Briefing - 9-12 March 2009 - Strasbourg plenary session

 

 

MEPs will debate the preparation of the European Council 19 and 20 March 2009 after hearing statements from the Council and Commission. The European Council will focus on the economic and financial situation, energy and climate change, external relations and the European Council will receive an update from the Taoiseach on the Lisbon Treaty.  EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering will address the European Council at the start. The Commission President José Manuel Barroso will also participate in this debate.

 

National economic rescue plans may harm Europe's global competitiveness if they are not well coordinated at EU level, says the Economics Committee in a report presented to the plenary. Stimulating the EU economy and its competitiveness and making financial markets function again are essential to avoid mass unemployment and create new jobs, according to the report drawn up by Elisa Ferreira (PES, PT) on the Commission's European economic recovery plan.

 

Faster, more flexible funding for regional policy projects will help EU economic recovery, but faster funding must not mean looser rules, says the Regional Development Committee. Proposed changes to make EU structural fund grant payments more flexible, to meet the needs of "extraordinary economic circumstances" should "boost the economy and provide support, especially to people hit by the crisis".

 

Employment growth had weakened in several Member States by mid-2008. The economic downturn is expected to continue throughout the first half of 2009 and to have a profound impact on labour markets developments with EU development falling by 3.5 million jobs. The unemployment rate in the EU (7.0% in 2008) is expected to increase to 8.7% in the EU in 2009 (from 7.5% to 9.2% in the euro area) with a further increase in 2010, states the report of Jan Andersson (PES, SV).

 

Pollutant emissions from thousands of industrial installations throughout the EU must be further reduced, but more flexibly, say Environment Committee MEPs. The committee backed a Commission proposal to update and strengthen existing rules, but inserted new provisions for introducing EU-wide emission limits, greater flexibility in granting permits, excluding small plants, and better informing the public.

 

Compensation for passengers in the event of shipping accidents and an EU blacklist of substandard ships are among highlights of the third maritime package, a long-awaited raft of legislation that will be submitted to Parliament for final approval in Strasbourg. The seven pieces of legislation in the package - also known as "Erika III" after the 1999 Erika oil spill - will improve both the safety of ships and the action taken in the event of an accident.  The package covers not just compensation for passengers but also ship inspections, port state control, shipping accident investigations and the choice of the authority that decides where a ship in distress should go. All the legislation is expected to be approved by Parliament following a deal reached with Council in conciliation negotiations.

 

Parliament will vote at first reading on a proposal to revise the Eurovignette road toll for lorries, to take account of pollution and congestion generated by these vehicles, to include lorries of 3.5 tonnes and above, and to apply the rules to more roads than at present. The Transport Committee's report, drafted by Saïd El Khadraoui (PES, BE), backs the broad thrust of the Commission proposal to revise the 1999 "Eurovignette" directive, endorsing its view that charges on heavy-goods vehicles should be based in part on the air and noise pollution and the road congestion they cause.

 

The Transport Committee is submitting to plenary a report criticising the Commission for the lack of an overall strategy on "the greening of transport" and the absence of a usable model for assessing "external costs" such as the environmental impact of transport. The Commission's "Greening Transport" package, unveiled in July 2008, is intended to contribute to the EU's climate and energy goals.  Consisting of a number of communications, it aims to promote sustainable transport and ensure that the real costs of transport are reflected in their effective price.

 

Parliament will debate the accession negotiations with Croatia, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 2008 after hearing statements from the Council and Commission.

 

Parents should have a "red button" to disable a game they feel is inappropriate for their child, says the EP Internal Market Committee. The aim is not to demonise games, which have a broadly beneficial effect on the mental development of children, but to help parents choose suitable content for their offspring. Video games do not only have a recreational value but can also be used for educational and medical purposes, stresses a report by Toine Manders (ALDE, NL).

 

On-line gambling, which is easier to access than traditional gambling, increases the risk of fraud, crime, gambling addiction, dangers to children and threats to the integrity of sports events. However, under the subsidiarity principle, the EU internal market should not be taken as the basis for regulating this industry, says an own-initiative report adopted by the EP Internal Market Committee.  Four hundred amendments were tabled to the report by Christel Schaldemose (PES, DK) but the final compromise was approved by 32 votes to 10 with one abstention.

 

The EU will soon have a simpler, standardised system for the type-approval of motor vehicles, following a proposal by Parliament's Internal Market Committee. Members of the committee propose to beef up plans to introduce new rules on the registration, sale and use of cars, with the aim of improving road safety and protecting the environment better. Ordinary tyres, all-weather tyres and snow tyres, the design and manufacture of cars in general and the use of modern technology on cars - all these things influence the safety and environmental impact of motor vehicles.  A single regulation, directly applicable in all the Member States, will soon synthesise all the rules on these matters, replacing around fifty existing directives. 

 

Citizens of the European Union live in apprehension and insecurity. The key objective of the 2010 Budget is to put European citizens first and give them more safety, says the Committee on Budgets in a report which highlights the economic crisis, energy uncertainty, climate change, illegal immigration, crime and terrorism as key priorities for the preliminary draft budget. The Committee is calling on the Commission to take these problems into account when deciding the preliminary draft budget. It says it 'expects the Commission to present solid and useful proposals to allow a meaningful budgetary discussion within the budgetary authority".

 

The Budgets Committee will be presenting a report which sets out its priorities for the 2010 budget in a report by Vladimír MAŇKA (PES, SK) MEPs say that multilingualism and translation services are a high priority and call for more cost-effective working methods in the Parliament.

 

Jonathan EVANS (EPP-ED, UK) for the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs will be putting forward an own-initiative report by welcoming the publication of the Commission's Competition Policy Reports for 2006 and 2007. MEPs in the committee congratulate the Commission on its effective challenging of the operation of unlawful hardcore cartels and the record fines imposed on offenders. They support the use of the revised leniency notice and procedure to encourage the provision of information about the operation of unlawful hardcore cartels.

 

The Committee on Legal Affairs welcomes the proposal on the Statute for a European private company, but proposes amendments that are "essentially aimed at responding to the debates that are to be anticipated within the Council and to counteract blockages within the Council". The report proposes a start-up capital of at least €1, provided that the articles of association require that the management body sign a solvency certificate. If not, the capital must be at least €8000.

 

The Committee on Legal Affairs is asking the Commission to submit a legislative proposal for a directive aimed at facilitating cross-border transfers of registered offices within the European Union. The proposed directive will lay down measures for coordinating Member States’ national legislation in order to give companies freedom of establishment within the internal market. Under current circumstances, undertakings can only transfer their seat either by dissolution and establishing a new legal entity in the Member State of destination, or by establishing a new legal entity in the Member State of destination and then merging both undertakings.

 

The Foreign Affairs committee calls on the Council to examine a possible two-year extension of the mandate of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in a report presented to plenary. MEPs in the committee also urge the Council to expedite efforts to capture the two remaining indictees, Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić, allowing the Tribunal to fulfil its mandate. The goal of the ICTY is to complete all proceedings (trials and appeals) by 2011. The ICTY - a United Nations court of law set up in 1993 - investigates violations of international humanitarian law committed in the former Yugoslavia since 1991 and to prosecute those responsible.

 

From political dialogue to climate change, Brazil has become an increasingly significant regional and global player and has emerged as a key interlocutor for the EU. Against this background, Parliament will be asked to approve a draft recommendation on the European Union-Brazil Strategic Partnership established in 2007, which calls for closer and deeper ties between the two sides.

 

The Foreign Affairs Committee is calling for an annual EU-Mexico summit to give a fresh impetus to relations between the two sides as part of the Strategic Partnership currently under negotiation. It also believes Mexico should have a higher profile within the G-20. The transformation of the EU's relations with Mexico into a Strategic Partnership, a format already used with the USA, Russia, China and Brazil, is welcomed in the committee's own-initiative report.

 

Marco Cappato, Marco Pannella and Janusz Onyszkiewicz, on behalf of the ALDE Group, Monica Frassoni and Eva Lichtenberger, on behalf of the Greens/EFA Group will be asking the Commission questions on the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising and dialogue between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Government. MEPs will also vote on a resolution on this topic. The 10 March this year is the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan national uprising against the Chinese administration.

 

The Commission will make a statement on Childcare facilities - Barcelona objectives. What are the so-called 'Barcelona targets'? Ensuring suitable childcare provision is an essential step towards equal opportunities in employment between women and men.

In 2002, at the Barcelona Summit, the European Council set the targets of providing childcare by 2010.

 

The situation of children of EU migrants that are left on their own in the Member State of origin while their parents migrate for work to another Member State has raised considerable concern in some Member States in the last two years. While policies do exist with the aim of improving the living conditions and education of migrant children who moved with their parents working abroad, the phenomenon of children left at home on their own has received little attention.

 

Once the Treaty of Lisbon is on force, one million European citizens will have the right to ask the Commission to submit a legislative proposal on European Union matters that they believe require a legal act. The Committee on Constitutional Affairs is calling for the regulation on Citizens' Initiative, as it is known, to be "clear, simple and user-friendly" and for it to be clearly distinguishable from the right to petition.

 

Claire Gibault (ALDE, FR)for the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee will be tabling an own-initiative report on equality of treatment and access for men and women in the performing arts.  The report underlines the scale and persistence of the inequalities between men and women in the performing arts and the impact that the unequal way in which the sector is organised can have on society as a whole, given the particular nature of its activities.

 

MEPs will debate the risk of closure of the company QIMONDA in Germany and Portugal and the loss of thousands of jobs in Europe.

 

Educating young people should be a priority in combating poverty and social exclusion of the Roma, says the EP Employment and Social Committee MEPs in an own-initiative report calling for an overall strategy to integrate the Roma community into the European Union. The Roma are the European Union's largest minority. They suffer many forms of discrimination, a higher rate of poverty and a lower standard of living than the EU average, stresses the report by Magda Kósáne Kovács (PES, HU) on "the social situation of the Roma and improving their access to the labour market in the EU".

 

Small and medium-sized businesses consistently underperform compared to their American counterparts and larger companies when it comes to productivity, growth and innovation. So says the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy in a report which calls on the Council and Commission to join Parliament in making the Small Business Act legally binding.

 

Legislative instruments relating to the first phase of the establishment of the common European asylum system have allowed the introduction of common minimum standards but not of equal conditions of access to protection throughout the EU, says to the Civil Liberties Committee. It claims the Dublin system results in "a disproportionate burden being imposed on some Member States, in particular on those representing the external EU border".

 

Members of the Civil Liberties Committee propose a report, drafted by Michael CASHMAN (PES, UK). The European Parliament is working in co-decision with the Council of Ministers to revise the 2001 regulation on access to documents, which has been followed by a number of rulings by the Court of Justice. The revised regulation will incorporate these rulings into a single framework for all the institutions, but MEPs want to go further.

 

The Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs is tabling an own-initiative report offering its opinion on a new block of measures envisaged by the Commission, which, although still in the policy development stage, is likely to "bring substantial changes in the way border management is conceived and can have a huge impact in terms of data protection", the committee says.

 

As usual the session ends with three debates and votes on human rights issues in the world, on this occasion the topics are: Guinea-Bissau, Philippines and support to the Special Court for Sierra Leone. 

 

For the second time, the European Parliament Prize for Journalism will be awarded in 2009. It will be awarded to journalists who have covered major European issues or promoted a better understanding of the EU institutions and/or EU policies. The prize will be awarded in four different categories: written press, radio, TV and internet.  The winner in each category will receive € 5 000. The closing date for acceptance of applications is 31 March 2009.The prize will be awarded in October 2009.

 

European Parliament (Brussels) - 12 noon, Friday, 6 March 2009 - PHS 0A50 (Anna Politkovskaya Press Room)

European Parliament Strasbourg) - 4.30pm, Monday, 9 March 2009 - LOW N-1/201