The European Parliament will, during its plenary session on 13-16 December in Strasbourg, adopt its position on the Digital Markets Act, debate with the other EU institutions the issues on the agenda of the European Council of 16 December and award Alexei Navalny the 2021 Sakharov Prize.
The plenary session, the last of the year and of the first half of the legislature, will be held in a ‘hybrid’ format. MEPs will be able to intervene via an electronic connection and voting will take place by electronic means.
In the margins of the plenary, several political groups, including the S&D, may take decisions on the nomination of candidates for the post of President of the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12849/14).
Digital. MEPs will begin Tuesday 14 December with a debate on Digital Markets Act (DMA). The final vote on this issue will take place the following day. The text, sponsored by German MEP Andreas Schwab (EPP), seeks to establish a strict framework for the practices of gatekeepers and other large online platforms. The text was adopted by the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) on 23 November (see EUROPE 12838/6).
It should also be noted that on 14 December, in the margins of the plenary session, the MEPs on the IMCO Committee will vote on the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 12835/7).
On transport, the Commission will brief MEPs, on Wednesday 15 December, on the EU’s response to transport poverty. In the wake of this, the Commission will present its review of the European Year of Rail (see EUROPE 12625/41).
Health. On Wednesday, MEPs will debate the preparation of the European Council of 16 December, in particular the EU’s response to the pandemic, both internally and internationally, in the light of the new Omicron variant.
At the international level, the EU’s objective is to accelerate the delivery of shared vaccines with low- and middle-income countries in order to reach 70% of the world population by mid-2022 (see EUROPE 12850/22). At the end of November, the Parliament had already held a debate on this issue and almost all of the MEPs had called for the EU to do more to achieve this goal (see EUROPE 12839/15).
Internally, the main focus at present is on accelerating booster vaccination campaigns, but also primary vaccination against Covid-19 (see EUROPE 12844/1).
On the health front, MEPs will also be asked on Tuesday to confirm the interinstitutional agreement reached last June on the implementation of joint clinical evaluations at European level (see EUROPE 12843/30).
Exceptional asylum management measures. MEPs will hear statements, on Wednesday 15 December, from the Commission and the EU Council on Wednesday afternoon on the exceptional measures proposed to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to deal with the influx of migrants at the border with Belarus. These measures, presented on 1 December (see EUROPE 12844/11), had angered the left-wing groups in the European Parliament, who said that they constituted an infringement of the right to asylum, which the Commission disputes.
Youth. On Tuesday, the Parliament is also expected to give the green light to the agreement reached earlier this week on the European Year of Youth 2022 (see EUROPE 12848/3). An exchange of views on the subject will take place in the morning, just before the vote.
Fundamental Rights. A debate will be held on Thursday on the consequences of the ‘MeToo’ movement in the European Parliament and the progress that still needs to be made to prevent cases of aggression and harassment within the Parliament (see EUROPE 12846/11). A resolution on the subject, adopted by a large majority in committee (see other news), will also be put to the vote the same day.
Rule of law. On Thursday, the European Parliament will vote on a resolution taking stock of EU values in Slovenia, including media freedom, judicial independence and democracy.
On Wednesday, the Parliament will discuss the further deterioration of fundamental rights in Poland, in particular with regard to sexual and reproductive rights (see EUROPE 12817/6). On 22 October 2020, the Polish Constitutional Tribunal declared the right of women to abortion due to severe foetal impairment unconstitutional, de facto banning abortion in the country (see EUROPE 12585/17).
Foreign affairs. On Monday afternoon, Sven Mikser (S&D, Estonia) will present his report on the ‘challenges and prospects for multilateral weapons of mass destruction arms control and disarmament regimes’, which will be voted on in plenary on Wednesday.
On Wednesday at noon, the 2021 Sakharov Prize will be awarded, in absentia, to Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, currently imprisoned in Russia (see EUROPE 12816/16). His daughter, Daria Navalnaya, will accept the award on behalf of her father.
On Tuesday afternoon, MEPs will debate with the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, the situation on the Ukrainian border and in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. Russia has been reinforcing its troops on the border and in Crimea for several weeks.
MEPs will also discuss the report by Lukas Mandl (EPP, Austria) on cooperation in the fight against organised crime in the Western Balkans, which will be voted on Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, MEPs will debate and vote on resolutions on the continuing repression of civil society and human rights defenders in Russia, including the case of the human rights organisation Memorial, the situation in Cuba and forced labour in the Linglong factory and environmental protests in Serbia.
On Tuesday afternoon, MEPs will begin their discussions on external relations by taking stock of the political crisis in Nicaragua. The EU claims that the Nicaraguan presidential elections, held in early November, were illegitimate, as Daniel Ortega eliminated his main competitors before the vote (see EUROPE 12828/15). It does not rule out further sanctions against regime officials. The European Parliament will adopt a specific resolution on Thursday 16 December.
Humanitarian action. After a debate on Tuesday, MEPs will vote on Wednesday on new guidelines for future EU humanitarian action based on an own-initiative report by Norbert Neuser (S&D, Germany), which calls for a more robust and predictable budget (see EUROPE 12829/19). This is a response by the Parliament to a Commission communication on increasing the impact of humanitarian aid in a global context of unprecedented needs and funding gaps (see EUROPE 12675/1). The results of the vote will be known on Thursday.
In the economic field, MEPs will debate on Wednesday the implementation of the Resilience and Recovery Facility, the budgetary instrument at the heart of the Next Generation EU Recovery Plan. The EU Council has approved 22 national recovery plans. The Commission is currently examining the Bulgarian, Hungarian, Polish and Swedish plans, as negotiations with Warsaw and Budapest have stalled over Rule of law issues (see EUROPE 12848/7).
Due to the lack of a government in place, the Netherlands has not officially presented its plan at the European level. Nearly €55 billion in pre-financing has been paid to 17 Member States, with Spain and France formally requesting a first tranche of aid.
Trade. On Tuesday, MEPs will vote on the report by Daniel Caspary (EPP, Germany) on the International Procurement Instrument (IPI). According to our information, there is a consensus in the European Parliament to adopt the text that had been voted in the Committee on International Trade on 29 November (see EUROPE 12843/7). This vote in plenary will allow the reopening of interinstitutional negotiations on this file which has been pending since 2012.
Animal welfare. On Thursday, the Parliament will ask the Commission about the possibility of introducing an EU ban on the use of wild animals in circuses.
The Parliament will also adopt a report by Jérémy Decerle (Renew Europe, France on animal welfare, which calls on the Commission to “initiate a comprehensive European labelling system for animal products with the aim of developing a binding EU framework for voluntary labelling, covering all farms, but taking into account the specificities of each species” (see EUROPE 12820/9).
Finally, on Wednesday, MEPs will vote on the draft own-initiative report by Seán Kelly (EPP, Ireland) calling on the Commission to encourage the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2018/844) (EPBD - see EUROPE 12829/7).
Link to the final draft agenda: https://bit.ly/30dnhHR (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur and the editorial staff)