Brussels, 27/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has slightly amended the agenda of its plenary session of 28 and 29 January in Brussels to include, as the first point on Wednesday afternoon, Council and Commission declarations on the Irish Presidency's programme and the European Constitution. It is in this context that MEPs will be able to discuss the IGC and the statue of MEPs after work by the General Affairs Council on Monday (for the complete agenda, see yesterday's EUROPE, p.15).
Furthermore, the Parliament is to give its stance during voting on Thursday on the agreement reached in conciliation procedure concerning the legislative "Single Sky" package after a debate on Wednesday evening. If the Parliament approves the agreement and if the Council does the same (the EU Committee of Permanent Representatives must, on Wednesday, examine the possibility of having the agreement adopted by written procedure), the four regulations will take effect to create, by 31 December 2004, an integrated European airspace. The Parliament's vote should be quite easy since the parliamentary delegation at the conciliation committee had approved the agreement almost by unanimity (with abstention by the GUE/NGL). It was on 9 December 2003 that the Parliament and Council had managed to reconcile their respective positions after months of rowing, with the Parliament having finally accepted provisions of a less Community kind (see on this EUROPE of 11 December).