Friday round-up from Jude

End of the week! After packed Labour Party conference, Brussels has been far from relaxing but brill - here's your weekly update 

Straight off on Wed morning, I hosted a breakfast briefing on Carbon Capture and Storage and raised the issue to Commissioner Oettinger later in the day in the Industry, Research & Energy committee (listen why it matters here:http://www.radioep.com/region/north-east/) - plus I voted & adopted my first legislative amendment from MEP Kirton-Darling :-))

In the International Trade we had a full debate on the current state of EU-Russia trade relations (Paul has been leading on this as agricultural products are especially hit), I asked questions of the outgoing EU's ambassador to the WTO about the plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement and later in debate on human rights in our trade relations with Ecuador, Colombia and Peru

Lots of debate around TTIP this week as the next negotiating round is next week in Washington, plus the EU-Canada agreement (CETA), due to be published this afternoon (http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ceta/)

In between this committee work, I supported the call for a deal on the revision of the Maternity Rights Directive, and chaired 2 events for the trade union movement - one on EU investment policy & ISDS, and the other on Green Jobs

I hosted an European Trade Union Congress reception in the European Parliament for the ETUC... involving a long chat with Ska Keller on the concept of growth!
And finally, we have our complete set of AllStars as Tom Howie has moved in ready to get cracking on Monday.... time for a weekend!