Plenary focus - July

In January, Minister Van Dam announced that animal welfare would be one of the key priorities of the Dutch Presidency. However, many urgent animal welfare issues have not been addressed and a new European animal welfare strategy has not been adopted, despite calls from the European Parliament. After starting with promising words, we now have to conclude that real actions to improve animal welfare have, regrettably, been omitted.

The harsh verdict against the LuxLeaks whistleblowers Deltour and Halet shows how urgently we need a comprehensive framework protecting those who speak truth to power. Even Commission President Juncker admitted improvements were needed, but this is empty talk as the Commission keeps ignoring our and the EP’s calls for a legislative proposal on the matter. This exemplifies the hypocrisy that makes people turn away from the EU.

The GUE/NGL vision of future international trade relations builds on our ideas of solidarity, of economic justice and of fair trade relations. We describe our approach in detail in our proposal for an alternative resolution, because the INTA resolution only partly covers what is needed. While we welcome the increased importance given by the Commission to fair trade aspects, the main concept of the EU Commission’s trade strategy remains to seek profits for the EU at the costs of other world regions. For too long Europe has carried out a trade policy that causes poverty and related migration movements.

The new Cohesion Policy package provides synergies between the Structural Funds and other EU policies such as the Horizon 2020 programme. As I wrote in my initiative report in 2014, it is now essential for the less developed regions, and in particular for the outermost regions, that the Commission makes necessary adjustments and guarantees them real access to the Horizon 2020 programme, to foster their greater inclusion in European and international research and innovation networks.