European Parliament Agenda – The Week Ahead 07 – 13 December 2015

Political group and committee meetings, Brussels

COP21. A delegation of 15 MEPs will take part in the UN climate conference in Paris, France. The European Parliament says that the 2015 Protocol must be legally binding and ambitious from the outset, with five-year commitment periods. In a resolution voted in October, MEPs also proposed that a share of revenues from the EU carbon market allowances should be earmarked for climate finance, and that aviation and shipping sectors should initiate measures to curb their emissions. (Monday to Friday)

Migration/hotspots in Italy and Greece. The current state of affairs at “hotspots” set up in Greece and Italy to help frontline member states to manage extraordinary migratory flows, will be debated in the Civil Liberties Committee with the EU Commission, European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and Frontex representatives, as well as the Greek and Italian authorities and NGOs. (Monday)

ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. The 30th ACP-EU JPA session will take place in Brussels, where MEPs and their counterparts from national parliaments of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states will debate and vote resolutions on, inter alia, migration, human rights and humanitarian refugees as well as the post-electoral situation in Burundi. (Monday to Wednesday)

Arms control. Draft EU rules to ban semi-automatic arms for civilian use and prevent both the reactivation of deactivated weapons and the purchase of spare parts online will be debated by the Internal Market Committee. (Monday)

Globalisation fund for Ireland and Finland. A request from Ireland and Finland for over €3 million in EU aid to help more than 1,300 redundant workers find new jobs is up for a Budgets Committee vote.(Thursday)

Plenary preparations. Political groups will prepare for the 14 – 17 December plenary session in Strasbourg, where MEPs will debate issues on the 17-18 December EU summit agenda and the outcome of the Paris climate conference (COP21). They will also fine-tune their legislative requests for fair cooperate tax policies ahead of the vote and prepare for a final vote on revised rules on trade marks. Finally, they will prepare for debates and votes on EU Energy Union recommendations, arms exports, the annual report on human rights in 2014, EU-China relations and plant breeders’ rights.

President’s agenda. EP President Martin Schulz will meet the President of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini, on Monday. Mr Schulz will deliver a keynote speech at the award ceremony of the European Book Prize, on Tuesday. From Thursday until Saturday, he will participate in the SPD Party Congress in Berlin.

Pre-session press briefing. The EP Press Service will hold a press briefing with the EP’s political group spokespersons at 11.00 on Friday. (Anna Politkovskaya room, press centre, Brussels)

Press seminar on migration. The EP press service is organising a seminar for journalists on migration and asylum with the participation of, among others, EP President Martin Schulz and key MEPs dealing with related legislative dossiers. (Tuesday and Wednesday)

Contact du service de presse du PE pendant le week-end

Janez VOUK

Tel.: 32 475 78 48 56

For more info please click here