Brussels, 04/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - The migration crisis will once again be at the centre of the work of the European Parliament at its plenary meeting in Strasbourg from 7 to 10 March, in the wake of the EU/Turkey summit and the extraordinary European summit on this dossier, on Monday 7 March.
The work of the plenary will begin late in the afternoon of Monday 7 March with discussions on the regime for the distribution of fruit and vegetables and milk in schools (see EUROPE 11411), transmissible animal diseases (see EUROPE 11497) and access to the port services market (see EUROPE 11475). The votes on the reports corresponding to these three dossiers will take place on Tuesday lunchtime.
Against the backdrop of 'International Women's Day' on Tuesday 8 March, Austria's Angelika Mlinar (ALDE) will present her report on the integration of the gender dimension in the work of the European Parliament, towards the end of the session on Monday evening. This report will be put to the vote on Tuesday lunchtime.
Also in the context of 'International Women's Day', the MEPs will hold a debate on Tuesday, following a Commission statement, on the socio-economic situation of women in Europe.
This will be followed by debate on the situation of women asylum seekers, in the light of the refugee crisis. On the basis of the report by Mary Honeyball of the UK (S&D), to be voted on at midday, the MEPs will discuss the measures needed to protect the safety and integrity of female migrants and refugees in the EU, who now outnumber men (55% of people arriving in Greece).
On Tuesday afternoon, the ministers will discuss the situation in Syria with the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini.
The plenary session will then debate the question of the management of migrations, on the basis of the Commission statement and in light of the latest developments on the ground.
Late on Tuesday afternoon, the MEPs will then debate the inter-institutional agreement on open 'Better Regulation', on the basis of the report by Poland's Danuta Hübner (EPP), to be voted on on Wednesday.
During the evening, they will then discuss the worker secondment dossier (see other article), on the basis of a Commission declaration.
In the morning of Wednesday 9 March, the results of the EU/Turkey summit and the European Summit of 7 March, as well as preparations for the spring European Council (17-18 March), will be the focus of a debate to be attended by the Dutch Defence Minister, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the Vice-President of the Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis. Upstream of this, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, will have met the Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, for bilateral talks on Monday, and then again at a meeting with the Presidents of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.
Over lunch on Tuesday, the MEPs will be called upon to vote on two key dossiers: one on the EU/Andorra agreement on the automatic exchange of information on the financial accounts of their respective residents; and the other on the renewal of the agreements entered into with tobacco manufacturers regarding the counterfeiting of cigarettes (see EUROPE 11499).
During the afternoon, the ministers will debate the current situation in the EU with the Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, who will be the European Parliament's key guest this week.
This will be followed by discussions on the situation in Eritrea, and then on the 2015 reports on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and on Montenegro, which will be voted on at lunchtime on Thursday.
The MEPs will then discuss veterinary medicines on the basis of two reports, one by France's Françoise Grossetête (EPP) on veterinary medicines and the other by Romania's Claudiu Ciprian Tanasescu (S&D) on the authorisation and monitoring of these medicines, which will be put to the vote on Thursday.
At the end of the session, the issue of international protection for whistleblowers will be discussed.
In the morning of Thursday 10 March, the MEPs will discuss the question of the Zika virus epidemic (see EUROPE 11487 and EUROPE 11493), but the resolution will not be voted on until April.
They will then discuss, then vote upon, the 2015 report on Banking Union - the second pillar of which, the Single Resolution Mechanism ('SRM'), became fully operational on 1 January 2016 (see EUROPE 11460) - drafted by Italy's Roberto Gualtieri (S&D).
Late that morning and before the votes, the MEPs will discuss cases of infringements of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Kazakhstan, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The session will close on Thursday afternoon with a discussion of the crisis of prices in the European pork meat sector (oral question to the Commission).
It is worth noting that the conference of the presidents of the political groups voted, by large majority, in favour of postponing the adoption of the text on the 'PNR', with only the EPP and ECR groups wanting to include it on the agenda of the March session. For the majority of the groups, the decision was made two months ago to create a package on the PNR and data protection, on which the European Parliament is still awaiting a text from the Council, so that it can vote on both texts at the same time, a European Parliament spokesperson, Jaume Duch, explained at a press conference on Friday 4 March. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)