The future of Brexit and the EU withdrawal agreement negotiated between London and the Twenty-Seven will dominate the agenda of the MEPs meeting in Strasbourg from 11 to 14 March.
Parliamentarians, for one of the last plenary sessions of the legislature, will effectively be suspended from the vote by the British Parliament, scheduled for 12 March. They will hear from EU negotiator Michel Barnier on Wednesday morning for a debate scheduled regardless of the outcome of the British MPs vote. This debate is part of a broader context that will be the preparation of the European summit on 21 and 22 March.
On Thursday 7 March, members of the European Parliament Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) debated the modalities of Parliament consent vote on the withdrawal agreement and political declaration, with the AFCO Committee having substantive competence. Its President, Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), confirmed that consent (in the event of a positive vote in London on 12 March) could be given at the end of March during the second plenary session and that it would take the European Parliament around "two weeks" to prepare this procedure.
MEPs will be looking to London and the British Parliament, which, if it fails to endorse the agreement on Tuesday, will be asked the next day to comment on its desire for a no-deal exit and, the next day, on an extension of negotiations with the EU.
Cybersecurity and Russian threats
In the meantime, on Tuesday morning, they will listen to a speech on the future of the EU by Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini before tackling high-stakes issues later today before the May European elections, starting with cyber security and the Chinese IT threat, which will be the subject of a debate. MEPs should state that China's growing technological presence in the EU (Huawei) poses serious security threats.
Parliament is also expected to adopt the Cybersecurity Regulation, which will strengthen European cybersecurity by establishing a European Cybersecurity Certificate scheme for products, procedures and services and by extending the mandate of the EU Cybersecurity Agency, eu-LISA.
Relations with Russia will also be on Tuesday's agenda and will be a particularly important issue for the EPP group currently meeting in Warsaw on security and defence issues.
On the evening of Monday 11March, Sandra Kalniete (EPP, Latvia) will present her report on EU-Russia relations, which will be put to the vote on Tuesday and which calls in particular for additional sanctions against Russia if it continues to violate international law. Also concerning Russia, MEPs will discuss Anna Fotyga's report Elżbieta Fotyga (ECR, Poland) on the follow-up given by the EEAS, two years after Parliament's report on the EU's strategic communication to counter propaganda directed against it by third parties (see EUROPE 11674/5). They will discuss it on Tuesday 12 March and vote on the report on 13 March.
For the S&D group, one of the highlights of the plenary will also be the vote on the report by Kati Piri (S&D, the Netherlands) on Turkey, also debated on 12 March and put to the vote the following day. This report, which is based on the Commission's report on the progress of this candidate country for EU membership, once again calls for a formal freeze on accession negotiations with Ankara (see EUROPE 12199/19).
Also on Tuesday 12 March, MEPs will debate with the EU High Representative on 'A European sanctions regime for human rights violations' and vote on the subject on Thursday 14 March. The European Parliament has been calling for a'Magnitsky Act' for many years and the Netherlands has relaunched the idea of such a regime (see EUROPE 12156/27).
Cross-border crime and money laundering
The ECR group will be very attentive to the confirmation on Tuesday of Daniel Dalton's (UK) report on cross-border crime and criminal records of third-country nationals across the EU, the ECRIS-TCN file, which will be the subject of a joint debate on Monday, followed by a vote on the Interinstitutional Agreement. Several groups oppose the inclusion of dual nationals (see EUROPE 12178/32).
Parliament will also debate, on Thursday 14 March, the massive rejection by the Twenty-Eight, on Thursday 7 March, of the list of 23 third countries with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing mechanisms that have deficiencies threatening the European financial system (see EUROPE 12193/28).
Climate and unfair business practices in the agri-food sector
At the request of the Greens/EFA group, MEPs will hold a current affairs debate on Wednesday and adopt a non-binding resolution on the vision of a future long-term climate strategy for the EU to achieve a climate-neutral economy by 2050 (see EUROPE 12207/3, 12198/3). The Greens/EFA group recalled on 8 March that it had wished to bring young Greta Thunberg to the plenary session, but the "majority refused, preferring that the girl go to school".
Parliament will also adopt on 14 March the text of the new directive to combat unfair commercial practices in the agri-food chain (see EUROPE 12179/34, 12175/11), a dossier also closely monitored by the EPP. In particular, it put forward a long list of prohibited unfair trading practices. The Council of the EU will then have to formally adopt the text.
Appointments on the basis of female under-representation
MEPs will approve on Wednesday the appointment of Sebastiano Laviola as a member of the Single Resolution Council (SRB), the European authority responsible for restructuring any major failing bank in the euro zone banking union.
At this stage, they should not do the same for the appointment of the head of the Santander group, the Spanish José Manuel Campa, as President of the European Banking Authority (EBA - see EUROPE 12202/15), nor for the appointment of Philip Lane, the current Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB - see EUROPE 12202/14).
The reason for this is the total absence of women in the appointment procedure. The issue was discussed on Thursday 7 March at the preparatory meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the political groups, with the Greens/EFA and S&D groups being the most dissatisfied with the under-representation of women in senior European positions in the financial and monetary sectors. Until they receive a response from the EU Council to Mr Tajani's letter expressing surprise at this situation, MPs will not vote on the other two appointments. However, there is not much they can do, according to a parliamentary source, since Parliament is only consulted in this area. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and the editorial staff)