European Parliament Plenary Session – March 2024
European Parliamentary Research Service
Facts. Analysis. Insight. Foresight. We (EPRS) are the in-house research service of the European Parliament.
Parliament is set to mark International Women's Day in Strasbourg this year, with a debate on the Council decision inviting EU countries to ratify the 2019 International Labour Organization's Violence and Harassment Convention on Tuesday. A European Commission statement is expected on its communication on pre-enlargement reforms and policy reviews due for adoption that same day. There will also be a Question Time session at which the Commission is called to answer Members' questions regarding EU governments' action to combat foreign interference, including from Russia. On Tuesday morning, Members are set to hear Council and Commission statements on the preparation of the European Council meeting of 21 and 22 March 2024. The following day, Members are due to hold a 'This is Europe' debate – the last of this term – with the Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo.
In a debate expected on Tuesday afternoon, Members are set to consider a provisional agreement on changes to the EU's financial rules. The new rules are needed to align with changes introduced by the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF), aimed at ensuring more transparent, digital and value-based EU funding. Members will then debate Parliament's guidelines for the 2025 EU budget, which the Committee on Budgets (BUDG) report insists should be people-centred, prioritising investment to improve people's lives and EU competitiveness. The guidelines adopted will set out Parliament's position ahead of the Commission's adoption of the draft 2025 budget.
Protecting our environment
Most people today want to contribute to a more sustainable way of life, but the European Commission finds that unscrupulous firms take advantage of consumers. Fully 53 % of the environmental claims the Commission looked at in the EU were vague, misleading or unfounded, and 40 % were unsubstantiated. To counter this fraud, on Monday evening Parliament is due to debate a report on a proposal to regulate 'green claims'. The report from the Committees on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) and on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) sets a timescale for verification of environmental claims and labelling schemes, which must be tailored to the complexity of the claim and company size. The committees consider the verification system should be simpler.
Despite our efforts, we still waste nearly 60 million tonnes of food a year in the EU – more than half of it at home. On Wednesday, Members are expected to vote on a proposal to accelerate the fight against food waste and push textile producers to act to reduce clothing waste, by amending the Waste Framework Directive. The ENVI committee report on the proposal would raise binding reduction targets to 20 % by 2030, in food processing and manufacturing, and to 40 % per capita in retail, catering, food services and households.
The Industrial Emissions Directive sets rules on industrial pollution in the EU, including from industrial farming. On Tuesday, Members are set to vote on a provisional political agreement to update the rules. The ENVI committee succeeded in substantially amending the proposal, to include mining and battery production, placing 'best available technique' principles at the heart of granting permits, and setting binding environmental performance limit values for water. However, to lighten the administrative burden, governments must put e-permitting in place by 2035. ENVI Members also successfully introduced a 2026 deadline to reassess the need to address cattle farm emissions (currently excluded), and those from imported agricultural products.
Protecting EU businesses and consumers
The EU Toy Directive helps to ensure toys sold in the EU are safe for our children. However, to improve this protection and reduce the number of unsafe toys still sold in the EU, the legislation is now up for revision. Members are set to consider an IMCO committee report on Wednesday afternoon, which seeks to make digital product passports available for 10 years, for example, and link them to the Safety Gate Portal – allowing us all to report risks. The committee also proposes that the Commission provide small businesses with assistance to comply with the stricter toy safety rules.
A central EU customs authority could offer traders lower compliance costs and ensure a more efficient, fraud-proof customs union. In a vote scheduled for Wednesday evening, Members are due to vote at first reading on proposals to establish an EU customs data hub and an EU customs authority. While the IMCO report on the file is generally supportive of the proposal, it would like to see a faster process and a platform allowing people to report non-compliant goods.
A vote on a political agreement, reached in trilogue negotiations with the Council on an EU design package, is scheduled for Thursday morning. The two files seek stronger protection for product design against counterfeiting in the EU. Endorsed by the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), the agreement should future-proof design protection, protect registered designs for five years, renewable to a maximum 25 years (for a fee), liberalise the spare parts market, and give EU governments three years to transpose the EU rules into national law.
In crises like the recent pandemic, it is particularly useful to help companies obtain licences to produce products subject to patents – for new technologies, for example. Members are set to vote on Wednesday at first reading on a proposal clarifying rules for the compulsory licensing of patents. A JURI committee report proposes a number of changes. Voluntary agreements should have greater priority than compulsory licensing, and licensees, not the rights-holder, should be responsible for any liability linked to the product. The Commission should have to identify all rights-holders, who would be paid for compulsory licences used within a set timeframe. When necessary, the JURI Members consider the Commission should compel rights-holders to disclose (against remuneration) trade secrets and know-how.
Protecting our democracy and the rule of law
In a year of elections, ensuring journalists and media services are free from political and economic interference is particularly urgent. On Tuesday, Members are set to debate a provisional agreement on a regulation setting the first-ever EU rules on media freedom, pluralism and protecting journalists – the European media freedom act. Under the new rules, governments must respect editorial freedom and exempt journalists from identifying their sources. Media companies will have to make their ownership structures public and EU countries will investigate cases where media outlets become too concentrated. To protect journalists from government spying, Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) succeeded in eliminating 'protecting national security' as grounds for surveillance and ensured that all public authorities have to publish information about their annual advertising expenditure, including online.
Europol estimates the proceeds from organised crime in Europe at around €139 billion per year. Little of this money is confiscated. On Wednesday, Members are set to vote on a provisional agreement, reached after three rounds of trilogue negotiations with the Council, on a directive covering freezing and confiscation of criminal money. The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) proposed a wider scope for the directive and using confiscated property in the public interest. LIBE Members proposed Member States help freeze property to facilitate confiscation and that profiting from circumventing EU sanctions be treated as criminal gains. EU countries should also strengthen their asset recovery offices, including to deal with cross-border cases.
Parliament is set to vote on Tuesday on a political agreement reached with the Council on a proposal to harmonise criminal offences and penalties for violating EU sanctions, such as arms embargoes. The agreement, endorsed by the LIBE committee, envisages criminalising the commission of certain crimes involving serious negligence and maintains fines proposed by the Council at 1 % or 5 % of companies' total worldwide turnover (or €8 million or €40 million respectively), a choice left to Member States.
Protecting our cross-border freedom
Parliament has long called for EU rules to facilitate non-profit organisations to operate freely across borders. Although largely in favour of the Commission's proposal, a JURI committee report, set for debate on Tuesday afternoon, highlights the need for stricter definitions in regulating cross-border associations. Such associations should be treated in the same way as other non-profits. LIBE Members propose a minimum of three people should sit on their boards. Such organisations should also pledge respect for European values, with funding blocked for those who breach them.
Finally, on Monday evening, Members are set to consider a Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) report on a proposal to revise the framework of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), assigning new roles on safety and sustainability and providing the means to carry out these revised objectives. The TRAN committee wants to see EMSA supervise European coast guard cooperation, support inspection training, monitor suspicious behaviour around pipelines and carry out other new functions. The committee demands that EMSA involve Parliament in appointing its executive director and that a Parliament representative sit on the management board.
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