Brussels, 05/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament plenary session, which opens on Monday in Strasbourg, will provide the opportunity for a debate on the situation in the Middle East at a moment still to be fixed. It could take place on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning depending on how available the Council, the Commission and Mr Solana are. As far as possible, the aim will be to hold it on Tuesday afternoon in order to precede the meeting scheduled for Wednesday in Madrid between the United States and the EU (see also yesterday's EUROPE, p.4 and 5), but this also poses the problem of deferring the debate on defence scheduled for 15h00. The decision will be taken on Monday by the plenary. Despite the initial opposition of the EPP-ED group, the debate will be followed by the adoption of a resolution.
Still on Tuesday (at 17h30), the Commission declaration on the decisions of the day will be presented by Commissioners Pascal Lamy and Poul Nielson, and will cover the proposal of a negotiating brief for the regional economic partnership agreements under the Cotonou Agreement.
At the Council's request, the title of the debate on defence policy (during which Spanish Defence Minister Trillo will take the floor), including EU/NATO relations, has had the aspects relating to "the use of depleted uranium in Afghanistan" removed from the agenda. The Presidency, however, is ready to answer questions by MEPs on this subject.
The themes selected for the topical debate on Thursday afternoon are: Moldova; - Burma; - Human Rights; - Angola; - and the torrential rain in Tenerife and climate change.
The Hernandez Mollar (EPP, Spain) report on the minimum norms for hosting asylum seekers, and the Gillig report (Socialist, France) on the social security of European parliamentary assistants were not adopted in committee and will be taken off the agenda. For the presentation of the session, see also EUROPE of 29 March, p.14.
Presenting the European Parliament Plenary Session (continued)