EU News

Brussels confronts Galway local authorities over flooding GALWAY County Council came under the EU spotlight this week when officials at the European Parliament announced they would be seeking an explanation from the local authority over its failure to help local flooding victims. The probe follows a petition lodged with the influential EU Petitions Committee by three families who were forced to evacuate their Claregalway homes in November 2009 because of extreme flooding. At a hearing in Brussels this week, the families told MEPs and European Commission representatives that their properties had been completely destroyed in the floods and that the previous government had refused to provide any financial assistance or help with relocation. EU officials at the hearing were very sympathetic to the Galway families, however they pointed out that there is no EU directive to cover flooding, meaning that the responsibility for flood prevention and compensation falls on the Irish government and the local authority. Northwest MEP Jim Higgins, who assisted the families in bringing their case to Europe, said the European Parliament Petitions Committee has resolved to write to Galway County Council, the government and the Ombudsman on the issue. A three-month deadline has been set for a response, after which the case will again be reviewed in Brussels. Speaking following the hearing, Mr Higgins was highly critical of the failure of the local authority to respond to what he was said was a 'humanitarian issue.' However, the Fine Gael MEP added that he was 'still hopeful' of a positive resolution for the families at the centre of the case. Defrauded investors should get €100,000 compo PRIVATE investors who fall foul of fraudulent or defaulting investment firms could be in line to receive at least €100,000 in compensation under new guidelines put forward by a top EU committee this week. The figure, which was agreed by MEPs on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, is double the minimum compensation level of €50,000 initially proposed by the European Commission. The committee also made a number of other changes to the draft legislation including a provision to allow local authorities, NGOs and private individuals to file compensation claims. And, while the Commission said a period of ten years should be allowed for compensation schemes to reach their required funding level, MEPs said just five years should be sufficient. The committee also broke new ground by widening the permissible grounds for claiming compensation to include cases where it is proven in court that an investment firm gave 'bad advice.' The proposed changes to the current EU rules on investor compensation schemes will now go the Council to allow member states agree a common position. Once this is achieved, MEPs in the European Parliament are due to vote on the draft text this summer. EU sets up green energy fund for local authorities LOCAL city and county councils across the Northwest are being urged to take advantage of a new €220 million fund for sustainable energy projects launched this week in Brussels. The European Energy Efficiency Facility will enable local authorities to apply for the necessary funds to implement measures like energy-saving in public and private buildings, clean urban transport, street lighting and the greater availability of renewable energy. Initial funding of €146 million was increased to €220 million when investors backed the project, and it's hoped the available funding could rise further as more investors come on board. In the meantime, local government bodies and any public or private companies acting on their behalf are encouraged to apply for the green funding, which will be allocated over the next three years, ending in 2014. Welcoming the announcement, Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún said the investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy aims to cut CO2 emissions and reduce Europe's dependence on imported energy supplies. 'I strongly urge our public authorities to maximise the benefit from the upcoming scheme, which will see an increased investment in smaller-scale energy saving, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects,' she said. Contamination risk of canned fish from Japan CONCERNS that shoppers could be buying radiation-contaminated fish from Japan because of shortcomings in EU labelling rules were raised this week at the European Parliament. A senior member of the Fisheries Committee pointed out that EU rules on country-of-origin labelling only cover fresh fish, while canned fish and seafood need only display where processing took place, as opposed to where fish were caught. Italian MEP Guido Milana called on the European Commission to immediately improve the labelling of canned fish and other food that might have been contaminated by nuclear radiation. 'Radioactivity in Japanese seawater was recently at one million times the legal limit so this is a matter of great concern,' said Mr Milana. However Northwest MEP Pat 'the Cope' Gallagher, also a member of the Fisheries Committee, dismissed any risk of contaminated fish from Japan ending up in Irish shops. 'If you look at the logistics of this, the time that any fish in cans would have been caught was well before any leakage from the Japanese disaster,' said the Fianna Fáil MEP. However he accepted the need to change labelling laws so that consumers are adequately informed on where their canned fish comes from. 'This should be dealt with as expeditiously as possible in order to reassure the consumer that they're not buying contaminated fish from Japan,' he said.