The Week Ahead 30 November - 6 December 2009

High Representative/Commission Vice-President-designate. Catherine Ashton will have a first exchange of views with the Foreign Affairs Committee one day after starting working as the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs (Wednesday). Baroness Ashton will face a hearing in January as her appointment - along with that of the rest of the future European Commission - is subject to Parliament's approval.

EP/Spanish Presidency.  EP President Jerzy Buzek and the political group leaders will have a meeting in Madrid with Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the Spanish government, ahead of the Spanish Council presidency, which begins in January (Thursday-Friday).

Maternity leave.  The Women's Rights Committee will hold a fresh debate on the proposals to extend the minimum period of maternity leave to 18 weeks (Tuesday).

Egypt and Turkey.  The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit (Tuesday), and the Turkish EU Affairs Minister, Egemen Bağiş (Wednesday), will both have discussions with the Foreign Affairs Committee.

President's diary.  Mr Buzek will go to Lisbon to celebrate the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty at a special event (Tuesday). The President's other engagements include meetings with the President of Serbia, Boris Tadić (Monday, press point 6.15pm), the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, Volodymyr Lyvtyn (Monday), and the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond (Wednesday).

ACP-EU Assembly: Climate change and Madagascar's institutional and political crisis top the bill of subjects to be discussed at the 18th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) in Luanda (Republic of Angola) (Monday - Thursday).

Ombudsman. The three candidates running for the position of European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros (Greece), Vittorio Bottoli (Italy) and Pierre-Yves Monette (Belgium) will outline their priorities at a hearing before the Petitions Committee ahead of the Parliament's election of the new Ombudsman in January 2010 (Monday).

STOA: The founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, will tell MEPs about the latest developments of the internet at this year's annual lecture organised by Parliament's scientific research panel STOA (Tuesday).

Global Warming and Food Policy.  Sir Paul McCartney and IPCC Chair Dr Rajendra Kumar Pachauri take part in a meeting with MEPs to make the case that reducing meat consumption would play a part in reducing CO2 emissions (Thursday).

Lisbon Treaty/Media workshop.  Parliament's press service is organising a workshop for journalists on the changes in Parliament's role with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. (Monday)