European Union

On 20 April, SEDE exchanged views with Florence Gaub, EUISS, and Anar Valiyev, ADA University, Baku on how to combat ISIL in the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood Countries. The attacks in Paris and Brussels have demonstrated the recklessness and tenacity of the terror organisation "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)". Their jihadist ideology has become the blueprint for aspiring terrorist groups and organisations in the Eastern and Southern neighbourhood of the EU.
Further information
Draft agenda and meeting documents
Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

General : The European Parliament hosted a conference in Brussels on Tuesday 26 April, focussing on the role of women in tackling radicalisation and promoting de-radicalisation in Europe. Participants also assessed national and European strategies on the ground and held an open discussion on the way forward.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

General : The European Parliament hosted a conference in Brussels on Tuesday 26 April, focussing on the role of women in tackling radicalisation and promoting de-radicalisation in Europe. Participants also assessed national and European strategies on the ground and held an open discussion on the way forward.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The European Commission's proposal for automatic exchange of corporate tax information among national tax authorities was welcomed by Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs on Tuesday as a positive step in the fight against aggressive corporate tax planning. But MEPs also advocated adding further safeguards in the text to ensure that competition in the single market is not distorted by advantageous national tax deals with multinationals.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The European Commission's proposal for automatic exchange of corporate tax information among national tax authorities was welcomed by Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs on Tuesday as a positive step in the fight against aggressive corporate tax planning. But MEPs also advocated adding further safeguards in the text to ensure that competition in the single market is not distorted by advantageous national tax deals with multinationals.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

- New Blog Post by Alexandros Kyriakidis: “Is the IMF necessary for the 3rd Greek Program?“

The post NEWS appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

New rules to curb the growing influx into the EU of plant pests such as Xylella fastidiosa, which has been devastating Italian olive groves in 2013, were endorsed by the Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. Factors driving this influx include increased trade and climate change. The draft rules, informally approved by Parliament and Council negotiators in December 2015, would govern preventive measures for imported plant pests and rapid response mechanisms for high-risk ones.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

New rules to curb the growing influx into the EU of plant pests such as Xylella fastidiosa, which has been devastating Italian olive groves in 2013, were endorsed by the Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. Factors driving this influx include increased trade and climate change. The draft rules, informally approved by Parliament and Council negotiators in December 2015, would govern preventive measures for imported plant pests and rapid response mechanisms for high-risk ones.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : MEPs scrutinise how money has been spent by the European Commission and the other EU institutions and agencies in a procedure known as discharge. Over the years, the procedure has become a very important tool to check how public funds have been spent and EU projects carried out. The European Parliament has the exclusive right to approve the budget implementation of the EU institutions. On 27 April MEPs debate the discharge of the 2014 annual budget and vote on it the following day.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of our daily Brussels Briefing. To receive it every morning in your email in-box, sign up here.

King Felipe, left, meets with Mariano Rajoy during coalition negotiations earlier this year

It’s been four months since Spanish voters went to the polls and delivered a result so inconclusive that most political observers – including incumbent prime minister Mariano Rajoy himself – have been predicting another round of elections almost since the results were first counted. Unless King Felipe can pull a rabbit out of the hat today when he meets the heads of the four largest parties for a final time, Spaniards are likely to head to the polls again on June 26 to have another try.

Would another election change anything? Recent opinion polls show that Mr Rajoy’s centre-right Popular party may gain a little more than the 28.7 per cent it won in December, and the second-place Socialists would lose a bit on their 22 per cent take. But the numbers have held pretty steady throughout the four-month drama. Which would suggest that the parties should hunker down and find a coalition that works rather than risk a repeat. But several hurdles have prevented any agreement, particularly within the Socialists and the far-left Podemos insurgent party.

The Socialists have resisted Mr Rajoy’s repeated entreaties to form a grand coalition, and one only need to look at what happened to the centre-left Pasok party in Greece to understand why: joining in a grand coalition in Athens led by the centre-right allowed far-left Syriza to claim the mantle of the left from Pasok, and the Spanish Socialists are deathly afraid of Podemos repeating the feat in Madrid. But Podemos has been equally resistant, blowing up the only long-shot coalition attempt that was seriously tried during the talks – a Socialist-led government with Podemos and the upstart centrist Ciudadanos party joining in – when its membership voted overwhelmingly to reject it earlier this month.

Read more

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Answering to a question during a press conference held in Gazientep (Turkey), President Tusk made the following remarks:

"This is one of the permanent topics of our discussions and during our meetings and I think that I am consistent when we come to this topic. I will not comment on specific case. But I have just two more personal reflections today.

First of all, thirty years ago when I was an activist of the illegal opposition to the communist government in Poland I was imprisoned for being critical of the regime. And if I remember well also my good friend, President Erdogan, fifteen years later also had similar experience for expressing his views.

And the second reflection I think it is very simple and obvious: as a politician I have learned and accepted to have thick skin and I have no expectation that the press will treat me with special care; quite the opposite. I think it is a good lesson for all of us, in Turkey, in Europe, in other countries. It is nothing specific geographically.

And the line between criticism, insult and defamation is very thin and relative. The moment politicians begin to decide which is which can mean the end of the freedom of expression, in Europe, in Turkey, in Africa, in Russia, evevywhere.

I hope that in the future, freedom of speech we will not be our main topic during our meetings, thank you. "

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP