"With this vote(*), Parliament has seriously jeopardised regional integration in Africa," said GUE/NGL MEP Helmut Scholz criticising Parliament's vote on closing EU markets for a number of developing countries from October 2014.  Before the vote, Scholz had tried to pursuade MEPs to reject the proposal, or to at least postpone the deadline to 2016 in order to give more time to find an agreement at the negotiating table. This proposal was rejected by a centre-right majority. 

Following the European Parliament's vote to further liberalise ground handling services at airports, GUE/NGL Sabine Wils slated the scheme as a "massive setback for workers’ rights and passenger safety".

The first prize of the EPACA contest 2013 was handed over by John Bowis and Tom Spencer, members of the EPACA Professional Practices Panel, to Ariane Pond-Hubert from Sarah Biontino Consultants during EPACA's Annual General Meeting on 15 March.

The annual EPACA Contest, this year with the topic “How can Public Affairs professionals contribute to getting Europe out of the crisis?”, aims to highlight the Public Affairs profession and bring recognition to young practitioners.

"The European Parliament today voted against repairing the collapsing carbon market", said Rémi Gruet, Senior Climate Advisor of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) in Brussels. "MEPs have voted against the polluter pays principle and putting a market-oriented price on carbon emissions".
 
"This makes the ETS irrelevant in Europe's bid to reduce the use of fossil fuels. The carbon price will continue having no impact on investment decisions in the power sector" Gruet added.
 

"These reforms represent a significant step but they're not the revolution the financial sector badly needs," said GUE/NGL MEP Jürgen Klute ahead of today's European Parliament vote on the banking reform package.

"This is a major step forward in terms of the stabilisation and reconstitution of the banking sector in the EU," Klute said of the package that is set to cap bankers' bonuses from next year on and increase bank capital reserves.