Brussels, 30/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Conference of Presidents of the political groups has brought changes to the agenda (see EUROPE of 28 June, p.13) of the European Parliament's plenary session, next week in Strasbourg. The main changes concern Tuesday and Wednesday's discussions and are in order to better organise a particularly full agenda of work, as well as to accommodate for exceptional circumstances such as the fact that Slovak President Schuster, who is now in hospital, could not attend. The weekly meeting of the Commission will take place on Wednesday (instead of Tuesday), as well as, logically, its report to Parliament. Question time in Council has been brought forward to Tuesday (instead of Wednesday), given the fact that the French Council of Ministers is meeting in Paris on Wednesday and that it is the French Presidency that must answer in Strasbourg.
The work for Tuesday will be as follows:
- at 9h00, joint discussion on discharge for the 1998 budgets;
- 10h30-13h00: presentation by Mr Chirac of the French Presidency's programme;
- 15h00 two declarations by the Council and the Commission on: (1) elections in Zimbabwe and (2) the trafficking in human beings (in relation to the tragedy in Dover);
- 18h30-19h30: question time in Council;
- the other subjects to be dealt with that day, including a night session, are: - the Life Programme (Lienemann report), the consultation procedure for Budget 2001 (Haug report), two correcting budget projects for 2000 (Bourlanges and Virrankoski reports), liberalisation of the energy market (Mombaur report), a joint discussion on rail transport (Jarzembowski and Swoboda) and the recognition of professional qualifications (Wieland Report).
For the other days: the report by Christian Democrat Klaus Lehne on visas is on Monday's agenda. On Wednesday, the Florenz report on end-of-life vehicles has been withdrawn. The same is true for the declaration by the Commission on the mergers of major telecommunications companies. The votes include, in particular: - the creation of a temporary committee on the Echelon network; - the framework agreement on relations between the Parliament and the Commission, which is the subject of modification at the Council's request; - the final vote on reform of hemp and flax. The Commission's Communication will cover the Community patent proposed by Commissioner Frits Bolkestein. On Thursday, the themes at the emergency debate are: the Fiji Islands and the Solomon Islands, Tibet, Human Rights, and Venezuela. An oral question at the Commission on civil dialogue is added to Thursday's agenda and the Commission declaration on the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, initially planned for Friday, has been taken off the agenda.
Furthermore, the development committee will, on Tuesday 17h30, hold an exchange of views with Commissioner Chris Patten on reform of external aid management. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer will, on Thursday at 10h30, speak before the Committee on Constitutional Affairs.