European Parliament (News)

Nearly half of all people have failed to use streaming services from their own country while on holiday abroad. This practice known as geo-blocking is because of copyright protection. Current copyright rules date from 2001, but the European Commission will propose an update by the end of the year. German Greens/EFA member Julia Reda has drafted a report to serve as Parliament's input to the new legislation. The legal affairs committee votes on it on Tuesday 16 June. Watch it live on our website.
Committee on Legal Affairs

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Parliament looks forward to starting talks with ministers soon on reform to give the EU high common standards of data protection fit for the digital era, said its key negotiators on Monday, welcoming the Council's announcement that it had approved its negotiating mandate. The first meeting between the institutions is scheduled for 24 June and will be followed by a joint press conference.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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General : A possible ban on cloning farm animals, copyright protection and capital markets are only some of the topics being dealt with by Parliament this week. An EP delegation is also participating in the ACP-EU Joint Assembly in Suva, while EP President Martin Schulz is visiting London to meet UK Prime Minister David Cameron. In addition the international trade committee is meeting on Monday evening to decide what should happen regarding Parliament's recommendations on EU-US trade deal TTIP.

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General : European Parliament negotiations with the Council and Commission on an Inter-institutional Agreement on Better Regulation should open officially soon. ALDE group leader Guy Verhofstadt will conduct the talks on Parliament’s behalf.

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Plenary sessions : EU-Russia relations were high on Parliament's agenda this plenary week in Strasbourg. In two separate resolutions, MEPs called on EU member states to maintain their unity following Russia´s illegal annexation of Crimea and drew attention to the militarisation of the Black Sea basin. Meanwhile the debate and vote on Parliament´s recommendations for the ongoing Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations were postponed due to the high number of amendments.

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Plenary sessions : The European Parliament regrets that recent corruption allegations against the international football federation FIFA have seriously damaged the credibility and the integrity of global football. In a resolution voted on Thursday, MEPs call for a zero-tolerance policy on corruption in football, underlining that in-depth structural reforms within the organisation are now urgently needed.

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Plenary sessions : The EU must critically re-assess its relations with Russia, which are profoundly damaged by Russia's deliberate violation of democratic principles, fundamental values and international law with its violent action and destabilisation of its neighbours , MEPs said on Wednesday. The EU must now devise a soft-power contingency plan to counter Russia’s aggressive and divisive policies, they said.

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Plenary sessions : MEPs state their concern at the high number of child pregnancies in Paraguay, calling for "access to safe and legal abortion" when the health and life of women or girls are in danger, "where there is severe foetal impairment and in cases of rape and incest". In separate resolutions they also call for the protection of the Palmyra site and draw attention to the situation of children in Nepal.

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Plenary sessions : The debate and vote on Parliament's recommendations on the ongoing Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations were postponed because of the high number of amendments tabled. What does this mean and what happens next?

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Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea has also raised questions about the strategic military situation in the Black Sea Basin. As MEPs prepare to vote on a resolution on this on Thursday 11 June, we spoke to report author and EP Vice-President Ioan Mircea Paşcu about the situation. The Romanian S&D member told us: "The deployment and the aggressive modernisation of the fleet put forward by Russia is a security challenge, which cannot be ignored or left entirely to Nato."
Committee on Foreign Affairs

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Plenary sessions : Fifa, the world's governing body for football, is being investigated over corruption allegations. MEPs will discuss the accusations during a plenary debate on Wednesday evening, followed by a debate on the upcoming European Games in Baku in the light of host country's Azerbaijan's patchy human rights record. Watch the debates live on our website.

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Plenary sessions : It will be 30 years this Friday since Spain and Portugal signed their EU accession treaties and so rejoined the EU family of democratic nations, noted President Schulz in his opening remarks. Not all the hopes of this historic moment were met, but both countries won their struggle against regressive forces and achieved stability. The EU promises of strength through democracy, and welfare for the many, not just wealth for the few, are still there, he added.

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Plenary sessions : Martin Schulz has paid to tribute to Portugal and Spain on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the two countries signing the EU accession treaty this Friday. "This was a major step in European history," the president of the European Parliament said in his opening remarks of the 8-11 June plenary session in Strasbourg. At the time the EU was still known as the European Economic Community and after the accession of Portugal and Spain consisted of 12 member states.

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Plenary sessions : December's climate change conference in Paris aims to come up with an international agreement to help limit global warming after 2020, but it is far from the first one. MEPs are this week voting on a recommendation to ensure that the Doha climate agreement, setting targets for emissions reductions up to 2020, is still ratified by the end of the year. Read on to find out more about the first climate change agreements and the efforts to come up with a new global deal to help fight global warming.

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General : Ramón Jáuregui (S&D, ES), co-president the EuroLat Assembly, on Friday stated his "great concern" at the situation in Venezuela and called for the release of political prisoners and for elections, in a statement to next week's EU, Latin American and Caribbean Summit (EU-CELAC) in Brussels representing the majority position of the EuroLat MEPs. He also refers to the situation in Cuba and Colombia.

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Plenary sessions : A new EU strategy for equality between women and men beyond 2015 will be debated by MEPs on Monday 8 June. The draft EP resolution drafted by Maria Noichl states that progress in the EU has been slow and that much remains to be done over the next five years. Watch the debate live on our website on Monday 8 June from 18.00 CET and check out our infographic to see how successful member states have been in achieving gender equality.

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Plenary sessions : Fake products are harmful to the economy, not only to those who have invested in the original products, but also to consumers, whose health and safety are at risk. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) exist to help counter these dangers. On Monday 8 June MEPs debate two reports dealing with IPR infringements and vote on them the following day. Watch it live on our website.

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The 29th plenary session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly takes place in Suva from 15 to 17June 2015. The session will be opened formally by its co-presidents Louis Michel for the European Parliament and Fitz A. Jackson (Jamaica) for the ACP.

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General : US-Cuba relations, Venezuela´s situation and the Colombia Peace Process were among the topics debated at the eighth plenary session of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (Eurolat), which opened on Thursday in Brussels. MEPs and members of Latin America’s parliaments are to deliver a political message to the heads of state or government meeting in Brussels on 10-11 June for the European, Latin American and Caribbean Summit (EU-CELAC)

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General : Bendable and transparent smart phones, lighter air planes... All this and much more could soon become reality thanks to graphene. On 2 June, MEPs discussed with experts the potential of using the wonder material in various sectors, from electronics to health. Nobel Prize laureate Konstantin Novoselov, who co-discovered graphene, said: “Science is the easy part. To develop a technology, you should know what products you are aiming at, and this should be coming from the industry."

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