The Week Ahead 15 – 21 April 2024
Committee and political groups’ meetings
European elections/Spring Eurobarometer survey.
Parliament will publish its last Eurobarometer survey before the 6-9 June elections, covering, among other issues, citizens’ interest in and awareness of the elections as well as their likelihood to vote. The survey will also report on the image citizens have of the EU and Parliament, their priorities for the electoral campaign, and the core values they want to defend (Wednesday at 7.00). The day before publication, the EP media service will hold a briefing reserved for media to present its main findings, under embargo until publication (Tuesday at 10:00).
2024 LUX European Audience Film Award.
The LUX European Audience Film Award ceremony will take place in Parliament’s hemicycle in Brussels. There will be a press conference with the winner immediately afterwards. Parliament and the European Film Academy award the LUX prize to help the distribution of European films with significant artistic merit that reflect cultural diversity in Europe and beyond (Tuesday from 18:00).
Plenary preparations.
Political groups will prepare for the 22-25 April plenary, the last session of this legislature. MEPs will hold debates and final votes on, among other things, the right to repair, prohibiting products made with force labour, fighting violence against women, new “ecodesign” rules, combating trafficking in human beings and protecting victims, a new EU Ethics Body, economic governance, establishing the European Disability Card, and on antimoney laundering. They will hold final votes on packaging and packaging waste, working conditions for platform workers, due diligence rules for companies, ambient air quality and clean air for Europe, plants obtained with new genomic techniques, the European Health Data Space and on the Net Zero Industry Act. MEPs will also debate the 20th anniversary of the largest ever round of EU enlargement in 2004 with Council and Commission.
European Council.
EP President Roberta Metsola will address EU heads of state or government at the 17-18 April special European Council, which is expected to discuss the new European competitiveness deal and relations with Türkiye. President Metsola will hold a press conference following her address (Wednesday).
Pre-session press briefing.
The EP’s Press Service will hold a press briefing with the Parliament’s political group spokespersons at 11.00 on Friday (Anna Politkovskaya room, press centre, Brussels).
President’s diary.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola will be in Malta on Monday to visit EU-funded projects and SMEs. On Tuesday, in La Hulpe (BE), the President will participate in the High-Level Conference on the European Pillar of Social Rights. On Friday, she will be in Lisbon, where she will meet Portugal’s President of the Assembleia da República, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, and Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, followed by a joint press conference, as well as the country’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. On Saturday, the President will be in Malta to meet the country’s President Myriam Spiteri Debono.