Latest European Parliament Stories

By Sixsmith, Rachel As the EU prepares new pesticide legislation, the UK industry expresses concerns over its potential effects New proposals on pesticide use by the European Parliament would render many horticultural crops "uneconomic to grow", a report by the UK's Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD) has claimed. The report assessed the impact that the proposed replacement to the Plant Protection Products Directive (91/414/EEC) would have on 300 widely used products. Directive 91/414,...

The European Parliament has voted in favour of a proposal to completely unbundle the electricity distribution assets of European energy companies, in a bid to boost competition and ensure lower prices, according to the Daily Telegraph. The news source reported that a compromise plan has been reached at the European Council of Ministers meeting in June 2008, to let energy companies retain ownership of the distribution networks under separate ownership entities, instead of the original plan...

By Mark John BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union holds rescheduled talks with Iran about its nuclear program on Thursday amid rising Western concern at Tehran's failure to respond to a package of incentives designed to end a standoff. Iran postponed talks with the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Brussels on Wednesday in apparent anger at an exiled opposition leader's visit to the European parliament. But Iran said its chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani would meet...

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The head of an exiled Iranian opposition group accused Western nations on Wednesday of appeasing Tehran with incentives to halt uranium enrichment that she compared to moves to placate Hitler before World War Two. Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said she had clear indications that Tehran would not give up its enrichment activities and that diplomatic efforts by the European Union and the United States to avert a...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union agreed on Thursday to safeguard an anti-terrorism measure requiring EU states to supply advance details of passengers heading to U.S. airports. A 2004 agreement to supply the names, addresses, payment details and telephone numbers of passengers was struck down by the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice, last month on a legal technicality. EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels on Thursday agreed that the EU Presidency accompanied by the...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission vowed on Monday to take swift action to safeguard an anti-terrorism measure requiring EU states to supply advance details of passengers heading to U.S. airports. A current agreement to supply the names, addresses, payment details and telephone numbers of passengers was struck down by the EU's highest court last month on a legal technicality. The EU's executive said it was confident it could come up with an alternative legal basis for...

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Commission plans to propose a replacement deal on Tuesday for an agreement which obliges EU countries to provide the United States with advance information on air passengers headed to U.S. airports. The proposed agreement to supply the names, addresses, payment details and telephone numbers of passengers will replace one struck down by the European Court of Justice last month. The proposal is expected to be introduced within a different legal...

PARIS (Reuters) - Jewish community leaders from across Europe want Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad banned from setting foot on the continent because of his statements denying the Holocaust and saying Israel should be destroyed. The European Jewish Congress, meeting at the weekend in Vienna, agreed to make a formal request soon to the European Parliament asking European Union member states to declare him "persona non grata," the group said in a statement on Tuesday. "Sixty years...

Please read in paragraph 10 ...CIA Director Porter Goss... By Ingrid Melander STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - EU lawmakers on Monday outlined plans to probe allegations the CIA ran secret prisons in the 25-nation bloc, and studied a list of people it might call for questioning which includes the head of the CIA. The European Parliament set up a temporary committee last month to look into media reports alleging the U.S. intelligence service carried out abductions and "rendition" flights...

By Ingrid Melander STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - EU lawmakers on Monday outlined plans to probe allegations the CIA ran secret prisons in the 25-nation bloc, and studied a list of people it might call for questioning which includes the head of the CIA. The European Parliament set up a temporary committee last month to look into media reports alleging the U.S. intelligence service carried out abductions and "rendition" flights carrying prisoners and ran secret detention centers in...