The Week Ahead from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament – 22nd – 28th October 2012 — Strasbourg
Two plenary sessions
The parliament will – for the first time – hold two plenary sessions in one week. The cost-cutting measure came about as a result of an amendment proposed to the parliament’s calendar by ECR MEP Ashley Fox. As the Treaties require the parliament to hold 12 sessions per year in Strasbourg, and MEPs do not meet in August, the parliament usually travels twice in one month in the autumn. However, Mr Fox’s amendment brought the two sessions into one week, with a group day on Wednesday, in order to reduce costs and CO2 whilst still honouring the treaties.
The vote has been challenged by France in the Court of Justice and a final ruling is due shortly. In the meantime, MEPs will hold both sessions this week.
European Council
MEPs will debate the outcomes of last week’s European Council. Martin Callanan MEP, Chairman of the ECR group, and Belgian delegation leader Derk Jan Eppink, will speak in the debate.
Debate: Tuesday @ 10.20
EU budget 2013
MEPs will be voting on the EU’s budget for 2013. The commission proposed a 6.8 percent increase in payments, which national governments voted to reduce to 2.79 percent in July. ECR budgets spokesman Richard Ashworth MEP will be pressing for an overall freeze in the budget, with money being shifted towards projects that add value and deliver growth and jobs for the European economy. He wants the EU to deliver a ‘better budget’ not just a ‘bigger budget’. MEPs in the budgets committee sought to generally reinstate the commission’s proposals when they voted three weeks ago.
Vote: Tuesday @ 12.30
EU budget 2014-2020
As well as voting on the 2013 annual budget, MEPs will debate the next long-term budgetary framework that runs until 2020. The parliament will adopt an updated version of the report it produced last year setting out its priorities for the negotiations ahead of a special EU summit to discuss the matter next month. ECR Budgets spokesman Richard Ashworth MEP wants to see a major reform to the long-term budget so that it grows the EU’s economy up to 2020, rather than its bureaucracy. He also opposes efforts to create ‘own-resources’ (tax-raising powers) for the EU, which would fundamentally shift the power base of the EU away from the Member States and towards the centre.
Vote on report: Tuesday @ 12.30
MiFID
The parliament will vote to establish its position on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and Regulation (MiFID 2), which updates rules to take account of new technologies, high-frequency trading and the emergence of new trading platforms.
Kay Swinburne MEP, ECR economics spokesman, authored a report in the parliament on ‘dark pools’, arguing that technological advances and high frequency trading raised concerns that regulators did not have sufficient access to information to ensure the market was functioning correctly and to analyse systemic risks. The review of MiFID addresses these concerns, and aims to increase transparency and fulfil G20 commitments in commodity and derivatives markets.
Dr Swinburne is also campaigning to ensure the new rules increase investor protection by banning inducements being paid with regards to retail investment products (e.g. when a financial adviser receives a commission on a product sold).
Vote: Friday @ 12.20
Elections in Ukraine
ECR MEP Pawel Kowal will lead the European Parliament’s delegation to observe the elections in Ukraine this weekend.
Election delegation: 25-29th October
US economic relations
The parliament is expected to adopt a report on EU-US economic relations, aimed at influencing the ‘High-Level group’ set up last year and co-chaired by EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. A committee amendment by ECR trade spokesman Robert Sturdy MEP calls for negotiations to be launched in the first half of 2013, “to build on present political momentum and support from industry to enable a swift and successful conclusion to negotiations” towards an EU-US trade agreement.
Vote: Tuesday @ 18.00
Single European Sky
A report by ECR MEP Jacqueline Foster, calling on national governments to deliver on the commitments they made ten years ago to create a Single European Sky (SES), will be voted on. The SES would see airspace fully coordinated across the EU to increase efficiency. The measures would reduce delays, make air travel safer and less polluting, and they could also reduce ticket costs. Mrs Foster is warning that further delays to the implementation of the SES would be costly in terms of jobs, economic output and CO2 emissions.
Vote: Tuesday @ 18.00
Commission Work Programme
The commission will present its Work Programme for the coming year. The ECR group was able to influence much of the European Parliament’s input into the programme, with a number of paragraphs added that relate to the March ‘Agenda for Growth’ letter signed by twelve Prime Ministers, including the two from the ECR. ECR chairman of the internal market committee Malcolm Harbour MEP will call for the commission to put completion of the Single Market at the heart of its activity for 2013. There will also be a debate to mark the Single Market’s 20th anniversary in the second plenary session.
Debate on CWP: Tuesday @ 15.00
Debate on Single Market 20th anniversary: Thursday @ 09.00
Elections in Georgia
The commission will make a statement following the elections in Georgia earlier this month. ECR MEP Milan Cabrnoch led the parliament’s delegation to observe them.
Debate: Friday @ 08.30
Malala Yousafzai
ECR MEPs have initiated a debate and resolution on the case of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girls’ educational rights activist who was shot in the head and seriously wounded by the Taliban for her campaign to allow girls to attend school.
She is currently receiving treatment in Birmingham.
Debate: Friday @ 08.30
Sakharov prize
The leaders of the parliament’s political groups will meet to agree on the winner of the 2012 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. The ECR will determine its preferred candidate at its group meeting on Wednesday.
Vote: Friday morning
