The Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, is due to appear before MEPs in Strasbourg on the morning of Tuesday 19 October to discuss the rule of law and the primacy of European law over national law before the deputies, who will be convened in plenary from 18-21 October.
The debate, which will also be attended by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, comes in the wake of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling of 7 October challenging several articles of the EU treaties (see EUROPE 12808/1).
The Prime Minister will have to “explain the legal situation in the country”, said EPP group spokesman Pedro López on 15 October, referring to the specific doubts that arise for European companies wanting to work in the country and hire Poles.
“Does Poland accept the EU’s legal regime or not?” he wondered. For the S&D group, this “unprecedented and extremely worrying” situation shows that the Commission and the Council of the EU must “act”. The Commission must urgently “trigger conditionality and put the recovery funds on hold”, and the EU Council must move to the next step in the so-called Article 7 procedure, insisted spokesperson Utta Tuttlies.
The MEPs are expected to ask the Commission once again to activate the mechanism on conditionality of funds and to launch new infringement proceedings against the country. They will then be invited on Thursday 21 October to adopt a resolution on the subject.
On Wednesday 20 October, they will also return to another issue of concern in Poland: the almost total ban on abortion in the country. Here they will debate a resolution marking the first anniversary of new measures restricting access to abortion, which came into force in January 2021 and limits abortion to cases of rape or incest or when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother.
On the rule of law, MEPs will also discuss with the Commission and the Council of the EU on Wednesday the rise of the extreme right and racism in Europe. The debate was called in response to the attack on a hospital and a trade union building by a neo-fascist group last weekend in Rome, on the sidelines of demonstrations against the vaccine passport.
Pushbacks. Another particularly sensitive topic is the issue of pushback of migrants at the EU’s external borders, notably at the Greek, Croatian, and Romanian borders, which will also be debated on the evening of Wednesday 20 October.
The elected representatives will return to the recent revelations of a consortium of journalists on the actions of the border guards (see EUROPE 12807/4). They are expected to call on national authorities to investigate these incidents and raise the issue of the possible use of EU funds to finance the equipment used in these incidents.
Parliament is also expected to ask on Wednesday and Thursday, through a debate and two votes, for freezing part of the Frontex agency’s budget for 2022, following the decision of the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) on 27 September (see EUROPE 12799/16) not to approve spending on Frontex for the year 2019.
While acknowledging that Frontex had taken steps to address the shortcomings identified by Parliament last spring (see EUROPE 12708/12), MEPs had called for improvements in its recruitment and financial management as well as in its operations to combat illegal immigration and cross-border crime. This is why they had asked for a freeze on part of the Frontex budget for 2022.
‘Farm to Fork’: agribusiness in the spotlight. After debating it late Monday afternoon, MEPs will vote on Tuesday on the EU’s ‘Farm to Fork’ (F2F) strategy for sustainable food systems, based on the joint own-initiative report by Anja Hazekamp (GUE/NGL, the Netherlands) and Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italy).
This key initiative of the ‘European Green Deal’ was the subject of a broad compromise between political groups and the Committee on Agriculture and the Environment to reconcile high environmental demands with economic sustainability of European agriculture and the supply chain (see EUROPE 12787/16).
An amendment from the EPP group, supported by 66 MEPs, was tabled calling for the publication of impact studies and to “take into account the cumulative effects” of the strategy on agriculture, much to the dismay of the Greens/EFA, who are concerned about lobbying by agribusiness (see EUROPE 12812/5, EUROPE 12812/6).
The ECR group fears that too much bureaucracy would threaten the sustainability of European agriculture and global food security. The results of Tuesday’s vote will be known on Wednesday.
‘Pandora papers’ scandal. MEPs will debate efforts to improve the EU’s fight against money laundering on Wednesday afternoon after the Commission presented a legislative package in July recommending the creation of a new European money laundering authority (see EUROPE 12766/4). The following day, they will adopt a resolution on this issue and the fight against tax evasion in the light of the revelations of the Pandora Papers investigation (see EUROPE 12806/14).
In addition, on tax policy, a majority of MEPs are expected to welcome on Wednesday the detailed agreement on international tax reform confirmed at G20 Finance level ahead of an endorsement at the G20 summit in Rome in late October (see EUROPE 12812/12).
In a debate on Monday and a vote on Tuesday, MEPs are also expected to stress the importance of social policies in the euro area and of the EU’s recovery and resilience plans.
To mitigate the impact of the pandemic and support the EU’s economic recovery, MEPs should affirm that it is essential to better integrate social objectives, welfare, and sustainability into EU budget planning. They will also call on Member States and the Commission to make reducing youth unemployment a priority, based on the report by Lina Gálvez Muñoz (S&D, Spain).
Climate: ambitious targets. At lunch on Wednesday, MEPs will hold a debate to prepare for the 26th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), to be held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November.
This discussion should be an opportunity for MEPs to call on the signatories of the Paris Agreement to raise their climate targets for 2030, as foreseen in a draft resolution recently approved by the Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) (see EUROPE 12810/28). The text will be voted on by all MEPs on Thursday 21 October.
Also on Wednesday, MEPs will debate the EU strategy on methane emissions (see EUROPE 12581/9) and the following day vote on a draft own-initiative report by María Spyráki (EPP, Greece) calling for binding targets for measuring and reducing these emissions (see EUROPE 12800/3).
The report will enable Parliament to provide guidance to the European Commission ahead of its adoption on 14 December (provisional date) of a legislative proposal to reduce methane emissions in the energy sector (see EUROPE 12628/12).
Foreign Affairs: looking to Tunisia. In the field of foreign affairs, MEPs and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell will debate the situation in Tunisia on Wednesday afternoon, where President Kais Saied is under international pressure to return to institutional normality. Parliament will adopt a specific resolution on Thursday 21 October.
Later, MEPs will debate and adopt a resolution on EU-Taiwan relations.
On Thursday, the interinstitutional trio will also discuss the outcome of the recent EU-Western Balkans summit, which took place in early October in Slovenia and at which unequivocal support for the European perspective of the Western Balkan countries was reaffirmed (see EUROPE 12806/1).
On Wednesday evening, the Commission will also make a statement on the humanitarian situation in Haiti after the earthquake of 14 August.
Pandemic. Once again, several items on the agenda will be related to the Covid-19 pandemic. On Thursday, Parliament will vote on a motion for a resolution on EU transparency in vaccine development, procurement and distribution. The text will echo the debate on the subject at the September plenary (see EUROPE 12793/11).
Other topics – European Summit. In a debate with the Slovenian Presidency and the Commission on the morning of Wednesday 20 October, MEPs will set out their expectations for the EU summit on 21 and 22 October. They should focus in particular on the issue of energy prices.
Commission work programme. On Tuesday afternoon, the European Commission will present its work programme for 2022, which will detail the main initiatives it will present next year. This programme is based on the letter of intent (https://bit.ly/3DBGeSK ) presented by its President, Ursula von der Leyen, in mid-September during her State of the Union speech.
2022 budget. The European Parliament will debate on Tuesday and vote on Wednesday on the proposed €171.8 billion EU budget for 2022. Parliament’s position increases the European Commission’s initial proposal by €2.7 billion (EUROPE 12810/21).
After Wednesday’s vote, a three-week conciliation period will begin, during which 27 MEPs will try to reach an agreement on the EU budget for 2022 with the EU Council.
Asbestos. MEPs will be invited to debate the Villumsen own-initiative report to protect workers from asbestos in plenary session. The vote will take place the following day. The text is particularly ambitious and introduces a concrete occupational exposure limit, much to the dismay of the European Commission (see EUROPE 12799/22).
Artists. – MEPs will debate on Monday and vote on Tuesday proposals to improve the social and economic situation of artists and cultural workers, who are among those most affected by the pandemic.
Road safety. On Thursday, the Parliament will debate and validate the interinstitutional agreement on the revision of the Motor Insurance Directive (see EUROPE 12746/22).
Announcement of the Sakharov Prize winner. Finally, the European Parliament Conference of Group Presidents will announce the 2021 winner of the Sakharov Prize. The groups have chosen Russian dissident and activist Alexei Navalny, a group of 11 Afghan women activists, and former Bolivian president Jeanine Áñez for this title.
This selection took place on 14 October, following a joint vote by the Committees on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and Development (DEVE) (see EUROPE 12812/14). Russia’s Alexei Navalny is supported by the EPP group and Renew Europe.
The Afghan women’s group, comprising 11 women activists, is proposed by the S&D and Greens/EFA groups. Jeanine Áñez is supported by the conservative ECR group. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with the editorial staff)