The Week Ahead 31 January – 06 February 2022

Ukraine. Members from the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Security and Defence Subcommittee will travel to Ukraine, where they will go to Kyiv and East Ukraine, to gather information on the ground on the current security crisis and show their support to Ukraine (Sunday 30 January to Tuesday 1 February).

Eurozone/Donohoe. The Economic Affairs Committee will hear from Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe on the state of the Eurozone. MEPs are likely to raise questions on the reform of monetary and fiscal policies, EU countries’ public finances, inflation and the impact of national recovery plans (Wednesday).

Europol/deletion of personal data. The Civil Liberties Committee will discuss with Europol Deputy Executive Director Jürgen Ebner and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Wojciech Wiewiórowski, the recent data erasure order sent by the EDPS to the EU law enforcement agency. In the order, Europol was asked to delete large quantities of data that it had stored despite there being no established link to criminal activity (Tuesday).

Online disinformation/Maria Ressa. MEPs from the Special Committee on Foreign Interference and Disinformation, in association with the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, will hear from Maria A. Ressa, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, journalist, author, and co-founder and CEO of Rappler, a Philippine online news website, on how to address disinformation and protect freedom of expression on online platforms (Tuesday).

High-level Conference on Afghan Women. The conference will gather MEPs, prominent Afghan women who were finalists for the 2021 Sakharov Prize, Commission and UN representatives as well as other international organisations, to address and cast light on the extremely worrying situation for women in Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s return to power last year (Tuesday).

French Presidency priorities. France’s ministers will continue presenting their priorities in a series of meetings with parliamentary committees. France holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU until the end of June 2022 (Monday to Thursday).

President’s diary. EP President Roberta Metsola will meet Czech Republic’s Speaker of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová, as well as deliver the opening speech for the High-level Conference on Afghan Women, on Tuesday. On Thursday, President Metsola will have a call with the Speaker of Morocco’s House of Representatives, Rachid Talbi El Alami, as well as meet Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte and North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski.