The European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents decided, after a one-and-a-half-hour discussion on Monday 9 March, to restrict the March plenary session to just one day, Tuesday 10 March, because of the coronavirus.
Only four topics are now on the agenda: the evolution of the epidemic linked to COVID-19, the situation at the Greek-Turkish border, the negotiations on the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), and International Women’s Day.
Speaking in the Chamber after the Conference of Presidents, Parliament President David Sassoli explained that parliamentary activity must be limited “to the essentials” in order to reduce the risk of the virus spreading within the institution and causing it to come to a halt.
According to Parliament spokesman Jaume Duch Guillot, this decision, like the decision to move the plenary to Brussels (see EUROPE 12441/14), is part of a desire to strike a balance between Parliament’s obligation to fulfil its institutional responsibility, on the one hand, and to help to prevent the spread of the virus as much as possible, on the other.
With regard to the plenary’s proceedings, all scheduled votes are postponed to a later date (without further details at this point). The debates scheduled for Monday (see EUROPE 12441/13) have all been cancelled, including the debate on the ‘climate law’ (see EUROPE 12439/2).
New agenda
On Tuesday morning, the session will begin with a statement by Mr Sassoli on International Women’s Day. Then MEPs will debate the COVID-19 epidemic with the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Originally scheduled for Wednesday morning, debates on the situation on the Greek-Turkish border (see separate news) and the failure of the last European Council on the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 will take place on Tuesday afternoon.
In principle, they are expected take place in this order, but the debates could be reversed to ensure that Ursula von der Leyen is present at the first meeting and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, at the second.
Why hold a one-day session? An outright cancellation of the plenary would have meant the closure of Parliament for the week, without knowing when the institution would be reopened afterwards, given that the situation relating to the virus is likely to remain the same for some time to come. A closure could thus affect the institution’s political clout. That is apparently why a limited session is being held, we are told. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot and Pascal Hansens)