The plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg took stock, on Wednesday 14 December, following the speech of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on the priorities of the European Parliament ahead of the European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday (see other news).
The subject of energy featured prominently in the debates, as EU Member State ministers failed on Tuesday 13 December, after lengthy negotiations, to agree on a cap on gas prices (see EUROPE 13083/11).
The S&D and EPP groups believe that the Parliament should be more involved in the discussions. “I urge you to involve the Parliament. The EU Council must provide decisions on the gas cap “, insisted the President of the EPP group, Manfred Weber (German).
“Exorbitant energy prices need to be tackled urgently. The Commission has presented urgent measures and the European Parliament is excluded. If this had been a normal legislative procedure, the Parliament could have set effective limits. We were quick with vaccines, we could be quick with energy”, said the S&D President, Iratxe García Pérez (Spanish).
Other MEPs, such as the Renew Europe group President, Stéphane Séjourné (French), also called on Member States to support the idea of a European fund to “produce clean and renewable energy on European soil”.
This idea of a European sovereign wealth fund, which could be addressed in the framework of the mid-term review of the EU budget in mid-2023, was raised by Ursula von der Leyen as one of the elements of the European response to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) (see EUROPE 13084/1), which is prioritised by the Parliament’s political groups.
Schengen. An important part of the discussions also concerned the rejection of the enlargement of the ‘Schengen’ area of free movement of persons to Romania and Bulgaria (see EUROPE 13080/1).
On this point, several groups considered, as did the EPP group, that the Austrian vetoes for both countries, and the Dutch veto for Bulgaria, were “bad news”. “I hope it will be discussed tomorrow”, reacted Manfred Weber, questioning at the same time the unanimity voting system in the EU Council.
“The last few weeks have shown that vetoes spoil European democratic life” as shown by “the absurd decision to delay the enlargement of the Schengen area to Romania and Bulgaria”, commented Stéphane Séjourné.
Hungary. Most groups also welcomed the agreement reached by the EU Council on Monday 12 December on the suspension of €6.3 billion in cohesion funds for Hungary due to continuing concerns about the protection of the EU’s financial interests (see EUROPE 13083/27).
“I was afraid that the Council of the EU would give in to Viktor Orbán's blackmail, but you did not”, welcomed the Greens/EFA group Co-President, Philippe Lamberts (Belgian).
Ukraine. In addition, a majority of MEPs renewed the Parliament’s commitment - confirmed a few hours earlier by the European Parliament President, Roberta Metsola, at the award of the Sakharov Prize to the Ukrainian people (see other news) - to increase support for Ukraine in its war of invasion.
In line with this topic, Mr Weber also called for “ accelerating the development of a European defence, including cyber”, and strengthening the single defence market at a time when “Germany, Poland and some Member States are shopping outside the EU” for military equipment. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)