#EUNews - Let’s talk about what the EU actually does 🔊 EP off to #Stressbourg for plenary week
📌#CutTheUnfair: MEPs ready to improve trade in the food supply chain 🍲👮🏪
📌EU budget 2019: EP against cuts proposed by Council to the draft budget, with few exceptions 📈✂️
📌EU Summit: outcome under fire with MEPs calling it a “choreography with no impact” 🏃🇬🇧🔐
📌#FutureofEurope: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis preaches unity 🇷🇴🤝🔮
📌And the 2018 Sakharov Prize goes to: Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov 🎥💕🏆
#CutTheUnfair: MEPs ready to improve trade in the food supply chain 🍲👮🏪
➡️The aim of the new directive is to better protect farmers against buyers’ unfair trading practices. Chief negotiator Paolo De Castro said that “in this battle of David versus Goliath, we need to arm the weakest in the food supply chain to ensure fairness, healthier food and social rights. We will work hard to ensure that consumers continue to have wide access to the highest-quality EU products.”
🔜The first trilateral talks between the Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the European Commission started today already.
EU budget 2019: EP against cuts proposed by Council to the draft budget, with few exceptions 📈✂️
➡️MEPs confirmed their negotiating position for the 2019 EU budget. They are set to demand that the budget should focus on Erasmus+, tackling youth unemployment and migration, research, infrastructure investments and climate protection. According to MEPs, the cuts proposed run counter to Council’s stated political priorities, since they were made to programmes with the highest European added value (Horizon 2020, E+). Only regarding the pre-accession support to Turkey, MEPs decided not to reverse the cuts made by the Council, but to further decrease part of the funds, due to a lack of respect for EU values.
🔜 This plenary vote kicks off 21 days of “conciliation” talks with the Council.
EU Summit: outcome under fire with MEPs calling it a “choreography with no impact” 🏃🇬🇧🔐
➡️ In a debate with European Council President Donald Tusk. The main topics of the summit were migration, internal security and Brexit. MEPs called on the EU negotiators and Mr Tusk to prioritise preserving the rights of EU citizens during the Brexit negotiations. A majority of speakers strongly criticised the members states’ “inability or unwillingness” to address asylum and migration policies that have been on the agenda. They expressed substantial concerns regarding Italy’s budget, while the euro zone has not managed to finalise its financial system reform. Ten years after the last financial crisis, the EU is still unprepared for a new crisis, certain MEPs concluded.
#FutureofEurope: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis preaches unity 🇷🇴🤝🔮
➡️ "European citizens need tangible results and good news on security, peace and prosperity” said Klaus Iohannis, who is the eleventh head of state in the series of future of Europe debates. His speech focused on European unity, pointing out that the recent challenges of the EU made it clear that an identity based on common values acts as a uniting threat for the member states. Concerning the ongoing debate on the European model, he stressed that a two-speed Europe or a Europe of concentric circles is not an option. Instead, he highlighted the role that cohesion plays in bringing all member states up to equal standards.
🔜 Romania will take the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU from Austria in January 2019.
And the 2018 Sakharov Prize goes to: Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov 🎥💕🏆
➡️EP President Tajani said “Through his courage and determination, by putting his life in danger, the film maker Oleg Sentsov has become a symbol of the struggle for the release of political prisoners held in Russia and around the world. By awarding him the Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament is expressing its solidarity with him and his cause. We ask that he be released immediately. His struggle reminds us that it is our duty to defend human rights everywhere in the world and under all circumstances.” Mr Sentsov has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for “plotting terrorist acts” against the Russian “de facto” rule in Crimea.
🔜 The prize will be awarded in a ceremony in Strasbourg on 12 December 2018.
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