Published: 16 April 2019

Safety features such as intelligent speed assistance and advanced emergency-braking system will have to be installed in new vehicles as from May 2022.“This law is paving the way to save thousands of lives in the coming years. Our focus was always on the safety of road users, especially vulnerable ones. The additional obligatory equipment for cars, trucks and buses will help to save people’s lives”, said Róża Thun (EPP, PL), who steered this legislation through Parliament. The provisional deal with EU ministers was reached on 26 March.Vehicles better equipped to prevent accidentsThe advanced systems that will have to be fitted in all new vehicles are: intelligent speed assistance; alcohol interlock installation facilitation; driver drowsiness and attention warning; advanced driver distraction warning; emergency stop signal; reversing detection; and event data recorder (“black box”).The intelligent speed assistance (ISA) system could reduce fatalities on EU roads by 20%, according to estimates. “ISA will provide a driver with feedback, based on maps and road sign observation, always when the speed limit is exceeded. We do not introduce a speed limiter, but an intelligent system that will make drivers fully aware when they are speeding. This will not only make all of us safer, but also help drivers to avoid speeding tickets”, Ms Thun said.For passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, it will also be mandatory to have an emergency braking system (already compulsory for lorries and buses), as well as an emergency lane-keeping system.Most of these technologies and systems are due to become mandatory as from May 2022 for new models and as from May 2024 for existing models.Trucks and buses safer for cyclists and pedestriansTrucks and buses will have to be designed and built to make vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians, more visible to the driver (so-called “direct vision”). Those vehicles will have to be equipped with advanced features to reduce “to the greatest possible extent the blind spots in front and to the side of the driver”, says the text.Direct vision technology should be applied to new models as from November 2025 and for existing models from November 2028.Improved crash tests and windscreensThe new rules also improve passive safety requirements, including crash tests (front and side), as well as windscreens to mitigate the severity of injuries for pedestrians and cyclists. Type-approval of tyres will also be improved to test worn tyres.Next stepsThe regulation, approved by Parliament with 578 votes to 30, and 25 abstentions, will now be submitted for approval to the EU Council of Ministers.In 2018, around 25 100 people died on EU roads and 135 000 were seriously injured, according to preliminary figures published by the Commission.

Published: 16 April 2019

The strong performance of the far-right in Finland’s elections has shown the strength of anti-immigrant parties across the continent, just over a month before the European parliament elections.The Finns Party more than doubled its seats under the leadership of hardline nationalist Jussi Halla-aho in Sunday’s vote.It took 17.5 percent of the ballots, just behind the Social Democrats who came in first with 17.7 percent — which could make it tricky for Social Democrat leader Antti Rinne to form a government that excludes the far-right. The far-right has made new gains recently in EU countries ranging from Estonia to Spain, on top of its strong bases in nations like France, Germany and Italy.European voters are due to choose a new parliament in elections from May 23-26, and gains for the far right would be a new blow for the bloc’s established leaders after the crisis caused by Brexit.– ‘Motor force’ –Identity and immigration are the “motor force” behind the populist vote in Europe, French researcher Jean-Yves Camus, a specialist on the far-right, told AFP.“There is a real crisis of representative democracy which is being challenged through direct democracy,” he told AFP.He said Hallo-aho had driven his party in a much more radical direction than his predecessor Timo Soini, who conformed more to the model of a European national conservative. “There was radicalisation within the Finns Party,” Camus said.Goran Djupsund, a professor of political science at the Abo Akademi University in Finland, noted that no party in the election had passed the 20 percent mark: a sign of growing fragmentation in politics.The party of outgoing prime minister Juha Sipila was relegated to fourth place.

Published: 16 April 2019

Parliament adopted a significant step towards reducing risks in the banking system and establishing the Banking Union, on Tuesday.The rules approved by Parliament and already informally agreed with member states, concernprudential requirements to make banks more resilient. This should help to boost the EU economy by increasing lending capacity and creating more liquid capital markets, and a clear roadmap for banks to deal with losses without having to resort to taxpayer funded bailouts.ProportionalityTo ensure that banks are treated proportionately, according to their risk profiles and systemic importance, MEPs ensured that “small and non-complex institutions” will be subject to simplified requirements, in particular with regard to reporting and to putting fewer funds aside to cover possible losses. Systemically important banks, however, will have to have significantly more own funds to cover their losses in order to strengthen the principle of bail-in (losses imposed on banks' investors (e.g. bondholders) to avoid bankruptcy, instead of state-funded recapitalisation) in the EU.SME supporting factorAs small and medium enterprises (SMEs) carry a lower systemic risk than larger corporates, capital requirements for banks will be lower when they lend to SMEs. This should mean that lending to SMEs will increase.Peter Simon (S&D, DE) the rapporteur for the prudential requirements (CRD-V/CRR-II), said:“In the future, banks will be subject to stricter leverage and long-term liquidity rules. Sustainability is also important, as banks have to adapt their risk management to risks that stem from climate change and the energy transition.”Avoiding taxpayer bailoutsParliament has approved the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) and the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation (SRMR), which means that international standards on loss absorption and recapitalisation will be incorporated into EU law.This new legislation on a clear roadmap for banks to deal with losses should ensure that they hold enough capital and bail-inable debt to not resort to taxpayer bailouts and define conditions for early remedial measures.MoratoriumThe new rules for applying a “moratorium power” will suspend payments by banks that are in difficulty . This power may be activated when it has been determined that the bank is failing or likely to fail and if there is no immediately available private sector measure to prevent the failure. It allows the resolution authority to establish whether it is in the public interest to put the bank into resolution rather than insolvency. The scope of the moratorium would be proportionate and tailored to a concrete case.If the resolution of a failing or likely to fail bank is not in the public interest, it should be wound up in an orderly manner according to national law.ProtectionFinally, Parliament secured provisions to protect small investors from holding bail-inable bank debt, such as bonds issued by a bank when it is not a suitable retail instrument for them. Financial contracts governed by third country law in the EU would need to have a clause acknowledging that it was subject to the resolution rules on bail-in and moratorium.Gunnar Hökmark (EPP, SE), the rapporteur for the BRRD/SRMR package, said: “This is a very important step in the completion of the Banking Union and in reducing risks in the financial system. The new law is balanced, as it sets requirements on banks but at the same time also ensures that banks can play an active role in financing investments and growth”.

Published: 15 April 2019

Across much of Britain's former Asian colonies, many are greeting the United Kingdom's impending departure from the European Union with a mixture of bafflement, apathy, amusement - and a touch of schadenfreude.Britain long justified imperial subjugation by arguing that Rule Britannia brought order, stability and shared prosperity - even after its retreat from colonialism birthed a host of troubled new nations still saddled with historical grievances and legacies to this day.Now Britons face chaos and internal division of their own making, alongside potential isolation and years of economic hardship - particularly if Britain crashes out of the EU with no deal on April 12. "I was born and brought up in this British colony called Hong Kong and used to think that the Brits were a very sensible people," remarked Ms Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy lawmaker in the financial hub."I've been watching Brexit process as a former colonial person and it's almost like a farce; it's sadly funny, sadly amusing. I'm baffled as to why and how things got to where they are now. To outsiders it's almost unthinkable," she told AFP.Ms Mo, 62, came of age politically during a turbulent period for her birthplace sparked by Britain's colonial legacy - the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China.Unlike Brexit, Hong Kongers had no say in their future and many were desperate to obtain British passports in case the handover unleashed chaos.Many youngsters, Ms Mo said, are still looking for opportunities overseas, given Beijing's increasingly authoritarian grip, but they may be less inclined to opt for Britain."I think their first choices here are more likely Australia and Canada," she remarked. In India, Mr Sreeram Chaulia, dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs, said many regard Brexit as the latest chapter in what has been a "sharp decline in the place Britain commands as a great power"."They are not a gold standard to look up to," he said. "We get a feeling of a sinking ship and everybody wants to leave a sinking ship." India's economy is set to overtake Britain's later this year."The UK will then become a middle power. It is like a reversal of scale," he noted. Students at Bangladesh's Dhaka University offered mixed views on what Brexit might mean.Mr Syed Tahsin said he hoped the relationship between the two countries might be "more positive than ever before", given Britain has vowed to strengthen bridges with Commonwealth countries.But others fretted that the anti-immigrant sentiment which fuelled the leave vote would make Britain less welcoming to overseas visitors and the Bangladeshi community already there."Brexit itself is a policy of white supremacists," lamented student Aishwarya Proma, adding she feared it will "just push more... immigrants (to) go back to their countries".While Brits and Europeans may have been engrossed by the unceasing weekly drama of Brexit, many further afield admitted that they were more preoccupied by local issues."The Brexit issue and the wider conversations about democracy seem far removed from daily life in Sri Lanka, where we are all consumed with our own dysfunctional politics," Mr Dharisha Bastians, chief editor of the Sunday Observer newspaper, told AFP.Nationalist Sri Lankan legislator Udaya Gammanpila regarded that disinterest as a good sign."We are no longer preoccupied with British politics. We are slowly getting over our colonial mentality," he said.'BREXIT YOGA'Given its cultural and linguistic links, Australians have followed the Brexit drama perhaps more closely than any other former colony.Mr Nick Miller, Europe correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, noted there was "immediate interest" from readers."The sight of a country deliberately throwing away a close, mutually beneficial partnership, wilfully damaging its economy and influence on a point of cultural principle, was a surprise," he wrote.Though he noted Britain hardly had a monopoly on political dysfunction."We've changed prime ministers six times in the past 11 years, only twice as the result of an election," he wrote.Others have opted for humour.A "Brexit Yoga" video by Australian comic Sammy J - featuring postures such as "Rising Nationalism", "Instant Regret" and "Downward Facing Economy" - went viral last month on Facebook racking up some 5.4 million views.Singaporean economics student Linus Yeo said he was keen to look for silver linings."Feels like the perfect time to take a holiday in the UK," he told AFP. "The pound is probably going into freefall."Meanwhile, freelance cameraman Tanmay, of New Delhi, joked that Brexiters could learn some patience from India."I am not surprised Brexit is taking a long time," he said. "The British took ages to leave here too."AFP