For the first European Parliament plenary after the summer break from 10 to 14 September, MEPs have a packed agenda, what with the State of the Union speech by the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the speech on the future of Europe by the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, or the votes on copyright and triggering Article 7 for Hungary.
Speech. The State of the Union speech by President Juncker, scheduled for the morning of Wednesday 12, is no doubt the plenary’s most eagerly awaited event. Juncker will speak about the Commission’s ambitions for the following months up until the European elections in May 2019. This speech, the last under this term of office, may also turn out to be a balance sheet of the Commission’s action since it took office in 2014.
Another eagerly awaited moment: as has now become a tradition, a head of state will address the hemicycle on his vision of the future of Europe. After Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki in July, and before the Estonian prime minister, Jüri Ratas, in early October, it will be Greek prime minister Alexis Tspiras who will come to defend his vision on Tuesday morning, as his country finally ended its third and final three-year bailout plan at the end of August, plans it had been subject to since August 2015 (see EUROPE 12077).
Copyright. Several important votes are planning during this plenary. The first is on a report by Axel Voss (EPP, Germany) on reform of copyright with debate on Tuesday 11 September and voting the following day.
At the last sitting, in July, the MEPs clashed over the negotiating mandate of the EP’s legal affairs committee, since this would have introduced a filtering of content generated by online platforms (see EUROPE 12056).
The draft legislation unveiled in September 2016 creates a neighbouring right for press editors to introduce new exceptions to the copyright rules and tries to balance the relationship between online platforms and rights holders.
The vote looks like it will be tight and tedious since 252 amendments were tabled on 5 September. "Each political group is divided" over the vote, explained the representative of the GUE/NGL, Ben Leung, confirming comments by his CRE colleague Jan Krelina, and his ELN colleague Tom Vandendriessche. "The MEPs are free to decide. It is a complex issue", said the latter. The vast majority of the EPP, the group to which the rapporteur belongs, would back the report. Lobbying ahead of the vote is expected to be intense.
Hungary. The MEPs will examine the rule of law in Hungary (see related article). On Tuesday, they will discuss the situation in the presence of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, before voting on Wednesday on a recommendation by Judith Sargentini (Greens/EFA, the Netherlands) to trigger Article 7 for serious threats to the rule of law.
In order to be adopted and transferred to the Council of the EU, the proposal must be backed by an absolute majority of MEPs, in other words 376 MEPs, and two-thirds of the votes cast.
The ENL and CRE are expected to vote against the proposal, saying that it is for Hungarians to decide whether they are happy with Orban’s policies, whereas the S&D, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups are expected to vote in favour.
The EPP, the group to which Orban’s party, Fidesz, belongs, is divided. Lada Jurica, of the EPP’s press service, said the group would discuss the line to be followed at the start of the week and would then decide whether to issue a whip (voting plan) or whether to leave each MEP free to choose how he or she wants to vote.
Consumption and the circular economy. The double standards for consumer product quality will be the subject of debate and a vote on Thursday (report by Olga Sehnalova (S&D, Czech Republic). The MEPs are expected on this occasion to demand that a product sold under the same trademark and the same packaging to have the same ingredients in all member states in order to not deceive consumers.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament will discuss (and vote on Thursday) the non-binding report by Mark Demesmaker (CRE, Belgium) on a strategy for plastic in a circular economy (see EUROPE 11940). The report contains a number of measures and initiatives for collective marine waste, new European standards and definitions for biodegradability and compostability and proposes complete ban in the European Union on oxodegradable plastics by 2020. The resolution comes at a timely moment since the European Commission proposed at the end of May to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics in the EU (see EUROPE 12028).
Finance. The MEPs will discuss on Monday evening a draft own-initiative report by Brian Hayes (EPP, Ireland) on relations been the European Union and third countries in terms of deregulation and surveillance of financial services (see EUROPE 12060) – a highly topical issue in the light of the United Kingdom’s planned retreat from the EU.
The report, which invites the European Commission to adopt a structured horizontal framework closely associating the EP for procedures of determining the equivalence of a third country’s financial legislation with that of the EU will be voted upon on Tuesday. A close source says five political groups having backed the report in the vote at the EP’s committee so the vote in plenary is expected to be simply a formality.
On Wednesday, the MEPs will discuss the future of pensions and notably how to fight against privatisation and boost universal public social security systems. The debate was put on the agenda by the GUE/NGL group in connection with the adoption in the economic and monetary affairs committee a little earlier this week (see EUROPE 12087) of the report by Sophie in’t Veld (ADLE, the Netherlands) on the creation of a pan-European Personal Pensions Saving Product (EPPP). Favouring a retirement system based on solidarity, the group accuses the European Commission of letting itself be influenced by US asset management company BlackRock when it put the proposal on the table.
Harassment. MEPs will look at sexual harassment in the political sphere in a debate on Monday and will then vote on a resolution by Pina Picierno (S&D, Italy) on Tuesday. They are expected to encourage victims to denounce harassment and to call for penalties against attackers.
Foreign policy. The sitting will have plenty of foreign policy matters to digest. The president of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, will speak at a formal sitting at midday on Tuesday. Among other things, he is expected to mention relations and cooperation between the EU and Lebanon, stability in the Middle East and migration. At midday on Thursday, a few days after a hearing at the foreign affairs committee (see EUROPE 12084), the Macedonian prime minister, Zoran Zaev, will address the entire EP a few days ahead of a crucial referendum on the change of his country’s name (see EUROPE 12074).
On relations between the EU and third countries, the MEPs will discuss relations with the United States - report by Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany) - China - report by Bas Belder (CRE, the Netherlands), on Tuesday. They will be put to the vote on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the MEPs will discuss with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini the emergency situation in Libya and the Mediterranean, as the security situation has deteriorated in Tripoli and there has been a new hike in deaths of migrants and refugees trying to come to Europe (see EUROPE 12087).
In a press release, the president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said (our translation) that "the future of Libya is being decided today and the EU has to play a central role in managing the crisis. If we are not able to properly carry out this task, we will leave the field open to the ambitions and interests of certain countries, like Russia Egypt and the United Arab Emirates,’ he warned. Tajani said the debate at plenary ‘had to be a step towards a concerned EU approach’ to the Libyan emergency. "We need more effective coordination among States and EU institutions. Member states which only promote their own national programmes to the detriment of a common approach and to the detriment of all European citizens will have to make a step back", he warned.
The MEPs will also look at automated weapons systems, with a debate on Tuesday and vote on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the emergency resolution will cover the arrest of opposition parliamentarians in Uganda, Burma and the case of two journalists sentenced to seven years I prison - Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo – and Cambodia, particularly the case of the former leader of the CNRP opposition party, Kem Sokha.
Finally, the European Parliament’s interpreting service will be working for the first time according to new working conditions negotiated in July by representatives of interpreters and the European institution, which were formally agreed to by the interpreters on Friday 7 September (see EUROPE 12063). (Original version in French Camille-Cerise Gessant, with Sophie Petitjean and Marion Fontana)