News > EM UK – Euronews Roundup

EM UK – Euronews Roundup

1. Li Keqiang, China’s Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy, European Council President, and José Manuel Barroso, European Commission President announced at the end of an annual bilateral summit in Beijing that China and the EU have agreed to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty, with the aim to increase bilateral trade from about $580bn in 2012 to $1tn by 2020.

2. The European Parliament voted with an overwhelming majority (459 for, 148 against and 81 abstentions) in favour of European Commission proposals to improve the gender balance in Europe’s company boardrooms. The proposals aim to achieve a 40% share of women on company boards by 2020. The most recent figures confirm that EU action in the past three years has led to a rise in the share of women on boards across the EU, with the share now standing at 16.6%, up from 15.8% in October 2012.

3. After a compromise was reached with the Member States, the European Parliament gave its formal consent to the EU multiannual financial framework 2014–2020 (MFF) (by 537 votes to 126, with 19 abstentions) during its plenary session in Strasbourg. As part of the deal the Parliament and Member States agreed on the setting up of a high-level working group on “own resources”, to work on reforming the EU’s income arrangements, as the current system, with all its exceptions, rebates, different sources of funding and dependence on national budgets, has become inexplicable. It was also agreed that, to ensure that every euro is used where it is most needed, the EU will have close to full flexibility to move unpaid funds (payment appropriations) between years and wide flexibility for commitments, both between years and between categories of expenditure.

It was also agreed that a "revision clause" will be inserted, which will require the Commission to present a review of the functioning of the EU’s long-run budget in 2016, taking full account of the economic situation at the time. Particular emphasis will be given to aligning the future duration of the MFF – currently seven years – with the 5-year political cycles of the EU institutions. The review will be accompanied by a legislative proposal for revision.

4. 73% of MEPs voted in favour of a report by Ashley Fox MEP (UK, Conservative) and Gerald Häfner (Germany, Greens) on the ‘Location of the Seats of the EU Institutions’, calling for the European treaties be changed to give Parliament the right to decide its own working location. The report requires Parliament to invoke Article 48 of the Lisbon Treaty, which gives the European Parliament the right to propose Treaty change to Member States. Currently only EU Member States’ governments have the power to change an EU Treaty. MEPs want to change the current system which requires them to meet in Strasbourg 12 times a year and to set Brussels as they permanent and only meeting location.

5. Members of the European Parliament MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of the revised Erasmus programme, which as of 2014, will not just be accessible to students and teachers as it was until now, but also to apprentices, trainees, lecturers, volunteers, youth workers and even sportsmen. The mobility programme will receive a 40% budget increase for the next financial period 2014-2020, with the overall budget being €14.7 billion. The objective of the programme is to send four million young Europeans aged 13 to 30 to study, train or work in another EU country.

6. Seven EU member states (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain) have signed an agreement to build an unmanned aircraft by 2020. Defence ministers instructed the European Defence Agency (EDA), the European Union’s defence arm, to start studying the military requirements and costs of a future EU surveillance drone. According to press reports, Austria, Belgium, Britain, and the Czech Republic have declared themselves ready to invest in the technologies without committing to a joint production programme.

7. In an interview with Brussels news website Euractiv, Billy Bragg advised the EU to buy the Daily Mail, which he characterised as providing a “daily diet of xenophobia”. He said "Take it over, install a new editor and start putting facts about the European Union in there". Billy Bragg also said that “It has actually been the legislation of the European Union that has held up the rights of minorities, workers and women. That’s what they are complaining about: the ‘red tape’ that keeps them clean.”

The European Movement UK is Britain’s longest standing pro-European organization, campaigning for decades to inform the debate around the benefits of EU membership.

We are a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization, funded exclusively by our members. Visit www.euromove.org.uk to see how you can join us and help keep Britain in the EU.