The debate for Europe's future will not be easy, and maybe one conference, even if it lasts for two years, will not be enough. This showed the result of the three-hour debate at the EP plenary in Strasbourg on Wednesday, which was attended by Dubravka Suica, Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, and Nikolina Brnjac, representing the Croatian Presidency of the Council.

In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, MEPs expressed concern about the right of the EU citizens in the UK after Brexit and stated that their consent to the Withdrawal Agreement will take into account “experiences gained and assurances given” about their protection, the EP press service reported. The EP is set to vote on the agreement on 29 January.

First ever EU rules on collective redress are now entering into the final stretch of the endorsement process as the EP Legal Affairs Committee backed on Thursday with wide majority the Parliament's negotiating position on a new bill.

OECD estimates that the missing tax revenues due to multinationals' tax elusion amount to $240bn per year. In a resolution on Fair taxation in a digitalised and globalised economy - BEPS 2.0, which has to do with the digital taxation and the ongoing reforms in the framework of the G20 and OECD, adopted on 18 December, lawmakers insisted for the EU to engage fully in international efforts to tax the digital economy.

MEPs pushed for a further reduction in pesticide use, more funds for research and better monitoring in order to save pollinators such as bees and butterflies, among others, in a resolution backed on Wednesday.

It is estimated that in the EU, as early as next year, the number of people with some kind of disability will reach 100 million. This means that every fifth European will need special treatment and care. MEPs across the political spectrum are unanimous that people with disabilities should be able to freely choose their own lives and fully participate in the society.

Parliament negotiators reached an agreement with Council last Monday on new criteria to determine whether an economic activity is environmentally sustainable, the EU press service reported. The so-called “taxonomy regulation” stipulates that certain environmental objectives should be considered when evaluating how sustainable an economic activity.

The Finnish Presidency of the Council, the Commission and the negotiating team from the EP have reached today a provisional agreement on the Mobility Package I that is unifying the EU rules for road transport and working conditions of drivers. The deal is still subject to final approval of the Council and EP plenary.

As the Finnish presidency of the EU Council officially circulated last week a “negotiating box” on the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), MEPs were fast to defy it. For Parliament's negotiating team, the Finns preliminary proposal for the next long-term budget would “condemn the European Union to failure”. The proposal sets the next MFF budget at €1,087bn or 1.07% of the EU's GNI.

Next year's UN biodiversity conference, the COP15, should be the biodiversity equivalent of the Paris agreement on climate change, the EP Environment Committee said on Tuesday in a resolution, setting out their proposals for Parliament's position for the forum to be held in autumn next year. In this context, MEPs call for legally binding targets at global and EU level to increase ambition and ensure that post-2020 action on global biodiversity will be effective.