The Week Ahead 22 – 28 October 2018

Plastics ban. Parliament will vote on a new law to forbid the sale of single-use plastic products such as cutlery, cotton bud sticks, plates, straws, beverage stirrers and balloon sticks within the EU from 2021 (debate Monday, vote Wednesday).

Drinking water. MEPs will vote on plans to improve consumers’ trust in drinking water from the tap by tightening the maximum limits for certain pollutants. They also propose setting up free water fountains where feasible and providing tap water for free, or for a low service fee, in restaurants, canteens and catering service (debate Monday, vote Tuesday).

Antimicrobial resistance. MEPs will vote on a law limiting the use of antibiotics on farms to keep resistant bacteria out of food and halt the spread of drug resistance from animals to humans. To help tackle antimicrobial resistance, the law would also empower the EU Commission to select antimicrobials to be reserved only for treating humans (debate and vote Thursday).

Facebook-Cambridge Analytica. MEPs are expected to urge Facebook to allow EU bodies to carry out a full audit assessing data protection and security of users’ personal data. They are also set to call for election manipulation to be prevented on social platforms and for action to update EU competition rules to reflect the digital reality (debate and vote Thursday).

Road charges. MEPs will vote on the reform of EU road charging rules, which will oblige EU countries imposing time-based road use charges to switch to distance-based charging (debate Wednesday, vote Thursday).

EU Budget 2019. MEPs will confirm their negotiating position for the 2019 EU budget, before starting talks with the Council of ministers. They are set to demand that the budget should focus on Erasmus+, tackling youth unemployment and migration, research, infrastructure investments and climate protection (debate Tuesday, vote Wednesday).

EU Summit. MEPs will assess the outcome of the 17/18 October summit, in a debate with European Council President Donald Tusk. The main topics of the leaders’ meeting were migration, internal security and Brexit (Wednesday).

Klaus Iohannis/Future of Europe debate. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will debate the future of Europe with MEPs and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. This will be the eleventh in a series of future of Europe debates with EU heads of state or governments (Tuesday).

2018 Sakharov Prize. Parliament President Antonio Tajani and the leaders of the political groups (Conference of Presidents) will select this year’s laureate from among the finalists. The prize will be awarded in a ceremony in Strasbourg on 12 December 2018 (Thursday).

President’s Diary. EP President Antonio Tajani will meet Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis and hold a joint press point after the plenary debate on the future of Europe, on Tuesday. On the same day, the President will unveil a portrait of Daphne Caruana Galizia in the EP’s press room in Strasbourg to commemorate her, one year after her assassination.