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European Conflict Minerals Regulation Getting Closer

European Conflict Minerals Regulation Getting Closer
Friday, June 26, 2015

On June 16, the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA) met to vote on whether to enter into trialogue negotiations with the Council and the European Commission on the draft conflict minerals regulation, following the partial vote in Plenary session on May 20 (discussed here). The Members of the European Parliament (MEP) debated whether it was necessary for the Committee to vote on this question because the entire Parliament had already voted to begin the negotiations. Several MEPs expressed their view that it was not appropriate to hold a vote where the rules of procedure did not provide for trialogue negotiations, and they advocated for a legal opinion on the issue to clarify the legal basis for the vote. Other MEPs called for the vote to proceed and stated that requests for a postponement of the vote would only serve to delay and frustrate the legislative process. The INTA chair ultimately held that the vote should be postponed until the extraordinary meeting of the Committee on June 29.

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