1 April 2011
Strasbourg plenary session – 4-7 April 2011
Nuclear power plants: stress tests and safety standards
Nuclear power plant stress tests and criteria for ensuring the highest safety standards apply will be debated by MEPs, the Council and Commission on Wednesday. The debate is also expected to look at the lessons of nuclear accidents in Japan and the best future energy mix for EU Member States. Parliament will vote a resolution on Thursday.
Lampedusa crisis: how to cope with migrants from North Africa?
A stronger EU response is needed to the wave of migrants fleeing unrest in North Africa to the Italian island of Lampedusa, MEPs will tell the European Commission in a debate on Monday. 15,000 North African migrants are said to have arrived there since the start of the crisis. A resolution on ways to cope with migrants fleeing conflict areas will be put to a vote on Tuesday.
Spotlight on outcome of European Council
On Tuesday morning European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will discuss the result of the latest EU summit with MEPs. The eurozone crisis and economic governance, as well as Japan, nuclear issues and Libya, are likely to be raised.
Roma inclusion measures
Measures to better integrate the Roma population will be debated on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after they are approved by the European Commission. Parliament’s key concern is with binding EU standards to improve access to employment, education, housing and health care.
Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, plus call for radical rethink of relations with EU neighbours
Parliament will debate the conflicts in Syria, Bahrain and Yemen with EU foreign policy High Representative Catherine Ashton on Wednesday, and vote a resolution on them Thursday. It will also call for a radical review of the EU’s relations with its eastern and southern neighbours, in two further resolutions to be voted Thursday.
Iceland and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ready for EU?
The EU membership prospects of Iceland and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be debated in Strasbourg on Wednesday by MEPs, who will then vote on a resolution on each country on Thursday.
Parliament’s 2012 budget to fall in real terms
Next year’s European Parliament budget would rise by less than the inflation rate, under proposals for an EP budget of €1.725 billion for 2012 on which MEPs will vote on Wednesday.
Other items on the agenda:
- New fisheries agreements with Comoros and rules on imports from Greenland
- The Single Market: raising the game
- Parliament set to approve aid to central European flood victims
- EU Globalisation Fund: aid to workers in Czech Republic and Poland
- Asylum: a single EU procedure to ensure better safeguards for refugees
- Parliament wants EU legal status for European political parties
- Sex crimes must lead to automatic prosecution, say MEPs
- Scrutiny of nuclear power plant closures in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia
- Impact of Moroccan tomato imports on EU producers
- Dual-use exports: stricter EP scrutiny of how Commission applies rules
- Fight against fraud: MEPs critical of report on EU spending irregularities
- DHA in baby food: Parliament to rule on health claim
- Vaccination against bluetongue
- Reconciling EU trade policy with Member States’ export credits
- A fresh approach to aid for least-developed countries
- The European Investment Bank’s work in a new economy
- Ukraine
