The European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs is due to meet, virtually, on Monday 20 April.
“The committees were invited by the President of the European Parliament to define the priorities of their work and this is how the agenda for the next meeting of our committee took shape”, committee Chair David McAllister told EUROPE.
Thus, two reports will be put to the vote in the morning. The first is the report for opinion by Nikos Androulakis (S&D, Greece) on the General approach for the preparation of the 2021 budget, Section III - Commission. “The opinion is also intended to contribute to the debate in Parliament on how to respond to COVID-19 and includes a paragraph on the budgetary implications of the policy response”, Mr McAllister said.
The second report is by Tonino Picula (S&D, Croatia) on Parliament’s recommendation to the EU Council, the Commission and the High Representative of the Union regarding the Western Balkans ahead of the 2020 summit. This summit, originally scheduled for 7 May, has been postponed due to COVID-19, but is expected to take place before the end of the Croatian Presidency (see EUROPE 12463/16).
Mr McAllister said that the guidelines on remote committee voting procedures had been adopted on 8 April. Committee members will receive an electronic voting form at their official email address, which will be returned and completed, from their email address, to a dedicated Parliament mailbox. The transmission of the ballots will take place on the morning of the 20th. The votes will be verified and counted. There will be a vote on the compromises and amendments and a final vote and the results will be announced at the opening of the afternoon session.
In the afternoon, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, was invited by the AFET Committee and the Parliament Subcommittees on Human Rights (DROI) and Security and Defence (SEDE) to an exchange of views on the foreign policy implications of the EU's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Borrell is then expected to speak on the joint communication and the EU Action Plan for Human Rights and Democracy for 2020-2024 (see EUROPE 12454/29), before MEPs in the AFET Committee and the DROI Subcommittee. On Wednesday 8 April, the EEAS was unable to confirm Mr Borrell's participation.
Committee members and Mr Borrell will connect to the meeting via a link provided by Parliament, accessible only by them, according to McAllister, and will be able to speak remotely.
The AFET committee had tried to meet by videoconference on 31 March, but this had not been possible due to a change in the parliamentary calendar by the Conference of Presidents, according to one source. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)