Knowing in order to choose

Transportation and passenger safety, environment and climate change, consumer protection and public health safeguard, work and balance between professional and family life, human rights in Europe and worldwide. During its 2004-2009 legislature the EU Parliament addressed hundredth of issues, approving directives – together with the 27 Member States Council, taking decisions on community budget, carrying out a “political monitoring” service in behalf of its citizenship. [Previous fact files on Sir Europe n. 9-11-13-15-17-20-21-23-26-30/2009]. Safe products and competitive enterprises. One of the most well known laws approved by the Parliament is “Reach” (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemical substances) regulation that requires the registration of approximately 30 thousand of the 100 thousand chemical substances on the market. The law was approved on December 2006, after a long and troublesome three-year process, forcing “the industry to demonstrate its products safety”. The European Parliament legislation “is aimed to increase chemical products safety and promote animal testing, while enhancing competitiveness and facilitating trade”. When it was enforced in June 2007, the rules replaced almost 40 previous regulations. Polish plumber is no longer a concern. Another symbolic regulation of the last legislature is the so called “Services directive”, whose objective is to “achieve the fourth fundamental freedom underpinning European integration, after the free movement of persons, goods and capital, without lowering the social standards of the Member States”. The Directive (which rules the tertiary sector, accounting for almost two thirds of the European economy), proposed in 2004 by commissioner Bolkestein, “had led to concerns throughout the EU before being completely rewritten in Parliament, reaching a result deemed acceptable”. This directive is considered one of the reasons why the EU referendum on the Constitution didn’t pass in Netherlands and France in 2005: “the “polish plumber” fear- the more or less grounded concern on labour competition from citizens and enterprises of Eastern countries, leading to the negative vote on the fundamental charter. The new directive will be enforced by the end of this year: “service providers, from travel agents to office maintenance staff, will be able to accomplish their occupation anywhere in the EU member states”. Trips, work, roaming rates. Liberalising railway-transportation. From 2010 “train passengers travelling from one EU country to another can pick among a broader number of rail companies competing on international routes”. The Assembly approved in 2007 a legislation “that will enable businesses to compete across borders, to guarantee basic passengers rights and to ensure that train drivers are fully qualified”. Many concrete actions have been undertaken on issues close to citizens and family everyday needs. Still in 2007, to highlight an equally important issue, MEP adopted rules on mobile roaming. In a nutshell, Parliament “cut the costs of making and receiving mobile telephone calls in other EU countries for at least for 140 million users”. The legislation was followed by provisions on text messages, mms and mobile internet surfing. Assembly pending issues. In the Commission’s hundredth of auditions held in Brussels and Strasbourg headquarters, MEP have addressed topics on airline safety, infrastructure planning, energy sources, aid to developing countries, setting of common rules for illegal immigration, and foreign affairs issues. Parliament opposed the Council of Ministers decision on 65-hour working week; it intervened in favour of maternity and paternity leaves; it paved the way for intercultural dialogue (inviting to the floor politicians, religious leaders, Nobel Prize winners….) Issues tackled and problems solved have been many, but there is still a lot of work left for the new Assembly appointed after June 4-7 election.