On the morning of Thursday, 7 March, the Presidents of the European Parliament's political groups decided to provisionally include the social and market aspects of the first mobility package (posting of drivers, driving and resting time, tachograph, cabotage and market access) on the agenda of Parliament’s plenary session being held from 25 to 28 March.
While it was extremely unclear a few hours before the meeting of the Conference of Presidents was held exactly what procedural follow-up would be provided for these sensitive issues in the first ‘mobility’ package (see EUROPE 12208/5), the situation seems to be becoming somewhat clearer.
The option that was actually chosen was to vote on the three texts during the second plenary session of the Parliament in March and not the one that had previously been considered by a number of political groups to allow these texts to be voted on during the first plenary session, which is being held from 11 to 14 March.
While this is the preferred approach now, the vagueness that has surrounded this issue over the past few months means that we cannot be certain that there will be a vote at the second plenary session. Two more meetings of the Conference of Presidents are due to take place between now and the second plenary session, on Thursday 14 and Thursday 21 March, and it is perhaps not entirely impossible that further decisions may be taken.
In any event, the decision not to vote on these matters during the first session in March rules out once and for all the slight hope that some people still had that interinstitutional negotiations ('trilogues') could be concluded with the EU Council before the end of the current mandate, just over three months after a political agreement ('general approach') was reached between States (see EUROPE 12152/10). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)