The Week Ahead 29 November – 05 December 2021

European Medicines Agency. The Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) Emer Cooke will debate with the Environment and Public Health Committee the latest developments in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign (including reviews, authorisations for paediatric use and boosters), as well as recent developments around COVID-19 therapeutics and the general epidemiological situation (Tuesday).

Screening of asylum-seekers/EU’s response to migration crisis. The Civil Liberties Committee will begin legislative work on two asylum and migration proposals. One will cover new procedures to make a quick determination at the EU’s external borders whether an asylum-seeker should be refused entry, returned, or referred to the EU’s asylum system. The second file is about a new instrument to tackle migration crises in one or more EU countries. A press conference on the crisis instrument proposal will take place at 12:15 (Tuesday).

EU trade interests. The International Trade Committee will vote on the creation of an international procurement instrument to encourage the EU’s trading partners to give each other reciprocal market access for public procurement. An online briefing for media will take place at 16:15 (Monday).

Gender-based violence. The Women’s Rights and the Civil Liberties committees will adopt a legislative initiative calling for a directive to establish the minimum rules concerning the definition of the crime of gender-based cyber-violence and related sanctions, new measures to promote the prevention of this crime, and to ensure justice and support for victims (Tuesday).

Common charger. The Internal Market Committee will have its first exchange of views on the proposal for a common charger for electronic devices, long requested by Parliament. The proposal requires that mobile phones and similar devices, such as tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, that are recharged via a wired cable, be equipped with a USB Type-C port, regardless of the device brand (Wednesday).

Pegasus spyware. The Civil Liberties Committee will debate the Pegasus spyware scandal with Laurent Richard (Forbidden Stories, winner of the 2021 Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize), Etienne Maynier (Amnesty International’s Security Lab), and the European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski (Monday).

Animal welfare during transport. The Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport concludes the work it started in June 2020. It will adopt its main findings on alleged violations in the application of EU rules on the protection of animals during transport, within and outside the EU. It will also vote on draft recommendations to improve current rules (Thursday). A press conference is scheduled for 10:00 on Friday (TBC).

Union for the Mediterranean. The 16th Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), bringing together MEPs and parliamentarians from the Mediterranean countries, will kick off with remarks by Parliament’s President Sassoli. EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell and Jordan’s Foreign Affairs Minister H.E. Ayman Al Safadi should also take the floor (TBC), among several other speakers (Friday and Saturday).

Giscard d´Estaing. President Sassoli will open the tribute, from Parliament’s Strasbourg hemicycle, to President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, former President of France, Chair of the European Convention and former MEP (Thursday).

President’s diary. Parliament President David Sassoli will meet the Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament Igor Grosu and Italy’s Education Minister Patrizio Bianchi, on Monday. On Tuesday, the President will meet Italy’s Culture Minister Dario Franceschini and deliver a video message at the opening of the inter-parliamentary meeting on eliminating violence against women. He will meet the Speaker of Albania’s Parliament Lindita Nikolla on Wednesday. On Thursday in Strasbourg, President Sassoli will meet France’s President Emmanuel Macron.