The June Plenary session of the European Parliament sees MEPs discuss pension rights, debate a report on the "Equitable Life" pension crash and consider whether the EU should ban cat and dog fur. The definition of what exactly constitutes vodka will also be considered. You can watch all the debates and votes from Strasbourg live on the Parliament's website. The EP will also return to the situation in the Middle East, adopting a formal position, and discuss the outcome of the recent G-8 summit.

EU Summit, liberalisation of postal services
 
This week also sees important business outside the plenary chamber:

• At the end of the week, EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering will address European leaders during the upcoming meeting of the European Council. The Summit of June 21-22 will discuss the roadmap for the EU institutional future.
• Parliament's Transport Committee will vote on the proposed directive on postal services – MEPs on the Committee plan to suggest postponing opening of all postal services to competition to Dec. 31, 2010.
• After the plenary, many members move on to Wiesbaden, Germany, where the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) - EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly gathers.

European pensions
 
On Tuesday Parliament will debate the final report of a special EP committee of inquiry into the collapse of British life assurance company Equitable Life. MEPs want to prevent Europeans from losing their savings in the future and sustain healthy pensions and insurance market. The report produced by the EP committee of inquiry calls on the British government to compensate victims of the Equitable Life crisis.
 
The Parliament will also vote (first reading) on the improvement of the portability of supplementary pension rights. MEPs seek to extend the scope of the future directive to include group insurance contracts or pay-as-you-go plans.
 
Vodka compromise
 
MEPs will vote on the compromise reached by the Parliament and ministers about what can be called vodka and how it should be labelled. MEPs will also discuss and vote on the report that envisages a total ban on EU exports and imports of cat and dog fur.
 
Daily updates
 
Apart from daily summaries of the plenary session, you can also read our stories on the so-called vodka war (Monday), European space project Galileo (Tuesday). On Wednesday – World refugee day – read the story on EU refugee and asylum policy as well as interconnection of politics and scientific research. On Thursday catch up on the EU Summit and the growing role of the Parliament and its president.
 
Other important issues: 

• Implementation of a Code of conduct on multiple sclerosis
• Safer use of mercury
• EU policy on promoting broadband connection and consumer confidence in the digital environment
• Situation of Iraqi refugees

Among the hot issues on the first day of the June Strasbourg were debates about a ban on  the dog and cat fur trade on European markets and a compromise on what vodka can be made of, which is likely to put an end to the "vodka war" in Europe. The benefits of  broadband connections for schools and rural areas and the need for a common policy in this area were also discussed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recent crisis in the Gaza strip was discussed by MEPs yesterday. Speakers backed the EU's decision to send financial aid to the Palestinians and called for dialogue. Members later approved a final report into the "Equitable Life" insurance scandal which left thousands of savers out of pocket. A report on reconciling the work-life balance was also adopted and in the afternoon MEPs debated the outcome of last week's G8 summit.

 

Referring to the recent conflict in the Gaza strip between Hamas and Fatah, the President of the Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, called on the EP to condemn attacks by Hamas and to support President Abbas and the emergency government.

 

Using its budgetary powers he said the Parliament should do all it can to create "efficient transparent financial direct aid" from the EU to the Palestinians. He reiterated his call for Israel to hand over $800 million in customs revenue to the Palestinian authorities and said "there cannot be any peace without Israel". Mr Pöttering said Israel should remain an "honest broker" in the conflict. MEPs will vote on a resolution on the issue in July. 

 

Check the link below for more details of the debate.

 

 

When Equitable Life closed for new business in 2000 after getting into financial difficulties - one and a half million savers from 15 countries were out of pocket.

 

MEPs have spent the last year looking into the circumstances of the crash and yesterday Parliament approved a report calling on the UK government to compensate victims. It also suggests ways to prevent similar cases in the future.

 

 

With more and more Europeans going into higher education and university - and then going into the world of work - more people are having children later in life. According to rapporteur Maria Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou of the European People's Party and European Democrats, vital investment in education should not be at the expense of demographic renewal of European society or individual wishes to pursue family life. 

 

MEPs approved a report that calls for social assistance, affordable child-care services, low-cost housing, more flexible organization of courses and for account to be taken of financial difficulties when calculating fees.

 

 

Parliament debated the outcome of the 6-8 June G8 meeting in Germany,, which agreed to considerably increase official development assistance for Africa by 2010.

 

Development aid was the main topic, in the context of a report by British Socialist Glenys Kinnock on progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, which include halving extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS. She said that many sub-Saharan countries are unable to reach even one of the development goals. She called not for charity but rather for justice and real social and economic changes.

 

Anna Ibrisagic (European Peoples Party and European Democrats) a Bosnian refugee who came to Sweden 15 years ago, spoke of her own experiences and said aid must be given to help yourself and not to create dependency.

 

Many MEPs criticised the G8 for making promises but failing to carry them through.  They also criticised the lack of clear timetables and said that development aid is not only about the quantity but also quality, in this case efficiency and coordination. Some MEPs called for debt cancellation.

 

With an ageing population and people increasingly turning to supplementary pensions, MEPs on Wednesday debated minimum standards for the acquisition and preservation of such pensions. The status of these pension schemes varies across the EU - acting as a hindrance to workers' mobility. MEPs also gave the green light to EU funding for the Galileo satellite project and called for a Treaty on the global arms trade and better exchange of information on criminals.

 

 

A large majority of MEPs backed a report by Ria Oomen Ruijten of the European People's Party and European Democrats on a directive on the portability of supplementary pension rights. The directive aims to help workers exercise their rights to occupational mobility and free movement within the EU by reducing obstacles created by certain rules governing supplementary pension schemes.

 

Speaking in the debate, Ms Oomen-Ruijten said that people who move to different jobs in different countries often lose out. She called for more efficient legislation and for social partners to be involved.

 

The current system is fraught with differences from one country to another. Some EU states do not have supplementary pension schemes at all. In addition many schemes do not allow the transfer of other rights.

 

The report adopted by Parliament seeks to address these difficulties through a set of basic ground rules to be applied across the EU.

 

A common theme in the debate was that the EU's wider agenda on improving competitiveness through worker mobility place the onus on lawmakers to ensure that mobile workers do not lose out. Eoin Ryan (Union of Europe for the Nations), speaking on behalf of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee said: "If workers are encouraged to show greater mobility, their pension rights should be taken care of. Currently moving to another country can lead to significant losses".

 

 

The resolution says irresponsible arms transfers can:

 

The 1988 "EU Code of Conduct on Arms exports" is not legally binding so late last year the United Nations began work on an Arms Trade Treaty that has the support of 153 states.

 

During the debate MEPs said:

 

MEPs approved the resolution Thursday.

 

 

MEPs adopted a resolution on the financing of Galileo, the European programme of satellite radio-navigation. They reiterated their support for the project, currently stalled by concerns over financing and said it should receive full support from the Union's budget. The EP expects the Commission to present a revised proposal for a regulation on the financing of Galileo. It stressed this should be agreed upon by Parliament and the Council in co-decision.

 

 

The House approved a report on the exchange of information extracted from criminal records between Member States. The report, drawn up by Agustín Díaz de Mera García Consuegra (EPP-ED) underlines the importance of boosting the efficiency of legal cooperation in the criminal field between Member States to ensure that information requests from other States can be replied to swiftly and exhaustively. There are currently no common EU criteria on the registration of convictions given abroad.

 

In this respect two main priorities were pointed out: firstly, the individual Member States will be responsible for keeping the information on convictions of its own nationals. Secondly any alteration or deletion of information on criminal records that occurs in the convicting Member State must entail the same alteration or deletion in the State of nationality. This way a transparent European system should be established over time.

 

Thursday in Plenary saw MEPs debate the dangers - and opportunities - of online shopping. Members voted to back a report that aims to boost cross-border internet sales (used by only 6% of consumers) by boosting confidence through anti-fraud and information measures. Later, MEPs debated human rights issues, first passing a resolution broadly welcoming political and economic contacts with Cuba but criticising Havana's human rights record. The House also voted texts on Ethiopia and Burma.

 

 

Despite the massive growth of people willing to go into cyberspace, the number of European willing to shop in another country online is still small. At present it only accounts for 6% of all online sales. In such a large and growing market, this means consumers are not taking advantage of the internal market.

 

Legal uncertainty - what to do if the goods are faulty for example - is one problem affecting consumer confidence in this area. MEPs therefore backed a report by Czech MEP Zuzana Roithová (EPP-ED) which aims to improve consumer confidence. It includes proposals for the EU to finance projects that will increase consumer confidence as well as educational and information packs that will help consumers and business people understand their rights in this developing market. To prevent fraud it proposes an "early warning system" that will include a database.

 

Speaking in the debate Mrs Roithová said that the buyer "is bound by countless digital agreements, on which he simply clicked "YES", but did not read. Therefore they are not aware of the fact that they often contain a number of unfair and malicious regulations".

 

 

Debating EU-Cuban relations on Thursday MEPs passed a resolution supporting more political and economic dialogue with Cuba. However, it was critical of Havana's human rights record - in particular on freedom of expression and association. The resolution by MEPs called for a transition to multi-party democracy. Earlier in the week the EU's foreign ministers had said they were ready for an "open political dialogue with the Cuban authorities".

 

Lithuanian MEP Laima Andrikienė (EPP-ED) - who co-authored the text - said that the Council "had recognised that no tangible results have been achieved on human rights". She called for a transition to democracy and stated the universality of human rights. Another of the authors, Polish UEN member Marcin Libicki called Havana "a last bastion of Communism" and condemned "European left wing governments who were willing allies" of Cuba.  

 

Cuba or Iraq? Whether the debate should even be taking place was the source of controversy. Referring to debate over the scheduling of the Agenda the speaker for the Socialist PSE Group Manuel Medina Ortega said the House should be debating refugees from Iraq rather than Cuba. Raül Romeva of the Greens/EFA also made this point although he did call US policy towards Cuba as a "futile conflict". Giusto Catania of the GUE/NGL defended Cuba as a sovereign country and said Cuba was being singled out as it opposed the "neo-liberal economic model" in Latin America.

 

The resolution also included a call for the EU to continue its dialogue with Cuban civil society. It welcomed the unity of the Cuba opposition groups under "Unidad por la Libertad". Also called for 2005 Sakharov winners "Ladies in White" to be allowed to leave Cuba and collect their prize from the EP.

 

However, serious concerns remain. The resolution noted that the political, economic and social situation in Cuba had remained unchanged for 48 years. It also regretted the fact the Cuban authorities had not responded to the EU's call for fundamental liberties - notably freedom of expression and association.

 

 

In separate votes, MEPs returned to the situation in two countries which have often given cause for concern.

 

Regarding Ethiopia, MEPs expressed concern about the position of political opposition leaders, 38 of whom have been found guilty of charges "ranging from 'outrage against the constitution' to aggravated high treason" and most of whom could face the death penalty.  Parliament called on the Ethiopian government " to release immediately and unconditionally all political prisoners".

 

Turning to Burma, Parliament once again condemned that country's oppressive regime and called on Burma's neighbours to step up the pressure on the Burmese government.  Concern focused, as in the past, on opposition leader and EP Sakharov Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, whose "immediate and unconditional release" was demanded by the resolution.  MEPs also drew particular attention to the plight of U Win Tin, a 77-year old journalist, incarcerated for two decades now and one of an estimated 1200 political prisoners in Burma.

 

 

In other votes MEP supported a decision to restart direct aid to the Palestinian Authorities and insisted that Israel pay back the customs duties owed to the Authority - something President Pöttering has repeated called for.

 

Urban development in Andalucia, Valencia and Madrid: MEPs adopted a resolution which "considers the obligation to cede legitimately acquired private property without due process and proper compensation...to be a violation of an individual’s fundamental rights". See link below for more on this issue.

 

The next Plenary of the European Parliament opens on 9 July in Strasbourg.