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Die Corona-Krise hat die Basler Modekette im dümmsten Moment erwischt. Mitten in einer Umstrukturierung. Nun bemüht sich Tally Weijl intensiv um Covid-19-Kredite. Und streicht Arbeitsplätze zusammen.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Dutch protesters being arrested for protesting the country's lockdown measures, the lack of a legal basis to force those entering Slovakia to enter a 14-day quarantine, and so much more.

Die Schulöffnung sorgt für Diskussionen: Die Liste der Vorwürfe gegen Silvia Steiner, die Präsidentin der Erziehungsdirektoren-Konferenz, ist lang. Jetzt wehrt sie sich.

A coalition of 40 global businesses – including energy majors such as BP, Iberdrola, Orsted, and Shell – have called on governments to support "a massive wave of investments in renewable electricity" and other low-carbon energy solutions when devising recovery plans from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carbon dioxide emission limits in the EU taxonomy suggested by the technical expert group are too high and will make it virtually impossible to reach EU climate goals for 2030 and 2050, argues a group of Swedish lawmakers.

Laura Codruta Kovesi, the chief prosecutor of the recently established European Public Prosecutor Office, was wrongfully fired from her position as head of Romania’s anti-corruption directorate, according to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The court upheld Kovesi’s complaint...

The government may be forcing citizens into state-run quarantine facilities without an appropriate legal basis since the country’s ombudswoman, NGOs and the media could not find any legally relevant decisions banning the entry of foreigners into the country and ruling...

Following a two-day meeting, the Finnish government presented a very cautious plan on Monday evening (4 May) on how to reopen society. Many economists, however, had hoped for a more courageous approach.  More on the Finnish response to the novel...

As the Dutch celebrated the anniversary of the end of Nazi occupation indoors, police arrested around 80 protesters in the Hague on Tuesday afternoon (5 May) for protesting against the country’s coronavirus measures. While the protest had not been announced...

The UK and US on Tuesday (5 May) issued a joint warning that hackers have been targeting the health sector hunting for information, including Covid-19 data and vaccine research. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and US Cybersecurity and...

Belgium’s National Security Council will meet on Wednesday to discuss the next stage of the exit strategy from the lockdown measures. One of the questions is whether the politicians will make a decision about social contacts that have been limited...

Megszünteti a második világháborúban eltűntek felkutatásával foglalkozó szolgálatát a német vöröskereszt (DRK) 2023-ban, hetven évi munka után.

A DRK 1953-ben indította az akkori Nyugat-Németország belügyminisztériumának támogatásával a német hadifoglyok, eltűnt civilek és családjuktól elszakított gyermekek felkutatását támogató szolgálatát. A világháború végének 75. évfordulója alkalmából kiadott hétfői felhívásuk szerint most még érdemes megfontolni a keresési megbízás benyújtását, mert nagyjából másfél évig, 2021. december 31-ig vállalnak még új ügyeket. Azonban 2022-től már nem lesz erre lehetőség, és 2023 végén befejezik a munkát.

A kutatók az utóbbi csaknem három évtizedben főleg oroszországi levéltárak adataira támaszkodva dolgoztak. Az egykori Szovjetunióba hurcolt hadifoglyok és civilek millióiról szóló kimutatásokba tekinthetnek be. Átlagosan az esetek 23 százalékában tárnak fel információkat, elsősorban az érintett utolsó tartózkodási helyét és elhalálozásának időpontját tudják megállapítani.

A DRK közleménye szerint az érdeklődés továbbra is jelentős, a keresőszolgálat 2018-ban nagyjából kilencezer, tavaly tízezernél is több megbízást kapott. Az évforduló révén további emelkedés várható, valószínűleg sok család szeretné megismerni a háborúban eltűnt hozzátartozók sorsát, de az érdeklődés később a demográfiai változások, nemzedékváltások miatt minden bizonnyal egyre inkább alábbhagy.

Ugyanakkor a DRK a szövetségi belügyminisztérium támogatásával nemcsak a második világháborúban eltűnt németek után kutat, hanem bármely fegyveres konfliktussal összefüggésben vállal keresési megbízásokat, és ezt a munkát 2023 után is folytatja. Tavaly 2083, egy évvel korábban pedig 2291 menekült kért segítséget elveszített hozzátartozók megtalálásához. A szervezet a menekültügyi családegyesítési eljárásokban is részt vesz, szakértőik tavaly 20 966 ügyben működtek közre külső tanácsadóként.

On Tuesday (5 May), Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder (CSU) outlined new plans to reopen the state’s restaurants and hotels. Having implemented the first and strictest lockdown in the country, the state of Bavaria will allow restaurants to resume service outdoors...

Thanks to the EU single market, Germany conducts 50% of its exports, so if there is no single market, there is no German industry, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton has said. “For the Netherlands, it is more than...

Die Berner Musikerin Vanessa Gnaegi steckt seit Mitte Februar in der Dominikanischen Republik fest. «Langsam werde es ein bisschen einsam», sagt sie.

Professeur d'archéologie antique à l'Université d'Aix-Marseille, François Quantin lance ce que l'on pourrait appeler un manifeste érudit contre l'usage à effet souvent discriminant du mot « autochtone » dans son livre qui vient de paraître aux éditions Karthala sous le titre Chimères autochtones : le malentendu identitaire en Méditerranée.
Ce petit livre (119 p.) comporte en deuxième partie un corpus de 15 textes brefs bilingues allant du « peuples des Pélasges » cité par Eschyle à une supplique dans (...)

Die geplanten Ferien im Ausland fallen aufgrund der Corona-Krise aus. So heisst es: Ferien in der Schweiz. Unsere Leserinnen und Leser erzählen, wie sie ihre Ferien verbringen wollen. Eins scheint dabei klar zu sein: Bewegung und Aktivitäten gehören für viele dazu.

© European Union 2018 – Source : EP

The European Parliament’s committees carry out detailed examination of proposed EU laws and draw up proposed changes, upon which Members subsequently debate and vote. The committees are fundamental to EU decision-making systems and to the powers of the European Parliament.

The European Parliament has 20 parliamentary committees composed of Members. Each committee is headed by a Chair and Vice-Chairs (collectively known as the ‘Bureau’), and is supported by a secretariat. Some committees have sub-committees linked to them; for instance, the Committee on Foreign Affairs has two sub-committees: one on human rights and the other on security and defence.

Legislative and non-legislative files

Parliamentary committees prepare work for consideration in the European Parliament plenary sessions. The committees mainly work on legislative proposals put forward by the European Commission, as well as on non-legislative positions of the European Parliament on specific topics. In the committees, work on these two types of files (legislative and non-legislative) is broadly similar.

Lead committee and committee for opinion

Usually, but not always, one committee is designated as a ‘lead committee’ for a file. Other committees, for which the file is partly relevant, may be designated to provide an opinion. The scope of responsibilities of each committee is set in the European Parliament’s rules of procedure. In case of disagreement about the role of committees on a specific file, the matter is brought before the Conference of Committee Chairs.

Rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs

The procedure to work on a file in both lead committees and those providing an opinion is broadly the same. The file is assigned to a political group, who designates a Member to be the ‘rapporteur’ responsible for steering the whole procedure through Parliament, and where appropriate, to lead negotiations with other institutions such as the Council of the European Union. Other political groups in Parliament designate a Member, known as a ‘shadow rapporteur’, responsible for following the file closely and negotiating compromises within the committee. As a rule, a file is followed by a rapporteur and up to six shadow rapporteurs from the other political groups in each committee.

Report and opinions

Once the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs are appointed, work on the file is usually organised as follows: after a first exchange of views, the rapporteur drafts his or her ‘draft report’ (in a lead committee) or ‘draft opinion’ (in a committee providing an opinion). This text is subsequently submitted to Members for amendment. Once Members have tabled their amendments, the rapporteur and the shadow rapporteurs usually work on reaching agreement on compromise amendments. Members subsequently vote on all the amendments and the committee then adopts its report or opinion.

Committees providing an opinion usually work ahead of the lead committee, so that the lead committee can consider the adopted opinions before it adopts its report. Once the lead committee adopts its report, it is put forward to the plenary for a vote.

This process can be illustrated with a few examples. The legislative proposal on single-use plastics had one lead committee – the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee and six committees providing an opinion. Parliament’s report on the consent on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union was led by the Constitutional Affairs Committee, and ten committees for opinion. For the legislative proposal on Horizon Europe for research and innovation 2021–2027, the lead committee is the Industry, Research and Energy Committee with seven committees for opinion. The Employment and Social Affairs Committee leads the non-legislative report on Quality traineeships in the EU, with one committee for opinion.

Keep sending your questions to the Citizens’ Enquiries Unit (Ask EP)! We reply in the EU language that you use to write to us.

Further information

• Legislative observatory, European Parliament.
• Legislative train schedule, European Parliament.
• Rules of Procedure, European Parliament.

Lange dauert es nicht mehr: Bald können wir wieder am See sünnelen. Mit welchen angesagten Bikinis und Badeanzüge wir uns diese Saison in die Sonne schmeissen, erfahren Sie hier.

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