Welcome to another experiment. Due to a late substitution amongst the LDV Editorial team, combined with a lack of material (you’re all out campaigning, as you should be, I presume), welcome to our first attempt to preview forthcoming events in the European Parliament. Let us know what you think or, if you fancy doing it yourself, get in touch.
Well, I say Brussels, but this week sees the European Parliamentary roadshow hit Strasbourg to waste a chunk of money to placate the French for April’s plenary session. So, what’s on the agenda?
Today sees a report on the EU’s policy on global human rights, followed by statements on political developments in Mali, where a military coup has led to the fall of the government, Burma, Syria and the Black Sea region.
The remainder of the evening will be taken up with debates on the EU-Armenia and EU-Azerbaijan association agreements, which form part of the European Neighbourhood Policy. Interestingly, the European Liberal Democrats will be holding their May Council meeting in Yerevan, and we’ll be covering that later this month.
Tomorrow, the highlight is a speech by King Abdullah of Jordan, but from the perspective of devotees of Parliamentary procedure, the Parliament will vote on eight resolutions on subjects as diverse as a draft Protocol on the concerns of the Irish people, EU accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia and a regulation on co-ordination of social security systems.
The afternoon session will be taken up with obscure, but actually rather intriguing debates on a common consolidated tax base for Europe, taxation of energy supplies, risk sharing financial instruments for struggling European economies and a call for action to combat tax fraud and tax evasion.
The EU-USA agreement on the use and transfer of Passenger Name Records to the US Department of Homeland Security is to be debated on Thursday. Rapporteur Sophie in ‘t Veld (D’66, Netherlands) has form on the issue of overbearing US security requirements, having fought and lost a case in a Washington DC court seeking to oblige the American authorities to explain why she has undergo additional security checks every time she goes to the US.
Not unreasonably, the Parliament concludes this plenary session just after lunch on Friday, but there is still time to squeeze in debates on women and climate change, an EU biodiversity strategy and the sixth Environment Action programme.
And that’s it until 9 May, when business returns to Brussels.
* Mark Valladares is the Tuesday Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and a member of the ELDR Financial Advisory Committee.
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8 Comments
Good to see a name-check for a liberal MEP (Sophie in ‘t Veld ); would be a good idea to specifically mention that her party is a member of ALDE.
Out of interest, Mark, where did you get this information from?
Alex,
That’s a good point, and one that I had thought of, but not worked out how to address it. Sophie in t’Veld (D’66, Netherlands, ALDE) feels clumsy. Would it work for you though?
Dave,
Like our Parliament, the EP has an agenda section, which I based this piece on, with some added research to round it out. This was a bit last minute, and I’m hoping to have more advance time to prepare it in future. I’ll send you the link by e-mail when I have a moment.
Very interesting and good to help answer “so what’s Europe actually for?”
@Dave Page – There are several websites enabling you to follow the work of the European Parliament. The Parliament’s official website (English-language version) is here:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en
The Parliament’s Legislative Observatory enables you to track any legislation in progress:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/home/home.do
The Parliament’s Information Office in the UK has a website here:
http://www.europarl.org.uk/view/en/index.html
The Parliament’s official web television service ‘EuroparlTV ‘ is here:
http://www.europarltv.europa.eu/en/home.aspx
The BBC’s ‘Democracy Live’ site also includes live and recorded video coverage of the European Parliament:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi
Finally, you can follow any specific EU political issue using the EurActiv portal:
http://www.euractiv.com
I think it’s very important to contrast the positions of the party groups on each debate. The European Parliament tends to be reported as if everything is decided by consensus without real debate; but in fact there are strong ideological currents, with voting broadly by party group. This column should be used to promote the liberal position; not just “what’s Europe for”, but “what are liberal MEPs for”. It would be nice if we could fight the 2014 European Parliamentary election on the records of our MEPs, rather than as a mid-term assessment of our role in the national government. Both for the sake of promoting a specifically *liberal* vision of Europe, and to give a sense of what a Lib Dem majority govenment would do.
Alex,
There are limitations as to what is possible. However, this was a first attempt at something that hasn’t been covered in the past, and there is much to learn about what might be reported in future, as well as what further coverage might be attempted. I’ll bear in mind your suggestions though and, given that I can now prepare for the next Brussels session in advance, I can attempt to commission more detailed analysis.
And we’ve already commissioned a couple of pieces on this week’s session from a Liberal Democrat blogger, who is attending the Parliament this week, so watch out for them…
Thank you for this article Mark. I think it is a welcome initiative and look forward to seeing it become a regular feature of LDV.