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Page 4: The youth of today is the Europe of tomorrow - CULTPage 6: Europe trading 2.0 - INTAPage 8: Stepping into the future - CLIMPage 10: Why military interventions must remain an exception - AFETPage 12: Artists on a sinking ship - JURIPage 14: Europe’s other deficit - AFCOPage 16: Finding irony in spilled milk - AGRIPage 18: Corruption: the life and soul of parties - LIBE

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CONTENT

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Dear delegates,

I’d like to give you a very warm welcome to Bilbao 2013. After some months of preparation, the date has finally arrived: you are here, reading these lines. Maybe your trip was easy, or maybe your luggage has got lost on the way and now you feel obliged to wear the same pants for four days. But for now do not worry, you are here!

Look around you. These strange people that you see might someday become some of your best and closest friends. With these people and here you might have the time of your life.My personal advice: Enjoy every moment of this session, it might be your new beginning.

Love,Anna

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‘Unity in diversity’, such is the watchword of the European Union. Sadly enough, it seems that the fields in which this slogan is applied at its best, are those concerning social and economical issues.

Today in Europe, the joblessness affecting the young generations is scandalously high. Even thou-gh it is a general trend for youth unemployment to be more important than for all other ages, its rise since the year 2008 has become very alarming. Ac-cording to Eurostat 2012 figures, round 25% of the 15 and 24 years old, that is to say more than 7,5 million individuals, are jobless. In such states as Spain or Greece, this rate even exceeds the 50% line.

wIf the bracket is extended to 29 years old – which immediately makes more sense, because the part of actual job-seekers is more important then –,we reach the appalling number of 14million people. Why is that so?

The European Union is nowadays facing this dou-ble-issue, in which the rigidity of the labour market and the numerous incoherences in the scholar sys-tem of the Member States are closely linked.

On the one hand, the labour world needs qualified workers, that is to say workers with a good level of education as well as adapted competences. In other words, employers recruit people mastering both theory and practice, because those make the best employees.

On the other hand, most of the European educatio-nal system do not provide for both theory and prac-tice. That is the reason why every year thousands of young Europeans finish University with prestigious degrees and yet, cannot find jobs because of their

very limited – if not inexistent – experience in the labour world. Still, having a degree and no job is somehow bet-ter than having neither of them. Unfortunately, this situation is becoming a generalised trend all over Europe. Each year, 6 million people under 24 years old abandon any kind of studies, which means that they have no education at all and even fewer chan-ces to find work than the others. These people are called the NEETS (young person with No Education Employment or Training). Why is this situation a threat for the future of Eu-rope? First of all, this dangerous scheme is forming a vi-cious circle: If nothing is done to solve this problem, the economic consequences will be disastrous: Eu-rope will have to spend money to sustain and assist millions of people. But how can money be spent if no one is making it?

Socially and politically speaking, the widening of the gap between the working, educated people and the underprivileged ones can’t but create tensions and instability. Furthermore, the increasing of une-ducated people furnishes easy targets to manipu-late, especially in time of crisis.

For all these reasons, common solutions are to be found. To improve the flexibility of the labour market in a smart way, the labour protection laws – which are a warranty of stability for mature workers but which are also a barrier for the new ones – shall be reformed so as to give young people a chance.

To prevent academic failure, some scholar reforms are required. That would provide remedial courses and educational support for the students who need it.

The youth of today is the Europe of tomorrow

Kensa Traoré

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Also, the example of apprenticeship in the German system can be very useful for those who do not fit in a ‘traditional’ structure, and would also regulate the cases of unadapted qualifications.

Eventually, the two main things to keep in mind are that the labour market and the education of the young generations are tightly linked and have

impacts on each other. To straighten the situation of today, intelligent and coherent changes on both sides are needed.

Europe needs to straighten things out now, to have a sustainable and lasting future, exempt from was-ted money and sacrificed generations.

CULT

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The EU is one of the most open economies in the world and covers about 20% of the global trade, so it is a true privilege and an easing factor for the SMEs (Small and Medium Entreprises) from the EU to develop further from the base given. Such opportunities cannot be found in other economic unions but now the companies have an urge to spread even further to the world. Technological development, opening global markets, regional and national economic co-operation pacts in other continents and unions drive the SMEs abroad and outside of the boarders of the EU.

SMEs get a lot of support but internationalism is missing. The EU has already developed many funds, support channels and loans to help en-terprises to practice in the EU. Not until recently, the standards have risen and it is needed to take practice overseas, but not too many companies have the courage to do it. What is slowing down the process?

Many enterprises rely on direct access to foreign companies and customers instead of contacting them themselves. As many companies fret to take the first step towards internationalisation, the EU should provide a continuously updated database, where the companies can easily meet with pros-pective customers. These tools would be more than worthwhile, as some companies do not have such contact lists of their own.

Encouraging the growing enterprises to spread over the union borders in an earlier phase, would allow them to get more attention on the long run, and so profit from several different sectors in many countries. The enterprise needs to serve a versatile variety of goods and services to seem wanted in order to receive more customers. Most of the SMEs are new companies and inexperien-ced in advertising and media. Advertisements at-tract customers and raise publicity, which cannot be gained in any other way. Worldwide common,

Europe trading 2.0Charlotta Lahnalahti

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INTA

coherent and up-scale campaigns for all foreign SMEs would guarantee good results to the com-panies and so spread awareness of the company and the organization further.

SMEs are important forces in international trade. In non-EU countries the so called EU-embassies, support centres for companies wishing to work in the country, should be established. The em-bassy would represent the country and the pos-sibilities it can offer for potential EU SMEs. Such culture centres would offer information and help at the beginning for the SMEs to get started in the country. They would considerably lower the threshold to contact foreign countries and start a business there.Already by spreading one’s enterprise within the borders of the EU, the development of the SMEs and the experience gained are major. However, when considering the benefit one can get from international trade instead, this would lead to

more vast results. Why not take the chance and spread the company’s wings and try other conti-nents? The openness of the trade and economy has in a catalytic way increased the amount of SMEs in the EU and its co-working countries. It is a fact that for the economy of the EU to grow, SMEs as the basis will need to gain ground in other continents. The European citizens cover less than 10% of the world’s population but are still the trailblazers for many years to come, if we keep up with the on-going world and its passing possibilities.

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Stepping into the future

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The debate over climate change has been going on for more than two decades with no significant conclusion. Probably because, as Harald Winkler – researcher on cli-mate change at Cape Town University – declared, it all seems to have become “too political for the technicians and too technical for the politicians.”

Since 2005, countries have been negotiating in two trac-ks – the Kyoto Protocol and the Long-term Cooperative Action (LCA) group. Conference of the Parties (COP) 18’s aim has been to link these two tracks, but its results have been highly unsuccessful. These are, for example, the dropping out of countries from the second stage of the Kyoto Protocol and the pledge for a greater Climate Finance being voiced through lesser countries.

In addition, the current economic crisis has knocked down climate issues from the top of the EU’s list of con-cerns. Focused on the human impacts of economic stag-nation, decisions-makers are suffering from short-term myopia.

However, it is plausible to deal jointly with the financial and the environmental debts. A solution could be to re-direct the growth engine: from investing in other finan-cial products to supporting low carbon projects. Thus, the cooperation of the EU and the banking system is crucial. The latter could issue ‘carbon’ financial products attracti-ve to domestic savers, due to a strong public guarantee, a return on investment higher than that of usual safe de-posits and by their ‘ethical’ aims.

As far as technology is concerned, the carbon concen-tration in the atmosphere should be reduced by what we could call a ‘balancing process’. This would be the result of reducing the input of carbon, by the greater use of fully competitive renewable energy resources and increasing the output of carbon by processes such as Carbon Captu-re and Storage (CCS). Perhaps the EU can get some inspi-ration from the new coalition of Latin countries, which is driving toward a low-carbon economy.

All in all, the current approach to climate change can be redefined. The Committee on Climate Change has to know there is no ‘silver bullet’ for this matter. Yet, they must take the tools that lay in front of them to solve it, and have the will to trigger for change. This is not an easy task, but a worthy one. No one ever said shooting for the stars was easy.

Stepping into the futureCristina Crespo

CLIM

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The Western world’s moral debts to Africa are enor-mous. Having exploited several countries during the colonisation leaves many Europeans feeling respon-sible for the development and the well-being of the continent. This was one of the key arguments when it came to a military intervention in Libya during the Arab Spring, but also the recent involvement in Mali. Whether the concerned people are actually helped with that is questionable. The tremendous failure of the Afghanistan intervention has made an example as to how things can go wrong, when a foreign force wants to impose their own ideology on a nation with a different culture. Having to fight a fragmented group - such as the Taliban or the Al-Qaida - compli-cates the precarious situation even more.

But Afghanistan is not Libya, is not Mali. Those ca-ses are all very different: When in one case the aim was to topple a tyrannic dictator, in the other it was to keep the current government in power. Meaning: Whether an intervention takes place or not is large-ly dependent on the relation between two govern-ments. And this is where things become disputable: Is the motivation of the European countries and the USA sincerely the well-being of the people, or is it the business of the governments behind closed cur-tains?

This is the sort of question that not only sensible Europeans ask themselves, but also the citizens of Afghanistan, Libya and Mali. They have been obser-ving the Western forces very carefully, since they are still mentally scarred from the gruesome beha-viour some countries have displayed in the course of history. Yet – especially in the latest case – it also happens that they really do approve of the foreign aid, even if it means downgrading parts of their sta-

Why military interventions must remain an exception

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te sovereignty for a period of time. In Northern Mali people applauded the French troops when they re-seized villages and cities from the Islamists. The difficulty remains with the decision-makers abroad, who have to assess the acceptance of the people in the concerned country.

The overall issue, however, doesn’t end here. His-tory has shown that even interventions that were agreed upon by the people don’t always succeed. And this is why it is the task of the European Union, as a union who strives for peace, to find alternati-ves. The most pacifist approach is the prevention of conflicts. However, this requires a good and broad education of the people, political stability and a sound economy. The plan is there, but putting it into practise is a massive challenge.

Religious differences are one part of the problem. Fundamentalists, but also more moderate religious groups will never agree with a European education for their children – finding a consensus there is a Herculean task. Besides, there are plenty of groups who have no interest in political stability – this does not only include Islamist groups such as the AQIM or the Ansar Dine, but also the influential elite of the respective countries. And without a stable political state, there will be no investments and consequent-ly no economic growth.

As you can see, there is a wealth of problems to tackle. Military interventions should be considered as emergency brakes when every other effort was in vain – and certainly not as long-lasting solutions. The aim has to be to create stable conditions, for violent interventions in the name of safety and de-mocracy must remain exceptions.

AFET

Tim Honegger

Why military interventions must remain an exception

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We are all aware of today’s situation where it has become more common to download media files, both legally and illegally, and listen to free music streaming sites such as Spotify, than it is to purcha-se these products in real stores. We have all heard the downhill statistics concerning CD and film sa-les. Stores shut down; hard working artists give up; businesses close. This affects a whole industry and the business community is worried about today’s trend. It is not only a worry to the European Union, but also for industries all over the globe. Perhaps, without realising it, most citizens that are involved in piracy are in one way or another indirectly su-pporting and dealing with organised crime. Never-theless, the question is whether the European in-dividual does and should care about this matter?

Piracy is an ongoing and growing issue. This is something that has changed rapidly over the last decades. The ongoing directives by the European Commission are now considered rather outdated and therefore not made for the present generation. Neelie Kroes, the EU’s Digital Agenda Commissio-ner, agrees to the previous statement and declares that the measures have been ineffective, “We need to keep on fighting against piracy, but legal enfor-ceability is becoming increasingly difficult. The mi-llions of dollars invested trying to enforce copyright have not stemmed piracy”.

Moreover, Kroes is concerned over people’s per-ception of copyright, regulating piracy and the cu-rrent system in general. People seem to tend to focus on the negative perspectives which often claim that they would hinder innovation and puni-sh citizens. That is not necessarily the case. The need for a stricter copyright enforcement would not be implemented to punish or harm people, but to reward and give recognition to the creators. Still, one argument is that regulations of open media sources would violate one of the most essential Hu-man Rights, the freedom of speech, meaning that websites should be free - a place to share all sort of knowledge and information.

Also, a study on Piracy from the European Commis-sion released this year has caused outrage from the music industry. It claims that piracy is, to an extent, not as bad for the music industry as as-sumed. In fact, Internet users do not view illegal downloading as a substitute to legal digital music, according to their results. In addition, piracy has a positive effect on music sales and without it sales would have been even lower. So, the conclusion of this study is that piracy within the music industry should not be seen as a growing concern for copyri-ght holders in a modern time. Instead, it highlights the upcoming importance of online streaming sites and their positive future outlook.

Artists on a sinking shipNathalie Thiel

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Even though the report from the European Com-mission showed optimism while putting its belief in a new future market where the spotlights are on streaming sites, it might be too naive to simply rely on those sources. Piracy and illegal downloads are not to be encouraged by any means. A life as an artist is not easy with today’s open source media where information and files can easily be shared globally. The economic crisis has not aided the si-tuation. Surely, some new musicians use the open media to their advantage to give their art attention, but mostly it affects artists to their disadvantage. Therefore, there is a need to improve the protection of the citizens and their rights in order to encoura-ge innovation, creativeness and development, not to restrain it.

Furthermore, organised crime is increasingly invol-ved in piracy in the film industry. Thus, if one pur-chase piracy films there is a possibility that some of the money will go to funding of crimes such as: drugs, human trafficking and terrorism. Moreover, illegal acts like film piracy and counterfeiting are sometimes more profitable than drug trafficking.

So, yes, regarding to the size of the industry, the number of people involved, and the crimes this can lead to; I do believe that it is something both indivi-duals and society at large should care about, if they do not already.

JURI

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When looking at any current news reports regar-ding the European Union, the term ‘deficit’ is one that immediately conjures thoughts of the financial instability, which currently constrains the Eurozone. However, there is another deficit present, one that threatens to undermine not just the status of Eu-rope as a financial superpower, but also its status as a liberally democratic institute. With the afore-mentioned financial crisis expanding euro-sceptic agendas and viewpoints, the continued low turnout of voters for European Parliament elections is ad-ding further credibility to anti-European political ar-guments, which continue to threaten the status of the union.

The underlying reason for low turnout within Euro-pean Parliament elections is one of a confusing, almost contradictory nature. The elections are of-ten considered of far less importance to EU citizens than their respective general, national elections. Citizens feel, perhaps wrongly, that issues of the EU lack importance when in comparison to those at hand in national politics; that the actions and decisions taken by the EU will not affect them as profoundly as those taken by their own politicians. But at the same time people still seek to question the power of the EU, accusing it of being dispro-portionate in terms of its mandate and electoral accountability. There are also constant arguments levied against the EU’s alleged improper handling and direction of its vast budgets.

The most startling notion regarding these views is that the people indeed have the power to vote and influence these matters. It is widely known that is-sues exist regarding the power of the EU in relation to its turnout. An opportune way to rectify this is

to vote. Yet still the detractors shy away from this and continue to criticise. Those who point to the misdirection and existence of poor policy within the EU are those who again opt not to use the power of their vote to push for change in this matter.

Then how, many ask, can this be changed? It is ar-gued that the role of media campaigns in promoting engagement in these elections have fallen short of the required successes needed to establish them as efficient options in solving the problem of the democratic deficit.

Democratic accountability is clearly something the EU considers one of its fundamental principles. This is wholly reflected in the attention paid to this area in some of the major constitutional develop-ments of the EU, such as the Maastricht & Lisbon treaties. These treaties increased the democratic accountability and transparency of the EU in nume-rous ways, but focused key points of their legisla-tion upon the process of voting.Whatever the solution, it is clear that major steps need to be taken to ensure all those who can com-ment on or live in the EU, respect it as the democra-tic union of which it has the potential to be. Indeed, all the necessary tools are there within the consti-tutional make-up of the EU, to establish it as one the most participatory democracies in the liberally democratic world. Citizens just need to be guided along those steps.

Europe’s other deficitJosh Leyden

AFCO

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Much has been said about climate change, little has been done so far. Whilst people are currently facing starvation in many developed countries, with 15% of the world’s population described as ‘malnourished’, EU far-mers dump thousands of litres of milk in front of the EU Parliament. It is naive to address climate change, hunger in the world, and agriculture with such simplistic and po-pulist phrases, and hope to find a solution. You have to take a look at the history of food se-curity in the world, the EU’s policies regarding said security, and how climate change has influenced legislation in the past decade to understand what needs to be done to address future challenges.

The Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) was intro-duced in the late 1950s as response to a decade of food shortages, which followed World War II. Its aims are to provide a stable food supply to the Eu-ropean market, ensure fair prices for farmers, and to encourage those to modernise and expand. The CAP guarantees farmers inter alia the buying of their surpluses at fixed market prices. Those ‘but-ter-mountains’ or ‘wine-lakes’, as they were called in the 1980s, are then sold to developing nations at under-market value, effectively cancelling out lo-cal farmers there.High food prices, a closed European market, and environmental problems are some amongst many points critics like to point out about the CAP.However, the CAP is not all bad. There is much criti-cism to be made, but one cannot deny the food-se-curity it has brought to the EU. For us, food shorta-ges belong to history.

Climate change will bring about yield declines around the world, with South-East Asia and Sub-Sa-haran Africa getting the worst of it. The effects of rising temperatures on harvests can be observed even today. Due to rising temperatures, the win-dow in which plants can grow is already narrowing down. This sets in motion a chain reaction, at which

end stays a lower calorie intake. Higher food prices result in higher meat prices, resulting in a reduced calorie intake, thus creating a vicious circle for the poor. By 2050, despite all efforts, malnutrition is foreseen to go up by substantial amounts. Climate change cannot be stopped, its effects at best be softened. For famers, the reality is that no legisla-tion aiming to counter this change will save them anymore. They will have to adapt.

With a projected population of 9 billion by 2050, how are we supposed to feed the world, when alre-ady today we struggle to do so?Studies have shown that farmers in Africa can pro-duce the same yield as European farmers if given the same tools. Studies have also shown that to-day’s food-production is high enough to feed the planet, even if the population would grow by ano-ther billion or more. They key lies in distribution and market-prices.

Feeding the world in 2050 will require a deep-sea-ted mentality change in consumer behaviour and markets, supported by the right legislation from key players like the EU. But for now, the EU most ur-gently needs to assure the financial viability of the CAP, reworking its often abused subsidies system, and addressing issuing environmental problems.

Moreover, we need to assure the independence of developing nations by not only providing them with help in times of need, but equipping them with the tools needed to emancipate themselves from aid-programs. Sending food to a country does not tackle the source of its problems. Sweden is the first country to publicly call for an end to subsidies, accusing them of representing large-scale state intervention and drawing attention to the fact that the CAP amounts to 37% of the EU budget. Using Adam Smith to call for a self-regulating market will not work, so what will?The EU needs to give its farmers the right incen-tives to invest in new market-areas, leading away

Finding irony in spilled milkMathieu Lohr

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from the mentality of money-making from surplu-ses. Acting today on the challenges of tomorrow is key. Continuing the policy of giving subsidies to di-rect the market has proven a success in the past 50 years, and should be continued.CAP-and-Trade Policy Legislation has failed more than once to achieve what it has been created for, and there is no guarantee that future reforms will not fail. Yet we cannot forget that we are facing a complex problem, to which exists no easy solution. If we look back and compare to where we stand to-day, noting that climate change is in peoples’ minds like food-shortages were back then, I am more than

confident that we are moving in the right direction. Reforms addressing the subjects talked about in this article could have been taken earlier, yet we cannot change the past. All that is important now is to embrace the challenges of tomorrow and act accordingly.

AGRI

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Greed and power in seek of money: the ingredients needed in a recipe for corruption. A meal, it seems, becoming more popular among politicians’ orders in the economy restaurant. Or is it an innate featu-re of parties?

There’s only one thing for sure: political corruption is a fact and there are quite a few office holders who still get away with murder, hence creating a whirlpool of allegations, accusations, debates over (un)deserved punishment and so on – a slap in the face of a stunned population that not only suffers from a terrible economic crisis but also from a po-litical corruption, the last straw.

The very first question to tackle this issue needs to be posed: to what an extent is this network of co-rruption spread throughout the European Union? According to the EU commissioner for home affairs, Cecilia Malmström, there is a huge economic loss due to corruption in all member states.

However, as the Berlin-based Transparency Inter-national (TI) pointed out in 2012, the most preoc-cupying cases are spotted in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and Slovakia, the most persistent offenders when it comes to public pro-curement. This is, in fact, one of the biggest burdens on the EU who is struggling to bring it to a close. In spite of the effort, the EU legislation cannot cope with this issue and an estimated amount of €120 bi-llion vanishes each year and creeps into the bo-ttomless pockets of some politicians. While they salivate at this scam, inhabitants are evicted from their homes, dismissed from their jobs and so the life goes.

Taking a closer approach to political corruption and its grave presence, Spaniards’ politicians can be put as a shining example. In Spain some of the

Corruption: The life and soul of parties

LIBE

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ruling party members are currently being exposed as truly corrupts, implicated in illegal funding sche-mes – receiving especial donations from business-men – and under the table payments as well as foreign accounts. Even the Prime Minister stands accused of fraud, although nothing has been pro-ved.

This scandal has severely struck the government, who denied all accusations – or just turned a blind eye on this so-called caso Bárcenas –. And, just for the record, this very same Primer Minister, not long ago, imposed austere measures since the econo-mic situation required them, an effort all Spaniards were meant to make.

Sadly, this is not the first time a party is related to corruption. On the contrary, this adds to an end-less list of cases in which politicians have been caught red-handed. The rezoning for private gain, for instance, has also been a common practice in the last years. At least in the well-known caso Malaya of urban corruption, most of the offenders were prosecuted. But, who is left to trust given this political outlook? Dreadful future consequences can only be expected if this situation does not ra-dically change.

It may be true what Lord Acton once said: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts ab-solutely”. But if so, the perspective on our future is quite pessimistic. We cannot deny that political corruption must be eradicated; that is a challenge for us all. Actually, the solution to this may lie in a united Europe against corruption rather than the fight of a single country against its own corruption.Would not it be worth, therefore, giving it a try? Maybe now it is time to get rid of this corrupted and poor morality and become an unstoppable Eu-rope, an outstanding role model. We have got the means, it is all up to us!

Corruption: The life and soul of parties

LIBE

Carles Raich

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