European Parliament (News)

The Paris climate change agreement should not leave out aviation and shipping, two sectors whose emissions are rocketing and, if left unregulated, could account for up to 40% of all global emissions by 2050, (according to a European Parliament study), said the EP delegation on Tuesday. MEPs also advocate earmarking carbon market revenues as a possible solution for financing climate efforts.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

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Transport and energy companies will have to ensure that the digital infrastructure that they use to deliver essential services, such as traffic control or electricity grid management, is robust enough to withstand cyber-attacks, under new rules provisionally agreed by internal market MEPs and the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers on Monday. Online marketplaces like eBay or Amazon, search engines and clouds will also be required to ensure that their infrastructure is secure.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

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The EU Commission should investigate why Google offers its “Android” operating system only in conjunction with other Google services and also why manufacturers allegedly may not pre-install rival products; MEPs say in a response to the Commission’s annual competition report for 2014.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

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General : Officials from nearly 200 countries have been meeting in Paris since late November to negotiate a new climate change agreement for after 2020. This week a delegation of 15 MEPs also takes part in the COP21 conference. Members are participating in background talks with NGOs and delegations from across the world, while the EU commissioner for climate action Miguel Arias Cañete will brief them on the progress of the talks on a daily basis. Live updates from Paris are available on our Storify page.

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General : A delegation of 15 MEPs heads to Paris this week as world leaders gather at COP21 to hammer out a global agreement to fight climate change. Back in Brussels members of the civil liberties committee discuss the current situation concerning so-called migrant "hotspots" in Greece and Italy. In addition MEPs meet their counterparts from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in Brussels, and Parliament's political groups prepare for the final plenary session of the year in Strasbourg next week.

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General : "Faced with the atrocities committed in certain parts of the world, we must play our part in worldwide solidarity", said Co-President Louis Michel (ALDE, BE) at the opening of the 30th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Brussels on Monday. " ‘Fortress Europe’ is not a solution and is unworthy of the humanist values that Europe defends", he insisted, adding that it must "shoulder its duty of humanity towards refugees fleeing war, violence or dictatorship".

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Following the Justice and Home Affairs Council confirmation of the deal on the EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) directive, the Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee lead negotiator, Timothy Kirkhope (ECR, UK), said:
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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A delegation of 15 MEPs will take part in the UN climate conference in Paris, France, from Monday to Friday. The European Parliament says that the 2015 Protocol must be legally binding and ambitious from the outset, with five-year commitment periods. In a resolution voted in October, MEPs also proposed that a share of revenues from the EU carbon market allowances should be earmarked for climate finance, and that aviation and shipping sectors should initiate measures to curb their emissions.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

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General : EP President Martin Schulz and the leaders of the political groups visited the Netherlands on 3 December to discuss the country taking over the Council presidency on 1 January 2016. "We are facing turbulent times, never before now the situation was as difficult as it is and the level of acceptance of the European Union is at its lowest level," Schulz said. "In this context the next six months become crucial and all the institutions, European Parliament and Council included, must deliver."

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General : In the wake of the terrorists attacks in Paris on 13 November, the fight against terrorism remains at the top of the European Parliament's agenda. On Monday 30 November and Tuesday 1 December, the civil liberties committee discussed how the EU's strategy could be improved.

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Plenary sessions : The European Parliament has done its work on a draft EU directive to ensure that by 2020 at least 40% of non-executive directors on listed company boards are women. Now it is up to the Council of Ministers to agree a position on the draft and start negotiations with Parliament, reiterated many MEPs in Wednesday’s debate, with a view to a Council meeting on 7 December.

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Plenary sessions : The EU Commission sees no systemic threat to democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary, although it has brought several procedures against it for infringing EU laws, said Commissioner Vera Jourová in a debate with MEPs on Wednesday.

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Plenary sessions : The new legislative proposals for a circular economy tabled by the European Commission and presented to MEPs by Commission Vice-Presidents Frans Timmermans and Jyrki Katainen, along with an action plan, were cautiously welcomed by MEPs on Wednesday. But they argued that on waste recycling, reducing food waste and landfill, the proposals aim too low.

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Plenary sessions : The EU’s Frontex border agency should set up a system to handle complaints about alleged breaches of the fundamental rights of migrants and asylum seekers, say MEPs in a non-binding resolution passed on Wednesday. In the plenary debate before the vote, Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos promised that the Commission will take up this idea when it reviews the Frontex regulation in December.

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Plenary sessions : An EU deal with Liechtenstein, which will make it harder for EU citizens to hide cash from the tax man in bank accounts there, was endorsed by Parliament in a vote on Wednesday. Under the deal, the EU and Liechtenstein will automatically exchange information on the bank accounts of each other's residents, starting in 2018.

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Plenary sessions : The work of Parliament’s Special Committee on Tax Rulings will be continued under a new mandate for six months, starting on 2 December. This was decided unanimously at Wednesday’s Conference of Presidents and endorsed by Parliament as a whole, by 561 votes to 69 with 5 abstentions. The committee's work will focus on harmful corporate tax regimes and practices at European and international level.

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Plenary sessions : The 29 November EU-Turkey summit, aimed at reinvigorating the partnership and finding common responses to refugee crisis and Syrian war was very timely, said most MEPs in Wednesday’s debate with Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Nicolas Schmit for the Council Presidency. However, in view of Turkey’s human rights and democracy record, many argued that EU funding for Turkey must be thoroughly scrutinised and questioned the decision to restart EU accession talks with it.

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Plenary sessions : Parliament urged member states to fulfil their pledges and pay for the EU migration actions that have been agreed by EU leaders. In Wednesday's debate, MEPs proposed to use an unexpected windfall of €2.3 billion from EU fines and customs duties to finance some of the measures. The Commission earlier said the new trust funds set up for Syria and Africa were short of €2.22 billion in national contributions.

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Plenary sessions : European elections should be fought with formally endorsed, EU-wide lead candidates (“Spitzenkandidaten”) for the Commission presidency, Parliament said on Wednesday in a formal proposal for a change to EU electoral law. It says these candidates should stand for election to the EP themselves, and be formally nominated at least 12 weeks before the elections.

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Plenary sessions : To boost the EU's air transport economy, the EU needs to ensure a level playing field, while upholding high safety and social standards, says Parliament in a resolution passed on Wednesday and intended to feed into the Commission’s forthcoming aviation package.

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