Plenary focus - May

With the new Europol regulation, the amount of data that the agency is allowed to process will become signi cantly larger, in particular through a new provision allowing them to receive data from private parties. This will increase the quantity of data available to European police forces without improving its quality, thus decreasing ef ciency. We oppose the new regulation.

The Chinese government has now declared cutting overcapacities a priority. In the coal and steel sectors, between 1.8 and 5 million Chinese workers will lose their jobs. In the European Union there are also concerns over jobs being at stake because of the overcapacities in China that have built up as a result of the decline in demand. However, the debate on market economy status and the choice of weapons in a trade war is misleading and does not bring any solution for the workers. The EU and China need to learn to regulate collective existence. I urge the Commission to negotiate with China, not only on investment protection, but to negotiate an agreement for fair trade and against price, social and environmental dumping.

Traf cking in human beings is a lucrative trade in Europe and worldwide. Although there are different forms of traf cking, the most dominant form in Europe is traf cking in women and girls into the sex industry, where they are used and abused by pimps and sex buyers. All measures to combat traf cking in human beings must be victim-centred with a strong gender dimension. An important step would be for people working in prostitution to be decriminalised in all EU countries and for the focus to be shifted onto punishing procurers (eg. pimps) and buyers who fuel the traficking industry.