European Union

A draft law to ban the cloning of all farm animals, their descendants and products derived from them, including imports, in the EU was voted by the Environment and Agriculture committees on Wednesday. MEPs beefed up the European Commission’s initial proposal, citing high mortality rates at all development stages of cloning and EU citizens’ animal welfare and ethical concerns.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

A draft law to ban the cloning of all farm animals, their descendants and products derived from them, including imports, in the EU was voted by the Environment and Agriculture committees on Wednesday. MEPs beefed up the European Commission’s initial proposal, citing high mortality rates at all development stages of cloning and EU citizens’ animal welfare and ethical concerns.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

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Federica MOGHERINI, EU HR for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, meets Foreign Affairs Ministers from the Sahel region, on 17 June 2015, in Brussels.

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The question of how to resolve Europe's economic woes continues to divide the European Union. The economic committee approved on 16 June a report evaluating the EU's economic governance. French S&D MEP Pervenche Berès, who wrote the report, told us in an interview that there was a clear division between those who believe current rules are not working and those who say they not been correctly implemented.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

The question of how to resolve Europe's economic woes continues to divide the European Union. The economic committee approved on 16 June a report evaluating the EU's economic governance. French S&D MEP Pervenche Berès, who wrote the report, told us in an interview that there was a clear division between those who believe current rules are not working and those who say they not been correctly implemented.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Binding waste-reduction targets, revamped ecodesign legislation and measures to break the link between growth and the use of natural resources are the chief demands set out in a resolution passed on Wednesday by environment MEPs,who call on the Commission to table new legislation by the end of 2015.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Binding waste-reduction targets, revamped ecodesign legislation and measures to break the link between growth and the use of natural resources are the chief demands set out in a resolution passed on Wednesday by environment MEPs,who call on the Commission to table new legislation by the end of 2015.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

On 17 June 2015, the Council presidency and the European Parliament reached an agreement on a regulation to improve the transparency of securities lending and repurchase transactions.

The regulation will enhance financial stability by ensuring that information on so-called securities financing transactions is efficiently reported to trade repositories and investors in collective investment undertakings. Improved transparency will prevent banks and other financial intermediaries from attempting to circumvent regulation by shifting parts of their activities to the less-regulated shadow banking sector.

Securities financing transactions, often carried out by the shadow banking sector, consist of any transaction that uses assets belonging to the counterparty to generate financing. They mostly involve lending or borrowing of securities and commodities, repurchase (repo) or reverse repurchase transactions, or buy-back/sell-back transactions.

A package of measures

The Commission presented its proposal in January 2014, together with a draft regulation on structural reform of the EU banking sector. The regulation on securities financing transactions is in particular intended to counter the risk of trading activities based on securities financing transactions further developing without proper oversight, including outside the regulated banking system. To this end, it proposes binding transparency and reporting requirements for securities financing transactions.  

Transparency

The draft regulation introduces measures to improve transparency in three main areas:

• the monitoring of the build-up of systemic risks in the financial system related to securities financing transactions;
• the disclosure of information on such transactions to investors whose assets are employed in the transactions;
• rehypothecation activities, a practice by banks or brokers of reusing for their own purposes collateral pledged by their clients.

Next steps

The agreement was reached during a trilogue meeting in Brussels. Trilogues started  on 28 April 2015, after the Council and Parliament agreed their respective negotiating stances in December 2014 and March 2015.

The agreement will be confirmed within a few days by the Permanent Representatives Committee, on behalf of the Council. The regulation will then be submitted, following legal-linguistic revision, to the European Parliament for a vote at first reading, and to the Council for adoption.

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Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Parliament and the Council are set to embark on informal talks to come up with a compromise on a reform of data protection rules. Although MEPs already adopted their position in March 2014, member states have only agreed an approach now. We talked to German Greens/EFA MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, who will be leading negotiations on behalf of Parliament, what the benefit of the new rules will be for consumers and companies and what issues still need to be resolved.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Parliament and the Council are set to embark on informal talks to come up with a compromise on a reform of data protection rules. Although MEPs already adopted their position in March 2014, member states have only agreed an approach now. We talked to German Greens/EFA MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, who will be leading negotiations on behalf of Parliament, what the benefit of the new rules will be for consumers and companies and what issues still need to be resolved.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

On 17 June 2015, the Latvian presidency of the Council struck a provisional deal with the European Parliament on new rules to improve interoperability and safety authorisation procedures for European railways. The reform also gives new tasks to the European Railway Agency (ERA). Together, the two directives and a regulation make up the technical pillar of the fourth railway package.

For the Council, the agreement still has to be confirmed by member states. The presidency will present the agreed texts to member states' ambassadors at the Permanent Representatives Committee on 24 June.

The agreement was reached in the ninth trilogue meeting with the Parliament. The Council approved its position for these negotiations in June 2014.

AMENDMENTS 1 - 47 - Draft opinion Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions concerning the European Union Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Should cloning for food be banned because of animal welfare concerns? The environment and agriculture committees vote today on amendments to a European Commission proposal to ban the cloning of farm animals in the EU. The MEPs in charge of steering the plans through Parliament support the ban, but want to add provisions on the offspring of cloned animals and the marketing of their products coming from countries outside the EU. Watch the vote live from 15.00 CET.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

Should cloning for food be banned because of animal welfare concerns? The environment and agriculture committees vote today on amendments to a European Commission proposal to ban the cloning of farm animals in the EU. The MEPs in charge of steering the plans through Parliament support the ban, but want to add provisions on the offspring of cloned animals and the marketing of their products coming from countries outside the EU. Watch the vote live from 15.00 CET.
Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP

General : The specific problems of the Pacific region, such as climate change, fisheries, maritime security and regional integration, as well as the generation of fiscal revenues in ACP countries, were discussed by the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly at its 29th session, which closed on Wednesday in Suva (Fiji).

Source : © European Union, 2015 - EP