EP News, July 1st, 2005 (No. 219)
MEPs meet in Strasbourg next week for a plenary session of the European Parliament. Highlights of the agenda include:
Debates being led by UK MEPs:
Other legislation:
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and International Development Secretary Hilary Benn will represent the UK Presidency of the EU in Wednesday's debate on Africa and the G8. Trade & Industry minister Alun Michael will speak for Council in Tuesday's Structural Funds debate. Douglas Alexander, the Europe Minister, will take oral questions to Council at Question Time on Wednesday; he will also speak on the Balkans and on EU-China/Taiwan relations (Weds).
The UK holds the Presidency of the EU from 1 July - 31 December 2005. This means that at every session of the European Parliament for the next six months, UK ministers will appear before MEPs to speak on behalf of the Council. Which minister speaks is largely dictated by the agenda and themes of the particular European Parliament session - we will only have this information in the week before each session.
The Prime Minister outlined his priorities
for the UK Presidency at the Parliament's Brussels session on 23 June (link
to verbatim of Mr Blair's speech). The UK Presidency website is now live at
http://www.eu2005.gov.uk
The European Parliament has chosen this session to hold a key debate in support of the Make Poverty History campaign ahead of the Gleneagles G8 Summit (6-8 July). A white band will be wrapped around the chamber for the duration of this Strasbourg session as a visible symbol of this campaign. Following Wednesday morning's debate, a second white band will be signed by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Commissioner Louis Michel, the President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell and the chair of the Parliament's Development Committee, before being taken by Jack Straw to Gleneagles.
How to fund the next generation of Structural Funds will be the main debate on Tuesday as MEPs have their first reading of the various financial instruments (European Social Fund, European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund). On the overall Regulations - which determine amounts of money, overall objectives and criteria for spending - the European Parliament has the power of assent only; and the global amounts will only be determined once the whole EU budget limits for 2007-2013 have been agreed.
On the specifics of the European Social Fund (ESF) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), however, the European Parliament has codecision powers with the Council of Ministers. On the ERDF, over 100 amendments were adopted by the Regional Development Committee on the criteria for use of the monies in rural and urban areas and on management of the funds. Many of the 80+ amendments adopted by the Employment and Social Affairs Committee on the ESF relate to the criteria for giving grants, with an added focus on non-governmental organisations.
[ Link to both the ESF and ERDF committee reports and amendments ]
The patenting of computer-aided inventions might appear a technical piece of legislation, but it has sparked one of the fiercest debates of recent times between the so-called open source community and many of the larger IT companies such as Microsoft. The European Parliament has its 2nd reading of the proposed directive on Tuesday, and a lively debate is expected.
At issue is whether to allow the patenting of computerised inventions such as washing machines, mobile phones or ABS car braking systems, or whether copyright is sufficient. A majority on the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee left the Council's text largely unchanged. 39 amendments were adopted [ Link to the report by Michel Rocard MEP ] but most of those seeking to limit the possibility of patenting were rejected in committee.
Any amendment at 2nd reading requires 367 votes to be adopted. If the Council does not accept all amendments adopted by the European Parliament, the directive will go to conciliation between Parliament and Council.
The safety of toys is the subject of one of the main pieces of legislation to be debated by MEPs in Strasbourg. This is the 2nd reading of a proposed directive concerning phthalates (chemicals added to PVC to make it soft). Six types of potentially dangerous phthalates are under discussion when used in toys aimed at small children. The question is whether to ban all of them or to provide clear labelling on their dangers even when they are intended for older children, given the risk that younger infants may still put them in their mouths and be exposed to danger.
MEPs in the Environment and Consumer Protection Committee adopted 17 amendments to the Council's position [ Link to the report by Antonios Trakatellis MEP ]. If the Council does not accept all the amendments adopted by Parliament at 2nd reading, conciliation between Parliament and Council will be necessary.
Giles Chichester MEP (Conservative South West) will lead Monday evening's debate on the proposed directive aimed at safeguarding the security of electricity supply. The proposal was tabled by the European Commission as a direct response to power cuts in Italy in 2003. MEPs in the Energy Committee have shifted the emphasis towards the better functioning of the internal market in electricity as the best means of ensuring security of supply. Other amendments look at better interconnections between Member States so as to increase competition between existing businesses. [ Link to Giles Chichester's report and the amendments adopted in committee ].
This is the 1st reading in the codecision procedure between Parliament and Council. Informal negotiations with the Council suggest that agreement on the directive may be reached at 1st reading; if not, the text would need to return to Parliament for a 2nd reading at a later stage.
Diana Wallis MEP (Liberal Democrat, Yorkshire & Humber) will lead Tuesday's debate on the Rome II Regulation governing non-contractual obligations in cross-border disputes. This will affect cases of defamation, negligence, disputes over cross-border purchases and, most commonly of all, people involved in traffic accidents abroad. The aim of the Regulation is to improve the functioning of the internal market in the EU - one of the main issues concerns the differing levels of damages applied by different member states' legal systems. [ Link to the 54 amendments adopted by the Legal Affairs Committee and to Diana Wallis's report ].
This is the 1st reading in the codecision procedure between Parliament and Council. If the Council does not accept all of Parliament's amendments, the text will need to return to Parliament for a 2nd reading at a later stage.
Timothy Kirkhope MEP (Conservative, Yorkshire & Humber) will present his report on the proposal that Switzerland join the Schengen area of free movement (to which the UK does not belong). Mr Kirkhope's report does not propose any changes to the agreement with Switzerland, but he does argue for a greater role for the European Parliament in the approval of such agreements. In this case, the European Parliament is merely consulted (and can therefore be ignored) - however, the use of a different legal basis for the agreement would have required formal European Parliament assent before the agreement could go ahead.
The EU's Pollutant Release and Transfer Register will be established through the proposed Regulation receiving its 1st reading on Tuesday. This is the EU's response to the UN-Economic Commission for Europe protocol signed in 2003. It extends the EU's current polluters' register to more substances, by more companies and for more categories of emissions: now to include not only emissions into the air, but also into water, the soil and as waste. [ Link to the amendments and report by Johannes Blokland MEP adopted by the Environment Committee ].
The proposed new equal opportunities directive gets its 1st reading on Tuesday. The European Commission's proposal aimed to merge the seven existing directives into a single piece of legislation, with some modifications to take account of European Court of Justice rulings in the area. Sexual harrassment is given greater prominence in this new directive, as is the right for each individual parent to parental leave. 29 amendments were adopted by the Women's Rights Committee [ Link to the report by Angelika Niebler MEP and text of amendments adopted ].
MEPs have their 1st reading of the proposed new EU environment programme, due to run from 2007-2013. The LIFE+ programme groups together a number of existing programmes in the field of the environment. Many of the 36 amendments to the Commission proposal adopted by the Environment Committee give greater prominence to the continuation of Natura 2000, which was the European ecological network of sites recognised under the Habitats Directive. MEPs are also likely to seek greater funding for LIFE+ but this will be contingent on overall agreement on EU funding for the whole period 2007-2013. [ Link to the report by Marie Anne Isler-Béguin MEP and amendments adopted in the Environment Committee ].
MEPs will be discussing the proposed European Fisheries Fund as part of the overall debate on the future Structural Funds (Tuesday). The Fund is designed to cover the years 2007-2013 with a focus on: the Community fishing fleet; fish farming, processing and marketing; development of coastal fishing areas. The European Parliament's Fisheries Committee has tabled a number of amendments, steering the focus towards: withdrawal of vessels; fishing equipment; aquaculture. The European Parliament is consulted on this proposal; any amendments passed are not binding on the Council.
Full information can be found in
"The Briefing" at: www.europarl.eu.int/press/index_publi_en.htm
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