European Parliament

The European Parliament will elect a new President, for the second half of this legislature, on 17 January. Outgoing President Martin Schulz will preside over the election of his successor, who will in turn oversee the election of the 14 Vice-Presidents and the five Quaestors, on 18 January.

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Progress in transferring asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other EU countries under an intra-EU deal and from third countries to EU territory will be assessed by Civil Liberties Committee MEPs on Thursday. They will also discuss the results of the March 2016 deal with Turkey to improve the management of migration and refugee flows.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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General : The EU should in the future have more possibilities to finance itself directly instead of being mostly funded by member states, according to a report to be presented to Parliament on Thursday 12 January. Such a system of own resources was already in place for decades in the past and should be readopted. Report co-author Alain Lamassoure spoke to us ahead of the presentation, pointing out that the proposals would not result in a power shift from national governments to Brussels.

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General : Parlamentarium, Parliament's visitors centre, recently celebrated five years of being open to the public. To mark the occasion we have launched a special #ThisIsMy5 photo contest on Parliament's Instagram page. Everyone is welcome to take part and the winners will be treated to a trip to Brussels.

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An “effective and comprehensive European whistle-blower protection programme” should be proposed “immediately” by the EU Commission, urged the Budgetary Control Committee on Monday.
Committee on Budgetary Control

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General : Manfred Weber MEP, EPP Group Chairman

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Three parliamentary committees will quiz Commissioner Günther Oettinger about his new portfolio for Budget and Human Resources, which Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has asked him to take over from former Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.
Committee on Budgets

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General : Three parliamentary committees question commissioner Günther Oettinger this week to assess his suitability for his new portfolio of budget and human resources. In addition the civil liberties looks at the current state of play regarding refugees in Europe, while the legal affairs committee votes on the first-ever EU rules for robotics and artificial intelligence.

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Committee and political group meetings, Brussels

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General : Aarhus in Denmark and Pafos in Cyprus are Europe's cultural capitals for this year. Since the capitals of culture initiative was launched in 1985, 54 cities around Europe have had the honour. The aim is to highlight the richness of Europe’s cultural diversity and looks at its shared history and heritage. Read more about this year’s cultural capitals.

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Three parliamentary committees will quiz Commissioner Günther Oettinger about his new portfolio for Budget and Human Resources, which Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has asked him to take over from former Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva.
Committee on Budgets

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General : Malta has taken over the rotating presidency of the EU Council from Slovakia. This means that for the next six months the small island state plays a key role in setting the agenda, finding compromises and addressing a range of challenges such as the migration crisis and the expected start of the Brexit negotiations. We asked Maltese MEPs what their hopes and expectations were for their country's firs- ever presidency of the EU Council.

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General : As 2016 is drawing to an end, take a look back at the events that the marked the year in Parliament: from UK Prime Minister David Cameron meeting Parliament President Martin Schulz ahead of the Brexit referendum to MEPs paying tribute to the victims of the Nice tragedy in July. Relive this year's key events in our photo gallery and join the conversation on our Facebook page.

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General : From all of us at the European Parliament, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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General : Fighting illicit financial flows, investing in family and small-scale agriculture and coordinating aid for Haiti after Hurricane Matthew were among the issues on which Members of the European Parliament and their counterparts from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries agreed at the 32nd session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Nairobi, which closed on Wednesday.

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General : From Pinterest to LinkedIn, the European Parliament is present on most major social media platforms in order to better communicate with you. On these platforms we offer not only background information and the latest news, but also videos, photos, infographics and the opportunity to discuss topical issues. We also offer EP Newshub: our special tool to follow Parliament politics in real time. Try out our interactive infographic to get a taster of what we serve up on each platform.

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Delegations

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Evidence of law enforcement shortcomings in EU member states as regards car emissions is set out in the draft report by the Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurement in the Automotive Sector (EMIS), published on Monday. The report and draft recommendations were prepared jointly by co-rapporteurs Jens Gieseke (EPP, DE) and Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (ALDE, NL). EMIS will have a first public debate on the text on 12 January.
Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

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General : "The history of humanity is the history of migrations. Zero migration has never existed, and it never will”, said Louis Michel (ALDE, BE), EU Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) at the opening of its 32nd session, in Nairobi (Kenya) on Monday. “We must manage migration flows in a human way, in line with our values. Fortress Europe is not working”, he added.

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Holiday recess

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