The EU must make better use of resources for the sake of its future economic growth and the environment, according to a resolution adopted by Parliament on Thursday. Valuable materials should be recovered instead of landfilled or incinerated and taxation should penalise resource waste to help boost the EU's competitiveness, say MEPs.

Taxa propusă pe tranzacțiile financiare ar trebui să fie mai bine concepută pentru a acoperi mai mulți traderi și a face evaziunea neprofitabilă, a declarat Parlamentul European în avizul său adoptat miercuri. Avizul menționează, de asemenea, că taxa ar trebui introdusă chiar dacă numai câteva state membre optează pentru aceasta.

The Foreign Affairs committee called on the Council on Thursday to appoint a high-level envoy with an international reputation, tasked with raising the EU's human rights profile worldwide, to the new post of EU Special Representative for Human Rights created in line with the EP's repeated demands.

All actions aimed at suppressing the freedom of expression and assembly in Azerbaijan should stop immediately, says a resolution adopted by the European Parliament on Thursday. Azerbaijan's hosting of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in its capital Baku on 26 May should be an opportunity for it to show its commitment to democracy and human rights, it adds. In a separate resolution, also passed on Thursday, Parliament calls on China to stop deporting North Korean refugees back to North Korea.

MEPs criticize the recent decision of the High Court of Ukraine to postpone its ruling on the appeal by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko against her seven-year prison sentence, in a resolution adopted on Thursday. They warn against delaying the legal proceedings, condemn the use of force against her by prison guards and remind Ukraine of its obligation to examine any complaints of cruel treatment.

Emergency financial assistance from the EU for cash-strapped neighbours must depend on respect for human rights and democracy, said Parliament on Thursday. MEPs also oppose plans to cut Parliament out of future decisions on granting this aid.

Parliament urged the European Commission to improve existing EU legislation to close the gender pay gap, including stricter sanctions on employers, in a vote on Thursday. The request for a legislative proposal points out that the gender pay gap still averages 16.4% in the EU, and in some member states has even widened.

Parliament has called on the Swiss government to revoke a "discriminatory and unlawful" decision to reimpose quotas on long-term residence permits for Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Slovene, Slovak, Czech and Hungarian citizens, in a resolution adopted by MEPs on Thursday.

Devising a "European Investment Plan" to create new jobs, reallocating EU structural funds to projects to create them for young people, and introducing a "European Youth Guarantee" to ensure that they are not without jobs for more than four months, are among the proposals set out by MEPs in a resolution, adopted Thursday, on measures to tackle youth unemployment.

EU Member states should set an example in fighting homophobia, says Parliament in a resolution adopted by a clear majority on Thursday. MEPs condemn homophobic laws and violence in European countries, and call on EU member states to consider giving access to cohabitation, registered partnerships or marriage to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.