The Week ahead

The European Parliament will debate and vote on the Migration and Asylum package on Wednesday. “The Asylum and Migration Pact is perhaps the biggest and most important legal reform of the current legislative period. The new rules will allow us to regain control over our external borders and reduce the migration pressure towards the EU,” stress EPP Group MEPs Jeroen Lenaers and Tomas Tobé.

The EPP Group stands firmly against Putin's disinformation and propaganda. We want to expose and stop the danger he poses to our democracy. "Russia’s interference in Member States and the EU Institutions is unprecedented and unique, as it is aims to erode the fundamental principles of democracy. In this sense, Russiagate is much more dangerous than Qatargate," stresses Andrius Kubilius MEP and European Parliament's spokesman on Russia.  "So far, our Institutions have failed to defend us against such threats. Now it is time to act. Saving democracy is matter for democracy itself," adds Kubilius.

The EPP Group wants Europe to be an attractive market for medicines, ensure that Europeans have access to medicines, and find better solutions to the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance. These are the key messages that the EPP Group wants to push ahead of the plenary vote on Thursday on the pharmaceutical package. "We want to ensure that Europe remains attractive as a market for medicines, to make it mandatory to support access to medicines across the Union and to enable our healthcare systems to meet the challenges and needs of the next decade,” says the EPP Group's Pernille Weiss MEP, the Parliament's Chief Negotiator of one of the two laws. “The new law will ensure that if a company develops a new antibiotic, it will be rewarded with 6, 9 or 12 months of market exclusivity, depending on the threat posed by the bacteria that the antimicrobial will fight. This will stimulate research in the EU and it is a real success for the EPP Group,” highlights Tomislav Sokol MEP, the EPP Group's negotiator on the second law.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament will officially inaugurate its Sophie Scholl building. It was the EPP Group that proposed to honour the German student, freedom fighter and anti-nazi activist of the peaceful resistance group Weiße Rose (White Rose). The inauguration will take place on Wednesday 10 April at 10.30 at rue Wiertz 50 in the presence of the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola MEP and Julia Jentsch, the leading actress in the Oscar-nominated film 'Sophie Scholl - the Final Days'. Following the inauguration, journalists are invited to a debate on "What is the significance of the White Rose for today’s Europe” with EPP Group Chairman Manfred Weber MEP and Julia Jentsch, as well as an exhibition and reception in the Yehudi Menuhin Exhibition Space in the Parliament's Spaak Building. The White Rose resistance group fought for freedom of speech, freedom of religion and the protection of individual citizens from the arbitrariness of violent criminal states as the foundations of a new Europe.