The Week ahead

The EPP Group will elect its candidate on Wednesday evening for the election of the President of the European Parliament in January. Candidates can still be nominated until Monday. The EPP Group's Chairman Manfred Weber, jointly with the elected candidate, will give a press conference at 19.00 hrs in Strasbourg immediately after the announcement of the election result (in the Daphne Caruana Galizia Press room).

Parliament's Internal Market Committee will vote on new rules for Facebook, Amazon and Google, the so-called EU Digital Markets Act, on Monday evening in Strasbourg. "We want to set a new legal framework because the current competition rules cannot properly address the problems we are facing in the digital sector with the tech giants. Europe stands for fair competition on merits, but bigger companies are getting bigger and bigger without getting any better. The Digital Markets Act will rule out these unfair practices, sending a strong signal to consumers and businesses in the European Single Market", says Andreas Schwab MEP, the Parliament's negotiator of the new law, who will hold a press conference on Tuesday morning at 09.20 hrs in Strasbourg (in the Daphne Caruana Galizia Press room).

On Tuesday, the plenary of the European Parliament will debate the situation inside Belarus, at its border with the EU and the consequences for both, the humanitarian situation and EU security. On Wednesday at 12.00 hrs, the exiled leader of the Belarusian democratic opposition Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will address the plenary. “The hybrid attack uses migrant smuggling as the main tactic and is accompanied by brutal disinformation. It is carried out by both regimes, in Minsk and in Moscow”, says EPP Group Vice-Chair Rasa Juknevičienė. “The EU’s decision to adopt new sanctions towards the regime in Belarus is tough and more effective but it can’t stop here. Alexander Lukashenko is breaching all possible international conventions, including the convention against torture. We need to prepare the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute Lukashenko for his crimes", she says. 

The European Parliament will vote for the final approval of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on Tuesday. The new rules for European agriculture aim to protect local food production and boost the economic and ecological sustainability of European farming. Thanks to the EPP Group, the new CAP will increase support for small farms and young farmers and will set incentives for climate and environmentally-friendly farming methods. Parliament's Rapporteur in charge of the so-called strategic plans is Peter Jahr MEP. Anne Sander MEP negotiated the rules for the organisation of the agricultural markets and the horizontal regulations on behalf of the EPP Group. There will be a press conference on Tuesday @ 13.00 hrs (in the Daphne Caruana Galizia Press room).

The European Parliament will debate the escalation of tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) on Tuesday. The leader of the Bosnian Serbs in BiH, Miroslav Dodik, said that their parliament will take decisions to withdraw from the country's army, courts and tax system this month. They also plan to adopt laws in the next six months to form their own separate structures. The EPP Group supports the territorial integrity of the country. We insist on full respect for the Dayton Peace Agreement. The attempts to take all the state institutions towards deadlock are unconstitutional and illegitimate.

On Monday, the European Parliament will debate on a European strategy for critical raw materials. The vote is scheduled for Tuesday. The materials, such as lithium, beryllium, cobalt and many others, are requisite in environmental technologies, consumer electronics, health, steel-making, defence, aviation and other areas. There will be no Green Deal without easy access to critical raw materials. The EPP Group wants Europe to take back control of critical raw materials supply chains and impose much stronger controls on key critical raw material waste streams. This would prevent illegal exports of waste products containing critical raw materials. We must guarantee that exported waste products are processed under conditions equivalent to those of the EU.

On Tuesday, the European Commission will make a proposal to protect elections in Europe from foreign interference and to promote democratic participation. It will also come forward with new rules for the funding of European political parties and European political foundations. “Russia, China and other authoritarian regimes spent more than 300 million USD in 33 countries in order to interfere in democratic processes. This trend is growing more dangerous. Half of these cases concern Russia's hostile actions in Europe. The Russian interference and online information manipulation have been well documented in many liberal democracies around the world. These cases include the Brexit referendum in the UK, presidential elections in France and in the USA, practical support for far-right and other radical actors across Europe, including in France, Austria, Germany and Italy. Europe cannot and must not allow this any longer”, said Sandra Kalniete MEP, who drafted the parliamentary Report on Foreign Interference and Disinformation in the EU.

On Wednesday morning, the plenary of the European Parliament will debate the results of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. "The glass is more than half-full. The outcome of COP26 has shown that the world must fight climate change with more ambition. We can only avoid a climate catastrophe if the whole world works together", said Peter Liese MEP, the EPP Group's Spokesman on environment issues. The EPP Group is convinced that in order to contain global warming to the limits of the Paris Agreement, ambitious climate policy is necessary, but emerging markets, especially China, the world's second largest economy, must make much more effort than they have announced until now.

Next week in plenary, MEPs will debate on Tuesday and vote on Wednesday on the negotiations agreement between the European Parliament and the Member States on next year’s EU Budget. The €169.5 billion agreement for the 2022 EU Budget represents an increase of almost €500 million above what the European Commission initially proposed. “This budget is a clear message to all Europeans that Europe is committed to a strong recovery after COVID, for all sectors, all regions and all generations”, says Karlo Ressler MEP, the European Parliament’s negotiator of the 2022 EU Budget.