European Parliament

Plenary sessions : Parliament passed three separate resolutions on Thursday, calling for measures leading to the abolition of the death penalty in India and to human rights reforms in Rwanda, and expressing concerns about the situation of hunger striking prisoners in Guantanamo.

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Plenary sessions : Following the recent fires and building collapse at factories in Bangladesh, MEPs called on Thursday for justice for victims and EU action to prevent similar events in future. They want the Commission to promote responsible business conduct among EU companies operating abroad and ensure strict compliance with all legal obligations in the areas of human rights, labour and the environment.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs call for respect for human rights and humanitarian law in Syria and support a political solution to the conflict, in a resolution voted on Thursday, while emphasizing that the two tracks should be kept separate.

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Plenary sessions : New legislation on the "non-commercial transport" of pets, already informally agreed with EU ministers, was approved by Parliament on Thursday. Taking pets abroad will be easier, but pet health requirements will be stricter. Online information for pet owners will also be made clearer.

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Plenary sessions : Victims of stalking, harassment or gender-based violence who are granted protection in one member state will get equivalent protection if they move or travel to another, without having to go through time-consuming formalities, thanks to a new law passed by Parliament on Wednesday. These civil law rules complement the European Protection Order, which already provides similar protection under criminal law.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs will quiz Commission vice-president Olli Rehn on his plans to present further legislation on economic and monetary union in a debate on Wednesday morning, starting at 9.30.

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Plenary sessions : The need for a better integrated system at EU level to promote renewable energy, the possibility of adopting a mandatory target for 2030 and the desirability of incentives to invest were highlighted in a non-legislative resolution voted by Parliament on Tuesday.

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Plenary sessions : Parliament gave its green light on Tuesday to the new directive on the safety of offshore oil and gas operations. The new rules will require oil and gas firms to prove their ability to cover potential liabilities deriving from their operations and to submit major hazard reports and emergency response plans before operations can start.

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Taxpayers and savers must be the last people called upon to bail out banks, says Parliament's negotiating position, approved by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on Monday, on draft rules on saving struggling banks. The text rules out using deposits below €100,000 and says that even deposits above €100,000 should be the last to be called in. The committee voted against using deposit guarantee funds for resolution actions and also set out strict conditions for using taxpayer's money.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

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The social affairs committee voted on Monday to reject the one billion euro cut to the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived proposed by the European Commission, and called for support for the EU's neediest citizens be kept at the 2007-2013 level of. 3.5 billion euros.
Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

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Plenary sessions : Parliament is expected to call on member states to take urgent action to step up the fight against tax havens and improve tax collection in a debate starting at 8.30 on Tuesday morning ahead of the European Council on Wednesday. MEPs will set out their priorities for the summit, which is also expected to discuss progress towards a real EU monetary union and better investment in energy infrastructure.

Source : © European Union, 2013 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2013 - EP

Plenary session, Strasbourg

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General : The EU cannot tolerate shameless discrimination of millions of its citizens on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, Civil Liberties Committee MEPs said on Friday, the International Day against Homophobia. EU member states must stop blocking the proposed anti-discrimination directive, they added.

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Parliament wants a timely remedy for the 2013 budget shortfalls and is ready to intensify negotiations on the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). These were the key conclusions of this morning's European Parliament Budgets Committee meeting.
Committee on Budgets

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MEPs welcomed the results of the Mali donors conference but insisted on respect for the rule of law and human rights during their discussion on Thursday with the acting president, Dioncounda Traoré. Members of the security and defence, foreign affairs and development committees also stressed the need to establish genuine democracy and decentralisation.
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Development
Subcommittee on Security and Defence

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Specifications for a new generation of digital tachographs for trucks and buses were agreed informally by Irish presidency and Parliament negotiators on Tuesday. Innovations include devices that can read on-board recording devices from a distance, will make it easier to enforce driving and rest times.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

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On 24 January 2013 the Internal Market Committee adopted its position on draft rules setting out minimum EU requirements for the award by public authorities of "concession" contracts to procure works or services from private suppliers. These contracts are typically high-value, complex and long-term. These Q&A deal with certain aspects of the committee text, on which informal negotiations are now under way with the Council headed by the Irish Presidency and the European Commission.

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A provisional deal on updated watercraft rules to make them safer and greener was struck by MEPs and Irish EU presidency negotiators on Wednesday. It also scraps the misleading names of boat design categories in order to give consumers clearer information.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

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Committee and political group meetings

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"It is a bit simplistic to speak about an Islamic winter after the Arab Spring. The ongoing constitutional processes show that we are on the right path but we cannot yet take the victory of democracy for granted," said foreign affairs committee chair Elmar Brok (EPP, DE) on Tuesday at a conference on democratic transition in the EU's southern neighbourhood.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

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The confusion and delay that surrounded decisions on the Cyprus assistance plan were not only due to Cypriot intransigence. Rather, they reveal a need to radically rethink Eurogroup and Troika working methods, argued Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs in Wednesday's debate with Commissioner Olli Rehn and ECB Executive Board member Jorg Asmussen.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

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The need to agree on how to separate track from train operators and to balance growth, quality of service and working conditions were the main points raised by transport and tourism MEPs and experts at a hearing on the 4th railway package on Tuesday. Uniform rules on safety certification and interoperability will be key to creating a single EU rail area, MEPs agreed.
Committee on Transport and Tourism

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Draft rules to make it easier for national authorities to freeze and confiscate criminals' assets across the EU were beefed up by the Civil Liberties Committee on Tuesday. However, MEPs also sought to safeguard the right to a fair trial. They also called upon member states to use confiscated assets to fight crime and for social projects. The draft law, which must still be negotiated with national governments, is part of a broader EU strategy to fight fraud and corruption.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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The EU should take the lead in ensuring the protection of journalists, said foreign affairs MEPs in a vote on Tuesday. The independent press, a watchdog for democracy, is suffering increasing harassment, with journalists being persecuted and imprisoned, they warn, stressing the need to combat impunity for threats and attacks against journalists.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

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Pressure to reveal how the Cyprus financial plans were hatched would continue, the chair of Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, said on Tuesday when she closed a debate with Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem that left various MEPs less than fully satisfied on the quality of the answers provided.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

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To reduce the CO2 emissions of new light commercial vehicles sold in the EU to 147g/km by 2020, from 203g today, innovation should be encouraged by giving "super-credit" weightings to each maker's cleaner vehicles. Longer-term CO2 reduction targets should also be set, and environmental performance testing methods should be made more realistic, said the Environment Committee on Tuesday. The top speed of vans should be electronically limited to 120km/h, it added.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

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Anyone convicted of a serious crime or corruption should be barred from tendering for public contracts or standing for election in the EU for at least five years, says the Special Committee on Organised Crime in a resolution voted on Tuesday. Mafia membership should be made a crime throughout the EU, and EU-wide rules drawn up on how to use confiscated mafia assets for social purposes, it adds.
Special committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering

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General : Europe on Track, a Spanish youth media project, was awarded first prize at the 2013 Charlemagne Youth Prize ceremony on 7 May in Aachen University. The second prize went to the photo contest Discover Europe from Poland and the third to the Youth exchange project "The Story of my Life" from Estonia. The Charlemagne Youth Prize is awarded annually to projects that foster a shared sense of European identity and integration among young people.

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General : The President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the President of the European Commission met in Brussels on 6 May to discuss budgetary matters. They agreed on key points on the Draft Amending Budget 2013, which paves the way for negotiations to start on the Multiannual Financial Framework. The details of the framework for the negotiations are set out below.

Source : © European Union, 2013 - EP

We talked to Martin Schulz, the favourite to win the European Parliament's presidential elections. But, as he says, it's not yet set in stone.

We talked to Diana Wallis, one of the three candidates in the European Parliament's presidential elections.