Despite the pressing need for renewed growth in Europe, the latest Commission figures show that Member States are increasingly failing to deliver on pledges to turn EU laws into national ones and enforce them. MEPs worry that this hinders economic recovery and call, in a resolution adopted on Tuesday, for fast-track infringement procedures and an independent internal market prosecutor with the power to institute infringement proceedings.

Parliament wants to protect European breeders from excessive patent protection, which it believes could stifle innovation and progress. In a non-binding resolution adopted on Thursday, it says products such as anti-carcinogenic broccoli or high-yield dairy cows, produced by conventional breeding techniques, should not be patented.

The cost of using mobile phones, smartphones and tablets when travelling abroad within the EU will fall sharply from 1 July this year, under an agreement with the Council endorsed by Parliament on Thursday. The new rules will also enable clients to buy roaming services from suppliers other than their home service suppliers and open up the market to new entrants, so as to boost competition and thus reduce prices.

The cost of using mobile phones, smartphones and tablets when travelling within the EU will fall sharply from 1 July this year, under a provisional agreement between MEPs and national governments to be voted by Parliament on Thursday 10 May.

Data roaming and phone calls abroad should be much cheaper this summer thanks to a deal provisionally agreed by MEPs and the Danish Presidency of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday evening. The deal still needs to be approved by Parliament as a whole, but if approved, the new rules would take effect on 1 July 2012.

Consumers and small businesses must be enabled to play a bigger part in developing EU goods and services standards, so as to build in protection for public interests such as product safety, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and innovation, Internal Market MEPs said on Wednesday, in a vote on a draft regulation to modernise the European standardisation process.

The role of research in building EU competitiveness, budget cuts in some EU research programmes and the possibility of using EU regional funding for research purposes, were the key issues debated at an Industry, Research and Energy Committee public hearing on Tuesday. MEPs, experts and other stakeholders assessed the likely impact of six legislative proposals for the EU's new "Horizon 2020"research and innovation programme.

A photo, a film or a poem still covered by copyright, but whose right holder is not identifiable, would be made publicly available across the EU, under draft legislation voted by the Legal Affairs Committee on Thursday. This legislation would allow everyone to access so-called "orphan works" and push forward the project of making Europe's cultural heritage available online.

The European Commission could vet proposed bilateral energy deals between EU Member States and non-EU countries for compliance with EU law under draft legislation approved by the Energy Committee on Tuesday. MEPs clarified what would happen if deals do not comply with EU law and inserted safeguard clauses to protect all parties.

EU countries would have to set themselves binding national energy efficiency targets, and save energy by specific means such as renovating public buildings, under a draft EU directive approved by the Energy Committee on Tuesday. This directive would not only save energy, but also reduce CO2 emissions, and hence demand for emission allowances under the EU's emissions trading scheme, notes the committee.