Agenda plenary session from 26th-29th October 2015, Strasbourg

Current migration challenges, including refugee flows on the Western Balkans route, cooperation with Turkey and talks with African countries, as well as the funds needed to tackle these challenges, will be debated with European Council President Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday, at 10.00.

Travellers putting together their own package holidays online will get the same protection as those buying from traditional travel agents under the draft EU rules to be voted by MEPs on Tuesday. MEPs have amended the draft to entitle travellers to cancel a package deal contract if its price rises by more than 8% before they leave. Before buying a travel package, travellers would be entitled to receive clear information on the deal. and who is ultimately responsible if something goes wrong.

A ban on “roaming” surcharges for using mobile phones abroad in the EU, to take effect from June 2017, and clear rules on the right to internet access, will become law when Parliament takes its final vote on the new telecoms package on Tuesday.

A draft EU law that would enable individual EU member states to restrict or prohibit the sale and use of EU-approved GMO food or feed on their own territory will be put to a vote on Wednesday. The Environment Committee and most political groups recommend that Parliament should reject the proposal, due to concerns that it might prove unworkable and lead to the reintroduction of border controls between pro- and anti-GMO countries.

Draft rules to encourage food innovation via a new, simplified authorisation procedure for novel foods, already informally agreed with the Council of Ministers, will be put to a vote on Wednesday. MEPs tightened up the definition of novel foods to include, inter alia, food with a modified molecular structure, microorganisms, fungi, algae, food obtained from cellular or tissue cultures, and insects.

Parliament will set out its stance following the recent Volkswagen exhaust emissions manipulation revelations in a resolution to be voted on Tuesday. Long before VW’s emissions test-cheating software was revealed, MEPs repeatedly urged that car emissions testing should take account of real-world driving conditions, so as to end obvious discrepancies between official and real consumption and emissions figures.

National caps on six key air pollutants, including sulphur dioxide, particulates and nitrogen oxides, would be mandated by an EU directive to be put to a vote on Wednesday. The aim is to tackle the transboundary problem of poor air quality, which causes an estimated 400,000 premature deaths in the EU each year, and save €40bn in air pollution costs by 2030.

European elections should be fought with formally endorsed EU-wide lead candidates for the European Commission Presidency, says a draft “parliamentary legislative initiative” to be voted on Wednesday. These candidates should stand in the elections themselves, and be formally nominated at least 12 weeks ahead of the elections, it adds.

EU member states would be obliged to share information on the “tax ruling” deals that they grant to multinational companies under a Commission proposal to be debated Monday and voted on Tuesday. This proposal was prompted by investigative journalists’ “Luxleaks” revelations.

Parliament’s stance on a deal with Switzerland that would make it harder for EU citizens to hide cash from the tax man in Swiss bank accounts will be debated on Monday and put to a vote on Tuesday. The EU and Switzerland are to exchange information on the bank accounts of each others’ residents automatically, starting in 2018.