A minute's silence for accident victims, members move on next-phase enlargement, advance the fight against organised crime and challenge China on rare minerals.

Coach crash / Enlargement / Organised crime / Rare minerals

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15910113/n001-120314-002-en_mf.srt

MEPs observed a minute's silence  following the death of at least 28 people,

most of them children, in a coach crash  in Switzerland on Tuesday.

The children were returning home  after a skiing trip.

Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Macedonia and Iceland

after latest progress reports on their  applications were accepted by the EP.

However according to the resolutions,  there's still much to achieve.

Not least Bosnia and Herzegovina, which  must advance the process of unification.

We see that there is a lot of good will  coming forward with some laws

which are important  to come closer to the EU.

But I don't see real willingness to make  a strong, stable Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Organised crime continues  to trouble MEPs,

who have set up a special committee  to investigate the misuse of public funds

and their penetration  of the public sector and financial system.

The EU has again challenged China's  export block on raw materials,

including rare earth minerals, vital to the  production and development of EU industry.

It joined the US and Japan in requesting  dispute settlement at the WTO,

arguing China's restrictions  violate trade rules.

I am not sure where we get if we just rely  on a tit for tat struggle.