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Public sector bodies' websites and mobile applications will have to be made accessible to everyone, under a provisional deal struck by Parliament and Council negotiators on Tuesday night. Over 167 million EU citizens have a disability (either medical or due to age) which prevents them accessing data and services on the Internet, e.g. to file a tax declaration, apply for an allowance, pay fees or register a child at school.

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Trading in seal products from hunts hitherto conducted to protect fishing stocks will be banned in the EU in future but the exemption for the trade in products derived from seal hunts carried out by the Inuit community will remain, under the preliminary deal struck by internal market MEPs and the Latvian Presidency of the Council on Thursday.

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EU countries will have to introduce stronger controls on “blank-firing” guns, to prevent them being converted to fire live ammunition, under Internal Market Committee amendments, voted on Wednesday, to a draft update of the EU firearms directive. The changes approved by MEPs ensure that any firearm which has been converted to firing blanks continues to be covered by EU gun control rules. This closes a legal loophole which became evident in the aftermath of last year’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

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New powers for national authorities to check whether e-commerce websites geo-block consumers, track down rogue traders or even, subject to safeguards inserted by MEPs, order that websites hosting scams be shut down, were approved by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee on Tuesday.

Additional information 

Weekly agenda:Next events 

October 2023 
Choose a day  
  1.  
    Press conferences  
    Strasbourg, Louise Weiss, WEISS N-1.2 
  2.  
    Plenary session  
    Strasbourg 
  3.  
    Parliamentary committees  
    Strasbourg, Louise Weiss, S1.4 
  4.  
    Parliamentary committees  
    Strasbourg, Louise Weiss, N1.3 
  5.  
    Parliamentary committees  
    Strasbourg, Louise Weiss, N1.3 
  6. President's agenda  
       
 

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