European Union

The Subcommittee on Security and Defence discusses gender and disarmament: engaging women in disarmament and arms control with Izumi NAKAMITSU, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, on 27 October 2021. The discussion takes place within the framework of the second European Gender Equality Week.
Meeting agenda and documents
Live streaming
European Gender Equality Week
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Length of video : 112'

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, 2021 - EP

MEPs call for new EU rules on legal labour migration to respond to Europe’s demographic challenges and to effectively match immigrants’ skills with labour market needs.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

MEPs call for new EU rules on legal labour migration to respond to Europe’s demographic challenges and to effectively match immigrants’ skills with labour market needs.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Length of video : 130'

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, 2021 - EP

Commission v Poland
Principles of Community law
As it has not suspended the application of the provisions of national legislation relating, in particular, to the areas of jurisdiction of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, Poland is ordered to pay the European Commission a daily penalty payment in an amount of €1 000 000

On 19 October, the Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi will present the 2021 enlargement package, including Commission reports on the candidate and potential candidate countries for EU accession to the Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Following the Commission assessment of the EU-related reforms in each enlargement country, AFET rapporteurs will draft country resolutions, outlining Parliament's conclusions and recommendations.
2019-2020 Report on Albania
2019-2020 Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina
2019-2020 Report on Kosovo
2019-2020 Report on Montenegro
2019-2020 Report on North Macedonia
2019-2020 Report on Serbia
2019-2020 Report on Turkey
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Culture in external relations is the topic for the upcoming public hearing organised jointly by the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Culture and Education on Thursday, 14 October 2021.
The Members together with the invited experts will exchange views on how culture could better feature in the EU's external relations as a soft power to foster sustainable economic and social development, to promote peace and fight radicalisation, and to strengthen cooperation on protecting cultural heritage. In 2017 Parliament adopted a resolution entitled "Towards an EU strategy for international cultural relations". The Public hearing will look into the implementation of the resolution and suggest possible avenues for further future developments in the cultural diplomacy field.
Poster
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

On Tuesday 5th October, Members of the European Parliament will debate in plenary the AFET/DEVE/BUDG joint implementation report that seeks to make a political evaluation of the EU Trust Funds (EUTFs) established since 2014 and extended until December 2021, as well as the Facility for Refugees in Turkey (FRT).
Parliament has acknowledged the value-added of these extra-budgetary (EUTFs) and extraordinary (FRT) tools but has also voiced criticism for a lack of democratic accountability in their operations/disbursement. The report assesses the EUTFs/FRT implementation and make proposals for the way forward under the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF - EU's long term budget).

The rapporteurs for the file are György Hölvényi (EPP, HU), Janusz Lewandowski (EPP, PL) and Milan Zver (EPP, SI).
Report
EU Trust Funds
Turkey Refugee Facility
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Length of video : 169'

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, 2021 - EP

Entry into office of two new Members of the General Court of the European Union

The EU’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is Parliament’s priority for the EU's budget for next year. Find out more in our interview with MEP Karlo Ressler.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The EU’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is Parliament’s priority for the EU's budget for next year. Find out more in our interview with MEP Karlo Ressler.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The US is planning to add Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Romania to its visa-waiver programme, letting people stay for up to 90 days without a permit. "We have four candidates in the pipeline: Israel, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania," homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday, Reuters reports. "Each time you add one of these countries, travel just booms," a US tourism-association chief said. All other 24 EU states already have waivers.

"Granting certification [to Russia's new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline] is not threatening security of gas supply to the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union," Germany's economy ministry said Tuesday, in a recommendation to energy regulator Bundesnetzagentur. The regulator has until January to decide, but may act earlier, amid accusations Russia was manipulating supply to enable it to run the pipe as a monopoly despite EU anti-monopoly laws.

The EU should force US firm Facebook to change its ways even if litigation took "years without end", European anti-trust chief Margrethe Vestager told DW Tuesday. Facebook posed a risk to "young people's mental health" as well as "democracy" and needed external regulators, she said. Legal action should also try to help "smaller businesses ... get full access to the market" which Facebook has dominated, Vestager added.

The UK launched a major search-and-rescue operation Tuesday for three migrants missing in the English Channel after finding two others whose boat went off-course, The Times reports. Over 20,000 people crossed the Channel so far this year, including 145 on Tuesday. The UK is currently drafting new laws that will give its coast guard legal immunity if people drown after their boats are pushed back toward France by British vessels.

Israel on Tuesday signed up to the EU's next Horizon science programme, worth €96bn from 2021-2027, with its foreign minister Yair Lapid saying the move "positions Israel as a central player in the largest and most important research and development programme in the world". Horizon's terms forbid Israel from spending EU money in Israeli facilities on occupied Palestinian territories, amid EU concern, repeated Monday, about ongoing Israeli settlement expansion.

"The early detections of the A (H3N2) subtype are an indication that the upcoming flu season could be severe, although we cannot know for sure," Pasi Penttinen, an expert at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, said Tuesday. Elderly people, pregnant women, and those with chronic illnesses were most at risk, while health-care providers were already at breaking point due to the pandemic, the EU agency added.

A Dutch court has said the Ukrainian state should take custody of ancient gold artefacts from Russia-occupied Crimea, instead of four museums on the annexed peninsula, who tried get them back from the Netherlands' Allard Pierson Museum, where they were loaned in 2014. "After the 'Scythian gold', we'll return Crimea," Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky said. Russia did not comment. Tuesday's decision can still be appealed at the Dutch Supreme Court.