Summary

Next week is an important plenary in Strasbourg, as Member of the European Parliaments (“MEPs”) will elect their future President, Vice-Presidents, and Quaestors. New elected officials will remain in office for two and a half years. Though the official list of candidates running for the Presidency will only be announced on Monday, a number of MEPs have already announced their candidacy. This includes Eleonora Forenza (GUE/NGL, Italy), Jean Lambert (Greens/EFA, UK), Gianni Pittella (S&D, Italy), Laurenţiu Rebega (ENF, Romania), Helga Stevens (ECR, Belgium), Antonio Tajani (EPP, Italy) and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium).

Elections of the President and Vice-Presidents are expected to take place on Tuesday. Elections of Quaestors, and the MEP assignment to the various parliamentary committees is scheduled for Wednesday.

A number of important topics will be debated next week. On Wednesday, in the presence of Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, and Council President, Donald Tusk, MEPs will debate and address the prospective challenges facing the EU in the fields of investment and growth, EU-Russian relations, Brexit and security.

On the same day, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will attend the plenary and outline the priorities of the Maltese Presidency. The Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU started in January 2017. The presentation will be attended by the Commission President.

On Thursday, a plenary vote is expected on a motion for a resolution introduced by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (“ECON”) and the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (“LIBE”) against the proposal for a delegated regulation supplementing the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, that identifies new high-risk third countries with strategic deficiencies in respect of anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing. The Parliament calls on the Commission to propose a new delegated regulation with additional countries, including countries regarded as tax havens. See the draft report here.

Finally, on the same day, a debate will address the amendments tabled in the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (“ENVI”) on the Resolution for oral questions to the European Commission on Biological Low Risk Pesticides.

Meetings and Agenda

Monday, January 16, 2017

Plenary:

18:00 – 19:00 (Elections)

• Announcement of the candidates for election to the office of the President

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Plenary:

9:00 – 16:30 (Elections)

• Election of the President of Parliament

19:30 – 22:00 (Elections)

• Election of the Vice-Presidents of Parliament

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Plenary:

9:00 – 10:00 (Elections)

• Election of the Vice-Presidents of Parliament or Election of the Quaestors of Parliament

10:00 – 12:30 (Vote & Debate)

• Vote on Numerical strength of the standing committees

• Key Debate – Presentation of the program of the Maltese Council Presidency

13:00 – 13:30 (Elections)

• Election of the Quaestors of Parliament

15:00 – 19:00 (Debates)

• Election of the Quaestors of Parliament

• Conclusions of the European Council meeting of 15 December 2016

19:00 – 20:00 (Elections)

• Appointments to committees

• Election of the Quaestors of Parliament

20:00 – 23:00 (Debates)

• Presentation on the Report on Logistics in the EU and multimodal transport in the new TEN-T corridors

• Rapporteur: Inés Ayala Sender (S&D, Spain)

• Committee: TRAN

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Plenary:

9:00 – 11:50 (Debates)

• A European Pillar of Social Rights

• Rapporteur: Maria João Rodrigues (S&D, Portugal)

• Committee: EMPL

• Debates on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law (Rule 135)

12:00 – 14:00 (Votes)

• Motions for resolutions concerning debates on cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law (Rule 135)

• Appointments to committees

• EU-Kosovo Stabilization and Association Agreement: procedures for its application

• Rapporteur: Adam Szejnfeld (EPP, Poland)

• Committee: INTA

• Rapporteur: Hannu Takkula (ALDE, Finland)

• Imports of textile products from certain third countries not covered by specific Union import rules

• Committee: INTA

• Conclusion of the Agreement continuing the International Science and Technology Centre

• Rapporteur: Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany)

• Committee: AFET

• Tackling the challenges of the EU Customs Code (UCC) implementation

• Committee: IMCO

• Commission Delegated Regulation amending Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 supplementing Directive (EU) 2015/849 by identifying high-risk third countries with strategic deficiencies

• Committees: ECON / LIBE

15:00 – 16:00 (Debates)

• Biological low risk pesticides

• Committee: ENVI