The Lisbon Treaty puts the European Parliament on equal footing with the Council where budgetary codecision is concerned and the members of parliament intend to use this new power to put into action their fundamental choices. The 2011 budget must mark the first step in this new approach to the EU budgetary process. For this reason ALDE wishes to establish a time table for creating a new system of own resources, in the perspective of the revision of the financial framework so that we can once and for all finish with the disastrous concept for the Union of "net contributors".

- Ashton must raise Mumia Abu-Jamal case with Obama administration

Speaking in an EP debate to mark World Day against the Death Penalty, Danish MEP Søren Søndergaard deplored the practice of execution by states of defenceless people in custody and raised the case of US death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.

"The death penalty itself is a crime. But it is often more than that; waiting on death row in miserable conditions for years is torture. Capital punishment is also a form of terror, used to frighten people from resisting oppression and dictatorship."

Brussels 6 October 2010

Members of the European Parliament from the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group will meet for the group's Study Days in Nicosia, Cyprus from 12 to 14 October next.

Discussions will focus on four main themes:

- the Cyprus problem

- Palestine: the role of the EU

- 10 years after the United Nations Declaration, state of play on the Millennium   Development Objectives

- the situation in  Iran

Speakers include:

Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of AKEL

Brussels, 4 October 2010 – On September 17th, Aurubis AG, based in Hamburg, acting as the Lead Registrant, successfully submitted the Joint Submission REACH dossier for copper to the European Chemical Agency.

This successfully completes a three year effort, led by the European Copper Institute, to unite the key players in the global and European copper industries in preparing a single dossier for this widely used metal.