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The Committee on Petitions organised a fact-finding visit to Bulgaria in the period 24-26 February 2020. In the first part, the members of the delegation met petitioners in Sofia along with the responsible state authorities, professional associations, consumer protection organizations and the Bulgarian Ombudsman to discuss issues related to the banking system and private enforcement agents.

At the meeting of 19 February 2020, the Committee examined a series of petitions on parental child abduction in Japan. The petitioners point out that Japanese legislation makes no provision for shared custody, visiting rights or the right of access to their children for non-Japanese parents. They argue that Japan is in breach of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which it ratified in 2014, and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

At the meeting of 19 February 2020, Members heard the presentation of a report by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) focusing on the right of persons with disabilities to vote in the European Parliament elections.

On 19 February 2020, Members discussed three petitions highlighting the pollution and deterioration of the ecosystem in the Mar Menor lagoon in Murcia, Spain, caused by intensive farming and the activity of wastewater treatment plants. The petitioners emphasize the ecological importance of Mar Menor, a wetland protected under several conservation initiatives, and call on the adoption of urgent measures aimed at reversing the eutrophication of the water and the degradation of the environment.

On 19 February 2020, the Committee analysed a petition seeking to establish a single seat for the European Parliament in Brussels. The petition highlights the cost and environmental savings that this move would generate and points out the anomaly that Parliament is not allowed to decide on its own seat.