European Parliament

General : Launched in 2011 Snapchat is currently the fastest growing social media network on the planet, its over 200 million users send almost 9,000 photos to each other every second. Roughly one third of Snapchat users come from Europe, and in Ireland, Sweden and Belgium, about 50% of teenagers use the app. In order to allow them to get a fun glimpse into the workings of the EU, Parliament set up its own account last May, and now has over 1,000 followers on the video messaging platform.

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Plenary session and committee meetings, Brussels

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General : EP President Martin Schulz travelled today to the Greek island of Lesbos in order to visit a refugee registration and identification centre where almost 2,500 people are recorded on a daily basis. Speaking at the so-called hotspot at Moria, he said: "We must urgently reinforce efforts to complete hotspots. To be effective, however, all member states must take part in the relocation." While in Greece the President also visited Athens for the first relocation of refugees from Greece to Luxembourg.

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General : Turkey is the gateway to Europe for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war zones and as such an essential partner for the EU to help tackle the refugee crisis. Following Sunday's elections in Turkey, we talked to Greek EPP member Manolis Kefalogiannis, chair of the delegation to the EU-Turkey joint parliamentary committee, about the need for an agreement on migration between the EU and Turkey, the country's human rights situation as well as its progress towards joining the EU.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : On Wednesday and Thursday European Parliament President Martin Schulz will travel to Athens and Lesbos to discuss the migration crisis and will be present for the departure of the first relocated refugees from Greece.

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General : The European citizens’ initiative was an innovation in the Lisbon Treaty that gave people the right to demand EU action on a particular subject provided they collect a million signatures. However, after three years no initiative has yet led to a new legislative proposal. The European Commission is preparing a review but MEPs already adopted on 28 October several ideas on how to improve the process. We spoke with report author György Schöpflin, a Hungarian member of the EPP group.

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General : King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands met EP President Martin Schulz during a visit to Brussels on Tuesday 3 October. The Monarch was also due to visit the European Commission and the Council on the same day as part of his country taking over the presidency of the European Council on 1 January 2016.

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Delegations

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General : EU heads of state and government met this Wednesday 23 September to discuss the migration crisis in the EU and, speaking at the start of the European Council, EP President Schulz said that the European Union "is built on de facto solidarity, out of necessity, not romanticism." "The European Parliament will now engage as a matter of priority with the Council on the proposals presented by President Juncker on 9 September, and present its own further proposals, " he said.

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ECB President Mario Draghi painted a somewhat downbeat picture of economic developments in the Eurozone but assured Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs that the ECB "will not hesitate to act if some of the downward risks weaken the inflation outlook over the mid-term more fundamentally than we project at present". He hinted at the possibility of adjusting the size, composition and duration of the ECB’s asset purchase programme, to add monetary policy impetus if necessary.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

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The environment committee said on Wednesday that Parliament's delegation to the COP 21 climate talks in Paris must call for a 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a 40% energy-efficiency target and a binding 30% target for renewable energy.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

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During a first debate the state of play on Volkswagen's emission "defeat devices" with the European Commission in the Environment Committee, many MEPs highlighted the need to speed up the introduction of automotive test procedures that better reflect vehicle emissions in real driving conditions, while others compared the EU's decentralized “type-approval” system unfavourably with the US one.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

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The EU military operation against people smugglers in the Mediterranean is about to enter its next phase. After gathering intelligence and setting up the structure, the operation will now focus on arresting traffickers and disabling smugglers vessel. The details of the operation were discussed by MEPs during a meeting of the security and defence subcommittee on 22 September.
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

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Tax competition as such cannot be avoided, but today’s system has reached its limits and led to unwanted side effects. Small firms should not have to bear the tax burden of multinationals that pay very little. Action is needed to harmonise corporate tax practices across Europe, so as to make tax competition clearer and fairer. This was the key sentiment voiced at Tuesday’s meeting of the Special Committee on Tax Rulings with finance ministers from Luxembourg, Italy, France, Spain and Germany.
Special Committee on Tax Rulings and Other Measures Similar in Nature or Effect

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Goods or substances that may be misused for torture or execution should not be promoted for export, so as to prevent their spread, said the International Trade Committee, voting on Tuesday to strengthen EU “Anti-torture” rules. MEPs want to widen today’s EU ban to include services, e.g. marketing in expos or online catalogues, but also finance, transport and insurance. They also want to ban transit of prohibited goods via the EU and add a “catch-all” clause to allow checks on dubious new ones.
Committee on International Trade

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Parliament should not endorse spending by the European Council and the Council of the EU for 2013 because they have failed to provide the information and documents requested, the budgetary control committee said on Tuesday. Parliament has refused toclear the Council´s accounts every year since 2009.
Committee on Budgetary Control

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General : Parliament, as one of the EU's two legislative bodies, is closely involved in shaping legislation in every field the EU is responsible for, from agriculture to banking. The debt crisis in Greece and scandals involving tax rulings that help multinationals ease their tax burden have thrust economic issues into the foreground. This week MEPs question five financial ministers as well as the president of the European Central Bank about the latest developments.

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The civil liberties committee discusses on Tuesday 22 September new proposals by the European Commission to tackle the refugee crisis. Proposed measures include a permanent relocation mechanism, a common EU list of safe countries of origin and an effective return policy. Ahead of the debate, we asked Parliament’s political groups for their views on the crisis. Watch the debate live on our website on Tuesday from 9.00 CET and check out the main migration routes in the infographic.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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General : Alexis Tsipras's Syriza party has emerged victorious from Sunday's snap elections in Greece, but what does the road ahead look like for the country? MEPs Danuta Maria Hübner (EPP, Poland), Maria Arena (S&D, Belgium) and Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, Germany) share their views.

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General : A common response to the current refugee crisis is needed, said Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, during a meeting today with French President François Hollande in Paris. "We should welcome refugees," Schulz stressed ahead of the extraordinary European Council on the refugee crisis taking place in Brussels on Wednesday.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP