Swedish Council Presidency, discharge to European Commission for 1997, special reports by Court of Auditors, UN Human Rights Commission, North Korea, Transport and Fisheries

Brussels, 04/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's first plenary session of 2001 will offer the Swedish Presidency the opportunity to present, on Wednesday afternoon, its programme for this half-year. On Tuesday, Parliament will debate the measures taken by the Commission relating to the discharge for the 1997 budget, a number of special reports by the Court of Auditors and several reports on fisheries policy. The main subjects to be debated on Wednesday include relations between the EU and North Korea (following the normalisation of relations between certain Member States and this country), the EU Council's position at the session of the UN Human Rights Commission this spring, and a number of reports on transport policy. The detailed agenda, still subject to change, follows.

Monday 15 January (5.00 to 9.00 p.m.)

Recommendation: Peijs (EPP, Netherlands) on the Council common position on the directive on the consolidation and winding up of credit institutions (codecision, second reading);

Report: Doorn (EPP, Netherlands) on the Commission's communication on review of SLIM (Simplifying Legislation on the Internal Market);

Recommendation: Sanders-ten Holte (Liberal, Netherlands) on the Council common position on the recommendation on European cooperation on the evaluation of quality in education (codecision, second reading);

Report: De Veyrac (EPP, France) on application of the convention on the protection of the cultural and natural heritage in EU Member States.

Tuesday 16 January (with a first night session)

Report: van der Laan (Liberal, Netherlands) on measures taken by the European Commission in the light of the observations made by the European Parliament in its 1997 discharge resolution;

Joint Debate: special reports by the Court of Auditors on the levying of traditional own resources (rapporteur: Garriga Polledo, EPP, Spain), the EAGGF: aid for skimmed milk for animal feedingstuffs, impact of reform of the CAP on the cereals sector, swine fever, Community measures for the disposal of butterfat (McCartin, EPP, Ireland), aid for Bosnia-Herzegovina (Staes, Greens, Belgium), the Structural Funds (Dell'Alba, Radicals, Italy);

Report: Heathon-Harris (Conservative, UK) on the Court of Auditors' report on the efficiency of management of the European Monetary Institute and the European Central Bank for 1998;

Oral question by the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Graefe zu Barinddorf (Greens, Germany) and Cunha (EPP, Portugal) on the WTO negotiations on agriculture;

Report: Parish (Conservative, UK) on the situation of young farmers in the EU;

Joint Debate: Reports: Varela Suanzes-Carpegna (EPP, Spain) on the common fisheries policy and the challenge of globalisation; Gallagher (Union for Europe of Nations, Ireland) on application of the Community fisheries and aquaculture system for 1996-98; Poignant (Socialist, France) on regional meetings organised in 1998-99 by the European Commission on the common fisheries policy after 2002; Cunha (EPP, Portugal) on financial support for Guinea-Bissau in the fisheries sector (consultation in a single reading);

Oral questions by Jackson (Conservative, UK), Chair of the Committee on the Environment, on the low level of application of certain environmental directives (PCB and PCT, habitats, nitrates);

Report: van den Bos (Liberal, Netherlands) on the EU/Bangladesh cooperation agreement (consultation in a single reading);

Voting at noon;

5.00 to 5.30 p.m.: communication from the European Commission on the decisions taken the same day;

5.30 to 7.00 p.m., questions to the European Commission.

Wednesday 17 January (with a second night session)

Report: Newton-Dunn (Liberal Democrat, UK) on the regulation establishing an EU rapid reaction force (consultation in a single reading);

Oral questions to the Council and the European Commission by Mr Brok (EPP, Germany), President of the Foreign Affairs Committee, on the Democratic Republic of Korea

Statement by the Council and the Commission on the Council of the EU's priorities for the United Nations' Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva

Simpson report (Labour, UK) on amending the Regulation on the harmonisation of technical rules and administrative procedures for civil aviation (codecision, first reading)

Hedkvist Petersen (Swedish Social Democrat) on the Commission's Communication on road safety priorities in the EU

Poli Bortone report (Union for Europe of the Nations, Italy) on the Commission's Communication on progress in the action programme on intermodality and the intermodal transport of goods in the EU

Paolo Costa report (Liberal group, Italy) on charging for transport infrastructure

Bushill-Matthews report (Conservative, UK) on measures to support innovative small and medium-sized enterprises that create jobs (situation at the end of 1999)

Oomen-Ruijten report (EPP, Netherlands) on the situation of cross-border workers

Seppänen report (United Left, Finland) on the Commission's Communication concerning the competitiveness of the wood industry in the EU

Voting at midday

From 16: 30 hrs to 18: 00 hrs, presentation of the Swedish Presidency's programme of activities

From 18: 00 to 19: 30 hrs, questions to the Council

Thursday 18 January

Karamanou report (Socialist, Greece) on the Commission report concerning the implementation of the 1996 Recommendation on balanced participation between men and women in the decision-making process

Nassauer report (EPP, Germany) on the French initiative in view of adopting the Directive on the mutual recognition of decisions to remove people from third countries (consultation)