European Union requires all EV's to make artificial noise below 12 mph

All new model electric vehicles (EVs) in the European Union are now required to make artificial noise under certain conditions. Acoustic Vehicle Alerts Systems (AVAS) will be mandatory on all hybrid and electric EVs by July 2021.

Conditions under which the EV's must make a sound

A BBC News article notes: "New electric vehicles will have to feature a noise-emitting device, under an EU rule coming into force on Monday. It follows concerns that low-emission cars and vans are too quiet, putting pedestrians at risk because they cannot be heard as they approach. All new types of four-wheel electric vehicle must be fitted with the device, which sounds like a traditional engine. A car's acoustic vehicle alert system (Avas) must sound when reversing or traveling below 12mph (19km/h)."

The rule will apply to both all-electric and hybrid vehicles introduced from today on. Existing vehicles must install the AVAS system by July of 2021.

New regulations are due to safety concerns

Electric vehicles are a lot quieter than tradition internal combustion engines. This can pose a danger to other road users in that people do not hear them coming. This is particularly true for blind or partially sighted pedestrians. In November of 2017 the charity Guide Dogs sent a written submission to the UK parliament pointing out that research shows that electric and hybrid vehicles are 40 percent more likely to be involved in accidents that cause injury to pedestrians.

Manufacturers will be able to decide exactly what their AVAS will be like. However, the EU regulations require that the sound should be similar too but not louder than that of tradition internal combustion engines. The sound should also give some clue as to what the vehicle is doing, for example accelerating. Jaguar has already made public what its I-Pace will sound like as indicated on the appended video. Nissan introduced a concept vehicle back in 2017 that "sings" as it travels.

The US will introduce similar laws new year

The US National Highway Safety Administration will require that all hybrid and all-electric vehicles emit artificial noise by September of 2020. The US regulations require the vehicles emit the noise to a somewhat higher speed than in the EU, of 18.6 miles per hour.

Previously published in the Digital Journal

European Union to sanction 3 officials of rival Libyan governments

The European Union (EU) has agreed to sanction three Libyan leaders who oppose the Government of National Accord (GNA). The EU has been hesitating for months over fears of derailing peace efforts.

Now the GNA has simply declared that it is the sole legitimate government and will move to Tripoli despite no formal approval by the internationally recognized House of Representatives (HoR). The "peace process" apparently no long needs the vote of confidence by the HoR, as required by the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA). There has been no amendment to the Constitutional Declaration of 2011, so the GNA has no legal basis in the constitution. What we have is an exercise in extra-legal power politics. There is at least one fig leaf, the letter of support by an alleged majority of the HoR members, regarded as equivalent to a green light to go ahead by the UN and GNA. There is no need now to worry about disrupting passage of the GNA through the HoR since the powers that count have already accepted the GNA without the vote.

The sanctions will likely involve travel bans and asset freezes and should be imposed in the next few days. The sanctions are justified under the terms of UN Security resolution supporting the LPA. The UN has tried itself to impose sanctions earlier but they did not pass the Security Council. The UN then tried to impose sanctions through the EU. The EU was to sanction Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army (LNA), but Haftar claimed rightly that they were meaningless. Reuters' account of these new sanctions somehow thinks these prior sanctions should not be mentioned. The Haftar sanctions disappeared off the radar of news media. Haftar has many times snubbed his nose at the UN peace process and tried to stop it but he seemsuntouchable. He has arguably been a key "spoiler" in the peace process. He appears to have considerable control over what the HoR and the premier Abdullah al-Thinni do or don't do.

Reuters says: The sanctions deal marks a breakthrough for France, which hopes the measures will help accelerate the formation of a government and avoid Libya slipping fully into the hands of Islamic State militants.The Islamic State has only a small part of Libya and there is little chance Libya could fall into the hands of the Islamic State. This is not reporting, it is fear-mongering.

A senior diplomat said the sanctions had been agreed but the legal text to support them still had to be drawn up. The diplomat said he expected that no government would object to the proceedings, Three men are to be subject to the sanctions. Nouri Abusahmain is the president of the General National Congress in Tripoli and Khalifa al-Ghwell is prime minister of the GNC. Both are sanctioned probably because the GNC does not support the LPA or GNC as it is. They are also blocking travel of UN officials into Tripoli to set up the GNA. Somewhat surprisingly, Aquilah Saleh, the president of the HoR, is also sanctioned. He was originally a hard liner but supposedly came to support the GNA. Now he is apparently opposing it or at least did not facilitate the passing of the GNA through the HoR. The HoR is the legislative body of the GNA and also must approve some of the decisions of the Presidency Council. To sanction the head of the GNA legislature is at the least a bit odd and certainly may influence the attitude of the HoR to decisions it has to approve.

Although there are dire humanitarian needs throughout Libya especially for medical supplies, it would seem that these needs are one of the carrots used to get support for the GNA. In January EU foreign ministers promised 100 million euros or $108 million in immediate aid once the GNA is formed. Sanctions are the sticks. The result may be hardening of positions and further division.

Borrowing costs for Spain and Italy rise

      Amid fears that euro are finance ministers meeting in Brussels will be unable to agree to measures that would calm fears about the debt crisis bond yields increased both in Italy and Spain. Spanish ten year bonds were yielding more than 7 per cent making borrowing costs prohibitive for the country.
   Italy too saw its bond prices drop bringing the ten year yield to the highest level in a weak. In contrast German two year notes were yielding less than zero at .0344 per cent! Even France was able to auction similar debt at a negative rate.
  An analyst at Lloyds Banking Group said: “The market doesn’t have great expectations of the summit,”  Spanish 10 year bond rates are approaching a record.  Italian 10 year bonds yielded 6.11 per cent. For more see this Bloomberg article.

Spain borrowing costs upward bound once again threatening any recovery

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says his country is in extreme difficulty. Nevertheless he claimed that the austerity cuts passed by the government are less painful than another bailout would be. At a meeting of his People's Party he said:“Spain is facing an economic situation of extreme difficulty, I repeat, of extreme difficulty, and anyone who doesn’t understand that is fooling themselves,”

Demand for Spanish bonds dropped. Today only 2.59 billion euros were sold ($3.4 billion). This was barely above the minimum amount planned and far below the 3.4 billion euros maximum goal.

The average yield on the bonds was 4.319 per cent up considerably from the 3.376 yield last month. Spain's 10 year borrowing costs are approaching the levels before the European Central Bank decided to make unlimited three year loans to banks last December. For a time this eased borrowing costs.

Rajoy announced back on March 2 that Spain would not comply with the deficit target that the previous government had agreed to with the European Union. Since then Spain's borrowing costs have risen even though Euro-region finance ministers agreed to a new debt target of 5.3 per cent of GDP. The EU target in 3 per cent of GDP but Spain has not managed that since 2007.

Many local administrations are cut out of capital markets and so are financed by the central government. There have been continuing protests against austerity measures including a general strike on March 29th.

The 2012 budget has been presented to Parliament. The budget includes plans to cut more than 27 billion euros from the deficit. Last year the deficit was 8.5 per cent of GDP. This year the target is now. 5.3. Ministries will see their budgets cut by 17 per cent. Such a large cut will no doubt have very detrimental effects on government services.

The unemployment rate is almost 24 per cent the highest in the European Union. The country faces interest payments of nearly 29 billion euros this year. It plans to spend about the same amount on the unemployed! For more see this article.

New European Union plans soothe markets for now

    New plans call for a closer fiscal union that will ensure  any countries which violate debt guidelines will be punished. However the target for setting the new rules is next March. The leaders also agreed to add 267 billion to funds meant to ease the lending crisis.
    Stock markets have reacted favorably so far although Italian and Spanish bond prices fell in spite of the fact that the European Central Bank is supposed to be buying them. Bond holders want the Bank to intervene even more to ensure that countries in trouble with debt can pay their bills. A demand that bondholders should share in any losses was diluted in the new plan.
   The UK will be excluded from the planned new fiscal union. The UK had demanded a veto over any new financial regulations it disapproved. Not surprisingly other leaders did not agree to this condition.
   While the new agreement was regarded as positive for banks, investors still wonder how some nations will be able to finance their burgeoning debts. In 2012 Euro Zone countries must repay over 1.1 trillion Euros in debt. Banks too will need to refinance very large amounts.
   A Citigroup economist predicted“deep euro-area recession and strained financial markets” next year with the economy actually shrinking throughout the year. The IMF is expected to play an expanded role in lending in the zone with funds being sought from outside Europe to help out. However as the IMF will no doubt impose reforms involving cutbacks and austerity as the price for loans it is not clear how economies with these loans can be expected to grow. For more see this article.

Center-left coalition wins Croatian elections

  Exit polls in Croatia show that the opposition Kukuriku bloc has won the election with 83 seats against just 40 for the ruling HDZ conservatives. The leader of the opposition Zoran Milanovic will face a tough task to overhaul the economy.
     Slovakia is scheduled to join the European Union in 2013. Given the troubles in that group at present one wonders why Slovakia wants to join. The ruling HDZ has dominated Slovak politics since independence in 1991. Only in 2001-2003 did a center left coalition take over power.
    Recently the HDZ has been involved in corruption scandals but also unemployment has risen. Growth in Croatia was good until the financial crisis in 2009. Since that time the country has had difficulty in coming back from the recession.
    In order to join the EU the new leader Milanovic will be required to cut state spending and implement other so-called reforms so that it does not receive a downgrade to its credit rating. For more see this article.

European Union Rejects Deal to grant U.S. access to bank transfer data.

The U.S. is aiming to be Global Big Brother it would seem. All in the name of the Great and Holy War on Terror and never in the name of the Great Snooper Global Cop. The deal was reached without the participation of the European Union Parliament and in the opinon of many without proper safeguards. The possible misuse of this information is obvious but then no one is to question Big Brother and any attempt to stop this romp over privacy is regarded as a blow against the war on terror and a sign that Big Brother may have to work around the dem0cratic process. All for our own safety and good of course.


E.U. rejects deal to allow U.S. access to bank transfer data

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer



The European Parliament on Thursday strongly rejected a deal that would have allowed U.S. authorities continued access to data on European bank transfers, striking a blow to the Obama administration's effort to continue a controversial global terrorist finance tracking program begun under the George W. Bush administration.

The lawmakers' 378 to 196 vote is sure to spark a transatlantic tussle over what the United States has said is a significant tool in tracking and disrupting terrorist plots aimed at the U.S. and Europe.

The vote came despite intense lobbying in recent days by top U.S. officials including Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. The parliament's president, Jerzy Buzek, said the assembly wants more safeguards for civil liberties and believes human rights have been compromised in the name of security.

The U.S. mission to the E.U. said it was "disappointed" with the E.U. move, calling it "a setback for U.S.-E.U. counterterror cooperation."

"This is a remarkably irresponsible act by the European parliament," said Stewart A. Baker, former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for policy. "They're creating a safe haven for terrorist finance."

The U.S. ambassador to the E.U., William E. Kennard, threatened last week to bypass the federation entirely in counterterrorism efforts if the parliament nixed the agreement.

European governments must now renegotiate the agreement with the Council of the European Union, the E.U.'s principal decision-making body. The deal would have allowed data sharing for nine months while the Americans sought a longer-term deal with the Europeans.

A source of contention for European lawmakers was that the pact was reached by U.S. officials and the council, without the parliament's involvement. It was agreed to in November and was to have taken effect Feb. 1. and expired at the end of October.

"There's a whole list of concerns that have to do with insufficient redress for E.U. citizens, no sufficient clarity about whom the data will be shared with and the fact that it is bulk data that are shared," said Sophia in 't Veld, a Dutch member of parliament opposed to the deal. "The data handed over is a huge pile, not targeted at all. So that was a huge issue."

U.S. officials say that what they actually search for and get to see is "narrowly" targeted and subject to stringent oversight.

The U.S. terrorist finance tracking program involves access to portions of vast databases of financial transaction information held by a Brussels-based consortium of banks known by its acronym SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. At issue was the way in which the U.S. gained access to, searched and used the data, and whether sufficient privacy safeguards were in place.

The program was launched in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Treasury Department has been issuing administrative subpoenas every 30 days or so for the financial payment records of terrorist suspects. The searches must be "narrowly tailored" to the suspects, said Stuart Levey, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department.

The classified program's existence was revealed by the New York Times in 2006, touching off controversy, especially in Europe. Lawmakers there were angry because they were not consulted beforehand and European privacy officials said the program violated European data protection laws.

U.S. access to the data became an open question after the European Parliament, under the Treaty of Lisbon, acquired new power to review and approve initiatives that affect internal security, counterterrorism and law enforcement.

U.S. officials wanted the parliament to use that power to approve the November agreement reached by U.S. Treasury officials and the council. It allowed the United States to conduct terrorism-related searches against millions of financial payment messaging files stored in servers near Amsterdam.

Levey touted the value of the terrorist tracking program in op-eds that ran in European papers last week. It has supplied "more than 1,500 reports and countless leads" to counterterrorism investigators in Europe and more to other countries, and has "played a key role in multiple terrorism investigations on both sides of the Atlantic," he wrote.

He said it aided European governments during investigations into the foiled 2006 al-Qaeda plot to attack transatlantic flights between Europe and the United States. The program "provided new leads, corroborated identities and revealed relationships among individuals responsible for this terrorist plot," Levey wrote. Last September, three people were convicted in Britain and sentenced to at least 30 years in prison.

An E.U. review led by French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere concluded last month that the program was effective and contained sufficient privacy safeguards.

But the parliament's Civil Liberties Committee said in a report last week that the debate is not about SWIFT so much as about how Europe "could cooperate with the US for counterterrorism purposes" and that the agreement was potentially a step "down the slippery slope of accepting other requests for commercial data with, for example, Skype, PayPal and other companies in the information-telecommunication field . . . for law enforcement purposes."

US warns against EU rendition investigations

The probe is uncovering the fact that several European countries co-operated with the CIA in renditions. If that sort of co-operation is damaged by the investigation surely that is all to the good!


U.S. warns against EU's CIA flight probe
JAN SLIVA
Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium - A senior U.S. administration official on Wednesday warned that ongoing inquiries into secret CIA activities in the European Union may undermine intelligence cooperation between the United States and European nations.

The European Parliament accused Britain, Poland, Italy and other nations in mid-February of colluding with the CIA to transport terror suspects to clandestine prisons in third countries.

In a report that concluded a yearlong investigation, the parliament identified 1,254 secret CIA flights that entered the European airspace since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

It said that these flights were against international air traffic rules and suggested some of them may have carried terror suspects on board in violation of human rights principles.

John Bellinger, legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called the European Parliament report "unbalanced, inaccurate and unfair" and called on the EU governments to challenge the suggestion that Europeans need to be concerned about secret CIA flights.

"I can understand concerns about specific incidents but we should not somehow suggest that all intelligence activity is something illegal or suspicious," he said.

Germany, Italy and several other EU countries have been carrying out their own inquiries into secret CIA activities in Europe, probes Bellinger said "have not been helpful with respect to necessary cooperation between the United States and Europe."

"I do think these continuing investigations can harm intelligence cooperation, that's simply a fact of life," Bellinger told reporters after meeting legal advisers to EU governments in Brussels.

EU parliamentarians have rejected Bellinger's criticism and called on the United States to address concerns that some flights have carried kidnapped terror suspects.

"People are imprisoned without being tried first. That is unacceptable. (The U.S.) should open up to us and tell us where they're flying and who they're carrying," said Kathalijne Buitenweg, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.

The EU legislature has given no direct proof that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe, an accusation that prompted the inquiry in November 2005. Bellinger refused to comment on reports that Poland and Romania housed clandestine detention centers, but said a lot of allegations concerning U.S. intelligence activities have been "just rumors."

Bellinger also said the United States would refuse any Italian extradition request for CIA agents indicted in the alleged abduction of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, one of the cases the European Parliament focused on in its inquiry.

"We've not got an extradition request from Italy. If we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite U.S. officials to Italy," he said.

Milan prosecutors want the Italian government to forward their request for the extradition of the 26 Americans, mostly CIA agents. The previous government in Rome - led by Silvio Berlusconi - refused, and Premier Romano Prodi's center-left government has indicated it would not press Washington on the issue. The Americans all have left Italy, most before prosecutors sought their arrest.

Their trial opens in June. It will be the first criminal trial stemming from the CIA's extraordinary rendition program to secretly transfer terror suspects to third countries, where critics say they may have been tortured.

Bellinger also said the U.S. government was keen on closing the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba but has not yet figured out what to do with the inmates.

The base began receiving terror suspects in 2002, and its treatment of the detainees has come under strong criticism from human rights groups. The EU has repeatedly called for immediate closure of Guantanamo.

"We have not seen Europe has been willing to help. We have seen many statements from European governments saying Guantanamo must be closed immediately. It's not clear how Guantanamo would be immediately closed. Europe has been prepared to criticize ... but has not been prepared to offer a constructive suggestion," Bellinger said.

He added that the United States has been looking to Europe for help with inmates from the Middle East who cannot, for various reasons, return to their home countries, but has not received any offers from European countries to accept these people.

EU report suggests that Arar deserves apology and compensation from member states

Italy was a stopover point on Arar's rendition to Syria. What a contrast this is to the US that continues to keep Arar on a no-fly list. Sen. Leahy really needs to have hearings on rendition to remove the cover of GOnzales and CHertoff who are hiding their mistakes under the protection of national security.

EU Report Recommends Apology for Arar
Josh Pringle
Thursday, January 25, 2007

A new European Union report will be tabled today suggesting Maher Arar deserves an apology and compensation from member states.

The Globe and Mail reports the European Parliament will vote on the report next month.

The report adds Italy should be held to account for allowing the United States to use Rome as a stopover base for the US flight that took Arar to Syria.


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