European Union

AMENDMENTS 1 - 195 - Draft report on the current political situation in Afghanistan
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

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The Eastern Partnership aims to strengthen and deepen the EU's relations with its six partner countries to the east, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine in areas such as political association, free trade, migration, energy etc.

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General : The negotiations on a free-trade deal with the US continue to attract attention, especially a clause detailing how to resolve disputes between foreign investors and countries. The international trade committee organised a meeting on 6 May to discuss the issue with Cecilia Malmström, the commissioner responsible for foreign trade. To find out what they discussed, read our summary on Storify.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : The negotiations on a free-trade deal with the US continue to attract attention, especially a clause detailing how to resolve disputes between foreign investors and countries. The international trade committee organised a meeting on 6 May to discuss the issue with Cecilia Malmström, the commissioner responsible for foreign trade. To find out what they discussed, read our summary on Storify.

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

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Point de presse de Michel SAPIN, Ministre français des Finances et des Comptes publics, le 7 mai 2015.

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A draft law empowering shareholders to vote on directors’ remuneration, so as to ensure proper transparency and tie their pay more closely to their performance, was backed by Legal Affairs Committee MEPs on Thursday. Some large companies should also be required to disclose, country by country, information on tax rulings, taxes paid and public subsidies received, adds the committee.
Committee on Legal Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

A draft law empowering shareholders to vote on directors’ remuneration, so as to ensure proper transparency and tie their pay more closely to their performance, was backed by Legal Affairs Committee MEPs on Thursday. Some large companies should also be required to disclose, country by country, information on tax rulings, taxes paid and public subsidies received, adds the committee.
Committee on Legal Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

● Labour leader, Ed Miliband: if you are pro-EU what other choice is there?

If you are pro-EU, what other choice is there, really? Opinion piece by Jon Danzig Today, Britain votes on its next government in the most tightly-contested election in living memory.

Tomorrow, all citizens from the rest of Europe now living in the UK, and all citizens from Britain now living in the rest of Europe, can only hope for one outcome if they want to continue enjoying where they currently reside. 

Why?  Because unless Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, is handed the keys to number 10 Downing Street, the traditional home of all UK Prime Ministers, the future of Britain in Europe; of Britons in Europe, and of Europeans in Britain, will be in doubt for at least a year or two, and maybe forever. 

Only the Labour Party has promised no referendum in the next five years (unless there are plans for a transfer of more powers to the EU – which is extremely unlikely in the course of the next Parliament).

Rightly in my opinion, Labour’s policy is that Britain should now be concentrating on re-building our economy, reducing our deficit, and strengthening our ties with Europe and our European allies. 

A referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EU will be an unnecessary distraction at a time when the country needs to keep its eyes on a more important prize: the well-being of ordinary, every-day citizens living in the UK.

The Conservative Party has promised an in-out EU referendum within the next two years if the party is elected to be the next government.   Although the party’s leader, David Cameron, says he wants the UK to stay a member, some Eurosceptics in the party state that most Conservative prospective MPs want the UK to leave the EU.  Furthermore, David Cameron’s proposals for EU reform would entail an EU treaty change requiring the agreement of all 28 EU members.  That would likely be impossible to achieve within two years, even if all the other 27 EU members agreed with Mr Cameron’s reform proposals (which they don’t).

If UKIP do well in the General Election and agree an alliance or coalition with the Conservatives to form a government, they have said they will demand as the price of co-operation a referendum before Christmas.  Such a hasty and premature referendum date would plunge the country and its economic progress into turmoil. 

The Lib-Dems, who like UKIP don’t have a chance to become the next government, swing both ways.  The party has said they are staunchly pro-EU, and they’d be happy to form a coalition with Labour (with a few red-lined caveats) and would willingly accept Labour’s stance of no referendum.  But the Lib-Dems are also happy to go to bed with the Tories – and although they’ve lipped their opposition to an EU referendum by 2017, this isn’t one of their red-lined pre-nuptial clauses.  As The Guardian commented yesterday, the Lib-Dem leader, Nick Clegg, may see an EU referendum “as the price he must pay to form a government.”

The SNP are also staunchly pro-Union – European, that is, rather than the Union of the United Kingdom.  Wanting to retain one union but undo another is not in the best interests of the UK or Europe.  Labour has ruled out a coalition or deal with the SNP, meaning that the more seats SNP gains, the less chance Labour has of forming a majority government and thereby preventing a possible fast-track exit from the EU.  In addition, the more seats won by the SNP, the more chance that the Eurosceptic Conservative party will win power.  The SNP cannot form a government for the entire UK.   The Labour party is the only pro-EU party that could form a government for all of Great Britain.

Only Labour offers Britain the chance to retain our membership of the European Union for the duration of the next Parliament, with a mission to concentrate our earnest efforts on building our economy as a member of the world’s biggest, richest economy (the EU), rather than throwing the country into two years of confusion and bickering on whether we should leave it, and with the greatest risk that we actually will. 

Furthermore, only Labour is likely to win concessions and reforms across the EU by working together with our EU allies, rather than threatening to turn our backs on them.

• If you are pro-EU and traditionally vote Labour, then your only choice is to vote Labour again.
  
• If you are pro-EU and traditionally a Conservative, then please, grit your teeth, vote Labour this time, in the interests of the country and our membership of the EU.
  
• If you are pro-EU and a Lib-Dem, unfortunately, your party hasn’t red-lined its opposition to an EU referendum; only a vote for Labour will ensure a safe distance from an EU exit.
  
• If you are pro-EU and an SNP supporter, please vote this time for a horizon wider than the highlands or lowlands: vote Labour to ensure our continued place in Europe.   

Only @UKLabour offers certainty on Europe. If you’re pro-EU, what other choice is there? Opinion piece: http://t.co/NLQyg2JZQG #GE2015

— Jon Danzig (@Jon_Danzig) May 7, 2015

Other articles by Jon Danzig:

• Russell Brand changes his mind on voting
  
• What Nigel Farage told British expats in Spain
• Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Farage?

The post Only Labour offers certainty on Europe appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

"Even though there is some truth in them, France is the victim of clichés", French Finance Minister Michel Sapin told Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs in an “economic dialogue” meeting at the European Parliament on Thursday morning. Despite what is often said and written, “France is reforming, but reforms require careful negotiation and have to be phased in gently so as to last and avoid social conflict", he added.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

"Even though there is some truth in them, France is the victim of clichés", French Finance Minister Michel Sapin told Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs in an “economic dialogue” meeting at the European Parliament on Thursday morning. Despite what is often said and written, “France is reforming, but reforms require careful negotiation and have to be phased in gently so as to last and avoid social conflict", he added.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

REPORT on the implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy (based on the Annual Report from the Council to the European Parliament on the Common Foreign and Security Policy)
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Arnaud Danjean

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP