European Parliament (News)

Plenary sessions : Martin Schulz summed up his five years as European Parliament President in a statement to the House on Wednesday.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs backed a textiles trade deal with Uzbekistan on Wednesday, acknowledging its efforts to eradicate child labour. But they also urged it to take further steps to end all other forms of forced labour, e.g. by students and civil servants, in its cotton harvest.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : The European Parliament gave its consent for Ecuador to join the EU trade agreement with Colombia and Peru in a vote on Wednesday. The deal retains Ecuador’s preferential access to the EU market.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : Political group leaders discussed how to relieve the humanitarian tragedy in Aleppo, sanctions against Russia and ways to boost European defence capacities ahead of the European Summit.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Plenary sessions : The outgoing Slovak Council Presidency was praised by many political group speakers on Tuesday for delivering tangible results in very difficult times. Launching the European Border and Coast Guard, adopting a jobs-and-growth focused EU budget for 2017, signing the EU-Canada trade deal and taking a step forward in modernising trade defence instruments were among those highlighted in the debate with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Georgian citizens will have the right to travel to the Schengen area without a visa under an informal deal struck by Parliament and Council negotiators on Tuesday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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Plenary sessions : The first-ever joint declaration to fast-track a set of EU priority proposals was signed by the presidents of the EU Parliament, Council and Commission on Tuesday. They pledge, on behalf of their institutions, to make “substantial progress” in key policy areas next year.

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Plenary sessions : Iraqi Yazidi Islamic State survivors and activists Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar receive Parliament’s 2016 Sakharov Prize during a ceremony in Strasbourg on Tuesday 13 December. After escaping sexual enslavement by Islamic State they both became spokespeople for women affected by the terrorist group's campaign of sexual violence and for the persecuted Yazidi minority. Find out more about their fight by watching our video and follow the ceremony live online.

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New rules empowering shareholders to vote on directors’ pay, so as to tie it more closely to their performance, were informally agreed on Thursday. These rules also aim to foster shareholder commitment to companies’ long-run success.
Committee on Legal Affairs

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The EU Agency for Asylum must coordinate information exchange among member states and ensure they protect fundamental rights, said Civil Liberties Committee MEPs on Thursday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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General : Malta is set to take over the Presidency of the European Council in January for the first time since joining the EU in 2004. Parliament's Conference of Presidents, which is composed of Parliament President Martin Schulz and the political group leaders, visited the island on Thursday 8 December to find out how the country was preparing for it.

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A proposal to grant Spain €856,800 in EU aid to help find new jobs for 250 former car workers who were made redundant by 29 firms making motor vehicle parts in the Valencia region was approved by the Budgets Committee on Thursday. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid still needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers on 12 December, and by a plenary vote in Parliament planned for 14 December.
Committee on Budgets

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The EU Commission and member states will be able to reimpose visa requirements faster and more easily under new rules agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators on Wednesday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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General : Some 462 million children live in countries affected by war or national disasters and about 75 million of them need educational support. The EU and Unicef launched the Emergency Lessons campaign this year to highlight the importance of education for children affected by emergencies. On 6 December children, teachers and volunteers visited the Parliament in Brussels to talk about their experiences.

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General : Volunteers from the Syria Civil Defence - better known as the White Helmets - risk their lives on a daily basis by serving as the main rescue group operating in besieged eastern Aleppo. Addressing Parliament’s foreign affairs and development committees on 5 December, their chief liaison officer Abdulrahman Al-Mawwas decried the current situation in Aleppo and called for both a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to prevent a large-scale humanitarian disaster.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

Foreign fighters as well as “lone wolves” training and preparing terrorist attacks on European soil will be criminalised under new EU-rules to fight terrorism backed on Monday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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All EU citizens and third country nationals entering or leaving the EU will be checked against databases, e.g. of lost and stolen documents, under a draft law informally agreed by MEPs and EU ministers on Monday.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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Easier access for all rail operators to domestic rail markets should give rail passengers more choice and better quality services under draft rules backed by Transport and Tourism Committee on Monday.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

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General : EU nationals being radicalised and travelling to fight in Iraq or Syria represent a growing threat. Most of the recent terrorist attacks in Europe were perpetrated by home-grown terrorists, and some of them proved to be returning “foreign fighters”. The civil liberties committee votes today on a new directive on combatting terrorism. The text, drafted in the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks, proposes the criminalisation of preparatory acts such as travelling for terrorist purposes.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP

The 32nd plenary session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) will take place in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, from December 19 to 21 2016. The session will be opened formally by its Co-Presidents Louis Michel for the European Parliament, and Netty Baldeh (Gambia) for the ACP in presence of Justin Muturi, Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP