European Parliament (News)

Plenary sessions : Negotiated for nearly five years and four months, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada is now ready for the final vote by the European Parliament. After MEPs backed it on Wednesday 15 February, the agreement could already provisionally apply from April. In 2015 EU-Canada trade accounted for more than €60 billion and Ceta is expected to boost this by 20%. Read on and watch our video to find out more about the difference the trade deal could make.

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Plenary sessions : Greece and its debt problem are back on the EU’s agenda. A team of EU officials and representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are expected to return to Athens to evaluate whether the country has implemented the latest reforms agreed under the current bailout, a necessary step for further international support. MEPs discussed the situation during a debate on Tuesday 14 February and called for urgent action to help improve the situation.

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Plenary sessions : Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen gave a passionate speech in favour of the EU at the European Parliament and said the challenges facing Europe could only be tackled together. Van der Bellen was addressing MEPs in Strasbourg on 14 February as part of his first official foreign trip. During the speech he said: “The European idea is great. It is unique. It is worth all the effort."

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Plenary sessions : EU job search aid worth €1,818,750 for 800 former retail workers in the Netherlands was approved in plenary in a vote on Tuesday. The workers were made redundant by six retail trade companies which recently went bankrupt in the Drenthe and Overijssel provinces. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid still needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers on 17 February.

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Plenary sessions : The worsening plight of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels broke the ceasefire and began shelling Ukrainian forces in Avdiivka last week, will be debated by MEPs on Tuesday afternoon with Ian Borg, Maltese Parliamentary Secretary for the EU Presidency, representing EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. This will be followed by another debate on the situation in the West Bank, including settlements.

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Plenary sessions : An “effective and comprehensive European whistle-blower protection programme” should be proposed “immediately” by the EU Commission, urges Parliament in a resolution voted on Tuesday. MEPs deplore the Commission’s failure, so far, to deliver any legislative proposals to establish a minimum level of protection for whistle-blowers who help protect the EU budget against fraud

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Plenary sessions : The title of a statement by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on prospects for resuming Middle East peace talks will be changed to “Situation in the West Bank, in particular settlements”. An oral question on Germany’s revised road toll plan was moved from Thursday to Wednesday afternoon.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs vote this week on plans to reform the EU's emissions trading system (ETS), a scheme set up to help reduce greenhouse gases, which is not not working as expected. Although the EU is the world's third largest CO2 emitter, it also harbours the most ambitious climate target: to cut emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The plans voted on in Parliament this week should help achieve this target while maintaining Europe’s industrial competitiveness.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

Plenary sessions : Negotiated for nearly five years and four months, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada is now ready for the final vote by the European Parliament. If MEPs approve it during next week's plenary, the agreement could already provisionally applied from April. In 2015 EU-Canada trade accounted for more than €60 billion and Ceta is expected to boost this. Read on and watch our video to find out more about the difference the trade deal could make.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : Even though more and more women pursue scientific studies, only one in three researchers in the EU are women. With the International Day of Women and Girls in Science being marked on 11 February, we asked MEPs Eva Kaili and Michèle Rivasi what should be done to attract more women to science. Watch the video to find out what they had to say.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : The Volkswagen scandal - involving the manipulation of emission tests - exposed the weakness of the current EU car certification system. On Thursday the internal market committee adopted proposals aimed at making this more difficult, including checks on cars already in circulation. The proposals will now need to be approved by all MEPs during an upcoming plenary session. We talked to UK ECR member Daniel Dalton, the MEP in charge of steering these plans through Parliament.

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In a drive to prevent a recurrence of the VW emissions scandal, Internal Market Committee MEPs amended EU car “type approval” rules on Thursday, to make environmental and safety testing more independent and strengthen national and EU oversight of cars already on the road.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

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Defence cooperation in the EU is now more dependent on political will than on legal considerations, say the Foreign Affairs and Constitutional Affairs committees in a joint resolution passed on Thursday.
Subcommittee on Security and Defence
Committee on Constitutional Affairs
Committee on Foreign Affairs

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EU job search aid worth €1,818,750 for 800 former retail workers in the Netherlands was approved by the Budgets Committee in a vote on Thursday. The workers were made redundant by six retail trade companies which recently went bankrupt in the Drenthe and Overijssel regions. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid still needs to be approved by Parliament as a whole, on 14 February and by the Council of Ministers, on 17 February.
Committee on Budgets

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An EU scheme offering member states technical help – such as expertise, studies, and working visits - with structural reforms needed to boost growth and jobs was informally agreed upon by MEPs and Council negotiators on Wednesday. The €142.8 million Structural Reform Support Programme would run until 2020. The deal still needs to be endorsed by Parliament as a whole.
Committee on Regional Development

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Civil Liberties Committee MEPs will question Council and Commission representatives on Thursday about the decision once again to prolong internal border checks in place in five countries in the Schengen passport-free area for another three months, until mid-May.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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General : Robots were the guests of honour at today's press seminar on creating rules and laws to regulate their use. MEPs will vote on a report on this during next week's plenary. Report author Mady Delvaux, a Luxembourg member of the S&D group, also took the time to answers questions about it by followers of our Facebook page yesterday.

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New rules allowing EU citizens with subscriptions for online music, games, films and TV shows to access this content while staying temporarily in another EU country, were informally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators on Tuesday.
Committee on Legal Affairs

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General : Amid temperatures of -20°C people in Eastern Ukraine were cut off from electricity, heating and water after pro-Russian rebels broke the ceasefire and started shelling the area last week. Another sign that managing EU-Russia relations remains a challenge especially in view of the country's assertiveness and uncertainty surrounding the future of US foreign policy. The security and defence subcommittee discussed on Monday Russia's influence in Ukraine and Southern Caucasus and how to react to it.

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The worsening security situation in eastern Ukraine, where heavy fighting with pro-Russian rebels recently broke out in the government-controlled town of Avdiivka, were debated by Security and Defence Subcommittee MEPs on Monday with Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. MEPs urged Russia to stop testing the West’s reactions and to go on implementing the Minsk agreements.
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

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