COVID-19: MEPs to quiz Margrethe Vestager on the EU’s response to the pandemic
EU measures to tackle the COVID-19 crisis and ways the digital transformation can boost recovery will be discussed with Commission Executive Vice-President Vestager, on Monday.
During the debate, Internal Market Committee MEPs are likely to address the role of digital technologies in tackling the COVID-19 crisis, the new EU industrial strategy, and how to ensure that state aid measures to support the economy do not lead to a fragmentation of the EU Internal Market.
Members are expected to reiterate the importance of monitoring the implementation of EU rules on e-commerce and online platforms, and of tackling disinformation in times of COVID-19. The impact of the crisis on the Commission’s Work Programme is also due to be discussed in the debate.
The European Parliament, in a resolution approved on 17 April on EU coordinated action to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, stressed that the EU’s recovery and reconstruction package should have the European Green Deal and the digital transformation at its core in order to kick-start the economy, make it more resilient and create jobs. This package should also assist in implementing an industrial strategy that preserves core EU industrial sectors.
Debate: EU response to the COVID-19 outbreak
When: Monday, 4 May 2020, 14.00 – 15.20
Where: European Parliament, Antall building, room 4Q2, Brussels
Members of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee will be able to participate remotely and can ask for the floor and intervene. Committee Chair Petra De Sutter (Greens/EFA, BE), as well as a few other MEPs, will be present in the meeting room. The Commission’s Executive Vice-President, Margrethe Vestager, will participate remotely.
The meeting will be web-streamed here (Parliament’s Multimedia Centre).
Background
In a letter addressed on 23 March to Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager (Europe Fit for the Digital Age), Commissioners Thierry Breton (Internal Market) and Didier Reynders (Justice), as well as to the Croatian Presidency of the Council, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee called for further actions to tackle the COVID-19 crisis.
Internal Market Committee MEPs already discussed the EU response to the COVID-19 outbreak with Commissioner Breton, on 2 April, and with Commissioner Reynders, on 14 April.
