Marietje Schaake, MEP, (ALDE/D66), has asked European Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht for clarity on the implementation of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine. The European Parliament ratified the agreement today, but last weekend it became clear that the European Commission and the Ukrainian government agreed to postpone the implementation of the trade […]
Stronger, Clearer Environmental Impact Assessments Required
A proposed update of EU law to make environmental impact assessments clearer, build in biodiversity and climate change, and involve the public, was backed by the Environment Committee on Wednesday. This update, already informally agreed with the Council of Ministers, includes beefed up rules to ensure that decisions to authorize development projects are not influenced […]
EU Budget 2014 – “Deal”. Parliament and Council Get It Together…
After negotiating through the night, Parliament and Council struck a deal on the EU budget for 2014, which also provides for remedying payments shortfalls in in the current fiscal year. MEPs ensured that victims of catastrophic flooding and drought in 2013 will be compensated, and that its priorities for 2014 in areas such as employment, […]
Suspend EU-US Bank Data Transfer Say MEPs, Response To NSA Snooping
The EU should suspend its Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) agreement with the US in response to the US National Security Agency’s alleged tapping of EU citizens’ bank data held by the Belgian company SWIFT, says a non-binding resolution voted by Parliament on Wednesday. The resolution, tabled by the S&D, ALDE and Greens/EFA groups, was […]
