Agenda briefing plenary session from the 10th to 13th of March 2014 in Strasbourg
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The ultimate owners of companies and trusts would have to be listed in public registers in EU countries, under draft anti-money laundering rules to be debated an voted by Parliament on Tuesday. The aim is to make dodgy deals harder to hide and fight tax evasion. Casinos are included in the scope of the draft rules, but decisions to exclude other gambling services posing a low risk are left to member states.
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MEPs are set to insert stronger safeguards for data transfers to non-EU countries when the House votes on Wednesday on a major overhaul of the current EU data-protection laws. The new rules seek to give people control over their personal data while at the same time making it easier for companies to move data across Europe. MEPs also want to increase the fines imposed on firms that break the rules.
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Data protection should be kept out of the EU-US trade talks and negotiated separately, MEPs say in a draft resolution, to be voted on Wednesday, which closes their six-month inquiry into US mass surveillance programmes. The EU should suspend its bank data deal with the US and the Safe Harbour privacy principles for US firms, as the fight against terrorism can never justify secret and illegal mass surveillance, they add.
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MEPs will state their views on agenda items for the 20-21 March European Council in a debate with Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas on Wednesday morning. Topping the list will be the European Semester, industrial competitiveness, climate and energy policies, preparations for the upcoming EU-Africa summit and relations with Africa.
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The presence of Russian troops in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and EU help to defuse the crisis there will be debated by MEPs and Council and Commission representatives on Wednesday morning. A resolution will be voted on Thursday.
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Holidaymakers should be guaranteed help getting home if their travel agency goes bust while they are abroad, say new draft rules on package travel to be put to the vote on Wednesday. MEPs want travel organisers to be obliged to offer travellers reimbursement if they raise the price or change the flight times significantly after a sale is concluded.
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The EU/ECB/IMF “Troika” helped four EU countries through the crisis and prevented it from getting worse. But its flawed structure and working methods hindered national “ownership” and compromised transparency and accountability, says a draft resolution on the EP inquiry findings. A second resolution deplores the widespread negative impacts that Troika-inspired reforms had on employment and advocates revising the measures put in place. The resolutions will be debated Wednesday and voted Thursday.
