#ECR Group to look at migration, economy, railways, and firearms this week

EU heads of state and government will meet at the end of the week, with the EU-Turkey agreement and Europe's response to the migration crisis heading the agenda. Before the summit, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, will meet with parliament's group leaders, including ECR leader Syed Kamall.

ECR home affairs spokesman Timothy Kirkhope (UK) has written to members of the European Council asking them to rethink the EU-Turkey proposals.

The parliament's home affairs committee will hear from the Greek immigration minister, and will vote on a non-legislative report on the "need for a holistic EU approach to migration." The shadow rapporteur on the report, Helga Stevens, believes that the draft report tabled needs a greater focus on returns, readmission, effective border control, direct resettlement, and combatting human trafficking.

The European Commission will also present its proposal for a revision of the ECRIS system to promote greater sharing of information and criminal records, to make it easier to detect criminals entering the EU. Timothy Kirkhope is the parliament's rapporteur on the proposals.

Sharing economy

Flemish MEP Anneleen Van Bossuyt is organizing, in cooperation with the Application Developers Alliance, a hearing on the sharing economy titled "Scaling the Sharing Economy: Voices from Across the Chain."

The hearing will look at ways of encouraging startups, and will hear from a developer of apps (Andreas Backx, LunchBreak), a user of a platform (Rosa Dinnisson, AirBsit), and a platform itself (Gilbert Drummond, GoCarShare). ECR MEP Daniel Dalton and a representative of the European Commission's DG Grow will also speak.

Firearms

A public hearing is being organized by the internal market committee looking at the revision of the EU firearms directive. ECR chair of the committee, and rapporteur on the legislation, Vicky Ford MEP will open the hearing.

Railways

The transport committee will vote on the three technical files of the 4th Railway package, containing directives on safety and interoperability, and the regulation on the European Railway Agency (ERA). This vote will be to confirm officially the Parliament's deal with the Council reached at the end of June last year. Roberts Zīle, rapporteur on the ERA regulation stresses that three technical files are intended to remove the technical obstacles posed by different and numerous national railway standards, to cut the time and cost required to obtain safety certification for railway operators and authorization of rolling stock and locomotives for use on the European rail network. The legislation is much-awaited by the railway industry.

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