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The rules requiring EU member states to inform the EU Commission of their plans to negotiate energy supply deals with third countries before opening negotiations were approved by MEPs on Thursday. This is the first item of Energy Union legislation to be completed.

"This legislation will ensure the energy security of the member states, creating effective ex-ante mechanisms for the European Commission to check draft agreements on gas and oil supplies, and to verify their compliance both with the EU law and with energy security needs", said rapporteur Zdzisław Krasnodebski (ECR, PL) whose draft text was approved by 542 votes to 87, with 19 abstentions.

"Accelerating the modernisation of Europe's entire economy, making it low carbon and efficient in energy and resources" are key aims of Energy Union legislation, said Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič in Wednesday's plenary debate.

Some MEPs welcomed the Clean Energy package, which forms about 80% of the Energy Union legislation, but others thought it insufficiently ambitious.

Others warned that efforts to achieve climate change objectives should not obscure the need to boost competitiveness, or argued that energy security is as important as clean energy. Several stressed the need to promote renewables.

Consumers should be given more power in the energy market, said Industry and Energy Committee MEPs on Thursday. They recommend schemes such as collective buying, home power generation by households, better price comparison tools for everyone and making it easier to switch energy providers and tariffs. In a non-binding resolution intended as an input to Energy Union legislation to be tabled by the EU Commission, MEPs also call for EU funds for energy efficiency to better focus on energy poverty.

New EU rules to help firms win legal redress against theft or misuse of their trade secrets were voted by Parliament on Thursday. MEPs ensured that freedom of expression and information will be protected and that the rules will not restrict the work of journalists.

"With one company out of every five a victim of theft of trade secrets every year, harmonisation should allow the creation of a safe and trustworthy environment for European companies, which will see their intangible assets and know-how secured", said rapporteur Constance le Grip (EPP, FR). "I've also been fighting to ensure that the safeguards laid down out this text to protect the work of journalists and whistle-blowers are as real and as unambiguous as can be", she added.

The directive, informally agreed with ministers before the vote, introduces an EU-wide definition of "trade secret", meaning information which is secret, has commercial value because it is secret, and has been subject to reasonable steps to keep it secret.

Parliament's recommendations for measures to improve EU consumers' access to goods and services on the internet will be voted in plenary after 12.30. MEPs want a swift adoption of the 16 digital single market initiatives announced by the Commission last May.

After the vote, at 15.00, the co-rapporteurs will give a press conference outlining the main points of the report. The press conference will be webstreamed on EP Live and the recording will be available on video on demand (VOD).

On Tuesday morning, MEPs discussed with the Vice-President of the European Commission, Commissioner for Energy Maros Sefcovic the recently released "State of the Energy Union Report", tackling issues such as the balance between industry and decarbonisation, the challenges of Nord Stream project to the energy security, and the need for ambitious interconnectivity on the European energy and electricity market.

Anti-dumping measures and sustainable initiatives to support the European base metals industry, including steel, will be the topics in a joint debate with Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska on Tuesday afternoon, starting around 19h. A draft resolution prepared by Edouard Martin (S&D, FR) is scheduled for a plenary vote in December.

Industry Committee MEPs call for "the revision of the two regulations on trade defence instruments (TDI)", and suggest "an initial review of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy complaints".

They also deplored "the fact that the legislative proposal on the modernisation of TDI is at a standstill in the Council despite the strong support which Parliament has expressed for tougher measures against unfair import from third countries".

Common benchmarks for European public administrations, the creation of favourable contexts for citizens and SMEs, and comprehensive solutions adapted to the current digital context are the main features encouraged by the 4th interoperability programme (so-called ISA2), approved by the EP on Wednesday evening.

The program continues the 20 years of development and improvement of administrations' interoperability in the EU, and the vote in plenary approves the deal struck with the Council in September.

In a debate with Nicolas Schmit of the Luxembourg presidency and Digital economy commissioner Günther Oettinger, MEPs discussed whether the recently adopted telecoms regulation is enough to protect citizens against feared negative consequences of zero rating - a practice used by some internet firms to promote certain content, services or apps by not charging consumers for using them.

EU consumers could save 12-40 billion EUR annually by 2030 if EU had a fully integrated internal electricity market, ITRE MEPs said in a non-legislative resolution voted on Tuesday. While recognising the EU target to raise EU interconnection level for electricity to 10 % by 2020, MEPs criticise that this target was not set "on the basis of scientific evidence". As a remedy, the regions should agree on "ambitious and evidence-based" complementary targets before 2030, MEPs say.