European Parliament (News)

Plenary sessions : Domestic workers and carers, most of whom are migrant women, should be given an official status in the EU. Recognizing their work as "real" jobs would discourage exploitation, forced labour and human trafficking, say MEPs in a resolution voted on Thursday. MEPs recommend establishing easy-to-manage models for legal employer-worker relationships, citing examples in Belgium and France, to end precariousness and undeclared domestic work.

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Plenary sessions : The European Commission managed its 2014 EU budget funds according to the rules, so Parliament granted it a “discharge” approval for that year, in a resolution voted on Thursday. Parliament’s own management of EU funds in 2014 was also approved. However, Parliament postponed approving spending by three joint private sector-EU partnerships in technology field, the Council of Ministers and the European Council.

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Plenary sessions : It is children who pay the price when EU member states fail to cooperate and protect children’s best interests in legal proceedings such as cross-border parental custody disputes and adoption decisions, Parliament points out in a non-binding resolution voted on Thursday. MEPs want specialised chambers within EU countries' family courts to ensure that transnational cases are processed faster.

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Plenary sessions : Benchmark interest rates that are critical to financial market stability across Europe, such as the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (EURIBOR), will become more reliable thanks to a new law voted in by Parliament on Thursday. This law aims to clean up the benchmark-setting process, improve transparency, and prevent conflicts of interest like those that led to the LIBOR rigging scandals of recent years.

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Plenary sessions : Rules designed to reduce the technical obstacles that differing national standards and procedures create for rail operators and rolling stock manufacturers were approved by the European Parliament on Thursday. The rules agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators on the “technical pillar” of the 4th railway package will cut time and cost of certifying that operators, locomotives and carriages meet safety and technical standards.

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Plenary sessions : The implementation of the EU-Turkey agreement on migration, its legal aspects and democratic control were debated by MEPs, First Vice-President of the Commission Frans Timmermans and Dutch Minister for Immigration Klaas Dijkhoff on Thursday morning. MEPs stressed that there must be no bargaining on visa liberalisation criteria.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs debated on Thursday 28 April the agreement to return migrants and asylum seekers from Greece to Turkey, which Turkey and EU countries agreed on 18 March. The debate focussed on the deal's legal aspects, implementation and democratic control. Starting 8.30 CET, this page will cover the debate and be regularly updated.

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The 4th railway package, tabled by the European Commission in January 2013, aims to improve the competitiveness of the rail sector and quality of rail services by removing administrative costs, introducing more competition in domestic passenger services and ensuring a level playing field for operators.

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Plenary sessions : Measures to improve railway operations in the EU, including boosting the interoperability of national networks and increasing the role of the European Railway Agency, are debated and voted on by MEPs on Thursday 28 April. These changes should pave the way for further measures later year, readying national networks for the eventual liberalisation of services, more competition for public contracts and greater restrictions on subsidies. Read on for more details.

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Plenary sessions : President Schulz opened the session by recalling the victims and heroes of Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 30 years ago in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. The explosion and meltdown of reactor core 4 ejected a vast radioactive cloud that contaminated large parts of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and central Europe as far as the North Cape. This disaster reminds us of Europe’s duty to ensure that its nuclear reactors are safe, he said.

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Plenary sessions : Women often face harassment online, ranging from insults to threats of rape or physical violence. Various measures to tackle this and to encourage more women to work in the ICT sector are set out in the report "Gender equality and empowering women in the digital age". MEPs debate it on Wednesday 27 April and vote on it the following day. We talked to report author Terry Reintke, a German member of the Greens/EFA group, about how to make internet and the ICT sector more hospitable to women.

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General : How European Muslims deal with radicalisation and the role that women can play in countering it and promoting de-radicalisation were discussed in a conference held in the European Parliament on Tuesday. Projects on the ground and what to do to confront the phenomenon at national and EU levels were also debated with leading-edge experts.

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Plans to update EU type approval rules and emission limits for internal combustion engines in non-road mobile machinery (NRMM), such as lawn mowers, bulldozers, diesel locomotives and inland waterway vessels, were backed by the Environment Committee on Wednesday. These plans had already been agreed with the Dutch Presidency of the Council. NRMM engines account for about 15% of all NOx and 5% of particulate emissions in the EU.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

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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.

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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

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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

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General : If you use Facebook and Google your personal data such as photos and email are usually stored in US data centres. Sending Europeans' data across the Atlantic is legal provided American companies commit themselves to respecting EU privacy standards. On Thursday, MEPs discussed a new mechanism for transferring data across the Atlantic with experts. Read on to find out why it was created and watch the interview with Max Schrems who was responsible for getting the previous arrangement scrapped.

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General : Talks with Turkey on dealing with the refugee crisis should not be linked to the country’s efforts to join the EU, warned Martin Schulz. The EP President addressed European heads of state and government at the start of the EU summit on 17-18 March dedicated to the migration crisis and economic priorities. “Turkey won’t get any discounts on media freedom and minority protection, the separation of powers or the rule of law,” he said, calling them “non-negotiable issues”.

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General : The conflict in Syria, which started five years ago this month, has led to the world's largest humanitarian disaster since World War II. Last month two groups of MEPs visited Turkey to see for themselves the living conditions of some of the 2.5 million Syrian refugees there. They were led by EP Vice-President Sylvie Guillaume and budgets committee chair Jean Arthuis. In a chat with EP's Facebook followers this week the two MEPs spoke of the importance of solidarity in tackling the influx.

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General : The European Parliament will once again mark "Earth Hour" by switching off lights in all its buildings on Saturday 19 March from 20.30h to 21.30h. "Earth Hour" is a global environmental initiative, begun in Sydney in 2007, to raise awareness of the need to act to fight climate change.

Source : © European Union, 2016 - EP