Agenda plenary session from 12th-15th December 2016, Strasbourg

Dec 8, 2016 | Agenda Plenary Session

Agenda briefing plenary session from the 12 to the 15th of December 2016 in Strasbourg

  • Yazidi advocates to receive 2016 Sakharov Prize at European Parliament

    Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar, public advocates for the Yazidi community in Iraq and survivors of sexual enslavement by the so-called Islamic State, will receive the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in a ceremony on Tuesday at noon.

  • New rules to introduce bidding for public contracts to supply passenger rail services in EU countries and boost the development of new commercial services will be voted on Wednesday.

  • EU member states should “refrain from inciting fear and hatred in their citizens towards migrants and asylum seekers for political gain”, says a draft resolution on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU, to be voted on Tuesday.

  • New rules to allow the EU Commission and member states to reimpose visa requirements faster and more easily will be put to a vote on Thursday. Parliament and Council negotiators struck an informal deal on the legislation on 7 December.

  • In preparation for the upcoming 15 December European Council summit of EU leaders, MEPs will debate the most pressing EU policy issues, including migration, security, the economy, jobs for young people, and external relations, with Council and Commission representatives on Wednesday morning.

  • MEPs will discuss legislative proposals to ensure clean energy for all Europeans on Tuesday, with Commission Vice-President for the Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič.

  • All EU citizens should have the right to travel to the US and Canada without a visa, just as US and Canadian citizens do when they visit the EU, say MEPs. They will ask the EU Commission on Wednesday what it plans to do to achieve full visa reciprocity with these two countries.

  • The EU Parliament, Council, and Commission will pledge to make “substantial progress” next year in key policy areas for EU citizens. The presidents of the three institutions will sign a formal joint declaration to this end on Tuesday.

  • The achievements and shortcomings of the outgoing Slovak Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers will be debated by political group leaders with Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday afternoon.

  • The fees that shipping lines pay for port services should become clearer thanks to new rules to be voted on Wednesday. These rules should also make public funding of ports more transparent and ensure high quality services for port users.

  • A ban on fishing below a depth of 800 meters in the North-East Atlantic will be put to a vote on Tuesday. Informally agreed with the Council in June, it would apply to bottom trawling, which often wrecks sea-bed habitats, and also restrict deep-sea fishing to the area where it took place between 2009 and 2011.

  • Parliament will debate whether to give its consent to an EU free trade deal with Ecuador on Tuesday and vote on it on Wednesday. It could save EU exporters at least €106 million, and their Ecuadorian counterparts up to €248 million, each year.

  • Traders in textiles such as cotton or clothes will face fewer hurdles if MEPs back plans to add a textiles protocol to the EU-Uzbekistan agreement. Their demand that Uzbekistan eradicate the use of child labour to gather its cotton harvest has now been met, thus enabling MEPs to consider approving the protocol, notes the draft resolution, to be debated on Tuesday and voted on Wednesday.

  • EU foreign policy should be based on three pillars – diplomacy, development and defence, MEPs will say in a debate with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday. In a resolution to be voted on Wednesday, they will advocate a more realistic strategy on Russia and a “less for less” policy towards countries that try to throw democracy into reverse.

  • Members will vote on a general overhaul of Parliament’s rules of procedure on Tuesday, to improve transparency. Changes will include a stricter code of conduct for members and tougher sanctions against disruptions of Parliament’s work.

  • Parliament votes Wednesday on whether Estonia’s former Prime Minister Juhan Parts should join the European Court of Auditors. The Budgetary Control Committee approved his nomination after a hearing on 5 December.

  • Following media reports that documents on international terrorism investigations by the European Police Office (EUROPOL), have been leaked, MEPs will debate data protection and security with Security Commissioner Sir Julian King and the Council on Wednesday.

  • Over fifty years after the thalidomide tragedy, in which a morning sickness medicine for pregnant women caused malformations in their babies, victims are still fighting for fair compensation in several EU countries. On Wednesday MEPs, the Council and Commission will discuss the state of play on EU measures to ensure that all Thalidomide victims get fair support and compensation. A resolution will be voted on Thursday.

  • A resolution calling for more stringent rules to help prevent the introduction into the EU of new pests that attack citrus plants and fruit will be put to a vote on Thursday.

  • Plans to grant Spain €856,800 in EU aid to help find new jobs for 250 former workers at 29 firms that made motor vehicle parts in the Valencia region will be put to a vote on Wednesday. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid also needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers, planned for 12 December.