The next plenary session of the European Parliament, to be held from 22 to 25 November in Strasbourg, will be marked by the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the post-COP26 discussions, the EU Budget 2022 and the situation in Belarus. MEPs will also discuss the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Given the current health situation, on Friday 19 November, the European Parliament decided at the last minute to reintroduce the possibility for MEPs to participate remotely in this plenary session (initially planned to be held in person). Voting will take place online.
Common Agricultural Policy, EU Budget 2022 and COP26
In detail, next week the European Parliament will debate, on Tuesday 23 November, the compromise reached between the EU institutions on the CAP reform. The plenary vote on the three regulations (strategic plans, common market organisation and horizontal regulation) will take place later in the day (see EUROPE 12749/1).
The EU Council is expected to formally adopt the legislation, without debate, on 2 December, for publication in the Official Journal a few days later. “We have been negotiating for two years and the result will be confirmed. The compromise is robust”, a source at the Renew Europe group commented at a press briefing on Friday. Some MEPs from the S&D group will vote against some of the texts reforming the CAP (see EUROPE 12835/1).
Also on Tuesday 23 November, MEPs are expected to approve the agreement reached on 15 November between the Parliament and the EU Council on the EU Budget 2022. The European Parliament has secured an extra €479.1 million for programmes it cares about such as health, research, climate action, SMEs and youth, in the next EU budget. The Budget 2022 will be €169.5 billion in commitment appropriations and €170.6 billion in payment appropriations (see EUROPE 12833/12). The President of the European Parliament will promulgate the budget after MEPs’ vote.
In the financial field, MEPs will adopt two reports by Jonás Fernández (S&D, Spain) on Tuesday. The first is a proposal for a regulation that extends the transitional regime for the provision of the key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products(‘PRIIPs’) until the end of 2022, whereas the Commission had initially advocated for an extension until the end of June 2022 (see EUROPE 12764/17). The second report concerns a proposal for a directive to abolish, again by the end of 2022, the obligation for UCITS fund managers to provide two key information documents required by Directive 2009/65 and Regulation 1286/2014.
On Wednesday, MEPs will also take part in a debate on the conclusions of the 26th session of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), which was held in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November (see EUROPE 12832/14). Afterwards, they will debate the state of the Energy Union.
Health crisis, vaccination and rare diseases
The ‘health component will also be charged. On 22 November, the Commission will address MEPs on the coordination of their measures in the context of the resurgence of Covid-19 cases. The Commission plans to present a revised recommendation on non-essential travel within the EU earlier this week and to reiterate that people with a valid EU digital Covid certificate should not be subject to further restrictions as Member States consider new limitations (see EUROPE 12835/20).
Two days later, on Wednesday afternoon, MEPs will debate the external aspects of the fight against the pandemic and the EU’s role in global immunisation, notably through the COVAX facility for equitable sharing of vaccines with low and middle income countries. The EU draft budget plan for the year 2022, which is an interim agreement between the European Parliament and the EU Council, foresees to ensure sufficient funds for COVAX under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI - Global Europe) (see EUROPE 12833/12).
Also in the health field, the plenary will be asked to approve the report by Dolors Montserrat (EPP, Spain) on the EU’s pharmaceutical strategy - a report that was approved by the Committee in early October (see EUROPE 12810/6). A debate on the subject will be held on Monday. The text will be voted on the following day.
On Wednesday evening, MEPs will also debate with the Commission the need for a European Action Plan on rare diseases.
Belarus, human rights and legal migration
On Tuesday afternoon, MEPs will again discuss the situation on the EU-Belarus border and the humanitarian and security consequences (see EUROPE 12834/5). Discussions on the situation had already taken place on 10 November (see EUROPE 12830/15). While the EU is successfully negotiating with third and transit countries to stop flights carrying migrants to Belarus (see EUROPE 12831/16), thousands of people are still stuck at the border (see EUROPE 12834/22). The EU is preparing additional sanctions against the Belarusian regime accused of exploiting migration (see EUROPE 12832/1).
On the same day, MEPs will debate the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (see EUROPE 12826/7). At a time when political tensions are high in the country, particularly due to separatist rhetoric, MEPs are expected to reiterate their support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country, and therefore condemn any secessionist activity aimed at destabilising the State.
The following day, MEPs will hear a formal sitting of the Belarusian opposition leader and 2020 Sakharov Prize winner, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (see EUROPE 12624/14), while the human rights situation in the country is not improving (see EUROPE 12820/12).
On Thursday, MEPs will discuss the situation in Somalia (see EUROPE 12794/26), human rights in Cameroon and human rights violations by private military and security companies, including the Wagner Group, against which the EU has announced plans for sanctions (see EUROPE 12833/31).
On 24 November, the European Parliament will be called upon to confirm the legislative own-initiative report by Sweden’s Abir Al-Sahlani (Renew Europe) on new legal channels for migration, including economic migration, to the EU (see EUROPE 12822/16). The report calls for the creation of a European talent pool and a platform that matches the profile of candidates with the needs of employers in the EU and asks the Commission to make proposals to this effect by February 2022.
MEPs also call on the Commission to put in place “an ambitious admission scheme for low- and medium-skilled workers from third countries, also addressing the need for proper recognition of skills and qualifications acquired outside the EU”. They will debate it on Tuesday 23 November.
Finally, on Tuesday afternoon, in a debate with the Commission and the EU Council, MEPs will address the issue of police violence against Romani communities in the EU. Last May, the Parliament had already spoken out against the lack of political will in the Union to include these communities (see EUROPE 12723/22).
Minimum wage and raw materials
At the opening of the plenary session, on Monday 22 November, MEPs will also discuss with the European Commission the creation of a European Social Security Pass (ESSP) based on a series of questions prepared by the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) (see EUROPE 12820/17). A resolution on the subject will also be adopted on Wednesday. The main idea is to promote a digital solution to facilitate the control of mobile workers and better fight against fraud in relation to Regulation 883/2004, the interinstitutional negotiations of which have been blocked for several months (see EUROPE 12833/18).
On raw materials, MEPs will exchange views with the Commission, on Monday 22 November, based on the report by Hildegard Bentele (EPP, Germany), in which they support, among other things, mining on European territory, in particular cases within Natura 2000 protected areas (see EUROPE 12800/5). The report will be voted on the following day.
Finally, sources told EUROPE, the report recently voted in the EMPL Committee on the minimum wage (see EUROPE 12831/19) is expected to be challenged by a group of at least 71 MEPs, led by the Scandinavian delegations, to contest the negotiating mandate when it is announced by the European Parliament president at the opening of the plenary session. The mandate is expected to be put to a vote later this week, on Wednesday 24 or Thursday 25.
The EPP group will vote, on Wednesday 24 November, to nominate its candidate for the Presidency of the European Parliament in January. The results, the political family confirmed, will be known in the evening.
The final draft agenda of the plenary: https://bit.ly/3CoKZy2 (Original version in French by the editorial staff)