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The European Union is now attempting to encourage citizen involvement in the policy-making process by using digital tools.

The record abstention levels seen at the recent local elections in France are part of a fundamental trend throughout Europe. With the approach of the European elections scheduled for 22 - 25 May in the 28 EU member countries, the issue of voter apathy has never been so poignant. Accordingly, the European Union authorities are on a mission to re-motivate citizens and have been investing in new digital-based participatory instruments. Three EU-funded research projects OurSpace, PuzzledbyPolicy and PARTERRE focus on sharing and interaction between people and policy-makers. The idea is to use innovative, interactive tools to encourage citizens to take part in the policy-making process.

Citizens are often turned off by jargon and indigestible policy papers, and they often feel disconnected from the political world. Starting out from this observation, the organisers of the Puzzled by Policy platform set out to involve ordinary people more closely in policy discussions through online participation. However, rather than creating a new dedicated website, they decided to take advantage of the platforms which citizens are already using. We use networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to get the message across to the communities that are interested in policy-making, explained the Puzzled by Policy project coordinator Deirdre Lee of Insight-NUI Galway. Pilot testing of the project showed that citizens find it difficult to correlate their opinions with actual proposals by policy-makers. To overcome this disconnect, Puzzled by Policy developed a Policy Profiler tool to translate opinions into policy directions. In addition, the tool encourages the user to join in online discussions, exchange ideas and discover new points of view as a basis for formulating their own opinions. The platform then sends reports and summaries of these discussions to political decision-makers. In the same vein, the OurSpace platform is specifically intended to raise awareness of public policy issues among young people. Already adopted by the British Youth Council, an independent charity run for and by young people representing their views to central and local government, Model European Union (MEU), the annual international young peoples simulation of the European Union legislative process, and Cafebabel, an online European news magazine in six languages, OurSpace brings together political decision-makers and future voters with an Android smartphone app, via Facebook, an iGoogle widget, and also runs its own website.

The third EU-supported project, called PARTERRE, focuses on stimulating dialogue. It offers a range of e-participation tools to local government institutions, including a self-evaluation tool that enables public sector organisations to judge whether they are ready to introduce a local democracy electronic participation model. PARTERRE has also developed an electronic town hall meeting format where users can discuss policy initiatives in small groups. These meetings can then be broadcast online using the Demos Plan, a collaborative planning tool. Political decision-makers and citizens can use it to work together to draw up plans, make drawings and draft documents in real time. In addition, with an eye on the forthcoming elections, the PARTERRE team has set in motion a new initiative called Blasting News. The project involves building 28 websites one per member state on which citizens can publish articles detailing their expectations and explaining what Europe means to them.

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EU Policymaking: Digital Platforms Designed to Boost Citizen Participation

European Union imports of soybeans are predicted to climb to the highest level in six years in 2013-14 on increased crushing of the oil seed, industry researcher Oil World said.

The EU may import 13.9 million metric tons of beans in the year through August from 13.3 million tons a year earlier, with crush rising to 13.5 million tons from 13.24 million tons, the Hamburg, Germany based researcher wrote in an e-mailed report.

Soybean crush margins were very attractive in early 2014 on lower-than-expected arrivals of soybean meal from South America, while reserved selling of rapeseed by European farmers kept prices of the competing oilseed high, Oil World said. Processors crush the oilseeds to obtain oil used for cooking and to make biodiesel, as well as meal used in animal feed.

Soybean crush margins have weakened lately, which is likely to be reflected in some slowing down of crushings from June or July, Oil World said. For January-June we have raised our estimates of EU soybean imports and crushings.

EU imports of beans in the January-June period are forecast to rise to 7.6 million tons, 500,000 tons more than a year earlier, Oil World wrote.

The increase comes exclusively from South America, while arrivals from the U.S., Canada and Ukraine will decline, the researcher said.

The EU crush of 10 oil seeds is predicted to rise to a record 44.8 million tons in the year through September 2014, climbing 1.6 million tons from the previous season, according to Oil World.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net Alaric Nightingale

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EU Soybean Imports Forecast by Oil World to Rise to 6-Year High

The European Union has formally approved a 1 billion euro ($A1.48 billion) assistance package to help Ukraine's interim authorities overcome the country's deep financial problems.

And in a further move to revive the Ukrainian economy, EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg also signed off on a plan to lower customs duties on Ukrainian goods that could save the country almost 500 million euros ($A742.23 million) a year.

The ministers also added four people to a list of 18 Ukrainians subject to an EU visa ban and asset freeze since March 5 for misappropriating Ukrainian state funds.

There were no immediate details on the four but EU diplomats said they were Ukrainians who, along with the other 18, were targeted by judicial investigations for fraud against the state.

The EU medium-term loan of almost 1 billion euros ($A1.48 billion) is aimed at helping Ukraine cover its balance-of-payments needs and comes in addition to 610 million euros ($A905.5 million) of aid that has been approved but not yet disbursed.

The cut in trade tariffs for Ukrainian imports until November 1 is a one-sided measure that will not affect duties on exports to Ukraine from the 28-nation bloc.

It is a first stage in a free-trade pact due to be signed by Brussels with Kiev later this year which was linked to the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement that former president Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign in November, triggering the protests that led to his ouster.

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EU approves Ukraine aid package

The proposed new rules would also establish pan-European common definitions of fraud and introduce uniform penalties against those found guilty of defrauding the EU budget, the European Parliament said.

"This will ensure that fraud against the EU budget is considered a crime everywhere in the EU," said a European Parliament statement issued following the vote by MEPs. "The rules will provide sanctions for fraud against the EU budget, including imprisonment, and there will be a level-playing field for periods within which it is possible to investigate and prosecute offences. This will help deter fraudsters, providing more effective legal action at national level and facilitating the recovery of lost funds."

The Parliament described the proposals as an "integral" step in European Commission plans to establish a European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), which would investigate fraudulent use of EU tax-payer's money. The European Parliament last month backed proposals to establish the EPPO, which European justice commissioner Viviane Reding hopes will be operational by 2015.

Plans to establish the EPPO follow concerns at the Commission that investigation and conviction rates for fraud against EU resources vary greatly across the EU. Statistics released by the European Parliament show that only 46% of cases referred to member states are followed up by their national judicial authorities. EU-wide, the conviction rate of these is just 42%.

The UK and Ireland have decided not to opt in to the EPPO, but Barry Vitou of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that UK organisations involved in spending European Union money must nevertheless ensure their anti-fraud measures and controls over staff will withstand scrutiny by EPPO. British organisations should also be sure that all their European partners have anti-fraud measures in place which will protect against investigations by the EPPO, as the office clamps down on fraudulent use of EU tax-payers' money.

"The UK opt out is largely irrelevant, said Vitou following MEPs endorsement of the proposal to criminalise misuse of EU funds."The point is that the EU is turning up the heat on fraud on EU funded projects. If they find fraud it will be prosecuted, whether by UK or EU prosecutors is a minor detail to those in the cross hairs."

Proposals to criminalise misuse of EU funds across the EU reflect Commission concerns that definitions of EU budget fraud and sanctions against offenders also vary widely across the EU.

"The interpretation of what constitutes fraud to the EU budget differs from one country to another, as do the penalties," said the Parliament statement following the vote. "For example, the level of sanctions for fraud varies across the European Union from no mandatory sentence for fraud to 12 years imprisonment. Equally the time within which it is possible to investigate and prosecute offences varies widely, ranging from 1 to 12 years."

The proposed Directive would establish a definition of corruption and a definition of misappropriation, to be criminalised in the member states. Money-laundering of proceeds of offences criminalised under the Directive would also be criminalised in member states.

Member states would also be required to criminalise all forms of preparation of and participation in the incitement, aiding, abetting and attempt of offences criminalised under the Directive.

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Pan-European definitions of fraud and corruption proposed as European parliament backs anti-fraud measures

Panaji: Award-winning movies, revolving around youth, will be a major attraction at the upcoming edition of European Union Film Festival (EUFF) in Goa.

The festival will be inaugurated onApril 26with the screening of Hungarian movie 'Fresh Air' in the presence of the Consul General of Hungary (Mumbai).

Directed by Agnes Kocsis, the film narrates the story of a mother-daughter and their ambitions in life.

The nine-day film extravaganza culminating on May 4 also has 18 other films from the European continent that talk about the dreams, passion, fear, frustration, fun, joy,mistakes and recognition of young lives.

The other films in the schedule include 'The Brides' from Greece, Bulgarian flick 'Kecove', 'Shocking Blue' from Netherlands among others.

EUFF is organised by European Union to India, embassies of member states of the European Union and the Entertainment Society of Goa.

All the films will be screened in national languages of member states of the European Union, with English subtitles.

The films will also bring out Europe's fascinating diversity and its rich cinema tradition.

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Youth-centric films to dominate European Union Film Festival