#eu politics

[reasonsforhope]

It’s an open secret in fashion. Unsold inventory goes to the incinerator; excess handbags are slashed so they can’t be resold; perfectly usable products are sent to the landfill to avoid discounts and flash sales. The European Union wants to put an end to these unsustainable practices. On Monday, [December 4, 2023], it banned the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear.

“It is time to end the model of ‘take, make, dispose’ that is so harmful to our planet, our health and our economy,” MEP Alessandra Moretti said in a statement. “Banning the destruction of unsold textiles and footwear will contribute to a shift in the way fast fashion manufacturers produce their goods.”

This comes as part of a broader push to tighten sustainable fashion legislation, with new policies around ecodesign, greenwashing and textile waste phasing in over the next few years. The ban on destroying unsold goods will be among the longer lead times: large businesses have two years to comply, and SMEs have been granted up to six years. It’s not yet clear on whether the ban applies to companies headquartered in the EU, or any that operate there, as well as how this ban might impact regions outside of Europe.

For many, this is a welcome decision that indirectly tackles the controversial topics of overproduction and degrowth. Policymakers may not be directly telling brands to produce less, or placing limits on how many units they can make each year, but they are penalising those overproducing, which is a step in the right direction, says Eco-Age sustainability consultant Philippa Grogan. “This has been a dirty secret of the fashion industry for so long. The ban won’t end overproduction on its own, but hopefully it will compel brands to be better organised, more responsible and less greedy.”

Clarifications to come

There are some kinks to iron out, says Scott Lipinski, CEO of Fashion Council Germany and the European Fashion Alliance (EFA). The EFA is calling on the EU to clarify what it means by both “unsold goods” and “destruction”. Unsold goods, to the EFA, mean they are fit for consumption or sale (excluding counterfeits, samples or prototypes)...

The question of what happens to these unsold goods if they are not destroyed is yet to be answered. “Will they be shipped around the world? Will they be reused as deadstock or shredded and downcycled? Will outlet stores have an abundance of stock to sell?” asks Grogan.

Large companies will also have to disclose how many unsold consumer products they discard each year and why, a rule the EU is hoping will curb overproduction and destruction...

Could this shift supply chains?

For Dio Kurazawa, founder of sustainable fashion consultancy The Bear Scouts, this is an opportunity for brands to increase supply chain agility and wean themselves off the wholesale model so many rely on. “This is the time to get behind innovations like pre-order and on-demand manufacturing,” he says. “It’s a chance for brands to play with AI to understand the future of forecasting. Technology can help brands be more intentional with what they make, so they have less unsold goods in the first place.”

Grogan is equally optimistic about what this could mean for sustainable fashion in general. “It’s great to see that this is more ambitious than the EU’s original proposal and that it specifically calls out textiles. It demonstrates a willingness from policymakers to create a more robust system,” she says. “Banning the destruction of unsold goods might make brands rethink their production models and possibly better forecast their collections.”

One of the outstanding questions is over enforcement. Time and again, brands have used the lack of supply chain transparency in fashion as an excuse for bad behaviour. Part of the challenge with the EU’s new ban will be proving that brands are destroying unsold goods, not to mention how they’re doing it and to what extent, says Kurazawa. “Someone obviously knows what is happening and where, but will the EU?”"

-via British Vogue, December 7, 2023

#fashion #slow fashion #style #european union #eu #eu news #eu politics #sustainability #upcycle #reuse #reduce reuse recycle #ecofriendly #fashion brands #fashion trends #waste #sustainable fashion #sustainable living #eco friendly #good news #hope

[ohfugecannada]

Any chance we could get #RejoinMarch trending on here at least? Just wondering…

#RejoinMarch #uk #united kingdom #Uk politics #RejoinEU #eu politics #european union #bbc news #sky news #itv news #uk news #NationalRejoinMarch #protest #protest march #Twitter

[pencil-merchant]

The european citizens initiative for unconditional basic income is running out june 25th and so far only has 245.092 out of 1 million required signatures with only 3 countries out of 7 required meeting their goal.

so

heres the link

i know this is usually just a lighthearted tf2 blog with some personal rambles but goddamn it i hadnt even heard about this until like an hour ago so i just want to share this, this would be huge.

#politics #eu politics #unconditional basic income #penciltalks #sorry guys #imagine not having to worry about poverty among the elderly or ending up on the street because you got unlucky #i myself signed #i know given the nature of this blog that putting it here will hardly achieve anything at all but goddamn its my blog #i miss every shot i dont take

[lilithism1848]

#leftism #anti capitalism #communism #socialism #anarchy #us politics #eu politics #global politics #progressive politics #politics #world politics #politicians #political #murica #rip twitter #yikes #late stage capitalism #capitalism #blm

[eg515]

I want to tell you all a bit about what is currently happening in Hungary because once again the government chose Pride Month (which is in July here) to attack the lgbtq+ community. Three news from just the past week: queer books are wrapped in plastic in bookshops, a bench painted in rainbow colours started a war in Budapest, and a law about retirement was modified to specifically exclude trans women. I'm sure others posted about these, probably could put it better than me, but here it is in one place.

Books: two years ago the government passed a so-called "child protection" law, but it's most commonly reffered to as the anti-gay law. The law is supposed to protect children, but it bans all media depictions of anything that would "promote homosexuality" or different gender identities.

The law is hard to understand on purpose, to make it unclear what is against the law and what isn't, resulting in the censoring of everything even remotely not cishet in fear of accidentally breaking the law. One notable example of this is commercials on tv. All media "promoting" homosexuality or gender change has to have an age restriction on it, including commercials. But since it is unclear what this means, now all tv ads have a 12+ rating, on every channel.

Previously bookstores which sell lgbt themed books had to make this clear and separate these books, which resulted in many bookstores having signs on their doors saying they sell these books. Some bookstores were fined for failure to comply.

Last week people started noticing that in the biggest bookstore chain, Libri, certain books were wrapped in clear plastic. This all happened because of the anti-gay law. Books including lgbtq characters are now wrapped in plastic and cannot be sold at the YA section of the store, they are moved to the adult section, regardless of the topic. Multiple writers called this out on social media, finding their own books wrapped up and moved.

Once again, since the law in unclear, Libri is wrapping up random books, because there is no clear guideline what goes against the law and what doesn't.

From literally two hours ago: one of the biggest bookstore chains, Líra, was just fined for 12 million forints (approx. 35k dollars) for selling Heartstopper without the wrapping, in the YA section.

The Bench: last Thursday, Amnesty International, with the permission of the mayor of the district, painted a bench in Budapest rainbow colours.

This was supposed to symbolise love and acceptance, especially during Pride Month. Since then, the bench was painted 6 more times. First, two men belonging to the neonazi fanclub of the local football club painted the bench the club colours, green and white. Amnesty International filed a police report, and painted the bench back to the rainbow colours.

Then the bench was painted green and white by two football fans yet again, this time with the message "stop lmbtq". After this, someone painted it back to brown, and left a note saying "I just want to be a bench. Which is good for everyone. To you. To them. To us."

After this Amnesty International repainted it with the rainbow colours. Then just today, a right-wing party, Mi Hazánk painted it red-white-green, the national colours, and stated that they will offer protection to the football fans, they will do the sane painting to any rainbow coloured anything they find anywhere in the country, and if anyone paints over it, they will file a police report for damaging a national symbol.

update: just a few hours after the last painting, unknown people wrapped the bench in plastic, with the message "Lately LGBTQ+ content can only be in public in wrapping", referencing the plastic wrapped books

The transphobic retirement law: back in 2010, Fidesz, the current ruling party made a promise during its campaign, which since then became a law. Currently this "Nők40" (Women40) law allows women to retire after 40 years of work, including time spent raising a child, as a way to honour women.

In 2006 the EU ruled that transgender people are entitled to retirement according to the gender they are when retiring. In line with this, earlier this year a Hungarian court ruled in favour of a trans woman, allowing her to retire after 40 years of work, due to the Nök40 law. It is worth noting that she has legally changed her gender in all her offical papers in 2013, and only found out in 2021 that the pension payer still had her registered as a man, and due the transphobic Law 33 passed in 2020, the pension payer refused to correct her gender. The court later ruled in her favour though, and she can retire.

Now, a member of Fidesz argues that this ruling is "a gross provocation and a slap in the face of the legal system". She urged lawmakers to changed the law and make it clear what they mean by women, reminding everyone that Fidesz still maintains that there are only two biological genders.

This was yesterday. By today, a change in the law was prepared. The announcement said the law has been clear for everyone with common sense, but to avoid any "sensitized" judge using this legal loophole, they are now amending it so it stated the early retirement is for everyone who "worked as a woman for 40 years". They claim now nobody can just decide to suddenly want to be a woman for early retirement after working as a man for 39 years. Because obviously early retirement, in a country where it is impossible to make ends meet just on pension alone, is the main reason someone would "decide" to be trans. Obviously.

so, this is where we're at in Hungary, two days before the Budapest Pride Parade. another Pride Month, another attack on lgbtq rights. I don't really have a point with this, I don't want to guilt trip anyone. Just spreading the word, since we rarely read about non-usamerican news.

#yeah i still hate it here #hungary #lgbtq rights #eu politics #pride month #lgbtq+ #lgbtq+ rights #trans rights #transgender #books #censorship #lgbtq books #lgbtq+ books

[northern-punk-lad]

This speech was incredible also Ireland disowning Biden and calling Germany genocidal absolutely incredible

#eu politics #free palestine #Ireland

[luminalunii97]

Another life was taken unfairly. And it will continue until they've murdered the better half of the arrested protesters.

I knew tweeting #stop executions is not going to stop the regime. We've done it all before. As long as they see the worse they could get for commiting genocide is a tweet from eu spokesman they're going to keep killing us in the streets, in our homes and in the prison. They're not even fired from women's committee in united nations, can you believe that? Well fuck the regime, and fuck the foreign politicians. There's another call for demonstration and there's going to be more deaths and arrests. Biden and Josep Borrell can buy popcorn and watch. We won't stop until the last one of us is murdered.

This is a tweet from an Iranian citizen that speaks all of our minds

[Image translation: For 43 years, the world powers waged fake war on mullahs based on their own benefits. Now they just condemn and sanction. When are they going to call their ambassadors home and fire mullahs' ambassadors?? Ok I get it, when this regime killed all 80 million of us they're going to make a statement and say "this regime is reformed now, they don't have any oppositions"!!! ]

#they kill us with french bullets #usa debate on either they should release some of iran blocked money NOW #like what obama did in 2009 #all we asked for was for west to not help them #but they won't even do that #west doesn't want democracy or regime change for iran #and they give platform to niac to make sure my people won't have a voice #iran revolution #mahsa amini #iran protests #human rights #politics #feminism #help iran #iran #genocide #crimes against humanity #us politics #eu politics #foreign policy #middle east matters too

[racefortheironthrone]

In Germany, Sahra Wagenknecht took some of her political friends out of the left-wing "Die Linke" to create her own party "Buendnis Sahra Wagenknecht". It seems to represent a weird quadrant of the political spectrum: mostly left on economics, but pronouncedly right-wing / "populist" regarding LBGTQIA+ and migration. First polls indicate 5-10 % of votes going for this party. What would your strategy be towards them, as a social democrat / progressive? Thanks for your perspective, Steven!

Red-to-Brown is not an unknown phenomenon, and it’s not unusual for radical-right parties outside of that specific movement (think Front-National or Fidesz or Law and Justice) to emphasize expanded social benefits and state economic intervention as long as they exclude immigrants, minorities, and emphasize natalist gender roles and family structures.

While I think Wagenknecht’s move is morally evil, I think it reflects an accurate strategic assessment that a lot of economically-left, socially-right voters in eastern Germany would be willing to bolt Die Linke and would probably prefer a Red-to-Brown party over AfD’s radical-right-but-also-neoliberal platform. The real question is going to be whether they cannibalize more from the left or the right. Obviously the best case scenario is that BSW and AfD end up evenly splitting the vote and failing below viability, but any amount of resources eaten up in attacking each other rather than winning over working-class voters who care more about economics than social issues would be helpful.

As a social democrat, my instinct is to say shift left on economics and fight it out on that ground, because you’re not going to match them on social issues but I think you can on economics, especially since your only hope of victory is with the support of the Greens and the remaining Dei Linke (which will be more cohesive and hopefully more amenable on both economic and social policy now that their cultural right flank has bolted and what remains is the more middle class ex-SPD faction). That being said, it’s not good news for social democracy, and will probably end up with another Grand Coalition to keep out the right at best.

#german politics #social democracy #eu politics

[fireflowersims]

It's the Dutch national elections today!

And I'm working at the polls.

So, for y'all non-Dutch ppl here, this is what our ballots look like:

You vote for one specific candidate. The longests lists are from VVD and D66 and they consist of no less than 80 people.

Unfortunately I have no cat for reference scale but it's ginormous. I've seen a lot of ppl struggle with folding it.

So far the turnout has been great at my station and we haven't even hit the evening rush yet. The polls suggest more than 50% of voters are unsure who to vote for, so turnout is probably gonna go up by Quite A Bit as it gets dark.

Pssst, Nederlandse tumblrinas, hier een tip:

Ga stemmen!

#non-sims #politics #dutch politics #european politics #eu politics #netherlands #europe #elections #nederland #nederlands #dutch

[nebulousnebblets]

Besties het is tijd voor de verkiezingen! Ga alsjeblieft naar je lokale stembureau, ze zijn tot 21:00 open.

Niet vergeten! Neem je stempas (ligt ergens in je stapel post) en een identiteitsbewijs (moet je toch al verplicht altijd bij je hebben) mee als je gaat, anders krijg je geen stembiljet.

Als je nog niet weet op welke partij je gaat stemmen, kun je de stemwijzer of het kieskompas doen.

de enige echt waardeloze stem is degene die je niet uitbrengt

(alsjeblieft ga stemmen, de fucking vvd loopt alsnog voorop in de peilingen en de pvv wordt geschat op een extra tien zetels, ik heb geen zin in zo'n kabinet)

#dutchposting #eu politics #dutch politics #nederposting #oprecht gaat aub stemmen #tweede kamer verkiezingen

[head-post]

Germans want to continue supporting Ukraine

The latest summit of the European Political Community addressed mainly with the issue of a peaceful Europe. One of the central agendas was the war in Ukraine, according to the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government.

German Federal Chancellor Scholz has emphasised the fact that “Germany will be providing a large amount of support for the task ahead both in financial and humanitarian terms as well as with arms deliveries.”

After the summit in Granada, Spain, Scholz issued a press statement in which he spoke about the threat posed by Russia, adding that it represented a “danger to the security and peace order throughout Europe.” The German Chancellor emphasised:

After the USA, Germany is providing the most support and we Germans continue to support Ukraine.

Read more HERE

#world news #world politics #news #europe #european news #european union #eu politics #eu news #ukraine #ukraine aid #germany news #germany

[minazummers]

The EU is poised to effectively become the world’s AI police, creating binding rules on transparency, ethics, and more.

By Melissa Heikkilä, December 11, 2023

-

This is not going to be perfect but it is at least a start. And it is worth to remember this if someone tells you not to vote in the 2024 European Parliament election because "the EU only cares about the curves of banana" or similar BS.

Only just over 50% of the people who were eligable to vote voted in 2019. If you don't show up to vote, the right certainly will.

#ai #Eu #eu law #eu politics #eu parliament #Yes i will keep bringing the election up this year

[sasch1sch]

here are all the elections coming up next year that are already starting to make me sweat:

new austrian government

EU election

US presidential election

UK general election

russia and belarus presidential elections (we already know the results anyway lets be real)

i need a break

heres to hoping the italian government collapses again. cheers!

#leftist #socialist #european politics #hocus pocus #potus #scotus #austrian politics #eu politics #us politics #uk politics #politics #uk elections #us presidential election #rishi sunak #joe biden #donald trump #ron desantis #ron defascist #ron desanctimonious

[lilithism1848]

#leftism #anarchy #eu politics #global politics #world politics #politics #progressive politics #palestinian genocide #stop the genocide #settler colonialism #war crimes #hebron #nakba #ethnic cleansing #genocide #this is genocide #armenian genocide #settler violence #israeli settlers #early settler

[sparksinthenight]

The EU has failed to implement human rights due diligence laws that would decrease corporate abuses of workers, communities, and the environment.

#france #germany #italy #german politics #french politics #europe #eu #eu politics #european union #workers #working class #workers rights #class war #classism #class #class warfare #workers of the world unite #capitalism #anti capitalist #capitalist hell #capitalist dystopia #capitalist bullshit #climate change #climate news #changement climatique #climate crisis #climate #climate catastrophe #climate emergency #environmental issues

[bluespring864]

I just read this insane thing and thought the folks of tumblr might appreciate it

The European Parliament is a peculiarly Byzantine place, which is all the more baffling for an assembly that only sprung into life in 1979.

It’s replete with obscure working groups hived off from real committees, opaque voting procedures, feeble attempts to keep tabs on the Commission, and dull, empty plenary sessions taking place weeks after the news trigger has passed. And don’t forget the gift vault on floor 5 ½. 

And the article in full because it is insane:

Inside the European Parliament’s gift vault

APRIL 17, 2023 4:00 AM CET

BY EDDY WAX

BRUSSELS — Down a curving corridor on floor five and a half, there’s a dark alcove hiding an unmarked door. 

This is the final resting place for the European Parliament’s would-be bribes. 

The secret chamber is piled high with diplomatic gifts, all carefully labeled and left to languish in bureaucratic limbo under lock and key — neither accepted nor rejected. 

There’s the opulent; there’s the bizarre. One cupboard contains a Taiwanese wristwatch given to a Polish EU lawmaker. Another holds a pot of French mustard, a miniature Saudi Arabian door and a commemorative plaque from the Indonesian parliament.

Expensive bottles of wine, children’s toys, wireless headphones, books, stationery, figurines — five dusty containers are brimming with the forsworn freebies that governments and parliaments from all over the globe have showered on EU lawmakers. 

The crypt — essentially a glorified janitor’s closet — has sat largely unperturbed since the collection began almost 15 years ago. But in recent months, it has taken on a new significance due to revelations over alleged bribes that countries like Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania were funneling to EU lawmakers. 

The scandal, dubbed Qatargate, has prompted soul-searching within Parliament, which is now squabbling over how to revise the code of conduct that governs lawmakers’ behavior — including what they should do when offered a gift.

But here, in room 55A031 of the labyrinthine Paul-Henri Spaak building, remain the gifts given but not received.

Too small a room

Outside, there is no indication about what the room contains. It is permanently locked.

Besides the renounced gratuities, the room stores old MEP files.

POLITICO’s access to the vault was facilitated by the office of German Green MEP Daniel Freund — a vocal proponent of tougher transparency rules in the institution — plus three European Parliament officials, including a spokesperson.

“It’s a bit anticlimactic if you expected some kind of treasure trove,” Nurminen said, standing on the squeaky linoleum floor of the vault as the air conditioning thrummed in the background.

With MEPs rushing to declare many more gifts than before in light of the Qatargate scandal, this storage room could soon become too small. Between 2009 and 2014, EU lawmakers declared just 15 gifts — but in this parliamentary term, which began in 2019, they’ve already registered 266.

The higher numbers are largely due to a massive dump of gifts by Parliament President Roberta Metsola, who declared 170 gifts since the start of the year — most recently a traditional shirt from the chairman of the Ukrainian parliament and a decorative box from Harvard University.

The president’s gifts are either displayed in her office, stored in this gift vault — or already long gone. When it comes to gifts of chocolates, wine or crunchy snacks, some have been “served in the course of Parliament’s functions,” i.e. consumed during official work meetings.

Even though she missed the internal deadline to declare many of the gifts, Metsola — who has been Parliament president since January 2022 — argued she was being radically transparent by declaring the gifts and turning them over. This broke with years of the institution exempting the president from declaring gifts on the public register.

Because of this change, many gifts given to previous presidents and kept in boxes by a set of civil servants called the “protocol service” are now being transferred to this room from undisclosed locations. The Parliament spokesperson described this gift vault as the only dedicated room where such gifts to former presidents are kept.

Just 17 gifts to presidents past and present are on display in glass cabinets at the Parliament’s seat in Strasbourg, next to a tiny kiosk selling Roberta Metsola-themed stamps. They include a statuette of a horse from the United Arab Emirates’ National Council; handmade artwork from the president of Nigeria; a silver bowl from top U.S. politician Nancy Pelosi; a peace-themed mosaic from Pope Francis; and a vide-poches or decorative tray from French President Emmanuel Macron.

Manfred’s mobile

For now, the gifts in the chamber in Brussels are essentially in limbo — neither displayed nor used — a fate that might perhaps make lobbyists or foreign dignitaries think twice about going to the trouble of making any such gesture in the first place.

A case in point is a Huawei smartphone that was worth more than €150 when given to European People’s Party chief Manfred Weber by the Chinese tech company — in 2013. It’s been gathering dust here ever since.

The “end of life” rules, as Parliament speak would have it, means dead but not buried.

According to the current rules, EU lawmakers can keep these gifts permanently if it can be proved they have no “obvious” value to the Parliament. Or they may be temporarily displayed in their offices if the president gives her blessing.

In theory, parliamentarians can also bid to buy back their gifts in a public tender — but such an auction has never happened.

At a later stage of the ethics reform plan initiated by Metsola, senior parliamentarians could at some point tweak the code of conduct to allow the gifts to be given to charities — as happens with used furniture and food waste from the canteens. But such a tweak is currently not under consideration.

“If you have more presents handed into the institution, there needs to be a way to process them. So the existing 2013 rules might be revised,” the spokesperson said as the door quietly closed.

 source: politico.eu

#eu politics #the funny side of it #unwanted gifts #i hope this article brings you as much joy as it did for me