STRASBOURG (July 20): Lawmakers at the European Parliament have re-elected Ursula von der Leyen to a second five-year term as President of the European Union’s Executive Commission, giving her a comfortable majority and heading off a possible leadership vacuum.
Ms Von der Leyen’s victory ensures leadership continuity for the 27-nation bloc as it wrestles with crises ranging from the war in Ukraine to climate change, migration and housing shortages.
She said she and her supporters were working for a strong Europe, citing themes of prosperity, security and defence.
The Greens/European Free Alliance group in the Parliament voted for von der Leyen (pictured) after receiving assurances of her commitment to Europe’s climate initiatives, improving social policies — including moves to provide affordable housing — and to not do deals with the far right.
In the end a clear majority of 401 lawmakers in the 720-seat legislature voted for the German Christian Democrat after a speech in which she pledged to be a strong leader for Europe in a time of crisis and polarisation.
In the speech she pledged to strengthen the EU economy, its police and border Agencies, tackle migration, and pursue policies tackling climate change while also helping farmers who have staged protests against what they call stifling EU bureaucracy and environmental rules.
She also vowed to tackle housing shortages across Europe and said she would appoint a Commissioner for the Mediterranean Region due to the multiple challenges it faces.
At the side of Ms von der Leyen are two new faces: Antonio Costa of Portugal as European Council President and Estonia’s Kaja Kallas as the top diplomat of the world’s largest trading bloc.
Ms Kallas, previously Estonian Prime Minister, is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and a fierce critic of Russia within both the European Union and NATO.
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UK bureaucrats legally required to be honest
LONDON (July 18): The United Kingdom Government will introduce a duty of candour for Public Servants, King Charles III has stated.
In his speech at the State Opening of Parliament, the King confirmed the long-demanded reform to standards in public life would be established in law.
“My Government will take steps to help rebuild trust and foster respect. Legislation will be brought forward to introduce a duty of candour for Public Servants,” he said.
Staff at the National Health Service are currently the only Public Servants who have a professional duty of candour.
This duty, introduced in 2014, requires them to be open and honest with patients and families when something goes wrong with their treatment or care that causes, or has potential to cause, harm or distress.
Labour pledged in its General Election manifesto to introduce a law placing a legal duty of candour on Public Servants and authorities, and to provide legal aid for victims of disasters or other State-related deaths.
The duty of candour “will address the unacceptable defensive culture prevalent across too much of the public sector”, the manifesto stated.
Campaigners called for the introduction of such a law in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 football fans died in a crush at Hillsborough football ground in Sheffield in 1989.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, police officers were told to blame "drunken, ticketless Liverpool supporters".
However, an inquest in 2016 found the victims had been unlawfully killed and that their deaths were down to failures by police, the ambulance service and defects in the stadium.
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‘Significant flaws’ in UK pandemic response
LONDON (July 19): The United Kingdom Government and the Civil Service failed the public due to significant flaws in preparing for the COVID-19 pandemic, a public inquiry has found.
The COVID-19 Inquiry said there had been a damaging absence of focus on the measures and infrastructure that would be needed to deal with a fast-spreading disease, even though an outbreak at pandemic scale was foreseeable.
The inquiry said there was a lack of a system that could be scaled up to test, trace and isolate people.
“Despite reams of documentation, planning guidance was insufficiently robust and flexible, and policy documentation was outdated, unnecessarily bureaucratic and infected by jargon,” the report stated.
The inquiry, Chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, published its 217-page report in which she said lessons must be learned and “never again can a disease be allowed to lead to so many deaths and so much suffering”.
In her recommendations, Lady Hallett called for a new pandemic strategy to be developed and tested at least every three years with a UK-wide crisis response exercise.
She said the Government and political leaders should be properly held to account on a regular basis “for systems of preparedness and resilience”.
She also said external experts from outside the Civil Service and Government should be brought in to challenge and guard against “the known problem of group-think”.
There were more than 235,000 deaths involving COVID-19 in the UK up to the end of 2023.
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Public Service chief’s early exit ‘personal’
NEW DELHI (July 22): The resignation of the Chair of India’s Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Manoj Soni, has been revealed, almost five years before his tenure was due to end in 2029.
A source told The Hindu newspaper that Mr Soni had resigned a month ago, citing personal reasons, and the resignation was not linked to the controversy over candidates for the examinations run by the UPSC securing employment by presenting fake certificates.
Trainee Indian Administrative Service officer, Puja Khedkar allegedly forged identity papers and presented a disability certificate to get into the service.
The UPSC has registered a criminal case against Ms Khedkar and issued a show-cause notice for the cancellation of her candidature from the 2022 edition of the Civil Services Examination.
After Ms Khedkar’s case surfaced, social media posts stated there were more cases of officers, presently in service, who allegedly forged documents to get benefits reserved for Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Economically Weaker Section, and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities.
The cases raised questions about the security of the UPSC’s examination and selection processes.
Mr Soni is considered close to Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who as Chief Minister of Gujarat had picked him as the Vice-Chancellor of Vadodara’s MS University in 2005 when he was 40 years old, making him the youngest Vice Chancellor in the country.
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Cost concerns over German conscription
BERLIN (July 21): Reintroducing military conscription in Germany could cost up to €70 billion ($A115 billion), a study commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Finance has found.
The research, by the IFO Institute, explored a number of scenarios to assess the macroeconomic impact of military conscription.
In the most comprehensive scenario, where conscription affects the entire age cohort Germany’s gross national income could decrease by 1.6 per cent it found, the significant costs stemming from young people delaying the accumulation of human capital and assets.
Director of the Centre for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research at the IFO, Panu Poutvaara suggested increasing financial resources for the full-time German Armed Forces to make military service more attractive as an alternative.
“Higher salaries for soldiers could be a more sensible solution,” Mr Poutvaara explained.
The study also highlighted the uneven distribution of conscription costs across society, primarily affecting the conscripts themselves.
“Military service forces individuals to alter their educational and career plans, leading to long-term negative economic consequences for their income and consumption,” Mr Poutvaara said.
“If only a small proportion of an age cohort is conscripted, it raises significant fairness concerns due to the unequal burden distribution.”
Conversely, a market solution with higher salaries for the armed forces would distribute the financial burden more evenly, as everyone would contribute to the taxes needed for higher Government spending.
The study’s findings are expected to play a crucial role in the debate about the future of military conscription in Germany, amid rising tensions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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French Olympians tied to Civil Service rules
PARIS (July 23): The French Government says it considers members of its national Olympic team to be Civil Servants, and therefore bound by Civil Service rules banning the display of any religious symbols while performing their duties.
In short, this means that female Muslim athletes will not be allowed to wear hijabs or headscarfs while competing.
The decision has caused anger is some quarters with critics pointing out that it is seemingly in contrast with the Olympic Charter’s calls for respect of religion and protection of human rights.
A recent report from Amnesty International has called the restrictions on religious attire blatant discrimination and a researcher for the human rights non-profit organisation said that beyond being unfair, the move could cause systemic issues for women athletes in France.
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NATO considers Indo-Pacific foothold
BRUSSELS (July 13): Member nations of NATO are reviving the idea of putting an office in Tokyo to give the Alliance its first-ever permanent footprint in the Indo-Pacific region.
The idea was first floated last year, at the urging of Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, but was rejected at the time by French President, Emmanuel Macron, who worried that putting a NATO office in China’s backyard would raise tensions with Beijing.
The office isn’t seen as a game-changer for foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific, but it would give NATO a toehold in a region that it has historically avoided, but has become more strategically important, because of both China’s sabre-rattling and it and North Korea’s support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Observers believe that Mr Macron, who has taken a much more hawkish turn against Russia in recent months, may now also accept that NATO should pay more attention to China.
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Officer sacked over call for racist apology
BUENOS AIRES (July 17): Argentina's Government has sacked Under-secretary for Sport, Julio Garro for suggesting the nation's football team and skipper, Lionel Messi should apologise for a racist and homophobic song broadcast on social media.
The chant was heard during a live video posted on social media by Chelsea and Argentina midfielder, Enzo Fernández from the team bus in the wake of Argentina's Copa América victory over Colombia in Miami. FIFA, football’s governing body, has opened an investigation.
Mr Garro’s suggestion of an apology outraged Argentine President, Javier Milei, who announced the sacking.
“No Government can tell the world champions and double champion of the Americas what to comment, what to think or what to do," Mr Milei’s Office said in a statement.
"For this reason, Garro is no longer Sports under-secretary.”
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Bureaucrats promised ‘best ever’ pay system
KUALA LUMPUR (July 15): Malaysia’s new Public Service Remuneration System (SSPA), expected to be announced in the next few weeks, will be among the best ever implemented by the Government, Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim has promised.
"I want to ensure that when I announce the SSPA, all gaps are filled," Mr Anwar said in an address to the golden jubilee conference of the National Union of Teaching Professionals.
“Despite the Government being burdened with a debt of RM1.5 trillion ($A48 billion), it remains committed to ensuring that Civil Servants' salaries are increased by more than 13 per cent starting this December.”
However, many economists say Mr Anwar doesn’t have the funds for such an increase and is merely seeking popularity and votes from the all-powerful bureaucracy.
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Years-long wait for State jobs goes on
CHANDIGARH (July 17): The statement by the Punjab Public Service Commission that it has no plans to conduct an examination for the Indian State’s Civil Service in 2024 has come as devastating news for thousands of potential aspirants.
It is the fourth consecutive year that no examinations have taken place.
During a press conference, Chair of the PPSC, Jatinder Aulakh said the State Government had not requested the Commission to hold an examination, saying it would fill any existing senior vacancies from within its own ranks.
One potential candidate, Amrinder Singh (29) said he had been waiting for the examination for the past four years, and was gradually losing hope.
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