MEPs had a busy week as Parliament decamped to Strasbourg for the monthly plenary session. The adoption of energy and climate legislation stands out as positives this week with other (modest) agenda items including the future of Europe, the ongoing Facebook scandal and press freedom. The Commission didn’t slack either and presented a set of legislative proposals that included measures to facilitate cross-border access to e-evidence and financial information for law enforcement authorities.
Greening the planet
The environment emerged as this week’s winner as a raft of energy and climate files - such as the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD), Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and Effort-Sharing Regulation (ESR) - were rubberstamped in plenary. The Waste Package did not get a sexy acronym but was nonetheless also approved. All in all, and despite certain criticism, it bodes well for meeting the targets in EU’s 2030 Energy Strategy.
The Security Union
On Tuesday the Commission presented a legislative security package intended to curtail the space in which terrorists and criminals can operate. One proposal would give judges extra-territorial power to order tech companies to hand over evidence relating to terror suspects within 10 days - or six hours in emergency cases. Similarly, the package includes a proposed Directive that facilitates access to bank account information. Finally, the Commission proposes raising the minimum standards of identity cards to make biometric photos and fingerprints mandatory.
The Future of Europe
French President Emmanuel Macron’s “Grande marche pour l’Europe” continued as he attempted to breathe new life into the European dream. Macron visited the Parliament plenary to hold forth on his European vision. As compelling as ever, Macron spoke of the need to defend a European sovereignty based on freedom, equality and openness. Leaving the abstract for the concrete he expressed support for the proposed EU digital tax, the need to introduce conditionality in the new EU budget and his new project of citizen’s consultations.
“Your user agreement sucks…”
… Sen. John Neely Kennedy told Mark Zuckerberg during his US Senate hearing on April 10. On Thursday MEPs seemed to agree when they discussed Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s disregard for its users’ privacy. Parliament wants Facebook to take citizens’ privacy very seriously and highlighted the importance of data protection to prevent election manipulation. Facebook’s management were again invited to come before the Parliament to explain themselves. The question is whether Zuckerberg will muster the energy after his grilling in the US Senate and whether MEPs will ask more pertinent questions than their US colleagues.
Strong statement on press freedom
Finally, Parliament made an important statement on Thursday when the plenary adopted a report on the case of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová, who were investigating the mafia in Slovakia. Unfortunately the murder of Ján Kuciak and his partner is not an isolated incident as we all remember the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta last year. These events show that there is no room for complacency regarding freedom of expression and independent media in Europe.