A lively session

A plenary meeting marked by outstanding themes, concrete provisions, lively political debate. The European Parliament gathered in Strasbourg July 5-8, with new powers granted by the Lisbon Treaty, made its claims to the Council and Commission, especially as relates to the finalization of the External Action Service, the financial supervision body, the SWIFT anti-terrorist agreement on bank data transfer. A wide range of topics. The week was marked by a series of interesting political passages, which include MEPs’ debate session with the Spanish and Belgian rotating presidencies (first and second semester of 2010), the green light to membership talks with Iceland, analysing the state of the relations with Balkan Countries (notably Albania and Kosovo). The EP equally addressed the rights of maritime passengers, the adoption of updated rules on industrial air pollution, and the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. The Euro-Assembly voted against meat and dairy products from cloned animals, and approved a draft regulation outlawing illegally-harvested timber (which accounts for an estimated 20% of the EU market used for furniture for example). EU diplomacy. The assembly approved a package of recommendations on the organisation and working methods on EU27 diplomatic service (leading to the creation of 156 diplomatic seats in the world), introduced by the Lisbon Treaty. The parliament was formally consulted on the organization of the European External Action Service (EEAS), but MEPs negotiated substantial changes to EU High Representative Catherine Ashton’s original plans. The EEAS will help the High Representative (HR) in conducting the EU’s foreign policy; development and neighbourhood policies will remain the responsibility of the Commission, contrary to Ms Ashton’s original proposal. The HR must consult Parliament on major foreign affairs issues and MEPs holding institutional roles will have access to confidential documents. The operational budget will be the Commission’s responsibility. Parliament will receive from the Commission a document clearly accounting for the external action parts of the Commission budget. Before taking up their posts, EU Special Representatives and Heads of Delegations to countries and organisations which Parliament considers “strategically important” will appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee. MEPs have also won an undertaking that at least 60% of EEAS staff will be made up of permanent EU officials, so as to guarantee diplomatic service’s Community identity.Financial supervision. Parliament addressed two themes in particular. A tug of war with Member States regarded financial supervision (one of the EU’s tools aimed at preventing and countering future crises), while the Parliament backs up the Commission’s proposals. MEPs demand strong supervising authorities (for banking, insurance, and securities and markets businesses) sufficiently empowered to avoid the nationalistic approach experienced during the latest banking crisis. MEPs launched a clear message to national governments: the only option leading to efficient financial supervision consists “in the substantial reform of the existing system and the creation” of European authorities “empowered to address the crisis”. The goal is also to avoid bank bailouts which detriment taxpayers. The final vote on the legislative text was postponed to September in view of a more efficient agreement (a new proposal by the Council, under Belgian presidency, is expected). The organisms are planned to begin their activity by the beginning of 2011. Yes to Iceland, halt to all whaling. Another hot issue was the agreement on anti-terrorist bank data transfer to the USA. Four months after Parliament rejected the SWIFT agreement, MEPs approved a fresh version of the accord, with guarantees for privacy and confidentiality safeguards for EU citizens. Europol will check that every data request from the US is justified by a counter-terrorism need. Finally the EP approved the Council’s recent decision to open Iceland’s EU membership talks. The accession of Iceland – which is already part of the Schengen zone – would allow the EU to play a more active role in the Arctic Region”. At the same time, Iceland is asked to cease all whaling”.