Commissioner Damanaki represents the Commission at the European Parliament plenary
On Thursday, Commissioner Damanaki represented the Commission at the plenary meeting of the European Parliament, in Strasbourg.
She intervened in the discussions on the European scheme for food distribution to the most deprived persons in the Union. Under this scheme, each year more than 18 million people receive more than 440.000 tons of food and that has become one of the main sources of supply to charities working in the field of food aid. Commissioner Damanaki expressed the firm commitment of the Commission to the continuation of the scheme in the future and referred to the Commission's proposal to allocate 2.8 billion euros for the food aid programme in the multi-annual financial framework for 2014-2020.
She also added that "In the framework of the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy that I will propose next week, we will create a margin of fish food for this purpose, as stopping discards, fishermen will be obliged to land all catches and this program can benefit from the fish that cannot be sold in absence of quotas".
Commissioner Damanaki addressed questions regarding the modification of the election system for the Members of the European Parliament, confirming the Commission's commitment to improve citizens' interest in European affairs.
The Parliament discussed the progress made in the action against anti-personal landmines, and Commissioner Damanaki highlighted that even if the number of new victims is diminishing, victims are in strong need for assistance. She also took part in debates on breaches of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo, confirming that the EU is at the forefront in helping victims of sexual violence, on discrimination of religious minorities and religious violence in Indonesia, sharing concerns expressed by the European Parliament, and on the possible break of the de facto moratorium against death penalty in India, reiterating the EU's opposition to the death penalty under all circumstances, regardless of the crimes committed.
