The Week Ahead 12 – 18 April 2021

Digital Green Certificate. MEPs in the Civil Liberties Committee will, for the first time, debate with the Commission the recent proposal for a Digital Green Certificate intended to ease travel between EU Member States during the COVID-19 pandemic. MEPs will also discuss the Certificate’s implications for citizens’ data privacy with the EU Data Protection Supervisor and EU Data Protection Board (Tuesday from 10:30).

Quicker authorisation procedure for adapted COVID-19 vaccines. The Environment and Public Health Committee will discuss a new procedure to facilitate and accelerate the EU-wide approval of adapted vaccines against COVID-19 variants. (debate Thursday morning and vote Friday morning).

Banning caged farming. A European Citizens’ initiative (ECI) for an EU-wide ban on keeping farmed animals in cages will be debated in a public hearing by MEPs, Commissioners, experts, representatives of other EU bodies, and the organisers of the ECI, which had secured almost 1.4 million signatories (Thursday from 09:00).

Media briefing on Artificial Intelligence. Lead MEPs will brief journalists and answer their questions on the latest European Parliament resolutions on Artificial Intelligence, ahead of the Commission’s presentation of the legislative proposal on AI, set for 21 April (Wednesday from 10:00).

President’s diary. EP President David Sassoli will take part in an online talk with Vicky Martin de la Torre on her book « L’Europe,hier et aujourd’hui : un saut dans l’inconnu? » on Thursday.