Highlights

The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety will vote on the provisional agreement during inter-institutional negotiations on the reform of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), on 25 February. The agreed text strengthens the existing legal framework in response to the unprecedented experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 1.263 billion EUR will be allocated to the UCPM under the 2021-2027 MFF, supplemented by 2.056 billion EUR from the EU Recovery Instrument.

The Committee on Budgets will go over the draft report on the guidelines for the preparation of next year's EU budget, on 25 February. Structured along four main political axes, the report’s overarching priority is the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. The Committee will also discuss the changes for the budget implementation and planning brought by the new financial period with DG BUDG Director General Gert Jan Koopman (European Commission).

The Committee on Transport and Tourism will go over the progress in the implementation of the Rhine-Danube and the Atlantic corridors of the Trans-European transport network (TEN-T) core, on 25 February. The European Coordinators for these corridors, Inés Ayala Sender (Rhine-Danube) and Carlo Secchi (Atlantic), will participate in this debate.

The Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport will hold a public hearing to tackle the specific characteristics and challenges of implementation of Regulation 01/2005 in relation to long-distance transport of live animals within the EU. The hearing will take place on 25 February with the participation of experts who will go over the duties and obligations of Member States’ competent authorities, the most commonly reported issues, and best practices.

The Committee on International Trade will go over the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, on 24 February. It will then look into the Commission's Communication on the Trade Policy Review with European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, on 25 February. The Communication aims to chart the future of the EU's trade and investment policy. The Committee will also hold a public hearing with experts on the trade part of the EU-Mercosur agreement.

The Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy will hold a public hearing with experts on 25 February, to go over the ways of increasing the capacity of COVID-19 vaccine production and improve delivery. The debates with CEOs of leading pharmaceutical companies, and with Commissioners Breton and Kyriakides, will focus on, amongst other things, removing obstacles to faster commercialisation, manufacturing and distributing vaccines.