On Monday, the Foreign Affairs Committee will meet with exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who will be physically present to discuss the latest developments in the country. They will also adopt recommendations on how the EU should reassess its relations with Belarus following the fraudulent presidential elections, the subsequent popular uprising and the brutal crackdown by the authorities.
On Tuesday, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs will vote on a legislative initiative for a permanent EU mechanism to monitor and prevent backsliding on EU values in all member states. Under the initiative, there would be country-specific recommendations, with timelines and targets for implementation.
Following the Commission’s presentation on proposals for a new EU policy on asylum and migration, Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas and Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson will present and then hold a first debate on the initiatives with MEPs in the Civil Liberties Committee on Thursday.
On Tuesday, MEPs from the Public Health and the Industry Committees will hold a public hearing with researchers and representatives from pharmaceutical companies and civil society organisations on how to secure access to COVID-19 vaccines for all, including challenges linked to clinical trials, production and distribution.
This is the week when a number of new special committees take up their work. There will be a special committee on foreign interference in all democratic processes in the EU, another committee on artificial intelligence and the digital transformation, a new committee on defeating cancer as well as the subcommittee on taxation and the committee of inquiry on animal transport.
As for the Parliament’s President’s diary, President Sassoli will meet with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarus opposition leader on Monday. In the afternoon, he will have a video meeting with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the EU’s long-term budget and on Tuesday he will meet the Alternate Minister of Migration and Asylum for Greece, Georgios Koumoutsakos, also via video conference.
On Wednesday, the President will meet with Parliament’s Multiannual Financial Framework-Own Resources Contact Group before taking part in the debate on “Will Europe be the engine of a green and socially fair transformation?”,along with Gunter Pauli and Beppe Grillo. On Thursday afternoon, President Sassoli will address the EU summit.
