#EUFridays by JEF Hungary #29
Hanna Velner
Oct-07-2022
The common charger will be introduced in the EU in 2024
One single charger for mobile phones headphones, as well as tablets? - From 2024 this will be possible. This means that regardless of the manufacturer, you can charge all your electronic devices with a USB Type-C charger. The decision was preceded by a long legal procedure. The planned legislation was presented in 2020 and the proposal was submitted to the European Commission last year. The European Parliament voted for the common charger for mobile devices with a huge majority, 602 yes, 13 no and 8 abstentions."The common charger will finally become a reality in Europe."We have waited more than ten years for these rules, but we can finally leave the current plethora of chargers in the past-said Alex Agius Saliba on Tuesday. We will nolonger need a different charger every time they buy a new device, thus saving money on their own wallets. According to information from the European Parliament, EU consumers will save 250 million euros annually.With this law, we can avoid a negative impact not only on consumers, but also on the environment, because we can reduce e-waste in the future The directive will come into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal. The EU member states have 12 months to transpose them into national law and another 12 months to apply them.
A Swedish representative cut his hair in solidarity during a European Parliament debate
At the lectern of the European Parliament, a member of parliament expressed her solidarity with the protests in Iran with an unusual action. The trigger for the special action was the death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini and the ensuing wave of protests.The death of Masha Amini shook the whole world. The Islamic moral police ruled that Masha was wearing her hijab inappropriately - the headscarf did not cover her hair enough -and thus violated the conservative dress code for women prescribed by the country's morality law and later she died. After that many people took to the streets in Tehran and other cities demanding clarification of Mahsa Amini's death.Protests have now spread to European cities with some women joining Iranians in publicly cutting their hair. Swedish MEP Abir Al-Sahlani cut her hair in front of the Strasbourg Assembly in solidarity with Iranian women.Al-Sahlani was born in Iraq and is a member of the Swedish bourgeois-liberal Center Party.She said- "Until the women of Iran are free. We are going to stand with you". In addition, many other countries and famous people join the protest as a symbol of solidarity with Iranian women.
EU agrees on price cap for Russian oil
A new sanctions package was proposed by the President of the European Commission, after Moscow illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions. Ursula Von der Leyen pointed out that the energy crisis has entered a serious phase, and the European Union should consider temporarily limiting gas prices and introducing a price ceiling for gas used for electricity production. Gas prices are skyrocketing, consumers and companies are groaning under the high bills. These issues will be high on the agenda at the EU leaders' meeting in Prague on Friday. Some countries feare that this cap might actually increase consumption by keeping prices artificially low at a time when supplies could be extremely limited, because similar price caps introduced in Spain and Portugal have artificially increased gas demand for electricity generation. But the Commission wants to avoid this by supplementing the price cap with additional gas-saving measures. Introducing a cap on gas overall is a temporary solution until we will have a new EU price index developed that ensures a better functioning of the market,” the Commission President said in a speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. This price cap for Russian oil means that will impose a ban on transporting Russian oil by sea to other countries above the price cap.The chairman of the committee urged to intensify negotiations with the reliable suppliers, the United States and Norway, in order to reduce the price paid for imported gas. She added that joint EU gas procurement should ensure that the member states outbid each other on world markets, thereby driving up energy prices. More details about the sanctions will be published as soon as Thursday.