Plenary Flash October I 2020

Climate Law

The European Climate Law will be debated and voted in the next plenary. The Commission proposes a renewed target to achieve a 55 % reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This is progress in EU climate legislation, but falls short of the 60% target agreed by the Environmental Committee. The Greens/EFA group stresses that at least a 65 % reduction is needed to achieve the targets set out in the Paris Agreement. The Commission should propose a concrete decarbonisation roadmap and ensure that the EU’s climate objectives are assessed every two years.

REGISTER: Press briefing on the Climate Law with Michael Bloss, Bas Eickhout and Marie Toussaint on Monday, 5th October, 10:00 AM email antoine.ferraris@ext.europarl.europa.eu to register.

Debate and first vote, 6 Tuesday, final vote Wednesday, 7
Greens/EFA MEPs: Michael Bloss (Shadow)
More: Commission impact assessment

Rule of Law Mechanism

The European Parliament will vote on a resolution calling for the "Establishment of an EU Mechanism on Democracy, the Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights." After the EU Commission’s report this week, the European Parliament will vote on a mechanism that includes European values and fundamental rights in the EU. The Greens/EFA group are calling for a binding mechanism to protect the rule of law across all EU Member States as well as rule of law conditionality to be tied to European funds through the long-term budget (MFF).

Debate, 5 Monday
Greens/EFA MEP: Sergey Lagodinsky (Shadow)
More: Commission report shows urgent need for rule of law mechanism

Rule of Law in Bulgaria

This resolution adopted in the LIBE committee tackles the deteriorating situation in Bulgaria in respect to the principles of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights, including the independence of the judiciary, separation of powers, the fight against corruption, and freedom of the media. The resolution denounces the lack of corruption investigations, calls for increased transparency regarding media ownership and distribution networks, condemns any kind of violence against peaceful demonstrations, denounces the spread of hate speech and violence against people of Romani origin, women, LGBTI people and other minorities, and calls for cooperation between the Bulgarian Government and the European Commission.

Debate and vote, 5 Monday
Greens/EFA MEPs: Ska Keller (Shadow)

Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the rule of law

In July, the European Parliament adopted a strong resolution concerning the MFF, Own Resources and the Recovery Plan. The Greens/EFA re-affirms support for this strong position by the European Parliament, including the need for rule of law conditionality in the MFF negotiations. The rule of law mechanism proposed by the German Council Presidency is weak and will have no concrete effect. The European Parliament will continue fighting for the rule of law, the increase in programs for health, digitization and democracy and a binding climate quota of at least 30% in the EU budget.

Next round of negotiations: Monday, 5th October.

Debate, 5 Monday
Greens/EFA MEP: Rasmus Andresen, Member of the EP negotiation team on the EU budget and Recovery Fund
More: European Parliament stands up for the rule of law and future generations

Oral Question and resolution on Youth Guarantee

This resolution is a reaction to the package proposed by the Commission in July: “Youth Unemployment Support’’, that included a reinforced youth guarantee in the form of a new Council Recommendation “A Bridge to Jobs - Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee”. The resolution criticises the Council for cutting youth unemployment funding under the MFF and calls on the Commission to propose a Youth Guarantee binding instrument. Some of the key demands are a quality framework for youth guarantee offers, skills for the Green Deal, and quality traineeships.

Debate and vote, 5 Monday
Greens/EFA MEP: Kira Peter-Hansen (Shadow)

Forest Strategy

The new EU Forest Strategy, an initiative report from the AGRI committee that sets out the Parliament's position on the upcoming Commission's strategy, will be debated on Tuesday in the plenary. The Greens/EFA group are calling for climate and biodiversity enhancement, the conservation of primary forests and recognising the important role of forest ecosystems in our world.

Debate and vote, 6 Tuesday
Greens/EFA MEP: Margrete Auken (Shadow)

Approval of McGuinness and Dombrovskis

After the resignation of Phil Hogan as Trade Commissioner, MEP Mairead McGuinness has been designated to be the new Commissioner in charge of Financial Services and Financial Stability, and Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis is set to replace Hogan as Trade Commissioner. Following the hearings in the relevant committees over the past week, the Parliament will vote on the new designated members of the Commission.

Vote, 7 Wednesday
Greens/EFA MEPs: Heidi Hautala (Dombrovskis), Sven Giegold (McGuinness)

Fight against money laundering following the FinCEN files

On the initiative of the Greens/EFA group, the Parliament will debate the recent FinCEN leak of files, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which revealed large multinational banks involvement in money laundering operations linked to organised crime. These FinCEN files provide detailed data that includes criminal transactions at major banks such as HSBC and Deutsche Bank. The Greens/EFA group are calling on EU governments to end their blockade of a European financial intelligence unit in order to prosecute financial crime at the European level.

Debate, 8 Thursday

Greens/EFA MEPs: Sven Giegold (ECON) and Saskia Bricmont (LIBE).
More: Revelations about government failures must be a wake-up call

More

• Monday 5: Climate law - a step further towards Paris, Virtual press briefing with Bas Eickhout, Michael Bloss & Marie Toussaint, 9:30 AM - email antoine.ferraris@ext.europarl.europa.eu to register.
• Group Presidents, Ska Keller and Philippe Lamberts will hold the plenary session press briefing at 10.30-11.00 in the Anna Politkovskaya pressroom in Brussels on Tuesday 6. The briefing will be streamed live on EbS.

The full plenary agenda for the week can be found on the Parliament website here.

The plenary sessions can be followed live here.