European Parliament

Plenary sessions : The EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which aims to boost goods and services trade and investment flows, was approved by the European Parliament on Wednesday. The landmark trade deal could apply provisionally from as early as April 2017.

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Plenary sessions : Negotiated for nearly five years and four months, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada is now ready for the final vote by the European Parliament. After MEPs backed it on Wednesday 15 February, the agreement could already provisionally apply from April. In 2015 EU-Canada trade accounted for more than €60 billion and Ceta is expected to boost this by 20%. Read on and watch our video to find out more about the difference the trade deal could make.

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Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness was elected first Vice President of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday January 18th.

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Six months after the EU membership referendum in the UK and much uncertainty remains about the shape that the future relationship between the two. One of the biggest questions are now being asked about the type of trade deal the UK will reach with the EU post-Brexit.

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Plenary sessions : Greece and its debt problem are back on the EU’s agenda. A team of EU officials and representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are expected to return to Athens to evaluate whether the country has implemented the latest reforms agreed under the current bailout, a necessary step for further international support. MEPs discussed the situation during a debate on Tuesday 14 February and called for urgent action to help improve the situation.

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Plenary sessions : Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen gave a passionate speech in favour of the EU at the European Parliament and said the challenges facing Europe could only be tackled together. Van der Bellen was addressing MEPs in Strasbourg on 14 February as part of his first official foreign trip. During the speech he said: “The European idea is great. It is unique. It is worth all the effort."

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Plenary sessions : EU job search aid worth €1,818,750 for 800 former retail workers in the Netherlands was approved in plenary in a vote on Tuesday. The workers were made redundant by six retail trade companies which recently went bankrupt in the Drenthe and Overijssel provinces. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid still needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers on 17 February.

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Plenary sessions : The worsening plight of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels broke the ceasefire and began shelling Ukrainian forces in Avdiivka last week, will be debated by MEPs on Tuesday afternoon with Ian Borg, Maltese Parliamentary Secretary for the EU Presidency, representing EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. This will be followed by another debate on the situation in the West Bank, including settlements.

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Plenary sessions : An “effective and comprehensive European whistle-blower protection programme” should be proposed “immediately” by the EU Commission, urges Parliament in a resolution voted on Tuesday. MEPs deplore the Commission’s failure, so far, to deliver any legislative proposals to establish a minimum level of protection for whistle-blowers who help protect the EU budget against fraud

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Plenary sessions : The title of a statement by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on prospects for resuming Middle East peace talks will be changed to “Situation in the West Bank, in particular settlements”. An oral question on Germany’s revised road toll plan was moved from Thursday to Wednesday afternoon.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs vote this week on plans to reform the EU's emissions trading system (ETS), a scheme set up to help reduce greenhouse gases, which is not not working as expected. Although the EU is the world's third largest CO2 emitter, it also harbours the most ambitious climate target: to cut emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. The plans voted on in Parliament this week should help achieve this target while maintaining Europe’s industrial competitiveness.

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General : Antonio Tajani made his first official visit to Spain as president of the European Parliament on 10 February. During the visit he met several political leaders as well as representatives from civil society and Spanish companies.

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Plenary sessions : Negotiated for nearly five years and four months, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada is now ready for the final vote by the European Parliament. If MEPs approve it during next week's plenary, the agreement could already provisionally applied from April. In 2015 EU-Canada trade accounted for more than €60 billion and Ceta is expected to boost this. Read on and watch our video to find out more about the difference the trade deal could make.

Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : Even though more and more women pursue scientific studies, only one in three researchers in the EU are women. With the International Day of Women and Girls in Science being marked on 11 February, we asked MEPs Eva Kaili and Michèle Rivasi what should be done to attract more women to science. Watch the video to find out what they had to say.

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Plenary session and committee meetings in Strasbourg

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Source : © European Union, 2017 - EP

General : The Volkswagen scandal - involving the manipulation of emission tests - exposed the weakness of the current EU car certification system. On Thursday the internal market committee adopted proposals aimed at making this more difficult, including checks on cars already in circulation. The proposals will now need to be approved by all MEPs during an upcoming plenary session. We talked to UK ECR member Daniel Dalton, the MEP in charge of steering these plans through Parliament.

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In a drive to prevent a recurrence of the VW emissions scandal, Internal Market Committee MEPs amended EU car “type approval” rules on Thursday, to make environmental and safety testing more independent and strengthen national and EU oversight of cars already on the road.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

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Defence cooperation in the EU is now more dependent on political will than on legal considerations, say the Foreign Affairs and Constitutional Affairs committees in a joint resolution passed on Thursday.
Subcommittee on Security and Defence
Committee on Constitutional Affairs
Committee on Foreign Affairs

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EU job search aid worth €1,818,750 for 800 former retail workers in the Netherlands was approved by the Budgets Committee in a vote on Thursday. The workers were made redundant by six retail trade companies which recently went bankrupt in the Drenthe and Overijssel regions. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid still needs to be approved by Parliament as a whole, on 14 February and by the Council of Ministers, on 17 February.
Committee on Budgets

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