The European Parliament voted on Thursday for the immediate suspension of the presidential elections on May 20 in Venezuela, considering that they do not guarantee any credibility for their lack of transparency and inclusion. In this way, the body and the representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Policy, Federica Mogherini, call for the restructuring of an electoral agenda in which there are no outlawed candidates and the necessary electoral guarantees are fulfilled.
The European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker renewed an offer to Britain on Wednesday to stay in the European Union and said he hoped that even if it goes through with Brexit it would apply to rejoin the bloc.
Europe’s top two bureaucrats believe the UK could still yet change its mind on Brexit. Donald Tusk, the European Council president, said “our hearts are still open” to “our British friends” to remain in the bloc. And quoting the UK Brexit secretary, he added: “Wasn’t it David Davis himself who said ‘if a democracy cannot change its mind, it ceases to be a democracy’? We here on the continent haven’t had a change of heart – our hearts are still open to you.”
The European Parliament called on Tuesday for a ban on electric pulse fishing in the European Union, defying Brussels which wants the experimental practice in the North Sea done on a larger scale. The parliament, the EU's only directly elected body, will now try to strike a compromise with the European Commission, the bloc's executive, and the European Council, which groups the 28 member states.
The head of the European Union’s executive called its parliament “totally ridiculous” during a spat over low MEP attendance. After EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker thanked the few dozens of the 700-plus MEPs for attending a plenary session, he insisted that “parliament is not serious” for failing to show up in large numbers for the keynote debate of the day.
The European Union Parliament approved on Thursday the directive regulating the use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data in the EU for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime. It will oblige airlines to hand national authorities passengers' data for all flights from third countries to the EU and vice versa.
The European parliament ‘deplored’ the Argentine government decision to expropriate a majority control in the YPF hydrocarbons corporation - which is owned by Spanish energy company Repsol- and called for the suspension of Argentina's tariff concessions under Europe's so-called generalised system of preferences (GSP). In a resolution, the House also urges Argentina to ”return to the path of dialogue and negotiation”.