CALENDAR / Main activities of the european institutions
22/01 - 28/01/2018
Monday 22 January
Brussels. Council of the EU. ‘Foreign Affairs’ Council. – Topical international questions. – ACP: future of the EU/ACP partnership. – Libya: situation in the country following the meeting of the joint working group on migration and ahead of the fourth meeting of the Quatuor on Libya, at the end of January. – Middle East: review of recent developments in the region and ministers’ discussion with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
Brussels. Council of the EU. Eurogroup. – Appointment of the new chair of the Eurogroup working group, Hans Vijbrief. – European Semester: discussion on the economic policy recommendations for 2018 in the Eurozone. – Greece: progress made in the application of the third economic adjustment programme. – Portugal: results of the seventh post-programme monitoring mission. – IMF: discussion on the principal preliminary conclusions of the IMF’s consultation mission with the Eurozone under Article 4. – EU: monitoring discussion and next steps following Euro summit of 15/12/2017.
Brussels. European Parliament. Activities of the committees (to 25/01). – CONT: examination of the execution of the 2016 budget of the joint agencies and enterprises. – ITRE: public hearing on the future of industrial policy in the field of defence in reference to the Commission’s proposal on a development programme for a European defence industrial policy.
Tuesday 23 January
Brussels. Council of the EU. ‘Economic and Financial Affairs’ Council. – Discussion on the general economic situation. – Taxation: decision to withdraw a number of countries and territories from the list of non-cooperative countries and territories in taxation matters. – EMU: discussion on the continued development of Economic and Monetary Union. – Banks: discussion on the implementation of the action plan on non-performing loans. – European Semester 2018: adoption of conclusions on the annual growth review carried out by the Commission and on macro-economic imbalances in the member states; approval of a draft recommendation concerning Eurozone economic policy. – Examination of the work programme of the Bulgarian Presidency. – Financial services: state of progress on legislative proposals. – VAT: the Commission’s proposals to simplify VAT rates and requirements for SMEs in VAT matters.
Brussels. European Parliament. Activities of the committees. – CONT: examination of the execution of the 2016 budget of the Commission with Commissioners Avramopoulos and Oettinger and of the 2016 Parliament's budget with Parliament's Secretary General, Klaus Welle, and Parliament's Vice-President, Devid-Maria Sassoli. – ITRE: structured dialogue with the Commissioner for Research, Carlos Moedas, and the Commissioner for the Digital Economy, Mariya Gabriel. – PETI: examination of petitions from Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom on alleged discriminatory treatment of lecturers and university assistants in Italy.
Luxembourg. *Court of Justice of the EU. #Judgments: - C-179/16 (Hoffman-La Roche e.a. – Does the agreement between the groups Roche and Novartis aiming to reduce ophthalmic use of the drug Avastin and increase that of Lucentis constitute a restriction of competition “by item”?). – C-367/16 (Piotrowski – obligation for a member state to execute a European arrest warrant against an individual who was a minor at the time of the events for which he or she was convicted in another member state).
Wednesday 24 January
Brussels. European Commission. Weekly meeting of the College of Commissioners. – Commission’s orientations on the general data protection regulation (Timmermans). – 13th progress report on the Security Union (Timmermans)
Brussels. Council of the EU. Coreper I and II and ‘Article 50’ Coreper.
Brussels. European Parliament. Activities of the committees. – FEMM: examination of the support provided by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to women refugees, with Barbara Hendricks, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador.
Luxembourg. *Court of Justice of the EU. #Conclusions: - joined cases C-175/17 (X) and C-180/17 (X and Y – should the appeal automatically have a suspensive effect if a decision at first instance rejects an asylum application and orders the return of the asylum seeker to his or her country, or is it possible to remove that person even before the end of the appeals procedure?).
Thursday 25 January
Brussels. Council of the EU. Informal ‘Justice and Home Affairs’ Council (and 26/01). *Home affairs (EU and Schengen zone ministers). – Discussion on the reform of the European common asylum regime. – Migration: global aspects (discussion of the UN global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration); political aspects of integrated border management (cooperation with third countries, increase in the number of returns, cooperation between institutions)
Brussels. European Parliament. Activities of the committees. – REGI: workshop on the Commission’s seventh report on economic, social and territorial cohesion. – PECH: hearing on the multi-annual plan on fish stocks in the Adriatic Sea.
Luxembourg. *Court of Justice of the EU. #Judgments: C-498/16 (Schrems – Possibility for Mr Schrems, an Austrian citizen, to take individual action and collective action against Facebook Ireland in Austria). C-473/16 (F – possibility to subject an asylum seeker to a psychological test in order to determine his or her sexual orientation). #Conclusions: C-59/17 (SCI Château du Grand Bois – are officers responsible for controls on the ground authorised to enter farmland without the farmer’s agreement under the EU regulation on the common organisation of the market in wine?).
Friday 26 January
Brussels. Council of the EU. Informal ‘Justice and Home Affairs’ Council. *Justice: - work on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office. – Work on the revision of the Brussels IIa regulation on matrimonial, parental responsibility and international child abduction decisions (RECAST).
