Consumers

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European Parliament stands up for consumer interests

Roaming

With the Parliament giving its approval to the results of the trialogue on roaming charges, lower prices have been secured for consumers and roaming costs will soon be a thing of the past. Not only this, but smaller providers will now also be able to compete with the big telecommunications corporations.

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Europe needs independent oversight to prevent another Dieselgate

Dieselgate inquiry

The Dieselgate inquiry is at and end and its come forward with some important recommendations about how to stop further cheating. One of the key demands is the establishment of an independent agency to monitor the market. Bas Eickhout writes on the battle to make sure this happens.

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© Alexandra Buxbaum / Greenpeace

European Commission must put citizens' health first

Glyphosate

On a Greens/EFA initiative, a cross-party group of MEPs has written to the European Commission, expressing concern about the studies being used in the assessment of the safety of the controversial herbicide, glyphosate.

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MEPs back copyright exceptions on books for people who are blind or visually impaired

Marrakesh Treaty

The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee has taken the next step towards ensuring access to published works for people who are blind or visually impaired.

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Pace of progress will be too slow

Energy Labelling

Negotiations between the European Parliament, Commission and Council on the revision of EU energy labelling rules have come to a close. The Greens/EFA group welcomes a decision that will see consumers benefit from simplified energy labelling, but regrets the lengthy transition for so many products.

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Streamlined legislation will help improve consumer confidence

Food controls

New regulations on the official controls of food and feed law will help to ensure the uniform application of agri-food chain rules across the EU. The changes are in part a response to the horse meat scandal, in which the Greens/EFA group was instrumental in helping to bring any future wrongdoing into the open.

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Dan Nguyen (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Closing loopholes will improve public safety

Gun control

Improvements to the firearms directive backed by the European Parliament include the prohibition of certain semi-automatic firearms and converted firearms, better measures for deactivation, tracing and storage of weapons, and more information exchange between EU countries.

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© Don Bayley

Radioactive contamination of water and food

EU protection rules still decided behind closed doors

Many of the current nuclear reactors in the world are the result of technological choices of people who are not necessarily alive anymore. Yet the consequences of those choices affect people today all around the world, as well as generations to come, far beyond political borders and timeframes.

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European Parliament sets out plans for improved access to life-saving drugs

Access to medicines

The European Parliament has backed a report calling for improved access to medicines. At present, many vital drugs are overpriced due to abuse of patent rules by pharmaceuticals and the imbalance in the negotiating powers of pharmaceutical companies and Member States. The report sets out a number of proposals to counter these problems.

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Serious shortcomings from both EU Commission and Member States

Dieselgate inquiry

The European Parliament committee set up to investigate the Dieselgate scandal has voted on its final report. The report makes clear that both the EU Commission and Member States should have acted on emission fraud sooner and makes recommendations for future action.

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Employment committee backs strengthened regulations

Limiting exposure to carcinogens

The European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs committee has today backed the draft report on the amendment to a directive designed to protect workers from risks of exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work.

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Conservative and Liberal alliance fails to prevent damaging food and commodity speculation

MiFID II

"The watering down of limits on food speculation will have tough consequences for the people and farmers in developing countries," said Greens/EFA economic and finance spokesperson, Sven Giegold.

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