The new European Commission's focus for the next five years will be on boosting industry's "competitiveness". This entails a radical deregulation agenda for rules that industry perceives as burdensome. Von der Leyen's deregulation agenda was heavily inspired by corporate lobbying campaigns. Last year, the chemical industry led on the Antwerp Declaration, a wish list of industry to slash regulations. This is now followed by the 'Clean Industrial Deal' which is pushing fossil gas for hydrogen, and ignores the other planetary crisis: pollution and biodiversity decline. CEO has compiled an initial list of more than 15 different tools for systemic deregulation. These create more hurdles for new progressive EU regulation, and create escape routes allowing companies to avoid regulation, as well as new hurdles for national level regulation. A good example are the Omnibus proposals, the first of which diluted sustainability reporting rules that had only recently been agreed. We'll share our insights on these new developments in the deregulation agenda, assess what's at stake, and how to build stories around them, at the European level and in your country.
Getting European data from EUROSTAT, the statistical office of the European Union, can be tricky, clicking through ever-increasing menus and confusing download buttons - but there is an easier way. Instead of manually downloading spreadsheets, we will learn how to use the API provided by Eurostat. Once you know how this works you will be able to adapt your knowledge to query data from other organizations including the OECD and the World Bank. We'll also learn how generative AI can help simplify querying data in this format by ensuring we use the correct syntax.Bring your own laptop: we will be using some Python: you will need a gmail account in order to access a copy of the script for the session. No other software is required.
The frequency of migrant crossings, and dangers faced by thousands of people continues to attract headlines across Europe. Here we take a deep dive into UNHCR and Frontex figures, plus data from the UK's Home Office.We will discuss the sources themselves, what they show, how they differ, their publishing schedules and their limitations. We will look at how to access the data, to visualise them, and to find other data with which to enhance these primary sources, not to mentions the stories these will yield!
