Blog Archive
Going it alone – the EU adopts its own maritime emissions monitoring scheme as the IMO lags behind
While the consequences of climate change have activists up in arms, the international community’s response has been fraught with stagnation, and remains somewhat disillusioning. After a series of disappointing Conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), all hopes are set on the Paris summit to be held later this year. In the midst of this stalemate, the EU has been profiling itself as a protagonist of the global climate, with an ambitious Climate and Energy Package. In its latest move, the EU has adopted Regulation (EU) No. 2015/757 (‘the Regulation’), which came into force on 01 July 2015, and lays out a monitoring, reporting and verification scheme (MRV) for ships. The MRV requires ships to monitor their CO2 emissions according to a verified monitoring plan, and report the results to the Commission. This step has been on the EU’s agenda for over five years, and forms the first concrete phase of the inclusion of maritime emissions in the Union’s own reduction commitment. While according to the EU, the scheme would bring ‘momentum for international agreement’, the shipping industry reacted coolly, warning that the EU initiative risked putting multilateral negotiations ‘in jeopardy’.
Facebook, the NSA and Data Protection: not so ‘frivolous and vexatious’ anymore? [i]
A look at the Advocate General’s opinion in Maximillian Schrems v Data Protection Commissioner.
Your average Facebook-using EU resident, whilst often being blissfully unaware of the laws that apply to his or her personal data acquired by Facebook, has probably shown some concern about privacy rights, especially since the 2013 Snowden revelations. Then a young Austrian law student, Maximillian Schrems decided to take this concern further and in 2013 lodged a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner about Facebook transferring EU residents’ personal data to the US, where, he asserted, it was insufficiently protected. The complaint was rejected, and the case went before the Irish High Court and eventually the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). CJEU Advocate General Yves Bot (AG) issued an opinion on 23 September, advising the Court in how to decide upon the case. Privacy activists, including Schrems, have welcomed this opinion and commentators are now rushing to speculate what the consequences will be. Whatever the eventual outcome, the AG’s opinion is in line with recent CJEU decisions that emphasise the importance of the fundamental right to data protection over other rights, freedoms, concerns and/or interests.