The Week Ahead 19 – 25 April 2021
Committee and political group meetings, Brussels
A digital platform for the Conference on the Future of Europe. The Co-Chairs of the Executive Board of the Conference (Parliament’s Guy Verhofstadt, the Council Presidency’s Ana Paula Zacarias, and Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica) will unveil the new multilingual tool that will allow citizens from across Europe to contribute to the Conference directly, at a press conference in the European Commission (Monday at 13:00).
EU Climate Law. MEPs and the Council Presidency will attempt to find an agreement on the EU’s climate law, which as part of the European Green Deal would make it a legal requirement for the EU to become climate-neutral by 2050. Parliament has played an important role in pushing for a more ambitious EU climate framework, as well as declaring a climate emergency in 2019 (Tuesday PM).
Pandemic response and Health Union. Members of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee will hold debates on the EU Health Union package and on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The former will be with Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and the latter, focusing on the global dimension of the pandemic response, with representatives of the World Health Organization (Thursday at 9.00 and 14.45).
Turkey. The Foreign Affairs Committee will vote on Turkey and its relations with the EU. Among the issues that should be addressed in the text are the agreement on migration, the occupation of Cyprus, illegal drilling and exploring in the Eastern Mediterranean, breaches to the rule of law, and military and political involvement in Libya, Syria and Nagorno-Karabakh (vote on Thursday and results on Friday morning).
Artificial Intelligence. The day after the new proposal on an EU law on the use of Artificial Intelligence and how to ensure that EU values and rights are respected is released, the Legal Affairs Committee will hold a first debate on the proposal with Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton (Thursday at 17.45).
9th Euronest Assembly. The Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, comprised of 60 MEPs and 10 members from each of the parliaments of the Eastern European Partners (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) will meet remotely. Parliament President David Sassoli will open the meeting. Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi (recorded message) and Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya are among the speakers (Tuesday).
Plenary preparations. Political groups will prepare the 26 – 29 April plenary session, where MEPs will debate and vote on launching negotiations with member states on the Digital Green Certificate, on rail passenger rights, on a new law preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online, on the discharge of the 2019 budgets and on a mandatory transparency register. MEPs will also respond to the outcomes of the 25-26 March EU summit. They will discuss and vote on a wide range of EU programmes, such as the Horizon Europe research programme, which among other issues will help the EU’s health systems prepare for future pandemics and to decarbonise industry.
President’s diary. EP President David Sassoli will meet OLAF Director-General Ville Itälä on Monday, and South Korea’s Parliamentary Speaker, Park Byeong-seug on Tuesday. He will address, via video, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Wednesday. On Thursday, President Sassoli will remotely join the opening session of the conference on the new European Bauhaus as well as meet Spain’s Minister of Labour Yolanda Diaz.
