Plenary focus - November

For the first time, social and environmental dumping could be included in the Parliament’s legislation for trade defence instruments (TDIs). GUE/NGL has long been calling for this so it’s a welcome breakthrough. But the devil’s in the detail and the draft report remains inaccessible to the general public. I can tell you there’s never been more neoliberal puritanism through the listing of all the policy decisions in China that are hindering free market principles. We cannot allow this to become the benchmark - and my group will not support this.

The Parliament will strongly condemn the assassination of the Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in a resolution on the rule of law in Malta. It is vital that fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of the press, are upheld within the EU itself. There must be an independent international investigation into her death. We are also calling for a police investigation into possible criminality by Maltese officials named in the ‘Panama Papers’.