Nanofood, Law and Regulations

The vast majority of laws implemented on food in the European Union comes directly from the EU themselves. The General Food Law Regulation is the base for Food Laws all over Europe and ensures that everywhere in the EU the same standards are followed. Specific food laws concern novel foods, food enhancers, food supplements, materials in contact with food and labelling. Mostly there are no extra laws for nanofood, since they already have to follow the strict rules set up for all foods and food related products. 

This is with one exception. The law of food additives is the only piece of food law that refers specifically to “nanotechnology”. Usually a food additive is not allowed to be used, unless its safety has been tested and it has been authorised. Once that is done, they are being put on the approved list and can within certain conditions be used within the EU. Concerning nanomaterials this law says that authorisation has to be obtained for nano versions of food additives,irrespective of what’s on the approved list.

There is, however, a special legislation on novel foods, which makes it obligatory for producers to label products containing engineered nanomaterials. In the list of ingredients, those substances must be followed by the word “nano” in brackets. Very recently, in March 2014, the European Parliament objected to a change of the definition of nanomaterials. The change, which would have exempted foods containing additives which might be nanomaterials that are already on the market from being labelled, has been proposed by the European Comission.

The reason, the European Parliament presented for the decision to shut this change down, was for consumer protection. The Parliament sees the different properties nanoscale materials have in comparison to their bulk form as a source of great uncertainty about these compounds’s health and environmental impacts. Because of these uncertainties the Members of Parliament see labelling as a way of giving the consumer a choice until more research is done.  

At the moment all producers have to follow special guidelines for testing engineered nanomaterials before adding them to food products. These guidelines have been published by the EU in 2011 and basically state what kind of approval those materials need to have, what criteria they have to fit and what tests have to be completed before they can be used. Still with all those laws, rules and regulations the European Government still sees this new technology critically. 

http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/foodlaw/index_en.htm

http://corporateeurope.org/agribusiness/2014/03/food-lobby-fights-labelling-nano-ingredients

http://www.food.gov.uk/enforcement/regulation/foodlaw/#.U4we_Pl_trM

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/edinterviews/docs/corporatenanotechnology121003.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/nanotechnology/pdf/nano_com_en.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/health/nanotechnology/policy/index_en.htm

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/nanotechnology.htm

http://www.nanoandme.org/regulation/nano-food-and-safety/which-laws/

http://ihcp.jrc.ec.europa.eu/our_activities/nanotechnology/Nano_Food

http://www.nanoandme.org/regulation/nano-food-and-safety/which-laws/

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/nanotechnology.htm

Group Text Project

We wrote our essay on the statement "The EU has had a number of benefits on Spain". Here is our first draft:

According to the EU expenditure and revenue data published on the European Commission homepage, Spain receives more money from the EU budget than they contribute to it. With around 13.6 million euro revenue Spain is the second biggest beneficiary in the Union, after Poland. It can be argued that with approximately 46 million inhabitants Spain is also the fourth biggest country in the EU. However, the contribution to the budget being only 9.9 million euro in 2012 leaves a difference of 3.7 million euro as net profit for the country. Further research conducted in 2006 by the Elcano Royal Institute and the Office of the European Parliament in Spain shows the difference between expenditure and revenue since Spain had joined the EU. This clearly depicts that from the beginning Spain has been one of the few net recipients in the union. The only thing that has changed over the years is the difference between contribution and revenue, which has been growing since 1987. These statistics appoint to the conclusion that from a monetary point of view Spain is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the EU.

In particular with regard to the recent financial crisis Spain has benefited from being in the EU and the eurozone. Spain was one of the first-wave countries to adopt the euro on January 1st in 1999. The euro was adopted as the official currency but was only used as “book money” while the national currency remained in circulation for a period of three years. This period came to an end on February 28th in 2002 and the Spanish peseta was withdrawn from circulation. Since then Spain had benefitted from being a member of the Eurozone, in particular after the financial crisis. One major benefit for Spain was the ESM – the European Stability Mechanism. In 2012 granted the Eurogroup financial assistance for Spanish banks for the first time. In the time between July 2012 and February 2013 Spain received in total €41.4 billion for the recapitalisation of their banking sector. Due to this aid money Spain was able to reestablish financial stability. Progress in budget consolidation has been made and the federal deficit is, according to the European Commission, expected to decline this year to 6.8 percent. In 2012 there were still 10.6 percent. The recent economic model suggests a growing economy and positive developments on the financial market. These figures underline the increasing confidence of the market and would not have been possible without the ESM.

Another problem Spain would not be able to resolve without the EU is youth unemployment. According to a database from the European Commission 5.6 million young people within the European Union were unemployed in September 2013. Countries in recession like Spain are seriously affected. Every one in two Spaniards between the age of 15 and 24 is not employed nor in education or training. It is impossible for these people, also nominated as NEETS (young people not in employment, education or training), to find jobs. Data showed that in Spain the youth unemployment rate has even increased to 57.4% having the second highest rate within the Eurozone after Greece. This fact depicts today’s problems young people living in Spain have to face, but width of support for Spain by the EU is rarely discussed.

The European Union has taken measures to tackle the youth unemployment issue. It generated a programme called Youth Guarantee in order to combat youth unemployment especially in economically weak countries like Spain. For this programme € 6 billion will be mobilized to offer job training and apprenticeships starting 2014. Besides the Youth Guarantee programme, the EU promotes job mobility. It does so by facilitating job opportunities for Spaniards in other EU countries through the EURES job search network . The Council and the European Parliament also developed the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI). The YEI funding supports regions particularly struggling with youth unemployment like Spain. 


The feedback we got from our classmates suggested:
-we look at some of the "this", "these" and "that" again, because it was not always clear what they refered to
-we change the linking words
-we look at specific sentences again, regartding word order
-we make sure the connection between the individual paragraphs improves

This is our second version. The one we submitted:

The purpose of this essay is to emphasize the positive impact the EU has been having on Spain. Even though, huge debates whether or not Spain should leave the European Union have been taking place recently the country undoubtedly benefits from being a member of the Union. Spain joined the European Union in 1987 for democratic, economic and social reasons. Since then, the positive impact the EU had on Spain can be found in many areas. Even before the financial crisis, which would have meant the financial ruin of Spain without help of the EU, Spain had been profiting financially. Also regarding one of Spain's most pressing issue, high youth unemployment, the EU is helping the country to deal with it. Those arguments, together with many more, are the reason to state that Spain has benefited massively from being in the Union.

As mentioned before, already in the years leading up to the financial crisis Spain has profited financially from the EU. According to the EU expenditure and revenue data published on the European Commission homepage, Spain receives more money from the EU budget than they contribute to it. With around 13.6 million euro revenue Spain is the second biggest beneficiary in the Union, after Poland. It can be argued that with approximately 46 million inhabitants Spain is also the fourth biggest country in the EU. However, the contribution to the budget being only 9.9 million euro in 2012 leaves a difference of 3.7 million euro as net profit for the country. Further research, conducted in 2006 by the Elcano Royal Institute and the Office of the European Parliament in Spain, demonstrates the difference between expenditure and revenue since Spain had joined the EU. The results clearly depict that from the beginning Spain has been one of the few net recipients in the union. The only thing that has changed over the years is the difference between contribution and revenue, which has been growing since 1987. These statistics appoint to the conclusion that from a monetary point of view Spain is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the EU.

Particularly regarding the recent financial crisis Spain has benefited from being in the EU and the eurozone. Spain was one of the first-wave countries to adopt the euro on January 1st in 1999. At that time the euro was implemented as the official currency but was only used as “book money” while the national currency remained in circulation for a period of three years. When this period came to an end in 2002 the Spanish peseta was withdrawn from circulation. Since then Spain has been benefitting from being a member of the Eurozone, particularly after the financial crisis. One major benefit for Spain was the ESM – the European Stability Mechanism. For the first time in 2012 financial assistance for Spanish banks has been granted. In the time between July 2012 and February 2013 Spain received €41.4 billion for the recapitalisation of their banking sector. Due to this aid money Spain was able to reestablish financial stability. Progress in budget consolidation has been made and the federal deficit, which has been 10.6 percent in 2012, is, according to the European Commission, expected to decline to 6.8 percent this year. The recent economic model suggests a growing economy and positive developments on the financial market. These figures underline the increasing confidence of the market and would not have been possible without the ESM, without the EU.

Another major issue Spain would not be able to resolve without the EU is high youth unemployment. According to a database from the European Commission 5.6 million young people within the European Union were unemployed in September 2013. Countries in recession like Spain are seriously affected. Every one in two Spaniards between the age of 15 and 24 is neither employed nor in education or training. It is impossible for these people, also nominated as NEETS (young people not in employment, education or training), to find jobs. Data demonstrates that in Spain the youth unemployment rate has even increased to 57.4 percent, being the second highest within the Eurozone, after Greece. This numbers are the reason why the European Union has taken measures to tackle the youth unemployment issue as a whole. A programme called Youth Guarantee has been generated in order to combat youth unemployment especially in economically weak countries like Spain. For this programme 6 billion euros will be mobilized to offer job training and apprenticeships starting 2014. Furthermore the EU is promoting job mobility, by facilitating job opportunities for Spaniards in other EU countries through the EURES job search network. Without this measurements taken by the EU alleviating youth unemployment would be significantly more difficult.

These arguments clearly demonstrate the EU’s benefits on Spain. Being a net recipient certainly has advantages for the country and without the aid of the ESM Spain’s economy would not be able to recover. Additional to these financial benefits the EU had a positive influence on social areas, in particular regarding Spain’s youth unemployment. These were just some of the many arguments that can be stated as examples how Spain has profited from being in the EU.

This is the final version of our essay, after we implemented the corrections made by Fiona and Melissa:

The EU has had a number of positive impacts on Spain. Even though several debates whether or not Spain should leave the European Union have been taking place recently, the country undoubtedly benefits from being a member of the Union. Spain joined the European Union in 1987 for democratic, economic and social reasons. Since then, the EU has positively influenced Spain in many ways. Even before the financial crisis, which would have meant the financial ruin of Spain without help provided by the EU, the EU had been supporting Spain financially. The EU is,  furthermore, assisting the country to deal with its most pressing issue, high youth unemployment. These are some of the arguments that demonstrate how Spain has had an advantage from being in the Union.

Spain had already in the years leading up to the crisis benefited financially from the EU. According to the EU expenditure and revenue data published on the European Commission website, the EU supports Spain with more money than the country contributes to the unions budget. With around 13.6 million euros revenue, Spain is the second largest receiver in the Union, after Poland. In 2012 Spain contributed only 9.9 million euros to the budget, which leaves a difference of 3.7 million euros as net profit for the country. Research conducted in 2006 by the Elcano Royal Institute and the Office of the European Parliament in Spain, demonstrates the difference between expenditure and revenue since Spain has joined the EU. The results clearly show that, starting from the moment when Spain joined the EU, it has been one of the few net recipients in the union. The only thing that has changed over the years is the difference between contribution and revenue, which has been growing since 1987. These statistics point to the conclusion that from a monetary perspective Spain has only had advantages from being a member of the EU.

During the financial crisis Spain has profited significantly from being in the EU, particularly from being in the currency union. Spain was one of the first-wave countries to adopt the euro on January 1st in 1999. At that time. the euro was implemented as the official currency but was only used as “book money” while the national currency remained in circulation for a period of three years. When this period came to an end in 2002 the Spanish peseta was withdrawn from circulation. One major advantage Spain has had from being in the Eurozone was the European Stability Mechanism. For the first time in 2012 financial assistance for Spanish banks has been granted. In the time between July 2012 and February 2013 Spain received 41.4 billion euros for the recapitalisation of their banking sector. Subsequently to receiving the aid money, Spain was able to reestablish its financial stability. Progress in budget consolidation has been made and the federal deficit, which were 10.6 percent in 2012, is, according to the European Commission, expected to decline to 6.8 percent this year. This suggests a growing economy and a positively developing financial market. These improvements would not have been possible without the ESM or the EU.

An additional major issue Spain would not be able to resolve without the EU is high youth unemployment. According to a European Commission database, 5.6 million young people within the European Union were unemployed in September 2013. Countries in recession like Spain are seriously affected. Every one in two Spaniards between the ages of 15 and 24 is Not in Employment, Education or Training. It is impossible for these NEETs to find jobs. Data demonstrates that in Spain the youth unemployment rate has recently increased to 57.4 percent, which is the second highest rate within the Eurozone, after Greece. These numbers are the reason why the European Union has taken measures to tackle the youth unemployment issue all over Europe. A programme called Youth Guarantee has been launched in order to combat youth unemployment, especially in economically weak countries like Spain. For this programme, 6 billion euros will be allocated to offer job training and apprenticeships starting in 2014. Furthermore, the EU is promoting job mobility by facilitating job opportunities for Spaniards in other EU countries through the EURES job search network. Without these measures taken by the EU, alleviating youth unemployment would be significantly more difficult.

These arguments clearly demonstrate the EU’s benefits on Spain. Being a net recipient certainly has advantages for the country and without the aid of the ESM, Spain’s economy would not be able to recover. In addition to the financial support, the EU has had a positive influence on Spain’s society, in particular regarding youth unemployment. This shows how Spain has profited from being in the EU.

Revised Deflation Grave Summary

Original version:


Summary of “Europe already has one foot in ‘Japanese’ deflation grave”

 Ambros Evans-Pritchard, in the Telegraph of October 23, 2013 explains why a policy error in Europe could soon cause a deflation crisis.

Recently inflation in the euro zone has dropped to 0.9 pc with no signs of turning into an upwards trend anytime soon. That is putting the euro zone on the edge of a deflation crisis. According to Evans-Pritchard, a deflation would become absolutely disastrous once a country’s debt surpasses 300pc of GDP. For Countries like Italy or Spain deflation would mean a “runaway debt” situation.

Evans-Pritchard believes the ECB should be doing everything to ensure the inflation does not fall below 2pc. Instead, due to a strong bias towards Germany, the ECB is sitting on its hands, waiting for the global economy to grow again and lift the European economy up. Ironically Germany, fundamentally voting against inflation, is on the edge of deflation itself. According to Evans-Pritchard that offers the perfect opportunity for the “Club Med allies” to unify and use their authority and persuade the ECB to change its policy. If nothing changes Evans-Pritchard fears Europe will follow into Japans footsteps. All it needs is one nasty surprise and Europe will have its very own deflation crisis.

Revised version:
Summary of “Europe already has one foot in ‘Japanese’ deflation grave”

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in the Telegraph of October 23, 2013 explains why a policy error in Europe could soon cause a deflation crisis.

Recently inflation in the euro zone has dropped to 0.9 pc with no signs of turning into an upwards trend anytime soon. According to Evans-Pritchard, deflation would becomes absolutely disastrous once a country’s debt surpasses 300pc of GDP. For countries like Italy or Spain deflation would result in “runaway debt”.

Evans-Pritchard believes the ECB should be doing everything to ensure inflation does not fall below 2pc. Instead, due to a strong bias towards Germany, the ECB is sitting on its hands, waiting for the global economy to grow again and lift the European economy up. Ironically Germany, fundamentally voting against inflation, is on the edge of deflation itself. According to Evans-Pritchard that offers the perfect opportunity for the “Club Med allies” to unify and use their authority and persuade the ECB to change its policy. If nothing changes Evans-Pritchard fears Europe will follow into Japans’ footsteps. Only one surprise could act as a catalyst and Europe will have its very own deflation crisis.

The Concil of Europe

The Council of Europe is the most important organisation besides the European Union in Europe. It was founded in 1949 by ten European states in order to promote democratic stability, human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms all over Europe. The Council further strives to raise awareness of Europe’s cultural identity and diversity. Currently there are 47 members, including all EU member states as well as several other European countries. The general requirements for a country to join this international organisation are to be at least partially located on the European Continent and to share the goals the ten founding countries stated. However, countries that are located beyond European borders can join too, as observer or partner, provided they accept the Council’s guiding principles. These states are permitted to send representatives to the meetings of the Committee of Ministers and intergovernmental committees in order to observe these assemblies. With the Parliamentary Assembly, which consists of 318 men and women from all the member states,  they may attain observer status, meaning that they are authorized to engage in Assembly sessions, only without voting rights. Furthermore the Council also partners up with organizations such as the EU, the UN and a variety of international organizations, including the Arab League Educational, Cultural, Scientific Organization (ALECSO) or the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The main purpose of the Council, with it’s members, observers and partners, is to assure democracy in and cooperation between all European countries, which makes this organisation one of the most important on our continent.

The European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life

The European Union decided to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. As their main reasons the increasing conflict between family and work life with whom families all over Europe have to deal was stated. Throughout the year a special focus will be on social integration, child and family poverty, quality employment and, of course, work family life balance. The main aim is to rase awareness among the EU Memberstates for this cour themes and initiate them to support families. This should be done not just by encouraging already existing programms but also change policies in order to make life easier for families and creaty a family friendly work environment. In the End all of the European citizens should profit from this aggenda. But it is expected that specially women who are often the ones to manage a family are considered to be among the bigger benefiters. At the End of 2014 the EU anticipate an increas in quality of life and a better work life balance for it's citizens. 

Brainstorming:
Aspect of the EU that interest me:
Beeing able to move to (nearly) every EU country and live and work there.
 

work life balance got worse 
focus: social integration, child and family poverty, quality employment, work family life balance
initiate support for families, make life easier 
profit woman

necessary for mental health

prevent burn out 

family friendly work environment

labour market

change in policies in order to make it easier for families

Feedback No. 1: Register and Topic Sentence:
- Cut the "but"s
- don't say the same twice
- topic and Conclusion sentences are okay


Feedback No. 2: Vocab and Kohesion
- Change second sentence (confusing)
- look at initiate again
- expect and consider - saying twice the same thing
- benefiters not a word - beneficiaries
- by encouraging - by changing
- work family life balance does not exist
- the EU anticipates

Revised paragraph:

The European Union decided to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. As the primary reason the increasing conflict between family and work life, with whom families all over Europe have to deal, was stated. Throughout the year a special focus will be on social integration, child and family poverty, quality employment and, of course, work family life balance. The main aim is to rase awareness among the EU Member States for this cour themes and to inspire the individual governments to support families. This should be done not just by encouraging already existing programms, but also by changing policies in order to make life easier for families and creat a family friendly work environment. All of the European citizens should profit from this aggenda. However, it is expected that especially women, who are often to manage the family, are to be among the bigger beneficiaries. At the End of 2014 the EU anticipates an increase in quality of life and a better work life balance for its citizens. 

Final paragraph:

The European Union has decided to designate 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life. It was stated that the increasing conflict between family and work life, with which families all over Europe have to deal, has been a primary reason for this decision. Throughout the year the focus will be on social integration, child and family poverty, quality employment and, of course, work-family life balance. The main aim is to raise awareness among EU Member States of these core themes and encourage the individual governments to increas family support. This should be done not just by strengthen already existing programmes, but also by changing policies in order to make life easier for families and create a family-friendly work environment. Women, who are often the ones to manage a family, are considered to benefit most from these changes. In the End, the EU expects 2014 to bring an increase in quality of life and improvement in work-life balance for all European citizens.
 

Paper Ideas for SUK3

Welcome back to the new semester to everyone!

It has already been a week for everybody now since our third semester has started. I am already very much looking forward towards all the interesting things we are going to learn this semester. As the paper on the EU everyone of us has to write is going to be a huge deal to each and everyone of us here are my suggestions for topics:

Education in the EU - How does the EU handle the differences?

Since the Programme for International Student Assessment is again in every Newspaper, why not try finding out what the difference between the Finnish education system and that of other EU members is? It would be very interesting for me to find out what the EU has to say to that topic.Since in someway we are still part of the educational system and some day our children will be again I find this topic very fascinating. (Maybe it is also because I am going to visit Finnland very soon)

The Nobel Peace Price for the EU

On Friday it is again time for the Norwegian Nobel Committee to announce who the new Nobel Peace Prize goes to this year. In 2012 they decided the European Union to be warded. The official reason stated on the Nobel Peace Prize website is: "The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe." I would very much look deeper in to the matter what the EU has actually done to earn this. For example, that in 1980 they introduced democracy as a condition for EU-membership.

The role of the EU in european sustainable farming

I am sure we have all heard about the ridiculous cucumber law. But what exactly is the European Union doing in order to help our farmer grow sustainable food for all of us? How are European agricultural laws helping or how are they keeping us from increasing the quality in food? Being very much aware of the food production situation in Europe I find this topic fascinating.

The role of the EU in the fall of the Berlin Wall

I have never ever before thought about this: But when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 the EU had already existed and the BRD was one of the founding Members. So it would be really interesting for me what part the EU played in this historic event. Did they do anything at all to help Germany unifying the country? What happened after the Wall fell and suddenly there were a vie thousand EU citizens more?

Health insurance in the EU - What happens when you cross the border?

This topic has to be of special interest to all of us. Because sooner or later we have to cross the borders and what happens than? In Austria we all live in this super safe Bubble where you can always go to your doctor and hardly ever have to pay for it. But what rules are there in other countries? And more important what law applies when you need medical advice somewhere else in the EU?

So many interesting topics, so many questions to answer...
I am really looking forward to reading our papers!