European Parliament

An EU scheme offering member states technical help – such as expertise, studies, and working visits - with structural reforms needed to boost growth and jobs was informally agreed upon by MEPs and Council negotiators on Wednesday. The €142.8 million Structural Reform Support Programme would run until 2020. The deal still needs to be endorsed by Parliament as a whole.
Committee on Regional Development

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Civil Liberties Committee MEPs will question Council and Commission representatives on Thursday about the decision once again to prolong internal border checks in place in five countries in the Schengen passport-free area for another three months, until mid-May.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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General : Robots were the guests of honour at today's press seminar on creating rules and laws to regulate their use. MEPs will vote on a report on this during next week's plenary. Report author Mady Delvaux, a Luxembourg member of the S&D group, also took the time to answers questions about it by followers of our Facebook page yesterday.

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New rules allowing EU citizens with subscriptions for online music, games, films and TV shows to access this content while staying temporarily in another EU country, were informally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators on Tuesday.
Committee on Legal Affairs

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General : Amid temperatures of -20°C people in Eastern Ukraine were cut off from electricity, heating and water after pro-Russian rebels broke the ceasefire and started shelling the area last week. Another sign that managing EU-Russia relations remains a challenge especially in view of the country's assertiveness and uncertainty surrounding the future of US foreign policy. The security and defence subcommittee discussed on Monday Russia's influence in Ukraine and Southern Caucasus and how to react to it.

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The worsening security situation in eastern Ukraine, where heavy fighting with pro-Russian rebels recently broke out in the government-controlled town of Avdiivka, were debated by Security and Defence Subcommittee MEPs on Monday with Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. MEPs urged Russia to stop testing the West’s reactions and to go on implementing the Minsk agreements.
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

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General : It would take another 70 years for women to earn the same as men with the current pace of progress, according to the European Commission. Europe might be one of the world's leaders when it comes to gender equality, but in the EU women still get on average lower salaries and pensions and continue to be underrepresented in political and economic positions of power and decision-making. A report adopted by the women's rights committee today urges the EU to step up its efforts.

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General : Some 200 million women and girls have suffered a form of genital mutilation. It consists of cutting off genitalia and is mostly carried out on young girls up to 15 years old. On the occasion of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on 6 February we spoke to women's right committee member Malin Björk, a Swedish MEP from the GUE/NGL group, about what should be done to end the practice.

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General : The internal market committee votes this week on new rules to improve the quality and independence of safety and environmental tests for new cars. The economic committee discusses the latest economic and monetary developments, while the civil liberties committee debates whether to extend temporary internal border checks in some European countries with representatives from the European Commission.

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Committee and political group meetings, Brussels

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General : To create a better Europe, the EU is focusing this year on legislative proposals that can make a difference to everyone. The main issues to tackle include security, the migration crisis, climate change and the digital single market. Find out more about the EU's six priorities for 2017 and what Parliament is doing to make them possible.

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General : European Parliament President Antonio Tajani visited Malta on the eve of the Informal European Council to be held in Valletta on 3 February. Tajani met representatives of Maltese civil society, student organisations, unions, business organisations and NGOs at Europe House in Valletta for an informal exchange of views on the challenges facing Europe today.

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General : What does it mean to be a European? It’s not just the great leaders: all people are a part of this history and they have a valuable role to play in preserving this common heritage and identity of ours. So dig through your photos, your videos or even sound files, find digital content you feel is appropriate to share with everyone and upload it to My House of European History, our collaborative platform that aims to become a virtual library of testimonials and stories from people across Europe.

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Plenary sessions : Georgian citizens will be able to enter the EU without a visa for short stays, under a new law passed by Parliament on Thursday.

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Plenary sessions : To protect adopted children’s best interests, MEPs have urged the EU Commission to require all EU countries to recognise each other’s adoption certificates automatically. Their resolution, voted on Thursday, proposes a European Certificate of Adoption to speed up the automatic recognition process.

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Plenary sessions : The results of 2016 Gabon’s presidential election are "non-transparent and highly doubtful", say MEPs in a resolution, voted on Thursday, on the rule of law crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Gabon. They also call on the Congolese authorities to hold credible elections before the end of 2017.

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Plenary sessions : Rules to protect EU banana growers against any surge in imports from Ecuador after its accession to the EU-Colombia/Peru trade deal were approved by MEPs on Thursday.

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Plenary sessions : The need to stabilise the internal situation in Libya and to preserve the EU values, including human rights, were the recurring points raised by MEPs in a Wednesday afternoon debate with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on growing migratory pressure in the central Mediterranean.

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Plenary sessions : “Accelerating the modernisation of Europe’s entire economy, making it low carbon and efficient in energy and resources” are key aims of Energy Union legislation, said Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič in Wednesday’s plenary debate.

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Plenary sessions : Political group leaders reacted on Wednesday to President Donald Trump’s recent signing of an executive order banning nationals of seven countries from entering US territory. Most MEPs described the travel restrictions as arbitrary and defying the core values of western democracies, such as freedom, non-discrimination and solidarity.

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