«No EU-UK flights after Brexit», Ryanair chief warns

Air carriers can't wait the end of negotiations, scheduled for March 2019. Connections to be disrupted already in September 2018, with British government considered as no problem-solver

by Emanuele Bonini

Brexit «will bring chaos for aviation», with no EU-UK air connections of any kind after March 2019, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary warned today. Although the conditions for exiting the European Union has to be found the 29th of March of that year at the latest, «for carriers the deadline is September-October 2018, when flights will be abolished», he said in a public hearing held in Brussels. «The aviation sector won't wait» so long, and clear conditions have to be in place before the scheduled roadmap in order to allow companies to operate. Both technical and praticals reason require the commercial environment to be clearly defined and predictable. Slots have to be resersed in advance, but in order to ask for them it is necessary to know whether operating flights is possible. So, be ready for the worst. «There is the perspective of not having EU-UK flights in April, 2019. With no deals, flights will be deleted, as the 2019 summer holidays will»

The major concern for the Irish carrier is the uncapability of the British government to find the way out. «British have no idea of they are doing, have no plans, and have no idea what the want» for the future, O'Leary criticised. With these premises it has not a surprise if the touristic sector is in allarm. TUI Group, the world's number one tourism business, has commissioned a study with the aim of investigating the possibile side effects of Brexit. In case of EU-UK flights black-out the EU27 tourism industry stands to lose some €21 billion in business, warned Ralf Pastleitner, Director International Public Policy, Group Corporate & External Affairs of TUI Group. GDP could shrink of 2.8% in Malta, and of 0,5% in Spain, just to give an example. The fact that such a study has been tabled is the proof that concerns are there, are real and the business world is working in order to be ready to address all the possible scenarios, included the worst ones.

Fact-checking, or the index of our failure

More than a journalistic exercise. Today is a systemic need to get away from an increasingly widespread practice of hide the truth

by Emanuele Bonini

Truth, truth, nothing but truth. Apparently the real world is lost in fakes. There is no other explanation for the new season of fact-checking exploded all across Europe and beyond. Newspapers, newswires and websites are more and more focused on searching for truth. In normal times and normal conditions, normality foreseen that journalists verify what they have to write before publishing it. Checking before publish is an obligation linked to the fair activity of every single reporter, but here something is wrong. But we don't live in normal times. Distortion and misinformation are the new practice. There's nothing wrong in journalist, apart from being part of this corrupted system.

In the internet era getting a clear image of what world is about is today more and more complex and complicated. Thousends of thousends of websites flourish in number and actvity, promoting and stimulating debates on everything. Most of the times negating the truth, and here we come to the true big issue: in web we trust. If the internet becomes the community of virtual information, the real world becomes virtual, too. Internet is the place where people get informed. But internet is an unsafe space. Fake news are our every day meal, and media are obliged to follow the rules of a game radically changed. People are finding in the so-called «alternative» source of information their main landmark. Real information producers have lost in confidence and credibility, and have been forced to work in order to regain a missing trust by verifying the supposed reliability of the «alternative truths».

EU Court ruled out ticket flight refunds for bird strikes

Accidents have unpredictable nature and damages occurred are out of the air carrier control

by Emanuele Bonini

Mind the birds. Like in one of the most famous Alfred Hitchcock's movies, the Birds, winged animals can be dangerous and harmful, especially for your pocket. Because of them, you can miss your flight, your journey and your money. According to the the European Court of Justice, delays lasting more than three hours can't be refundable in case of technical problems due to birds. Although bird strikes are episodes not so rare to happen, for the EU judiciary body such events can't be foreseen and not even predicted. That means air carrier are exempted from refunding passengers for their tickets. The EU legislation foresee that air passengers have the right to be reimbursed every time occurs a delay of more than three hours. This happens even in case of technical problems, but not if these are produced of birds got into the plane engine.

There is not only the unpredictable and exceptional nature of bird strikes to "save" air carriers from their repayment obligations. The ECJ ruled that the problems of caused by these accidents to the plane are out of control of the company and its personnel. This the reason why the Court decided to reject the appeal submitted by two European citizens who experienced a five hours delay flight in 2013. Birds are out there, so pay attention. Or simply be ready to pay.

«Elections not a reason for inaction», ECB chief blamed

Mario Draghi criticized the Member States do very little to implement structural reforms

by Emanuele Bonini

Reforms, reforms, reforms. Once again, the president of the ECB, Mario Draghi, urged the governments to implement what is needed to exit the crisis once and for all, calling the Member States not to hide behind the elections as a pretext to avoid maintaining the promised efforts. Draghi has been insisting on the need for structural reforms since he assumed his post, and he still renews his appeal. The latest call was made on at the end of the meeting of the governing council of the European Central Bank, which to decided to maintain unchanged the interest rates and to go on with the Quantitative Easing. The non-standard monetary policy measures, confirmed at the net asset purchases of the new monthly pace of €60 billion, are intended to run until the end of December 2017 or beyond, if necessary. It's the same old story: the ECB does its own part, but the Member States have to do their own. «Things are going better. Recovery previously fragile and uneven, is now solid and broad», the Eurotower chief said at the end of the board meeting. Nevertheless, «economic growth continues to be dampened by a sluggish pace of implementation of structural reforms», whose responsibility lies on the countries of the Euro area. Always. «It’s quite clear that once countries enter into a very important political and election cycle, the push for legislating structural reforms becomes less vigorous. However, this by itself doesn’t justify any absence of action, because even without legislation you have implementation of previously legislated reforms».

EU commissioner declared war on antivaxers

Vytenis Andriukaitis, in charge of Health, made two though intervention against the category of people seen as «irresponsible» in Brussels

Vytenis Andriukaitis

by Emanuele Bonini

Wake up, folks! «Vaccines are one of the safest and most cost-effective ways to ensure public health and avoid preventable diseases», so what's wrong with you? The European Commission went on the attack of anti-vaccination movement. «Anti-vaccination myths and lack of knowledge can lead to people refusing vaccines, which in turn might open the door to disease outbreaks»,the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, said yesterday. It wasn't the first time he took position against the people in favour of abolishing the preparations that provide active acquired immunity to certain diseases. «Shame on you antivaxers!», the EU commissioner previously said in tweet posted on his official personal account.

In papers today: #Measles epidemic in Italy. 1st measles death in Portugal. Measles rise in Germany. Deplorable. Shame on you #antivaxers! pic.twitter.com/OvSuHmHHHw

— Vytenis Andriukaitis (@V_Andriukaitis) April 20, 2017

«It is distressing that some public figures irresponsibly use their position to contribute to distrust of vaccines», Andriukaitis then stated on the occasion of the European Immunisation Week. He recalled that the benefits of vaccines are a matter of fact, not a matter of opinion. About facts, «measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year, before widespread vaccination was put in place in 1980». Today the reality speaks different. «Thanks to Maurice Hilleman's measles vaccine this highly contagious disease is now preventable». Again, smallpox, once one of the world's most devastating diseases, was declared eradicated in 1980 following a global immunisation campaign led by World Health Organization (WHO).

One million migrants blocked in Libya, warned the EU

Representatives from the European Commission and its External Action Service admitted there is a potentially explosive situation on the other side of the Mediterranean sea.

by Emanuele Bonini

Nearly one million people are blocked in Libya and are ready to come to Europe, the European Commission warned today. Migrants and asylum seekers are in special detention centres, and not all of them is controlled by the Libyan authorities. If the situation should get deteriorated, it would be impredictable for everybody to imagine what could be. In 2016 more the 180,000 arrivals from Lybia have been registered, but the situation could radically change, said the deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Maciej Popowski, during a public hearing hosted by the Committee on Civil Liberties of the European Parliament.

«Nearly one million people are blocked in Libya, so far. Not all of them come to Libya with the idea of reaching Europe, but now there is no job in the country». So what? The European Commission is trying to manage the migration crisis by acting in remote control. «We operate from Tunis for security reasons», he told MEPs. How the EU can get the situation under control in such a way? They can't, as recognised by  ‎the Desk Officer for Libya at European External Action Service (EEAS), Andrea Pontiroli. The situation in the country «is not progressing, and tension rise», he said. The country remains politically fragile, and a real fully in charge government is not in place. Economically speaking, risks of «collapse» are just behind the corner: Libya based most of national economy on oil production, and now it is shrinking with no alternatives made available. Furthermore, when it comes to migrants it has to be recognised that the phenomenon is not nationally controlled. Detention centres for refugee in Libya «are often controlled by militias instead of State», the EEAS representative admitted. So Libya is nothing but a time bomb ready to explode at any moment.

No CV, in Italy job is got by playing futsal

Italian minister of Labour explained how it works in his country. Nothing new

Giuliano Poletti

by Emanuele Bonini

In order to get a job «is better to play five-a-side football than send a CV». For this sentence the Italian minister of Labour and Social Policies, Giuliano Poletti, was asked to step down amid harsh critics. No matter if it was a gaffe or a misunderstanding, the point is Poletti didn't nothing but say what Italy is about. There was no intention of offending anybody, since everybody's dignity has been already offended by the clientelism typical of Italy. The country is about that: personal connections. Poletti tried to express better the concept of the 5-a-side football, and the result was exactly that. «I did not belittle the value of the CV, but I stressed the importance of a relationship of trust that can develop outside the school context». This something completely true: connection is on the basis of meritocracy in Italy. Tell me who you know, and I'll tell what you'll become.

It is not the first time a minister of the Italian republic explains what is the country in reality. In 2001 the minister of Infrastructures of that time, Pietro Lunardi, said the country «has to live with mafia». Was the minister wrong? No, he wasn't. Unless the State wants to enter into a civil war, the only way to deal with organised-crime is the promotion of a cultural policy which of course takes time to give results. Meanwhile mafia is there and the everybody has to live with. So, there was nothing wrong in Lunardi's words. Exept for the fact he was a minister and given the role he had at that time he wasn't allowed to think and speak that way. Now it's Poletti's turn. He didn't do anything wrong. He just unveiled what Italy is about. Unfortunately he didn't mention he's supposed to be there to change the country.

Companies can proihibit the Islamic veil at work

At certain conditions the measure is not a discrimination, according to the ECJ

by Emanuele Bonini

The Islamic veil can be not allowed at work, according to the European Court of Justice in its verdict issued yesterday. The EU institution based in Luxembourg said companies can prohibit to wear political, philosophical and confessional dresses in name of the principle of neutrality, if explicit internal firm dispositions foresee it. The judgement was about two different cases involving the traditional female clothing typical of the Islamic culture, but in taking the decision a general principle was set by the European body.

On one hand the EU recognise freedom of religion, but on the other hand it is also recognised the right of neutrality for both public and private sector. In name of such principal, no political signs or cultural symbols can be exposed to public. The European Court of Justice thus admitted that a ban of Islamic veil doesn't constitute a form of preliminary discrimination. Of course, in order to don't generate discriminations such a ban can't be imposed only for a single person or a single category of groups, whatever they are (political, religious and so on). Furthermore, the ECJ clarified that in order to respect the right of neutrality, people are not allowed to show any peculiar signs in public, meaning that the Islamic veil can be kept for internal jobs and all those roles for which is not foreseen any relations with external people.

EU remedy to migration issue is children detention

The controversial proposal in the recommendation to the Member State, formally adopted today

"To migrate is a right. No jail for migrants"

by Emanuele Bonini

Children can be imprisoned as migrants, according to the latest proposal of the European Commission. The controversial rule is foreseen by the recommendation on making returns more effective when implementing the Directive on Returns. New dispositions have been adopted in principle last week, but formal adoption will take place when all language versions are available, which is expected to happen today, 8th of March. It means that from today the EU legislation can be applied in the tougher manner, and the Member States «should not preclude in their national legislation the possibility to place minors in detention, where this is strictly necessary to ensure the execution of a final return decision in sofar as Member States are not able to ensure less coercive measures than detention that  can be applied effectively in view of ensuring effective return».

In European Commission intentions, returns have to speeded up. In the meanwhile, irregular migrants have to be managed and kept on the EU territory until they are not sent back to their country of origin. It has written in the recommendation that «for the purpose of effectively ensuring removals of illegally staying third-country nationals, Member States should use detention as needed and appropriate, and in particular where there is a risk of absconding». A initial period of maximum six months of detention should be foreseen by national legislations, with the possibility of extent up to 18 months in case of need. In order to better deal with the phenomenon of irregular migrants - all those who are not entitled to apply for international protection - Member States are asked to put in place measures to effectively locate and apprehend third-country nationals staying illegally, wherever they are.

Time for low-cost medicines, said the EU Parliament

The Plenary passed a resolution calling for more affordable prices and full access to cure for all

by Emanuele Bonini

It is time to put and end to the high cost of medicines, said the European Parliament in a resolution approved in latest session of the Plenary by 568 votes to 30, with 52 abstentions. Pharmaceutical products have no-limits in price increase, making more and more difficult for people to get access to cures. The EU body thus decided to respond the needs of people by passing a text calling for measures to improve the traceability of R&D costs, public funding and marketing expenditure in name of transparency. Members of the Parliament adopted a non-legislative resolution, whose political message is however strong: medicines must be more affordable.

Barriers to medicines access. The resolution denounced how «in many cases the prices of new medicines have increased during the past few decades to the point of being unaffordable to many European citizens». All this happened despite ensuring patient access to essential medicines be one of the core objectives of the EU and the WHO. However the possibility of medicines depends on their timely availability and their affordability for everyone, without any geographical discrimination. Such conditions are not met, the MEPs complained. «Certain essential medicines are not available in many Member States, which can lead to problems with regard to patient care». This lack of basic pharmaceutical product is supposed to be due to «illegitimate business strategies, such as "pay for delay" in the pharmaceutical sector, or political, manufacturing or distribution issues, or parallel trade».