in the November 2020 COMECE contribution.
“It is an important step to build a more inclusive and fairer European Union especially in a context marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequences on the health, social and economic situation of many people living and working in the EU and in other parts of the world”, states Fr. Manuel Barrios Prieto, General Secretary of COMECE.
According to COMECE, this path marks a new beginning in building a just social Europe for all and it should continue to grow stronger with the support of Member States and people living in the EU, providers of social services, national stakeholders and Churches. In this context, the Social Summit in Porto on May 7-8th 2021 will be another opportunity to discuss what can be done to turn commitments into concrete actions for the common good.The Commission now calls on Member States to define their own national objectives and invites the European Council to endorse these targets. During the 2021 Spring COMECE Assembly, H. Em. Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ, President of COMECE, expressed appreciation for the decision of the European Commission to accompany its Action Plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights “with a Recommendation on an effective active support to employment following the Covid-19 crisis”.
The same Action Plan builds on a public consultation of the European Commission to which COMECE has been contributing in November 2020. The Bishops of the EU also have contributed to the Social Pillar from its very beginning, promoting a European Social Market Economy as envisioned by the EU treaties.
During its Spring Assembly on 25-26 May 2021, the COMECE Social Affairs Commission will continue its work towards the full implementation of the Social Pillar, with a roundtable focusing on the fight against poverty in the EU.
Fishing: European Union countries agree on temporary fishing quotas – the economy
Brussels (dpa) – European Union countries agreed to temporary fishing quotas at the end of July.
This will ensure that European fishing companies can continue their business after March 31, said Ricardo Santos, Portuguese Minister of Maritime Affairs and current chair of the ministerial meeting. According to the European Union’s Commissioner for Fisheries, Virginius Sinkivius, the agreement states that the total catch corresponds to seventeen scientific recommendations for 2021.
The background to this is negotiations with the UK on common equity. After the British left the European Union, there was a complex dispute over the total catch and its distribution. At times, negotiations on a trade pact on Brexit threatened to fail over the fish issue. After the agreement between the countries of the European Union, the next step will be to continue negotiations with Great Britain. “The agreement provides for total primary catches by July 31,” Sinkevičius explained.
Since Brexit negotiations continued until Christmas 2020, EU countries only agreed to temporary fishing rules for shared stocks with the UK in mid-December. Many fish stocks are depleted or endangered. Environmentalists have long called for restricted hunting to protect ecosystems from severe damage.
The meeting’s second major construction site is the imminent reform of the European Union’s multi-billion dollar Common Agricultural Policy. “The Agricultural Council today is about potential settlement lines with the European Parliament on the Common Agricultural Policy,” Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Kluckner (CDU) said on Twitter. The European Union countries are currently trying to agree on a common line with the European Union Parliament. The Green Group complains that the national ministers are not willing to make concessions.
And Martin Hosling, a spokesman for agricultural policy in Green in the European Parliament this afternoon, predicted that the negotiations between Parliament and the European Union countries scheduled for Friday will end in chaos. So far, MEPs have not had an agenda and no middle lines have been introduced by the European Union Commission and national agriculture ministers. WWF has criticized the fact that Kluckner has thwarted effective environmental and climate goals “wherever possible.”
The sticking point in the negotiations between the European Union and Parliament is how to make agriculture more environmentally friendly in the coming years. Among other things, it concerns the question of whether the so-called environmental regulations should be determined at the European level or only at the national level. While Parliament defends an opinion at the level of the European Union, the countries of the European Union support national sovereignty. There are also different views on how much CAP money should be paid based on environmental rules. Parliament supports 30 percent, and member states support 20 percent.
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European Union countries agree on temporary fishing quotas
March 23, 2021, 10:10 pm<br/>
Brussels (dpa) European Agriculture Ministers have agreed on fishing quotas – but the final round is still ahead. There is also no indication of an agreement regarding the second major construction site.
European Union countries agreed to temporary fishing quotas by the end of July.
This will ensure that European fishing companies can continue their business after March 31, said Ricardo Santos, Portugal’s Minister of Maritime Affairs and current chair of the ministerial meeting. According to the European Union’s Commissioner for Fisheries, Virginius Sincivius, the agreement stipulates that the total catch will correspond to seventeen scientific recommendations for 2021.
The background to this is negotiations with the United Kingdom over shared assets. After the British left the European Union, there was a complex dispute over the total catch and its distribution. At times, negotiations on a trade pact on Brexit threatened to fail over the fish issue. After the agreement between the countries of the European Union, the next step will be to continue negotiations with Great Britain. Sinkevi explained? Ius says the agreement provides for total initial catches by July 31.
Since Brexit negotiations continued until Christmas 2020, EU countries only agreed to temporary hunting rules in mid-December for shared stocks with the UK. Many fish stocks are depleted or endangered. Environmentalists have long called for more fishing restrictions to be imposed in order to protect ecosystems from severe damage.
The meeting’s second major construction site is the imminent reform of the European Union’s multi-billion dollar Common Agricultural Policy. Today the Council of Agriculture is spinning over potential settlement lines with the European Parliament on the Common Agricultural Policy, on Twitter by Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Klikner (CDU). The European Union countries are currently trying to agree on a common line with the European Union Parliament. The Green Group complains that national ministers are unwilling to make concessions.
And Martin Hosling, spokesman for the agricultural policy of the Green Party in the European Parliament, predicted this afternoon that the negotiations between Parliament and the European Union countries due to take place on Friday would end in chaos. So far, MEPs have not had an agenda and no middle lines have been introduced by the European Union Commission and national agriculture ministers. In the evening, the Commissioner for Agriculture of the European Union Janusz Wojczovsky was more optimistic. He is confident that there will be an agreement in May.
The sticking point in the negotiations between the European Union and Parliament is how to make agriculture more environmentally friendly in the coming years. Among other things, it concerns the question of whether the so-called common regulations should be determined at the European level or only at the national level. While Parliament calls for people to have a say at the level of the European Union, the countries of the European Union support national sovereignty. There are also different views on how much CAP money should be paid out on the basis of common regulations. Parliament supports 30% and Member States 20%.
dpa-infocom, dpa: 210323-99-938198 / 4
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Dual-use goods: what are they and why are new rules needed? | News | European Parliament
The EU is working on new export rules for so-called dual-use goods to prevent them being misused in human rights violations.
What are dual-use goods?
Dual-use products are goods designed for civilian use that in the wrong hands could be used to supress human rights or launch terrorist attacks. They can be anything from drones to chemicals.
Although these goods can improve people’s lives, they can be misused. Authoritarian regimes might use them to keep the population under control, while terrorist groups could use them to stage attacks.
Why are new rules needed?
To prevent dual-use goods being repurposed in ways that violate human rights , the EU wants to make sure strict export rules prevent them being sold to people or organisations wanting to misuse them.
The EU is currently working on an update of the existing rules to take into account recent technological developments, including new cyber surveillance tools, and beef up protection of human rights.
What is the next step?
The Council and the Parliament have provisionally agreed on the new rules, but both need to officially approve them before they can enter into force.
MEPs will debate the new rules and vote on them on Thursday 25 March.
Read more about how the EU’s trade policy helps to promote human rights
Historic Consensus On Freedoms Of Religion And Expression At Risk, Say UN Experts
GENEVA (23 March 2021) – United Nations human rights experts said today digitalisation and the COVID-19 pandemic had facilitated a new wave of stigma, racism, xenophobia and hate targeting minorities and those considered “others”, often promoted by authorities themselves, either directly or indirectly. Recalling the consensus achieved since the 24 March 2011 adoption of a Human Rights Council resolution on combating intolerance, they said in the following statement that States must ensure pluralism and stamp out negative stereotyping:
“On the 10th anniversary of Resolution 16/18, we welcome the Human Rights Council consensus around the issue of fostering freedom of religion or belief, reaffirming freedom of opinion and expression and combating advocacy of religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.
Resolution 16/18 is remarkable for its eight action points that commit all States to take specific measures at the national level in policy, law and practice, to address intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief and its root causes. These measures include building collaborative networks; creating mechanisms to identify tensions; encouraging training of government officials in effective outreach strategies; discussing root causes of discrimination; speaking out against hatred; criminalising incitement to imminent violence; combating negative stereotyping of persons through education and awareness building; and promoting open debate as well as interfaith dialogue.**
The “Istanbul Process”, which is the implementation mechanism for the resolution’s action plan, has facilitated so far seven rounds of meetings to foster international dialogue and practical experience-sharing, organised in Washington D.C., London, Geneva, Doha, Jeddah, Singapore and The Hague.
Sadly, a new wave of stigma, racism, xenophobia and hate has been amplified by digitalisation, social networks, and aggravated in the context of the pandemic, targeting minorities and those seen as ‘others’ with impunity. At the same time, the policing of opinions and expressions online, the targeting of certain religiouscommunities for reasons of national security, the use of counter-terrorism or public order laws to suppress legitimate expression have reinforced negative stereotypes and may contribute to incidents of intolerance, discrimination and violence against persons based on their religion, belief or opinions in any region of the world.
States are encouraged to implement the robust action plan using a comprehensive, carefully considered, transparent and inclusive approach. Any legal interpretations of the commitments undertaken in the action plan must fully comply with international human rights law.
Many States have resorted to restricting free speech as a way to addressing hate speech but any limitation of speech must remain an exception and strictly follow international human rights standards. This remains highly relevant today in light of State actions that are incompatible with freedoms of religion, belief, opinion and expression, including the use of anti-blasphemy and anti-apostasy laws, which render religious or belief minorities, including atheists and dissenters, vulnerable to discrimination and violence.
In this context, we voice our deep concern about the potential setback at the inter-governmental level due to the recently updated Cairo Declaration of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Human Rights, which provides in its article 21 that “freedom of expression should not be used for denigration of religions and prophets or to violate the sanctities of religious symbols”.
On that point, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has emphasised in his most recent report to the Human Rights Council that criticism of the ideas, religious leaders, symbols or practices should not be prohibited or criminally sanctioned. In another report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression reiterated the Human Rights Committee‘s jurisprudence that this right does embrace expressions that may be regarded as deeply offensive, such as blasphemy.
States must not revive the dangerous notion of ‘defamation of religions’ and the divisive debate that had undercut efforts to combat religious discrimination and intolerance prior to achieving this consensus agreement 10 years ago.
We call on States to operationalise the Rabat threshold test, which sets the right balance between protecting freedom of expression and prohibiting incitement to hatred, based on a case-by-case assessment of the context, speaker, intent, content, extent of dissemination and likelihood of harm.
Amid rising intolerance and concerns about the negative impacts of some policies to counter violent extremism or terrorism, we urge States to continue promoting religious pluralism and dismantle discriminatory structures that propagate negative stereotypes of persons based on religious, racial, gendered, migratory and disability status.”
ENDS
* The experts: Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; Ms. Irene Khan , Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression; Mr. Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues; Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule , Special Rapporteur on the right to peaceful assembly and of association; and Ms. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism.
The Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
** Check the resolutions of the Human Rights Council and General Assembly on combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatisation, discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons, based on religion or belief as well as the related reports by the Secretary-General and High Commissioner:https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Minorities/Pages/CombatingIntolerance.aspx
For more information and media requests , please contact Chian Yew Lim (+41 22 917 9938 / [email protected])
For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts, contact Renato de Souza (+41 22 928 9855 / [email protected])
Follow news related to the UN’s independent human rights experts on Twitter @UN_SPExperts
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Exploring the afterlife with science and religion
… old arguments between science and religion about what happens when we … long been the province of religion, based on faith. And … about the looming divorce between religion and the afterlife, I’m … this spiritual dimension. Now about religion, to get to that. The …
European Parliament to ratify UK trade deal in late April, president says
The European Parliament will finally grant its consent to the EU-U.K. post-Brexit trade deal at a plenary session starting April 26, Parliament President David Sassoli said Tuesday.
“We will have our plenary April 26, so this is the last date” for ratification, Sassoli said in an interview with POLITICO, adding that “there will be no extension” to this date.
EU national governments and the British parliament have already approved the deal, which was clinched in late December, and the European Parliament’s ratification is the final step before the agreement legally comes into full force. The deal has been implemented since January 1 under provisional application, to avoid the potentially catastrophic consequences of a no-deal, cliff-edge scenario.
U.K. and EU negotiators pushed their talks close to the December 31 deadline despite the European Parliament’s warnings that at least three months would be needed for proper scrutiny and ratification.
In March, political group leaders in the Parliament decided to postpone their ratification vote after the U.K. unveiled plans to unilaterally extend grace periods on post-Brexit customs checks at Northern Ireland’s ports for at least six months. The Commission said in a statement at the time that such a move marked the “second time” the U.K. government had been “set to breach international law” after a heated row over the border erupted in 2020.
In the interview on Tuesday, Sassoli made clear on that the ratification of the deal must move forward, regardless of the U.K.’s actions, and he insisted that there would be no further delay. “I’ll tell you honestly that many times, even we struggle to understand some of the behavior on the other side of the Channel,” he said, adding: “What we want is a serene development of the agreements that have been sealed.”
“We have always been very patient, but we are at a critical point now,” Sassoli said.
Officials said that a majority of MEPs appear ready to give their consent. The text must first go through the Parliament’s foreign affairs and trade committees before the April plenary session.
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