Malaysia recently agreed to join and ratify the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which was welcomed and celebrated after many years of long negotiations.
However, one other trade deal has faced significant challenges, that of the Malaysia-EU Free Trade Agreement (MEUFTA). Negotiations began in 2010 but stalled in 2012. In 2016-17, a “stocktaking exercise” took place to assess if negotiations could resume, but since the 14th general election in 2018, there has been no action on the renegotiations.
One of the main stumbling blocks preventing the resumption of MEUFTA negotiations is the EU’s contention over Indonesia and Malaysia’s palm oil biofuel. In March 2019, the EU adopted the Delegated Regulation for its second Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), which has upped the tension over the EU’s concerns regarding biofuels.
‘Without a free Belarus, Europe is not truly free’
Why the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought remains a beacon of the EU’s commitment to human rights and peace
20 December 2020, 9:00am
by Nicole Meilak
European Parliament president David Sassoli (centre) presents the Sakharov prize to the activists from the Belarusian opposition
This feature is in partnership with the European Parliament office Malta
The 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was this week awarded to the democratic opposition in Belarus, a coalition of brave activists who have taken the initiative to stand up against the totalitarian system controlling the country.
The West, China, and AI surveillance GeoTech Cues by Kaan Sahin (Guest Author)
Risks and opportunities
It is the year 2027: China has been continually perfecting its full-fledged nationwide surveillance architecture in form of smart and secure cities as well as the social credit system. The results cannot be denied: thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), surveillance systems throughout the streets plaster the faces of jaywalkers on billboards and drivers of speeding cars are immediately informed that they are fined, leading to a new record low of traffic accidents.
At the same time, however, the government has employed AI surveillance systems as big-brother-type instruments of repression. For instance, AI tools have been honed to the degree that they can automatically grade be it online or offline the degree of comments critical of government and discipline their citizens according to
Written by Andrés García Higuera,
As agreed during the Science and Technology Options (STOA) Panel meeting of 11 September 2020, STOA and the European Parliamentary Research Service are entering into a Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Global Parliamentary Network (GPN). The partnership was announced formally on 2 December 2020, during an online meeting of the GPN Group on Artificial Intelligence, co-organised with STOA.
The Centre for Artificial Intelligence (C4AI) was created to intensify the activities of STOA in the field of AI, in cooperation with prestigious organisations at European and global level. STOA Chair, Eva Kaili (S&D, Greece) said at the time that C4AI ‘will be instrumental in promoting public trust, transparency and reflection on the future development of AI in its numerous manifestations and will aspire to assist EU policy-makers in their legislative work on the future development of th
Towards European recovery: How big and how quick a rebound will we see in 2021
The Covid‑19 pandemic has hit the global economy hard and its future is difficult to predict. Although the development of vaccines and proposed policy responses offer hope for the world to return to a stronger performance, economic rules may have to be modified. These were the main conclusions of a joint conference organised online by the European Parliamentary Research Service and the International Monetary Fund on 8 December 2020. The European Union has so far managed to avoid any devastating economic outcome thanks to robust policy responses, but the outlook is extremely uncertain. It is certainly not the time for fiscal austerity, but rather fiscal stimuli are needed to lift the economy from the doldrums, especially now that the threat of inflation seems to have disappeared from the horizon. The event, entitled ‘Towards European recovery: How big and how quick a rebound will we see in 2021’ wa