MEPs will hold a debate in Strasbourg on Tuesday 17 April with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on the future of Europe, which is eagerly awaited by the political groups and will be one of the highlights of the European Parliament’s plenary.
The agenda for the plenary is packed with political hot potatoes such as the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, projection of investigative journalists in Europe, the crisis in Syria, relations with Russia, the situation in the Gaza Strip, and also legislative hot potatoes such as the fight against money-laundering, terrorism, climate change and clean energy, the circular economy, the production and labelling of organic products and discharge of the budget.
Future of Europe. The debate with Emmanuel Macron, the fourth of its type with a European head of state, is part of a long series (preceded by the Portuguese prime minister, Antonio, see EUROPE 11978) the order of which has already been laid down (see EUROPE 12000).
The EPP group is awaiting the French president’s speech to react to the proposals he will be putting forward, and the debate is a key priority for the S&D. The ALDE group is planning to make a few proposals.
The Greens/EFA group have written to President Macron asking him to show leadership on the question of tax reforms as the country-by-country reporting legislation is in deadlock at the Council of the EU. The GUE/NGL group is planning to call for escalation to be avoided in the conflict in Syria and for an end of attacks on public services. The ENF group says it is impatient to learn whether Europe in the future will listen to its citizens in the light of the election results in Hungary, Austria and Italy.
Facebook/Cambridge Analytica. The MEPs will discuss Facebook and protection of European citizens’ data on Wednesday at 15 hrs, but no resolution is currently expected. They will note the importance of data protection as a way of preventing the manipulation of elections. MEPs are disappointed that the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who had been invited to address the European Parliament, has dropped out on the grounds that his hearing at the Congress in the United States didn’t give him enough time (EUROPE 11999). Zuckerberg will be invited to attend a joint meeting of four EP committees. The invitation has been sent but the exact date is uncertain at this stage.
Syria, Russia and Gaza. The situation in Syria following the alleged chemical attack in Douma and potential air strikes on the Syrian regime by the United States and France, will be discussed on Tuesday afternoon with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini the day after a debate at the Foreign Affairs Council (see other article in this issue). The MEPs will hold a debate on Russia, but will not issue a resolution. The debate currently has a very wide-ranging title (rule of law, treatment of the LGTB minority and foreign policy) but this might change to focus on EU-Russia relations, hopes ALDE.
The situation in the Gaza Strip after the bloody repression of Palestinian demonstrators by the Israeli army will be the subject of a debate ahead of a emergency resolution requested by the S&D (see EUROPE 11995).
The MEPs will hold a debate on Tuesday evening on the violation of human rights and the rule of law symbolised by the arrest of two Greek soldiers who are now being detained in Turkey.
Following the assassination of Slovak journalist Jan Luciak, who had been investigating corruption, and his fiancée, Martine Jusnirova, the MEPs will pass a resolution on Thursday on the protection of investigative journalists in Europe, a subject they have already debated.
The MEPs will hold a debate on Thursday on the results of the recent European Summit, which looked at Brexit, taxation, trade and digital Europe.
MEPs will be asked to vote on Wednesday on discharge of the general budget for 2016 managed by the European Commission and the budgets of all the EU's agencies.
Among the raft of draft legislation on the agenda, some items are in the final phase following provisional interinstitutional agreement. The MEPs will discuss and carry out the final vote on the new organic resolution (on the production and labelling of organic produces), on which interinstitutional agreement has already been reached (see EUROPE 11910), and two key acts of legislation for implementing the Paris Climate Agreement, regarding the Lulucf regulation on forestry and farming contributing to meeting the EU's climate targets for 2021-2030 (see EUROPE 11947) and the legislation on burden-sharing in non-ETS sectors (see EUROPE 11947 and 11941). Voting is also scheduled on parts of the clean energy package on which interinstitutional agreement has been thrashed out.
MEPs will discuss on Monday the review of the directive on money-laundering, on which they will hold the final vote on Thursday.
The plenary will also express their views on the draft regulation on acceptance and surveillance of the motor vehicle and trailer market and for systems, components and separate technical bodies for motor vehicles (see EUROPE 11922 and 11921). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)