Following on from a decision taken by the Conference of Presidents (CoP) of the political groups in May, the European Parliament is trialling new procedural rules during the current plenary session, which are designed to give MEPs greater access to debates and more opportunities to hold the European Commission to account or to raise issues brought to their attention in their constituencies. These measures include: - a clear start and end time for each debate; - the Commission’s ability to intervene during debates to respond to MEPs’ speeches; - more opportunities to use the ‘blue-card’ to challenge another MEP during debates; - the opportunity for MEPs to make brief personal statements straight away to refute remarks made about them; - a scrutiny session with the European Commission (every Tuesday at 3 pm); - a new special format (without a predetermined order of speakers) during debates on topical issues. The final draft agenda for a plenary session, setting out the start and end times for each debate, will now be available on the Friday before each session. (MB)