Briefing
Newsletter - 5-8 October 2015 - Strasbourg plenary session
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President of the French Republic François Hollande and Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel visit the European Parliament on Wednesday. This highly symbolic joint visit, 25 years after Germany was reunified and 26 after the Berlin Wall fell, echoes that of President François Mitterrand and Chancellor Helmut Kohl in November 1989. They will address the plenary session, as European Council members, and debate the state of the EU with political group leaders (15.00-17.00).
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King Felipe of Spain will deliver a formal address to the House at noon on Wednesday. This will be his second visit to the European Parliament since becoming monarch in June 2014, following his visit to Brussels on 15 April. His father, King Juan Carlos I, appeared before Parliament twice: in 1986, months after Spain joined the European Communities, and in 1998.
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Measures to deal with the unprecedented refugee crisis, as agreed by heads of state or government at an informal EU summit on 23 September, will be debated with European Council President Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday, at 9.00. The humanitarian situation of refugees within the EU and in neighbouring countries will also be addressed by MEPs in a separate debate, also on Tuesday.
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MEPs will debate the unfolding Volkswagen exhaust emissions scandal on the basis of a parliamentary question. They will ask Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska on Tuesday afternoon to clarify whether emission test manipulation took place in Europe as well as the USA, whether polluting emissions other than NOx, or even CO2, could be involved, and what must be done to improve emissions testing in the EU.
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EU rules on payment services will be updated to improve security, widen consumer choice and keep pace with innovation in a vote on Thursday. These rules, agreed informally by MEPs and ministers in May, aim to cut the cost of payment services by stimulating competition to provide them and fostering innovations such as mobile and online payment methods.
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EU-wide geographical indication (GI) protection should be extended from agricultural products to include locally manufactured goods and handicraft products rooted in traditional know-how, MEPs are expected to say in a non-binding resolution to be voted on Tuesday. The draft text calls on the Commission to propose legislation without delay.
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Parliament will hold urgent debates on the following human rights and democracy topics, on Thursday 8 October at around 11.00, with the votes following at 12.00.
Contacts:
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Mary BRAZIER