Parliament's final plenary session of the year, which will also be the last for its current President, Martin Schulz (S&D, Germany) will have a particularly packed agenda, to say the least. Three points will be the focus of the MEPs' attention: the award of the Sakharov Prize, the adoption of the 'market' pillar of the fourth railway package, and the election, by certain political groups, of their candidates to take Parliament's top job.
On Tuesday 13 December, the MEPs will award the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought to two defenders of the Yazidi cause, Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar, survivors of sexual slavery of which they were victims under the Islamic State in Iraq (see EUROPE 11656).
Presidency. On the side=lines of the plenary session, the race for the Presidency of the European Parliament will be in full swing. MEPs in the EPP group will be called upon to choose their candidate from among four hopefuls on Tuesday 13 December: Alain Lamassoure of France, Mairead McGuinness of Ireland, Italy's Antonio Tajani and the Slovene Alojz Peterle. Gianni Pittella of Italy is the candidate of the Social Democrats (see EUROPE 11679), his compatriot Eleonora Forenza will stand on behalf of the GUE/NGL group, and Helga Stevens of Belgium is the choice of the Eurosceptic ECR group. Having blocked the unexpected candidacy of Sylvia Goulard of France (see EUROPE 11676), the President of the ALDE group, Guy Verhofstadt, has said that he will make an official announcement next week. As the Liberal family is only Parliament's fourth largest group, the former Belgium Prime Minister will stand only if there is a prior informal agreement between the principal groups, a parliamentary source told EUROPE. It is worth noting that the Greens/EFA group will select its new co-president to take over from Germany's Rebecca Harms but they will not present a candidate for the presidency of Parliament.
Priority to the railway sector. The legislative plank of this plenary session will be dominated by the transport sector, in particular with Wednesday's vote on the highly controversial political pillar of the fourth railway package, made up of three texts (see EUROPE 11592), which aims to liberalise the national markets, traditionally jealously defended by member states. Only the ECR group announced its full and clear support on Friday 9 December. The EPP and S&D groups will also support the text, but a number of delegations may either abstain or vote against, a source told us. The British EFDD delegation is expected to vote against, as are the GUE/NGL and Greens/EFA groups. The vote will be awaited outside the hemicycle by a demonstration of European transport-sector unions, who will be there to express their strong opposition (see EUROPE 11682). Still in the field of transport, the MEPs will vote on the same day on the less controversial regulation on access to the port services market (see EUROPE 11643).
On Tuesday, the MEPs will take position on a general revision of the regulation of the European Parliament. The aim is to reinforce the transparency of their work. The proposed changes include a stricter code of conduct for members of the European Parliament, particularly with regard to revolving-door career moves into the private sector and interactions with lobbies, as well as tougher sanctions in the event of disturbances to parliamentary work. The draft is expected to receive the support of the EPP, S&D, Greens/EFA and ECR groups, although the last of these has expressed strong misgivings regarding the extension of sanctions for acts of indiscipline.
Final results sheet of the Slovak Presidency. The European Commission and the Slovak Prime Minister will meet MEPs to take stock of the Slovak Presidency of the Council. The following day, the MEPs will debate the items on the agenda of the European Council to be held on Thursday 15 December. They will also hold an exchange with the Commission on the legislative package for green energy (see EUROPE 11679). The debate on the agreement between the Commission and Berlin on the road pricing bill called for by some 40 MEPs (see EUROPE 11685) ended up not making the final agenda. This debate is expected to take place within the 'transport and tourism' committee, a source told us.
On Thursday, MEPs will be invited to approve the revision of the visa suspension mechanism for third countries, which will give nationals of Georgia and Ukraine access to the EU without a visa (see EUROPE 11685). They will adopt resolutions on human rights emergencies (Larung Gar Buddhist Academy and Ilham Tohti, the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, mass graves in Iraq). On the same day, they will also adopt another resolution to support the victims of thalidomide, an anti-morning sickness drug prescribed to pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s and which led to many cases of malformations in children. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)