Set to be the 29th Member, talks between Brussels and Reykjavík intensify and MEPs want stricter laws on ‘Made in’ labels to help the EU fashion industry.

The News: Iceland in the EU – Fashion police

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15505206/N001-110322-EN.srt

Protecting European savoir-faire  MEPs want stricter rules

when and under what conditions?  We look deeper into the matter.

Michele Tronconi runs an Italian fabric  dying business.

Textiles have been in the family since  the 17th century.

He is fighting for “Made in Europe”.

For him it’s a way of recognising  the quality of European products.

Finding a way out of the economic crisis which reduced  the spending power of European consumers,

transparency is a key part of information  which allows consumers

In the Committee they just decided to  make labels of origin compulsory.

It’s important for me as a consumer  to know where the product was made.

I prefer to buy things that have been  made fair conditions for the workers.

MEPs hope to inform consumers of the  presence of animal products in clothes.

They also want to replace complicated  textile fibre names with simple symbols.

so we can introduce codes  or symbols or pictograms.

Experts say that it’s the best solution.

The whole text will be voted upon  in the May plenary.

Member States will  need to be convinced.

It’s a close call as EU countries  blocked the previous text last year.

Iceland’s EU membership bid is on track.

After talks opened one year ago  MEPs are taking stock of the situation.

They are quite optimistic but the touchy  issue of fishing has yet to be dealt with.

On maritime resources they have  a very good experience on fisheries

which we could learn from them  and it would be very good

if we could find solutions to things:  environmental, maritime, economic,

and some others, like energy where  they really have some knowledge

and we could have fruitful cooperation  between the EU and Iceland.

With 320,000 inhabitants Iceland would  be one of the smallest EU countries,

which would give it 5 seats in the chamber.

This MEP feels Reykjavik’s entry into the  EU would benefit the Icelandic people

especially by opening it up  to adopting the euro.

They’ve already seen the  advantages of Europe.

They also think about eventually  adopting the euro,

because their currency is one with  an extremely limited circulation

Optimists hope to see Iceland  enter the EU at the same time as Croatia,

at best by 2013. But all that depends on  a referendum to be held in Iceland.

In May an EP delegation will go to Reykjavik to  evaluate the budgetary implications

that Iceland’s EU membership  could have.

The EU is mobilising against  human trafficking

they agreed to a new law  to reinforce penalties

to protect the weakest  particularly children.

Compensation for victims is included as  well as an EU anti-trafficking coordinator.

Member States agreed Monday to a  humanitarian aid mission,

Cathy Ashton, EU Foreign Affairs chief  got involved too

military assistance especially at sea  is available if the UN asks for it.

The EU is beefing up sanctions against  totalitarian regimes

they agreed to asset freezes and visa  bans for Gaddafi's family in Libya.

The same goes for ex-president  Mubarack's team in Egypt,

Lukashenko's regime was blacklisted  following the December 2010 elections.