The European 2020 Strategy, designed to turn the EU into a smart, sustainable social market economy, must complement a reinforced Stability and Growth Pact and be part of the economic governance package. "We should focus on sound public finances. Fiscal stability is essential for growth and employment. Member States with the most prudent fiscal policies are now performing best.

"The European Parliament today voted on the Swoboda Report on Croatia, in which it supports this June 2011 as the target date to conclude accession negotiations. This wording was based on amendments tabled by EPP Group Spokesman on Croatia, Bernd Posselt MEP, in the Foreign Affairs Committee, and defended by a majority of the European Parliament against efforts of the Green Group to delete this date.

After today's European Parliament vote on a report on European pension systems, GUE/NGL MEP Ilda Figueiredo set out the left's opposition to increases in retirement ages and the notion of European integration built on the basis of anti-social policies.

Failure is not an option: It’s time to move ahead with an EU-wide FTT

Speaking after the voting through of her report on fake medicines, EP rapporteur Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL, Portugal) said:

"Make no mistake, counterfeit medicines are a threat to patient safety including those suffering from cancer, heart disease, cholesterol and diabetes. Pharmaceutical counterfeiting is not just another type of counterfeiting, it is dramatically different; it is an organised crime that causes death and seriously jeopardises people's confidence in the entire health system."

"The EU needs to take immediate measures to show true solidarity with Southern Member States", said Simon Busuttil MEP, EPP Group Coordinator in the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee of the European Parliament, during the plenary debate on the humanitarian emergency that has been caused by the massive migratory flows from Tunisia to the Italian island of Lampedusa.