Quote of the week by President Iratxe García:
“The heinous attack by Hamas unleashed a wave of violence that is hitting both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, and it is reinforcing the most radical positions, the positions of those who do not believe in peace. And, the best way to help Israel is to keep our unbreakable commitment to long-lasting peace. The Palestinian people have a right to their own state, a Palestinian state that can live in peace with Israel.”
Upcoming events:
This weekend, we are joining the Young European Socialists (YES) for their annual congress in Barcelona. Follow us on our socials for interviews and updates from the event.
Next week, we are celebrating the fourth Gender Equality Week in the European Parliament. Check out the full programme of events and speakers here.
Our MEPs Evelyn Regner and Robert Biedroń will be involved in a series of activities during the coming days. Together with the Dutch Embassy, a photo exhibition will be organised called "Prominent and Promising Women in the EU" in the Yehudi Menuhin space (European Parliament premises), which Robert Biedroń – as FEMM Chair – will be hosting, on Tuesday at 14:00. That evening, the LUX Audience Award is showing one of the five nominated films for the 2024 edition in the InfoHub at 18:30: "Smoke Sauna Sisterhood" by Anna Hints. Register here.
On Monday, our partners at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) and the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) will also organise an event on Feminist Foreign Policy in Action. Details and speakers available here.
Upcoming work:
On Tuesday, the EP committee on economic affairs will be presented with the draft report on the European retail investment strategy. This is an important step in the process of adopting this crucial legislative file proposed by the European Commission in May. We were disappointed with Commission’s proposal due to the absence of the full ban on inducements. Now, we are surprised – even shocked – by this draft, which is even worse than the initial proposal. We must stand against pressure from within the industry and insist on the full inducement ban. This is key to protecting small investors who are seeking financial advice to secure their life savings, putting money aside for their retirement or simply saving for a rainy day. We must ensure that financial markets work for everyone. We want people to save for their own pension, not for the pension of the financial advisers.
Also on Tuesday, the EP environment committee will vote on a series of files, including the sustainable use of pesticides regulation and the packaging and packaging waste regulation.
Pesticides, particularly utilised in agriculture, have come under strict EU examination due to their environmental impact – notably on loss of pollinators – and their human health risks. Regrettably, the existing directive has failed to yield substantial reductions in pesticide use, primarily due to the absence of enforceable targets. The new regulation, thanks to our Group, will introduce binding targets, ushering in a higher level of ambition, while ensuring that farmers will have the necessary tools at their disposal for transitioning practices and for the continuation of their activities.
Europe faces another pressing environmental issue: packaging waste. Each European generates an average of more than 188 kilograms of packaging annually, contributing to over a 20% surge in packaging waste across the EU in the past decade. Against the backdrop of intensive industry lobbying to water down the European Commission’s proposal, our Group wants to raise ambition on reducing packaging waste. Our demands include – for the first time in the EU – quotas for the reuse of packaging and promoting better recycling of unavoidable packaging. Additionally, we are pushing for a ban on toxic chemicals in packaging, to protect the health of consumers.
The future of taxation in the EU will be another key topic in Brussels next week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the taxation challenges will be discussed at the EU Tax Symposium co-hosted by the European Parliament and the European Commission, with our MEPs Aurore Lalucq, Evelyn Regner and Paul Tang participating. On top of this, the EP committee on economic affairs will vote, on Tuesday, on three tax files: legislation on VAT in the digital age as well as on the reports on corporate income tax and on taxation in times of crisis. Both non-legislative files are of strategic importance for the future of taxation in the EU. We go to these votes with determination to further strengthen tax justice by all possible means, including a call for an EU minimum tax on capital gains, appropriately taxing the superrich and increasing transparency to fight tax abuse.
Also on Tuesday, 24 October, the EP committee on culture and education votes in a joint meeting with the EP committee on employment and social affairs on their report about the social and professional situation of artists and workers in the cultural and creative sectors. This is a legislative initiative report in which both parliamentary committees invite the European Commission to come up with proposals for legislation. Our negotiators, co-rapporteur Domènec Ruiz Devesa and Daniela Rondinelli, are convinced we have to put an end to precariousness, unpredictable incomes and the weak or, in some cases, even absolutely lacking social security coverage. If the report is adopted next week, it is planned to be submitted for adoption by all Members of the European Parliament during the plenary session in Strasbourg on 20-23 November.
On Wednesday, 25 October, the EP committee on internal market and consumer protection (IMCO) will be voting on common rules promoting the repair of goods. The so-called “Right to repair” aims to make it easier for consumers to repair goods instead of replacing them. S&D MEP and EP Rapporteur René Repasi has fought throughout the negotiations within the committee to make sure that the legal guarantee of a good can be extended by at least one year in case the good is repaired. He has also ensured that a wider range of products would be under the scope of application of the right to repair, including smartphones, tablets and bicycles. After the adoption in the IMCO committee, the right to repair will be voted on during the November plenary session in Strasbourg.
Also on Wednesday, the EP employment committee is set to vote on the report on the European Child Guarantee, an iconic socialist initiative to eradicate child poverty. The upcoming International Children’s Day, on 20 November, is a good opportunity to take stock of the situation two years after its birth. Our message is clear: to ensure that children come first, we need a dedicated budget of at least €20bn for this key project.
On the same day, the EP committee on industry, research and energy is voting on the Net-Zero Industry Act. Our negotiator on this legislative proposal, drafted by the European Commission, is Tsvetelina Penkova. She worked hard to include the main priorities of our Group on the matter, namely to identify the sectors for future economic growth and set them as a strategic priorities in which companies should invest in new production sites in Europe. This is crucial if we want to bring back European industry to the Union – industry which has moved to third countries in recent decades. We believe the energy and climate goals for our industry go hand in hand with the issue of creating new and high-quality jobs for Europeans. Upon adoption in the parliamentary committee, the report will go to vote by the EP plenary, most probably in the session in Strasbourg from 20-23 November 2023.
