*** modified Tuesday 16 June at 11h00 ***
MEPs will hold a plenary session in Brussels from Wednesday 17 to Friday 19 June, with a particularly packed agenda compared to the first sessions held online because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
MFF. On Wednesday afternoon, they will debate in the presence of the EU Council and the European Commission on the forthcoming European Summit, which will allow the EU-27 to take a position for the first time on the revised proposal for the 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the accompanying Recovery Plan for Europe (see EUROPE 12494/1 and other news). The European Parliament had officially expressed its views on this issue in mid-May, advocating a €2 trillion European recovery plan based on a revised MFF (see EUROPE 12488/8).
Brexit. MEPs will also take stock of the ongoing negotiations between the EU and the UK, 2 days after the videoconference between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Presidents of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Council, Charles Michel, and the European Parliament, David Sassoli (see other news).
In the resolution to be adopted on Thursday 18 June, they will confirm their position on the future bilateral partnership, which they want to be ambitious, as broad as possible and with strong guarantees of a ‘level playing field’ (see EUROPE 12505/7). Parliament rejects the approach advocated by the British, pointing out that a comprehensive agreement including competition and fisheries issues will be needed to obtain its endorsement, which will be required at the end of the ratification process.
China. Also on foreign affairs, MEPs will start Thursday by discussing the foreign policy implications of the Covid-19 crisis with High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. They will then discuss China’s National Security Law for Hong Kong and the need for the EU to defend the city state’s high degree of autonomy (see EUROPE 12496/2). This debate will be followed by the vote on a resolution on the evening of Thursday and Friday.
The plenary session will then discuss the EU’s response to the possible Israeli annexation of the West Bank (see EUROPE 12488/12). Parliament regularly puts the situation in the Middle East on the agenda of its plenary sessions (see EUROPE 12423/10).
Finally, two reports will be quickly presented in plenary: one by Petras Auštrevičius (Renew Europe, Lithuania) on Parliament’s recommendations for the Eastern Partnership summit, scheduled for the same day, and one by Tonino Picula (S&D, Croatia) on the EU/Western Balkans summit held on 6 May (see EUROPE 12482/21). These reports will be put to the vote on Thursday and Friday.
On Wednesday evening, the European Parliament will debate the risks of foreign takeovers enabled by the pandemic for strategic industrial sectors. This concern is shared by the European Commission, which has already encouraged the EU27 to speed up the implementation of the investment screening mechanism to protect strategic European assets from foreign predators (see EUROPE 12468/16, 12461/6).
On the same day, the Commission will present its White Paper on a level playing field for foreign subsidies (see EUROPE 12386/10).
Fundamental rights. Echoing the protests of the #BlackLivesMatter movement that have spread across the United States and then to many European countries since the death of African-American George Floyd, a debate on racism and police violence will be held on Wednesday (see EUROPE 12505/23). The plenary will adopt a resolution on this subject on Friday.
Finally, on Friday morning, there will be a debate with the European Commission on land grabs and deforestation in the Amazon.
On Thursday MEPs will adopt a resolution on a new EU strategy for people with disabilities for the post-2020 period. As the EU's 2010-2020 strategy comes to an end, the Commission is preparing a new one for the coming decade, to be presented in early 2021. In their draft resolution, MEPs intend to stress the need for a European definition of disability in order to harmonise the data collected at national level and better focus EU action.
Free movement of people. MEPs will also be asked to confirm their position on the gradual return to free movement of persons within the Schengen area.
As the internal borders of the area have been gradually reopening since Monday 15 June, although some restrictions still apply to some countries most affected by the pandemic, Parliament will take up the message conveyed in early June by its Committee on Civil Liberties that there can be no economic recovery without a full return to the normal functioning of the Schengen area (see EUROPE 12499/16).
Member States will also be urged to allow a gradual return to normal through the best possible coordination. All internal borders in the EU are expected to be open to everyone by the end of June. Only countries such as Denmark or Sweden have suggested that they could extend their restrictions beyond 1 July. Members will debate the subject on Thursday 18 June and vote on it the following day.
Cross-border workers. On Thursday, MEPs will debate cross-border and seasonal workers in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, an issue that was debated at the end of May in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (see EUROPE 12494/23). In a resolution to be put to the vote the following day, they will stress the importance of ensuring the same treatment between national workers and seasonal and cross-border workers. They will also insist on a rapid and ambitious agreement on the Regulation on the coordination of social security systems, a pending inter-institutional legislative dossier blocked since December 2019 (see EUROPE 12387/18).
Tourism. This issue of the free movement of persons in the EU is linked to the situation in the tourism sector, as summer is coming. A debate on the crisis facing European industry after 3 months of standstill (see EUROPE 12495/19) is scheduled for the evening of Wednesday 17 June. A draft resolution stressing the urgency of short- and long-term support for this sector and the transport sector will be put to the vote.
CAP. The European Parliament is expected to approve, on Thursday 18 June, the proposal for emergency aid from the rural development programmes (second pillar) of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to help farmers overcome the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic (see EUROPE 12491/4).
The Commission proposed at the end of April, among other support measures for farmers, a flat-rate payment to be made by 31 December 2020 at the latest and limited to a maximum of 1% of the total EAFRD contribution to the rural development programme. Some members had advocated raising that limit to 2%.
Several institutional dossiers are also on the plenary session agenda.
Special Committees & ECON Sub-Committee. Internally, Parliament will formally record the creation of three special committees, respectively: on overcoming cancer, on foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU (including disinformation) and on artificial intelligence in the digital age (see EUROPE 12504/18). It will do the same for the creation, by September, of a sub-committee of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on fiscal matters (see EUROPE 12504/17).
Conference on the Future of Europe. On Wednesday evening, in a debate and then on Thursday, when a resolution is adopted, MEPs will again put pressure on the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council to get Member States to adopt a common position on the Conference on the Future of Europe (see EUROPE 12503/23). This step is essential for the launch of the interinstitutional negotiations that are supposed to set out the modalities and objectives of this consultation exercise with European citizens, which will start in September at the earliest.
Disinformation. On Thursday morning, MEPs will debate freedom of expression in the context of disinformation campaigns by foreign actors. The debate, which will be held in the presence of Mr Borrell and the EU Council, is also expected to discuss the recent European Commission Communication on disinformation related to the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12503/1).
Budget. In the budgetary field, Parliament will take over the guidelines of its Committee on Budgets for the EU 2021 budget by taking over the ‘Larrouturou’ report (see EUROPE 12497/21).
Parliament will also approve an amending budget granting aid of €279 million to Portugal, Spain, Italy and Austria following natural disasters (see EUROPE 12478/21). The aid, which comes from the EU Solidarity Fund, will be used to help repair the damage caused by the major natural disasters that hit these four Member States in 2019 (see EUROPE 12486/17). In addition, Parliament should adopt its position in favour of amending budget No 3/2020, which aims to enter the budget surplus from 2019 in the 2020 budget. The implementation for the financial year 2019 shows a surplus of €3.2 billion, which will therefore be entered as revenue in the 2020 budget. Budgeting the surplus will reduce the total contribution of the 27 Member States and the United Kingdom to the funding of the 2020 budget (see EUROPE 12474/16).
In addition, in order to strengthen the protection of the EU’s financial interests, MEPs will adopt a resolution in which they will ask: – that the fiscal rules set a maximum amount of European funds from cohesion policy and the CAP granted to the same legal person; – the creation of a public register of the actual final beneficiaries of European funds.
This resolution was drafted after a parliamentary mission to the Czech Republic pointed out the potential conflict of interest for the Czech Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš, who is negotiating the MFF in Brussels and how EU funds are used while being a manager of a co-funded company (see EUROPE 12436/20).
Sustainable finance. On Thursday, the European Parliament will lay the final stone for the adoption of the regulation laying down the taxonomy for sustainable finance (see EUROPE 12495/35), by voting definitively on the outcome of the agreement with the EU Council reached at the end of 2019 (see EUROPE 12392/14).
Taxation. On Friday, Parliament will adopt its opinion on the proposal for an EU Council Directive extending certain deadlines for the submission and exchange of tax information, which have become more difficult to meet due to the Covid-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12483/7). Member States already agreed on a six-month postponement in early June (see EUROPE 12498/33), instead of the 3 months proposed by the Commission.
See the agenda of the plenary session: https://bit.ly/2C9QM0Z (Editorial staff)