Opening of the May Strasbourg Session - Hydrogen economy declaration adopted / Appeal for Madeleine McCann

The House made one change to the week's agenda, MEPs deciding overwhelmingly that Parliament should not vote on a resolution following Tuesday afternoon's debate on Palestine.

 

 

Gary Titley (PES, UK) said at the opening of the session in Strasbourg: "18 days ago a 3-year-old girl, Madeleine McCann, of British parents, was abducted from her hotel in Portugal. So far, despite extensive police searches, she has not been found. There has been extensive coverage of this in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain, but I am not sure that there has been coverage in other Member States. The suspicion is that she has been abducted and transported out of Portugal.

 

Firstly, I hope I speak on behalf of this House in expressing our sympathy to the family, but I would also ask that all national authorities give publicity to this case. As we know, there is a serious danger of there being trafficking in minors and we would hope this is not the case in Madeleine’s case, but we would urge all national authorities to be on the alert to see if we can possibly find this girl before anything serious happens to her."

 

 

 

 

The session opens with a debate on the impact and consequences of the exclusion of health services from the Services Directive. In committee, a narrow majority of MEPs voted to urge the Commission to propose a codification of the Court of Justice’s case law in this area, although they opted not to call for separate legislation on health services. A highly controversial amendment calling for healthcare to be reinstated in the Services Directive was approved in the Internal Market Committee.

 

The House will debate a conciliation agreement on the financial instrument for the environment (LIFE+). This new general framework is intended to ensure more efficient, flexible and less bureaucratic management. Life+ is intended to fund environmental programmes for the period 2007-2013.

 

MEPs will later debate the environmental quality standards in the field of water policy.  Parliament will vote at first reading on a report by the Environment Committee which seeks to toughen up proposed rules on improving the quality of surface water.

 

Parliament will also debate the Daphne III programme on combating violence.  Agreement has been reached with Council and the third phase of Daphne covers the period 2007-2013 and has a budget of €116.85m.

 

 

Tuesday morning starts off with a series of reports on international trade. David MARTIN (PES, UK) will present his report on the EU's Aid for Trade which will focus upon "harnessing trade for development and reducing poverty", and promote "a climate favourable to entrepreneurship and growth", according to a report by the Committee on International Trade.   

 

Robert STURDY (EPP-ED, UK) will lead the debate on a report on the Economic Partnership Agreements being negotiated between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.  These would replace the current system of generalised preferences, which is incompatible with WTO rules. Given the delay in the talks and the lack of readiness on the part of the ACP countries, MEPs in the Trade Committee call in a report for the Commission to make the conditions for the agreements less onerous.

 

At 3pm, MEPs will debate the "future of Europe" with Italian Prime Minister Romano PRODI.

 

At 4.30pm,  Parliament will debate the situation in Palestine following statements from Council and Commission.

 

The evening session on Tuesday starts with a statement by the Council and the Commission on Estonia, with the vote on a resolution taking place on Wednesday.

 

Later on Tuesday evening, the House will debate a report calling for minimum levels of duty for alcoholic drinks should be scrapped. Instead, says the Economic Committee, Member States should adopt a code of conduct that encourages them to move towards the EU average level of duty.

 

 

The key legislative topic of the week is the hard-negotiated mobile phone roaming charges package.  After four arduous rounds of negotiations with the Council Presidency, MEPs negotiating for the Parliament, finally reached a proposed tentative agreement with the Council on the “Roaming on public mobile networks” regulation which will lead to a reduction in prices for millions of roaming customers. The text is likely to pave the way for a first-reading adoption of the dossier.  At the time of publication of the Briefing, the EPP-ED had signed up to the proposed agreement, whilst the PES still had some reservations.  The Industry Committee will meet in Strasbourg on 21 May to vote on the proposed package before it goes to the full plenary on 23 May for debate and vote.

 

At 3pm, and following on from the previous day's debate with Prime Minister PRODI. MEPs will debate the "future of Europe" with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter BALKENENDE.

 

On Wednesday evening, Bill NEWTON DUNN (ALDE, UK) will present his report on tackling organised crime.

 

 

MEPs will debate a report by Baroness (Emma) NICHOLSON of Winterbourne (ALDE, UK) on the situation in Kashmir. MEPs in the Foreign Affairs Committee welcome and encourage bilateral talks between India and Pakistan to find a solution to the Kashmir conflict, while criticising Pakistan for a lack of progress on democracy and human rights.

 

The House will also debate the controversial "Via Baltica" the motorway running from Prague in the Czech Republic to Helsinki in Finland by way of Poland where there are environmental challenges, Kaunas (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), and Tallinn (Estonia).

 

The session ends as is customary with three debates and votes on resolutions on human rights issues in the world.  On this occasion the topics are: The "Radio Caracas Television RCTV" case in Venezuela, human rights in Syria and human rights in Sudan. A fourth topic has been added on the situation concerning the President of the World Bank.