European Parliament session, Brussels

31 May - 1 June 2006

 

MEPs reconvene in Brussels this week for the next full session of the European Parliament. Highlights of the agenda include:

• Paediatric medicines regulation - 2nd reading;
• Needlestick injuries - report by Stephen Hughes MEP (Labour, North East);
• Future of Europe – debate with Belgian PM;
• Guantanamo prisoners.

 

Paediatric medicines regulation - 2nd reading

Few pharmaceutical companies produce drugs aimed specifically at children because the clinical trials are more difficult and the time taken to perfect them is longer. MEPs this week have their 2nd reading of a proposed Regulation aimed at achieving a change in pharmaceutical companies' attitudes by extending the life of patents or supplementary protection certificates.

Many of the European Parliament's amendments from 1st reading have been taken on board in the Council of Ministers' text, but a further 20 changes have been proposed at committee stage this time around, relating mainly to: the independence of the proposed Paediatric Committee; deadlines for extending certificates already granted; risk management systems for granting market authorisation for paediatric medicines.

This being the 2nd reading in the codecision procedure, at least 367 MEPs have to vote in favour of any change to the current text. If the Council of Ministers then accepts all of Parliament's amendments, the Regulation will take effect in steps from the beginning of 2007.

For a link to the report and amendments adopted in the Environment and Public Health Committee, please use the Legislative Observatory.

 

Needlestick injuries - report by Stephen Hughes (Labour, North East)

North East Labour MEP Stephen Hughes will be leading Thursday morning’s debate on his report on needlestick injuries. Around a million healthcare workers across the EU suffer injuries from surgical needles or other sharps every year, some leading to HIV infections or Hepatitis B and C.

Parliament’s Employment Committee has adopted a resolution calling on the European Commission to table by 1 September 2006 a proposal to amend existing health and safety directives which have not had the desired effect of protecting health care workers from these injuries – the idea is to increase use of safer needles and to improve workplace training.

Under the little-used Rule 39 of the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, such a resolution requires the support of 367 MEPs (half the Parliament + 1) for it to take effect.

[ Link to the report adopted in the Employment Committee ].

 

Future of Europe

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt will discuss the future of Europe with MEPs at the start of Wednesday afternoon’s session. This is the first of a planned series of debates with the leaders of various EU member countries in the coming months.

The series was inspired in part by the contrasting speeches to the European Parliament last June by Tony Blair (to mark the opening of the UK EU Presidency) and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker (to close the Luxembourg Presidency). (No dates have been confirmed for future government leaders, but it is hoped to achieve a balance between countries from the longer-standing EU Member States and the ten which joined in 2004).

The timing is significant as the next EU Summit (15-16 June) is set to take stock on the so-called ‘period of reflection’ on the future of Europe.

 

Guantanamo prisoners

The European Commission and the Austrian Presidency of Council will make statements to MEPs on the situation of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. The last time the European Parliament took a formal position on the subject was in October 2004 – the text of the resolution passed then can be seen at this link.

 

Other issues

• Bulgaria and Romania: Eastern Region Conservative MEP Geoffrey Van Orden is one of the signatories to an oral question on the future EU membership of Bulgaria and Romania. The European Commission is due to report next month on the two countries' readiness to join the EU on 1 January 2007. Wednesday's debate will seek to find out whether Bulgaria and Romania have done enough in terms of reform to the judiciary and the fight against corruption and organised crime. A postponement for one year is a possibility, but this would have to be proposed by the European Commission.

• EU Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013: The EU’s new Competitiveness and Innovation Programme for 2007-2013 gets its first reading this week. The new programme merges the existing SME, Information Technology and Intelligent Energy programmes and adds new tranches aimed at risk capital for SMEs and business innovation. UK beneficiaries from the current stream of programme funding include Leicester Energy Agency and an SME from the South West working on renewable heating. Although 145 amendments were adopted at the committee stage, these result from informal negotiations between MEPs and the Council, meaning that the programme may well be agreed by both institutions after this 1 st reading, well ahead of its start date of 1 January 2007. 

• Sexual offences against children: MEPs will debate proposed new EU rules to ensure that any individual prohibited by the courts in one EU Member State from working with children will also be prohibited from similar work in another Member State. One aspect of the new framework Decision would be to oblige national authorities to include information on penalties for sex offences against children in criminal records that are open for consultation by authorities in another EU country. MEPs at the committee stage wanted to extend the information contained in criminal records to any prohibition imposed by non-EU countries. The European Parliament is only consulted on this proposal – the final say remains with the Council of Ministers. 
  
  [ Framework decisions are used for the approximation of laws and regulations; they are binding on the Member States as to the result to be achieved and leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods (equivalent to a directive, but in the field of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters) ].

• Equal Treatment Directive:  MEPs have their 2nd reading of the proposed Equal Treatment Directive which aims 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. Following the European Parliament's 1st reading last year, an informal agreement was reached between Parliament and the Council of Ministers on the final text of the directive. No further amendments have been tabled at 2nd reading and the directive should therefore be able to come into force on schedule in 2008.

• 2008 EU Year for Inter-cultural Dialogue: The European Commission has proposed that the theme for 2008’s European Year should be Inter-cultural dialogue. MEPs will be having their 1st reading of the proposed Decision necessary to set up the Year. Among the 46 amendments adopted at the committee stage is a call for dialogue between religions to be the main topic of the year’s events. MEPs also suggested a youth prize for inter-cultural dialogue, based on a project carried out under the EU’s Socrates, Youth or Culture programmes.  Unless the Council accepts all amendments adopted this week, the proposal will return for a 2nd reading at a later stage.

• Energy efficiency: Wednesday evening’s debate on energy efficiency is timed to coincide with the European Commission’s publication of its new Energy Efficiency Action Plan. The report adopted by the Energy Committee points out that if all EU legislation on buildings, heat and power, eco-design, emissions trading and end-use efficiency was fully implemented in every Member State, the EU would already be half way to implementing its target of saving 20 per cent of its energy usage by 2020. Among the proposals to be debated this week: an Energy Efficiency Fund; better energy efficiency labelling; encouragement of investment in energy efficiency measures.  

• Romany women: On Thursday morning MEPs will discuss a report on the situation of Romany women in the EU. The report has been drafted by a Hungarian Conservative Livia Jaroka MEP, who is herself a Romany woman. She also has a link to the UK as she has been studying for a PhD at the University of London. Among the issues raised in her report: trafficking in Romany women; racially segregated health care, especially maternity units; access to education. The situation is often most critical in some of the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004. 

• European Parliament costs: This week’s debate on the European Parliament budget for 2007 would normally be a fairly routine part of the process for preparing next year’s spending needs. The debate will be spiced up this year by recent news stories on the costs of renting the Parliament buildings in Strasbourg. 

• EU-US relations: MEPs will be debating two reports on EU-US relations. Both look set to call for a Transatlantic Partnership Agreement, including a beefed up transatlantic assembly for European Parliament members to increase dialogue with members of Congress. The first report focuses on diplomatic relations with reference to some of the current glitches in EU-US relations: visa waivers for EU citizens; CIA rendition flights; Guantanamo detainees. The second report focuses on transatlantic trade and calls for the removal of non-tariff barriers in key markets by 2015 (and in financial services by 2010). Jonathan Evans MEP (Cons, Wales) is chairman of the European Parliament delegation for relations with the US Congress. 

• Palestine: MEPs will be voting (Thursday) on a resolution on the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 16 May - see this link to his address.

Full information can be found in "The Briefing" at: http://www.europarl.eu.int/news/expert/default_en.htm

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