Our resources come from the earth. Water to drink,food, fuel for heating and cooking, fibre to wear, theoxygen we breathe: everything comes to us from therocks, water, and ecosystems around us. Our entireeconomy is founded on the products of nature. And notonly direct products: the profits of a company sellingwood or beef clearly come from nature but so do thoseof a company selling bicycles, computers, or shoes.Where do the raw materials come from, if not fromthe earth? Metal is mined, smelted using energy fromthe earth, and cooled with water; glassis, at its most basic, fused sand; plasticsare made from oil or other rawmaterials. Our entire society, andspecifically our well‐being, is rooted inthe resources of the earth.Despite our economy being founded onservices of nature, many economicmodels consider natural resources to befree. A tree planted and looked after toproduce fuel or paper, is valued with theinputs of labour and fertilizer, but a treeharvested from a wild thicket isconsidered to be without price: notpriceless, but free. In order to correctthis, there have been efforts toincorporate the many services ofecosystems into financial modelling.However, the sheer variety andfundamental nature of these services makes it difficultto isolate their contributions in order to calculate anindividual price. How much is it worth to have yourfruit crops pollinated? Or to have diseases regulated bynatural predators? To enjoy the mitigation of climate?

We need functioning ecosystems for food production,to help mitigate climate, to provide us with clean rainand yet protect us from floods, and to grow the

materials for clothes, houses, and other goods uponwhich we rely. And we should not discount the socialand psychological importance of an artist’s inspirationfrom the landscape, the smell of a strawberry field ona hot June day, the respite of listening to the rush of astream while fishing, or a family day out cyclingthrough the woods.However, we Europeans are blithely damaging ournatural resources. Streams in nine European countries

have been confirmed as sufferingfrom nutrient pollution — fromfertilizer run‐off — slowing thefunctioning of the stream, inhibitingthe shrimp, stoneflies, and caddisflies from breaking down leaf litter.We know pollution is interferingwith the functioning of ourwaterways. And not only pollution:40 per cent of European waterwaysare affected by drainage foragriculture, and modification ofwaterways for hydroelectric powerand dams. Over‐extraction isanother problem. What will wedrink when we have overused ourwater sources? And what will we eatwhen irrigation becomes animpossible luxury?

European population has been growing – by about athird since the mid‐1950s ‐ but the area taken by citiesis growing faster – almost doubling in the same timeperiod. Today, Europe contains 7% of the world’s land,7% of the people, 7% of the cropland, and 17% of theurban area. Not only is the amount of urban area outof proportion with our land area and population, but itis increasing at a rate of 1000 km2 per year. About fivehectares are lost to concrete in the time it takes youto eat breakfast. Enjoy that breakfast — about four‐fifths of urbanization is on agricultural land, with theresult that we will have to reach further to get basic

Around EuropeQuaker Counc i l fo r European Af fa i r s

No. 347 November 2012

Many economic models considernatural resources to be free.

Cutting Ourselves Off from Mother Earth

Water and soils provide essentialservices to human society.

Photo: A. Bosbeer

CHANGES IN AROUND EUROPEAround Europe will be bigger in 2013! You will receive the usual December‐January issue to round off 2012.From February 2013, Around Europe will be twice as thick but come only every two months to your door or

e‐mail inbox. Subscription prices will remain the same.We will be delighted to receive your feedback on this experiment. Write to office@qcea.org, send us a

letter, or comment on our Facebook page!

2foods that were once grown locally. This means ourfood will cost more in terms of carbon. We arereplacing crops with car parks, going in the oppositedirection from the more sustainable choice of localfood production. In addition, when we seal soils anddestroy their functioning, they are no longer able toabsorb carbon.

Sealing of soils – covering the earth with roads, carparks, and other impermeable surfaces – is one of themajor threats to European soils. All those newindustrial terrains and shoppingcentres, roads to carry theincreasing numbers of private carsand trucks bringing strawberriesfrom Spain to Sweden in October, aswell as the ‘no maintenance’gardens for the busy commuter,these are all covering the soil.These covers block rain from itstraditional route into the sponge ofthe soil, nourishing plants, andslowly trickling through intostreams and rivers. The blockedwater instead runs along thesurface of the barrier over the soil,flooding onto streets and downdrains, rushing into rivers fasterthan before, flooding in a flash in flatlands, runningfar too rapidly for plants to gently collect moleculesof water from the tiny clumps called peds of soil. Thenourishing moisture is lost into a flood of too muchwater in the wrong place.With global warming, parts of Europe are likely tohave increased rainfall and more storm events. Thenatural infrastructure of soils and plants absorbing andusing water will become all the more important. Butwe are not managing it properly. Not only are wesealing the soil, but we are losing it. Soil erosionaffects more than 10% of Europe’s land area. Soil is

lost with water and also with wind. Dry soil can beblown away, cuasing dust clouds such as one whichcaused a major car pileup in Germany in 2011. Parts ofthe world – 60% of the US ‐ are currently experiencingdrought, which might be part of a new climaticpattern. And dryness makes fine soils vulnerable towind erosion.To give an idea of the impact of this in financialterms: soil erosion is estimated to cost €53 million peryear in the UK. Despite the enormity of this ongoingdamage to the earth that sustains us, the UK is one ofthe countries in the Council of the European Unionblocking the EU’s proposed Soils Framework Directive.The other four countries blocking the Directive areGermany, Austria, France, and The Netherlands. While

these national governmentsprevent any agreement onlegislation to protect soil, the landwe depend on is being irreparablydamaged.One of the obstacles to conservingsoil is that it is out of sight,literally buried under the surface,and misunderstood as being 'justdirt'. However, the reality is thatsoil is extremely complex. Soilfunctions on a scale of metres, ascale of millimetres, and a scalethat is molecular. The myriadalgae, diatoms, invertebrates, andfungi that live in soils are always

creating it, from rocks and from their ownmetabolisms. Fungi and invertebrates break up organicmatter, making nutrients available to fertilize otherplants. Without them, our soils would be covered withlayers of undecomposed dead things.With functioning soils, we have food, fuel, fibre, andother essential elements for our lives, all right here inEurope. Without our basic ecosystem services, humanswon’t be able to survive at all. Let us step in now toprotect our soils and water for all people in Europe.

Alexandra Bosbeer

What can you do to help protect soils?‐ If you live in one of the five countries obstructing agreement on the Soils Framework Directive, write toyour head of government (and send a copy to your Member of European Parliament) explaining theimportance of legislation to protect the soil from which we gain our food and many other essentialproducts, and asking them to give priority to making progress on the Soils Framework Directive.‐ Once soil is sealed by buildings or car parks, it is almost impossible to reverse. Communicate with your

local planners, or politicians who belong to the local planning authority, to explain why they should focusany urbanization on brownfield sites – sites previously built on‐ and keep greenfield sites green. TheEuropean Commission has published guidelines on preventing soil sealing which may be of use to your localplanners. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/soil/sealing_guidelines.htm

With functioning soils, we havefood, fuel, fibre and other

essential elements for our lives.

Soil sealing increases the risk of flooding.Image: Axel Kuhlmann (www.publicandomainpictures.net)

Around Europe: Our newsletter Around Europe iscurrently published ten times per year, although 2013will see an experiment of longer, bimonthly issues (andyour feedback on this is welcome!). Around Europecontains articles on different issues pertaining toongoing QCEA advocacy. Through it, we aim to raiseawareness of important European issues and toencourage readers to engage with the Europeaninstitutions.Around Europe is available on paper and by e‐mail inpdf form. An annual paper copy subscription costs €22or £16; an annual email subscription costs €15 or £10.The money that QCEA raises from these subscriptions isvital in supporting the work we do. For information onhow to subscribe to Around Europe, please visitwww.qcea.org/stay‐in‐touch, phone us on 0032 22 3049 35, or write to us.LinkedIn: QCEA has a company page on LinkedIn. Youcan follow our updates at www.linkedin.com/company/quaker‐council‐for‐european‐affairs

3 QCEA, Social Media and how we CommunicateIt was not so long ago that the Religious Society ofFriends and Facebook friends may have seemed worldsapart. But here at QCEA, we have recently beenexploring the links between the two. QCEA’s onlinepresence has developed significantly in recent years:some readers will be enjoying this edition of AroundEurope via the World Wide Web, and others mayalready follow our blog. We hope that by expandingthe ways in which people can engage with QCEA, wewill encourage more people, from a variety ofgenerations, nations, faiths and professions, tointeract with our work and with important Europeanissues. Below, you can read about out what sort ofinformation you can find in each medium, and how tosubscribe to each.The QCEA website: Our website is your portal to awide range of information about QCEA and itsactivities. At www.qcea.org, you can find out moreabout the aims and structure of QCEA, details aboutQuaker House Brussels and hiring meeting rooms, anddetails on our advocacy work. The website alsoprovides access to past publications and to our blog.Our website address is www.qcea.org.The QCEA blog: Posts on the QCEA blog are short,informal discussions of advocacy issues. Blog posts arepublished approximately once a week on our variouswork themes. They are tagged with keywords, enablingreaders to search for posts on certain topics. You cansign up to receive each blog post by e‐mail as it ispublished by clicking the ‘follow’ tab on the lowerright‐hand corner of the blog.You can read new and older blog posts atqceablog.wordpress.com (this link can also bereached on our website, www.qcea.org). You can follow QCEA on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn,

on our website, and on our blog.

Twitter: Twitter is a rapidly growing social mediatool that provides users with an immediate and fast‐paced news feed from the organisations andindividuals that they choose to 'follow'. QCEA 'tweets'on a regular basis (usually at least once per day).These tweets can be short pieces of news, thoughts oropinions, links to our own blog or website, orquestions that we encourage followers to respond toor consider. We hope to use Twitter as an advocacyand activism tool, whereby those who follow ourtweets, including other non‐governmentalorganisations, faith groups and individuals, areprovided with regular opportunities to engage withand learn about QCEA’s work and other related topics.Twitter users can follow @QCEA. We encourage you toretweet our messages and engage in conversationsregarding our tweets. Even without a Twitter account,you can read our tweets and view our profile atwww.twitter.com/qcea.

Bethany Squire

Facebook: Facebook is best known as a method ofstaying in touch with family and friends, and sharingnews and photos. It is also an increasingly popular andvaluable online hub for interested individuals toengage with organisations and for organisations toshare their work and expand their networks. Ourrecently‐established Facebook page is a very visualand interactive tool, providing those who visit it withan opportunity to discuss QCEA’s work and sharethoughts by posting or responding to comments.Recent posts of the peace posters found aroundQuaker House have inspired comments and sharing!QCEA’s Facebook page is available to those with aFacebook account by searching for QCEA or for QuakerCouncil for European Affairs in Facebook.

Image: QCEA

In a new report, the UK‐based charity ‘Fair TrialsInternational’ highlights serious concerns about accessto legal representation for citizens whilst beingquestioned by law enforcement across the EuropeanUnion (EU). This fundamental legal right is notcurrently being protected in EU criminal justicelegislation, and although work is being done towardsstrengthening these laws, there is concern that someMember States will not make protecting this right ahigh enough priority.The right to access a lawyer at anypoint during a criminal investigation isguaranteed by the EuropeanConvention on Human Rights (Article 6)as well as the EU Charter onFundamental Rights (Article 47).However, the reality of the situationacross much of Europe is that manypeople face questioning by lawenforcement alone, without legaladvice. Over 10 per cent of those whocontacted Fair Trials International in2011 reported being denied access to alawyer during their police interview.Legislation which will attempt toimprove this situation is currentlybeing negotiated by the EuropeanParliament, Commission and Council. Itdoes, however, face some serioushurdles before becoming EU law, andFair Trials International is concernedabout the current state of thelegislation within the legislativeprocess. Whereas the Commission andParliament have both demanded strongprovisions for protecting the right toaccess a lawyer, the Council,

representing the interests of national governments, ispushing for weaker standards and less protection forEU citizens. The countries pushing for weakerstandards include the United Kingdom and theRepublic of Ireland. In the draft legislation issued bythe Council, formal safeguards were removed for thosewho are questioned by police before being formallydesignated as suspects. This presents the danger thatstatements are given by those who are “just

witnesses” or “helping police”without a lawyer present. Thesestatements may then usedagainst them when they laterbecome suspects. EU MemberStates have weakened theproposals in many other ways aswell.The report by Fair TrialsInternational also highlightsconcern for other defence rightsacross the EU. There iscurrently no EU legislationwhich stipulates that MemberStates must provide free legalassistance if a person accusedof a crime cannot pay a lawyer.There is also lack of provisionfor additional support forvulnerable suspects, and littleregulation on the use of pre‐trial detention. With more EUcitizens working and living inthe different member countries,national governments shouldwork with the EU to guaranteethese fundamental legal rights.

Chris Venables

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Around EuropeQuaker Council for European Affairs aisblSquare Ambiorix 50, B‐1000 Brussels, BelgiumEditeur responsable : Alexandra BosbeerNo. entreprise 0420.346.728www.qcea.orgqceablog.wordpress.com

Fundamental Legal Rights not Protected in EU

Image: George Bellows (Wikimedia Commons)