Quote of the week
The European Union must make sure that multinational companies pay their taxes where they make their profits. We ask for bold reforms in order to end fraud and tax evasion, to close loopholes, to efficiently sanction tax havens, to fight against corruption and money laundering and to improve transparency and trans-border cooperation. - The S&D Group on Tax Justice
Events
The migration issue is, once again, on top of next week's agenda. This time on a world-wide scale, as international leaders are gathering in Valletta, Malta to address the challenges created by this unprecedented situation. "Back home", in Brussels, we will address very important issues, such as the Energy Union, the economic situation and the EU electoral system.
Migration has stopped being an issue only for Europe. This is why this week's main event is the Valletta summit of world leaders on this exact topic - migration. It is a symbolic summit called upon to demonstrate that EU and Africa share a common desire to strengthen dialogue and cooperation on migration issues. To make sure debates are going the right way, we will have a delegation traveling on location during the event, but also a few days before, to meet Maltese leaders and visit refugee camps in the area. Therefore, our Group President, Gianni Pittella will be accompanied by VPs Tanja Fajon and Enrique Guerrero Salom, as well as by representatives of the Maltese Delegation in the S&D Group.
Tuesday is an important day for the ITRE Committee. At 10.00 o'clock there is a vote on the Energy Union Report. It is of crucial importance, as it represents the European Parliament's response to the Energy Union strategy, one of the main political priorities of this legislature, and also of the new Commission.
Also on Tuesday, in the ECON Committee we're hosting an ad-hoc exchange of views with Jeroen Dijsselbloem, President of the Eurogroup and Klaus Regling, Managing Director of the European Stability Mechanism on the new financial assistance programme to Greece.
The next day, on Wednesday, S&D MEPs will have an interesting monetary dialogue with Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, about his plans to finalise the Banking Union.
In the Plenary next week the new EU electoral system is also an important topic. It is our goal to improve the rate of participation of EU citizens in the democratic process of selecting their leaders. "We have to make the European elections more attractive and more European. In our proposal, we have introduced a few new measures to achieve this objective", MEP Jo Leinen, the spokesperson for our initiative, has said in an interview on this topic.
Integration of European minorities, such as the Roma, has always been a priority for our group, but also for individual MEPs. On November 11, S&D MEPs Daciana Sârbu, Viorica Dăncilă, and Damian Draghici are organising the Roma Youth Empowerment conference, between 16:30 – 18:30, in room A3 G3 in the European Parliament.
President's Activities
After a long working week in the Western Balkans, President Gianni Pittella will be traveling to Malta, before the Valletta summit. A visit to a refugee camp is foreseen, as well as talks with members of the Maltese government and Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.
