Fishing reform
The Parliament adopted the reform package of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy on Tuesday to create a truly sustainable fishing sector with provisions to reduce fish discards and protect the sea from overfishing. The Parliament also called for a ban on bottom trawling in vulnerable areas and approved the renewed EU-Morocco fisheries agreement.
Culture and education in the spotlight
On Wednesday EP President Martin Schulz signed the new Erasmus+ programme into law, with a budget doubled to €14 billion for 2014-2020 to help an estimated four million young Europeans study or train abroad
"The Broken Circle Breakdown", by Belgian director Felix van Groeningen, won the Parliament's LUX Film Prize. The award was presented by President Schulz on Wednesday
Foreign policy
MEPs called on the EU to support Ukrainian protesters on Tuesday. Hundreds of thousands of people have been protesting in Ukraine over the government's refusal to sign an association agreement with the EU.
Speaking in the Parliament on Tuesday, Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta asked for international help to disarm militias in north Mali.
The fund that survived
On Wednesday, MEPs voted to keep the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund going until 2020 in defiance of several national governments' attempt to close it down. The fund helps redundant workers find new employment and the Parliament was also able to extend it to workers on fixed-term contracts, temporary agency workers and the self-employed.
Tax evasion
Τo help tackle tax evasion, the Parliament approved on Wednesday legislation to oblige member states to share data on income from employment, directors' fees, life insurance, pensions and property by 2017
Bail-in, bail-out
Negotiators from the Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement Wednesday on an EU system to deal with struggling banks. This directive will introduce a so-called bail-in to ensure that taxpayers will not be the first in line to pay for bank failures.
REF. : 20131212STO30705
