Alessandro CIRIANI

Policy topics Alessandro CIRIANI is active on

What Alessandro CIRIANI has said (11)

• 2025-11-27 “E-004711/2025 Answer given by Mr Síkela on behalf of the European Commission The information required by the Honourable Members is available in the Replies of the Commission to the European Court of Auditors’ Special Report 1 . The Commission relies on internationally recognised data, through the work of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, and has committed to the development of a methodology to differentiate food insecurity not only by severity but also by chronicity, to inform geographical and thematic prioritisation and greater consistency. The Commission is constantly working to improve monitoring of EU funded actions to ensure that investments deliver long-term, measurable results in line with European strategic objectives, including stability and addressing the drivers of forced displacement and migration. Strengthened oversight is being rolled out through risk-based field follow-up, improved verification of reported results and more systematic use of baselines where feasible. This ensures that EU investments remain focused, avoids fragmentation and contributes to reducing vulnerabilities over time. 1 See page 3, CE reply to Recommendation 1: https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECAReplies/COM-Replies-SR2025-20/COM-Replies-SR-2025-20_EN.pdf.”
  Global priorities for international development · EU Development & Humanitarian Aid
• 2025-06-18 “E-002467/2025 Answer given by Mr Šefčovič on behalf of the European Commission The Commission is aware of the import bans that China is imposing on ruminant meat and derived products due to bluetongue disease outbreaks. These bans are indeed impacting exports from various Member States, including Italy, since 2024. The Commission has been raising this issue with relevant Chinese authorities at multiple occasions since 2024, both at technical and political level, and both at bilateral letter to the General Administration of China Customs on 14 October 2024 and multilateral level (World Trade Organisation Sanitary and Phytosanitary committee). The Commission reminded China that according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), no import restrictions should be imposed, regardless of the bluetongue status of the exporting country (see in particular Article 8.3.2 of the WOAH code on ‘Safe commodities’, which confirms that Veterinary Authorities should not require any bluetongue-related conditions regardless of the bluetongue status of the exporting country 1 ). Accordingly China should lift the bans currently in place because of the bluetongue disease. At this stage, the issue has not been solved but the Commission will continue raising it. In the same way, recognition of EU regionalisation measures by China has been a longstanding issue. This is still a priority issue which the Commission keeps raising regularly with Chinese authorities. 1 https://www.woah.org/fileadmin/Home/eng/Health_standards/tahc/2018/en_chapitre_bluetongue.htm.”
  Export of EU agri-food products · Trade relations with China
• 2025-04-30 “P-001768/2025 Answer given by Mr Brunner on behalf of the European Commission Under Article 68(5) of Regulation 2019/1896 1 , the transfer of personal data between the two EU Agencies requires a working arrangement. The negotiations of the working arrangement are ongoing and taking place directly between the two Agencies. The Commission has no competence established in the legislation to take any steps to resume data transfers. The Commission does not take part in the negotiation of the working arrangement. However, under Art. 68(2) of Regulation 2019/1896, Frontex is required to submit the agreed text to the Commission to receive a prior approval decision, once the negotiations have been finalised between the two Agencies. The Commission regularly encourages the Agencies to swiftly conclude the negotiations. 1 Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2019 on the European Border and Coast Guard and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1052/2013 and (EU) 2016/1624, OJ L 295, 14/11/2019, p. 1.”
  Asylum & border control · Privacy & law enforcement
• 2025-04-10 “E-001482/2025 Answer given by Mr Serafin on behalf of the European Commission The Commission does not prescribe the specific activities in the applicants’ work programmes, nor does it instruct them to support any specific positions 1 . The Commission has issued guidance 2 to mitigate the reputational risk from agreements involving activities directed at EU institutions, clarifying which activities should not be mandated as a condition for EU financing. Initiatives funded from the EU budget should not undermine the institution´s neutrality. Grants including operating grants are awarded competitively. Applicants submit proposals that include the description of their work programmes. This work programme is annexed to the grant agreement. The work programme may mention, among other applicant’s activities, advocacy activities. To date, the Commission has not identified irregularities in operating grants. The Commission will immediately take action should it become aware of any proven evidence of misconduct, such as breaches of contractual obligations. Interest representatives that apply for EU funding, which would typically include nongovernmental organisations, are required to register in the Transparency Register 3 as not representing commercial interests. They are required to report their lobbying activities and declare their main sources of funding as well as the amount of each contribution above EUR 10 000 exceeding 10% of their total budget and the name of the contributor in their registrations in the Transparency Register. The Commission adheres strictly to its transparency obligations. Information about EU fund recipients, including non-governmental organisations, is published in the Financial Transparency System 4 . The Commission proactively shares the objectives and outcomes of funded projects on the Funding & Tenders Portal 5 . 1 In relation to the introductory statement, reference is made to the European Commission's replies to the European Court of Auditors’ special report in question, https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/publications?ref=SR2025-11. 2 https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/guidance-fundingdev-impl-monit-enforce-of-eu-law_en.pdf. 3 https://transparency-register.europa.eu/index_en. 4 https://ec.europa.eu/budget/financial-transparency-system/index.html; the annual publications are based on Article 38 of the Financial Regulation (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L_202402509) whereby data on recipients is not disclosed for very low value contracts below EUR 15 000 and where disclosure risks threatening the rights and freedoms of the persons or entities. 5 https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/home.”
  Accounting and auditing of EU budget · Regulation of NGOs in Europe
• 2025-02-04 “E-000484/2025 Answer given by Mr McGrath on behalf of the European Commission The EU is an area of shared values, which are incompatible with crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes, including crimes committed by totalitarian regimes. Remembrance policies are primarily under the competence of Member States, who are responsible to deal with the sensitive and complex issue of addressing the horrors and crimes that have happened in the past as stated in the Commission Report on the memory of the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes 1 . The EU plays the role of facilitator and supports through funding 2 the promotion of remembrance of the crimes committed by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, including Nazism, fascism, Stalinism, and totalitarian communist regimes. 1 COM/2010/0783 final. 2 For further information: Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme https://commission.europa.eu/funding-tenders/find-funding/eu-funding-programmes/citizens-equality-rights-andvalues-programme/citizens-equality-rights-and-values-programmeoverview_en#:~:text=This%20programme%20aims%20to%20protect,regional%2C%20national%20and%20tran snational%20level.”
  Remembrance of communism/Soviet Union
• 2024-12-19 “E-003052/2024 Answer given by Mr Tzitzikostas on behalf of the European Commission Maintenance works and structural works are needed in particular to ensure sufficient road safety levels on the road infrastructure. Those works can have an impact on traffic which requires the imposition of road traffic restrictions. Road safety may be considered an overriding reason of public interest that can justify the restriction of free movement as set out in Articles 34 and 35 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The Commission does not have any information at this stage indicating that road traffic restrictions related to Slovenia’s H4 expressway are manifestly discriminatory or inappropriate to the purpose of ensuring the necessary road safety level.”
  Road transport environmental policy
• “Will speak in Italian. Thank you. Chairman, I would like to thank our guest for his presentation, which however, does. Place a bit of suspicion on the Italian government. I mean, we know espionage has been carried out, but we don't know who ordered it to happen. And there's a committee in Italy which is looking into this to try and find out exactly what happened. And probably actually by the end of this week, they'll be publishing their results and you'll know what they're doing because they heard from you. Mr. Guarini in was a former defense minister under the Draghi government, and he's chairing it, as you know. Anyway, so we're waiting for these official results. But, uh, let me make a few give you ask a few questions anyway. So how much of this could be part of normal investigative activities carried out by, due by the judicial or police forces in for the purposes of fighting crime? Now, if there are further countries involved, could it be other governments that are involved in spying on Italian citizens because they have involvement in activities that take place in other states as well? And finally, Paragon said that Citizens Labs report had several inaccuracies in it. Could you tell us a little bit more about that? Have you had any contact with Paragon, for example? Thank you.”
  Surveillance equipment & spyware
• “Thank you. Chairman. And, uh, I'd like to thank our speaker for his presentation. Now, it's not up to me, uh, Mr. other colleagues or anyone to establish whether the Italian government has been involved in espionage or not. I mean, there are five Italian investigations on this. There's also a parliamentary committee looking at this, this, and they'll be presenting their report by the end of the week to the cybersecurity agency. Now, we obviously are against any kind of disinformation as well. We want to see the truth emerge. We don't want to see propaganda on that basis. I'd like to ask a few questions. How does the Commission justify the Europeans intervention in terms of government's use of spyware? Because intelligence and security issues are a national competence. Do you believe the wide ranging of definition of spyware in EMF could lead to legal uncertainty, making it more difficult for cybersecurity agencies to operate legally in the European Union? So those are my two questions. Thank you.”
  Surveillance equipment & spyware
• “Thank you. President green deal has really led to the very complex architectures in the area of regulations in the energy sector. It's a multiplication of a Very ambitious regulations. Brussels Brussels sets targets but companies and families, households facing higher electricity bills. So today the commission wants to involve citizens in energy transition. Great. But let's look at the context. This package comes after an energy crisis and the policies that are clearly failed. Europe seems to respond with new strategies, new packages. Instead of looking at the problem at its very roots, you need a reform, a structural reform of the Green Deal, because you're just going to be correcting very timidly some some of the imbalances that exist. If you want to put the citizens in the center. You need to be courageous and say that the Green Deal is a failure. We need to revise all of these energy security issues, sustainable prices, especially for households and SMEs. We need to revise the cbam. We need to revise ETS because energy security needs to be sustainable, not just for the climate, but also for European citizens. Thank you.”
  EU approach to electricity market and prices
• “Thank you. Chairman. Well, before the beginning of the meeting, we've had some material distributed. I think it was from a colleague from the Greens. And this relates to the Paragon Paragon case, and I don't think it's particularly appropriate. So under the rules, I'd ask you to advise the ushers to come and take this material away from the room. Thank you.”
  Transparency requirements of EU institutions
• “(10:32:16 – 10:33:46): are going to be pragmatic here. The objective of the commission can be shared. But if we want to avoid production moving outside Europe, it's not enough to intervene on raw materials. We also need to look carefully at the entire value chain. The we need to look at the reality of European industrial chains. The otherwise, we'll be paying for carbon while people can import the end product without, supporting the same objectives. We need to extend the definition. We need to reduce commission intervention times, reduce obligatory values for goods at high risk. These are technical instruments, but they're fundamental to avoid triangulation, customs issues, and ensure the efficiency of the CBAM. We'll be putting forward amendments focusing on strategic chains in our production system with regard to the most exposed sectors. We need a safeguard clause. The commission absolutely has to be able to suspend temporarily the implement the application of CBAM. In conclusion, we need to ensure that the CBAM protects competitiveness, work, and production in Europe. Otherwise, there could be this could lead to deindustrialization. Thank you. And the second shadow from ECR.”
  Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)