The Week Ahead 20 – 26 September 2021
Delegations
No parliamentary meetings are foreseen in Brussels, as the week is set aside for committee delegations/missions in relation to topics falling under their responsibility.
Media freedom. A Civil Liberties Committee delegation will travel to Slovakia and Bulgaria to look into developments on media freedom and protection of journalists as well as respect of rule of law. In Bratislava, MEPs are expected to meet with civil society representatives and top government officials. MEPs will also meet Jan Kuciak’s and Martina Kusnirova’s families and a group of journalists. In Sofia, MEPs will meet a group of journalists, among other meetings that will be announced at a later stage. Both visits will be wound up by a press conference (Bratislava on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sofia on Thursday and Friday).
Arctic. A delegation of the Foreign Affairs Committee will visit Denmark, Greenland and Iceland to discuss the various aspects of Arctic policy with, among others, ministers and MPs as well as researchers and scientists working on EU-funded projects (Tuesday to Friday).
Protection of animals during transport. A delegation of the Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport (ANIT) will travel to Bulgaria to see first-hand the main difficulties EU countries are facing in enforcing current rules on animal welfare, including on the export of animals to non-EU countries. They will meet the Minister of Agriculture, some of Bulgaria’s veterinary experts, and visit the Bulgaria-Turkey border (Monday to Wednesday).
European Citizens’ Panels/Conference on the Future of Europe. The European Citizens’ Panels will continue their discussions with the second 200-citizen meeting in Strasbourg. It will focus on European democracy and values, rights, rule of law and security. The Panels will put forward ideas and recommendations that will feed into the overall Conference deliberations, in particular into the Conference Plenaries, and ultimately into the report on its final outcome (Friday to Sunday).
