Press Releases 2012

"Europe on the Ground", a Greek youth media project, was awarded first prize at the 2012 Charlemagne Youth Prize ceremony on 15 May in Aachen. Second prize went to Europe Meets School, an exchange programme for Erasmus students (Czech Republic) and the winner of the third prize was the Cycle Me Home project, a documentary road-movie (Hungary). The Charlemagne Youth Prize is awarded annually to projects that foster a shared sense of European identity and integration among young people.
The first prize was awarded by EP president Martin Schulz, the second by former EP president Hans-Gert Pöttering and the third by the Mayor of Aachen, Marcel Philip.

EU aviation policy must pay special attention to the needs of regional airports, says a resolution adopted by Parliament on 10 May.

"No one stands in greater need of a growth pact today than the young: the present young generation in Europe is in danger of being sacrificed to the financial crisis - of becoming our continent's 'lost generation'. It was not young people who caused the crisis, yet they are paying a disproportionately high price to rescue States and banks. Already, one in four Europeans under the age of 25 is unemployed, and in many countries the figure is one in two."

The Eurozone still faces "the most difficult phase of the process", but growth fuelled by foreign demand and European Central Bank action will be forthcoming, ECB President Mario Draghi assured Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee MEPs on Wednesday. MEPs wanted to know where funds pumped into the system by the ECB were going, and urged it to more flexible so as to promote growth.

MEPs urge EU Member States to ensure that higher education institutions are better funded, that people from all social backgrounds can study at them, and that more students can study abroad, in a resolution passed on Friday. University courses need to be constantly adapted to labour market needs in order to make Europe's higher education more competitive, they add.

A five member cross party delegation of the European Parliament, led by  Emer Costello (President of the EP's Delegation for Palestine), visited the occupied Palestinian territories (oPT: West Bank and East Jerusalem) from 2 to 5 April 2012.

EU legislation to make trade over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives safer and more transparent was approved by an overwhelming majority in Parliament on Thursday. Derivatives trading is widely believed to have contributed to the global financial crisis. The draft regulation had been provisionally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators on 9 February.

The membership of a special committee to investigate organised crime, corruption and money laundering, and recommend measures to tackle them, was approved by Parliament on Thursday. The committee will have a one-year mandate and is to start work by the end of April 2012.

Data roaming and phone calls abroad should be much cheaper this summer thanks to a deal provisionally agreed by MEPs and the Danish Presidency of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday evening. The deal still needs to be approved by Parliament as a whole, but if approved, the new rules would take effect on 1 July 2012.

Two important votes took place yesterday 20 March in the Constitutional Affairs Committee in the Parliament, both related to the 2009 European Council Decision on the concerns of the Irish people on the Lisbon Treaty on the right to life, family and education, taxation, and security and defence. It was also agreed on the same occasion that this Decision, intended to reassure Ireland about some of the consequences of the Lisbon Treaty, would later be incorporated in a Protocol to the EU Treaties, and would thus have legally binding status.

A financially-troubled Eurozone member state could be placed under bankruptcy style legal protection and Commission surveillance powers should be more closely controlled to ensure legitimacy, say two draft texts presented in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on Tuesday, in response to the Commission's "two pack" legislative proposals on further economic governance and policy monitoring.

EP president Martin Schulz will express the European Parliament's solidarity with the Greek people when he addresses the national parliament this evening. Today he is on his first official visit to Athens, where he will meet the country's political leaders. The parliamentary meeting and debate he will be taking part in will be streamed live on our website from 1800 CET.

Proinsias De Rossa stepped down on 2 February 2012 as MEP after 12 years of service.  First elected in 1999, Proinsias served on a number of committees of the European Parliament, including the Employment and Social Policy Committee, and was also a member and chair of the Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Authority.  Reports prepared by Proinsias covered areas such as the future of Europe's social model, the future of social services in Europe, the revision of EU law on social security, EU legislation on cooperatives and the social effects of postal liberalisation.  Prionsias was also a member of Parliament's inquiry committees into the problems in the UK insurance company Equitable Life, and the Rendition of suspects by USA intelligence services and the use of European airports for that purpose.