Written by Clare Ferguson with Sara Van Tooren.
It’s a new year, a new EU Council Presidency and as we move into the final months of the current legislative term, Members of the European Parliament have limited time in which to achieve their goals before campaigning begins for the European elections in June. To kick off the year, the agenda for the first plenary session of this month features a presentation of the programme of activities of the Belgian Presidency. Members will also discuss the outcome of the December European Council meeting and look ahead to the special meeting on 1 February. A statement by the President commemorating Jacques Delors will open the week’s session.
One of the 10 things our team has identified to watch in 2024 is India’s rise on the global stage. The EU and India have been strategic partners since 2004, cooperating in fields such as climate change, maritime security, digitalisation and health. The EU is India’s largest trading partner and its second largest export destination. On Tuesday, Parliament is expected to consider the report of its Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) on EU-India relations. The report recommends strengthening the strategic partnership, based on democratic governance and international law, and calls for shared action and leadership, while recognising the importance of security and defence policy. It also expresses concern at India’s deteriorating human rights situation, inviting India to work with the EU on democratic and human rights.
It is now 10 years since the last major reform of the EU’s common fisheries policy (CFP). In response to the Commission’s fisheries package, Members are due to debate three own-initiative reports from the Committee on Fisheries (PECH) on Thursday morning. The first looks at the CFP’s execution and future perspectives, in the light of the European Commission’s proposal for no further reform. The second considers the 2013 revision of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) Regulation for fisheries and aquaculture products. The third report largely criticises the Commission’s proposed marine action plan. Here, the PECH committee regrets in particular the lack of a socio-economic study into the effects of the plan. The report also considers the blanket ban on bottom trawling in all marine protected areas to be ‘simplistic’.
On Tuesday afternoon, Parliament is expected to debate a draft agreement that would amend two key directives to protect consumers against misleading environmental claims, endorsed by its Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). The text includes several of Parliament’s demands, updated definitions, and sets rules for traders making environmental claims regarding goods, including digital components. It introduces a commercial guarantee of durability to improve consumer access to information on the sustainability and reparability of the things they buy, including the duration of the availability of software updates. The legislation will also cover claims made using audiovisual media.
Although the Ozone Regulation is working to cut emissions from ozone-depleting substances (ODS), old products containing ODS remain a source of emissions. On Monday, therefore, Parliament is due to consider an agreed text, endorsed by its Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), to amend the current regulation. The text sets out how EU countries should deal with traders who do not comply with the rules. It commits the European Commission to maintaining a list of processes for which ODS use is banned and to assess the availability of alternatives. It also extends the substances that must be recovered and destroyed, recycled or reclaimed to all those found in air conditioning, heat pumps and fire protection (among other things).
Because fluorinated greenhouse gas (F-gases) emissions also have big global warming potential, the EU has been regulating them since 2006. A new proposal seeks to reduce emissions even further by reducing the supply of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), banning F-gases in specific applications, and updating rules on implementing best practice. Parliament’s ENVI committee endorsed the provisional agreement reached between Parliament and the Council, which Parliament is set to consider on Monday. The text sets deadlines for phasing out placing HFCs on the market altogether (2050) and phasing down their production (2036), and allows room for additional quotas. However, the text does not include the minimum administrative fines Parliament proposed.
Corporate debt rose to 110 % of EU gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, risking insolvencies and possibly even longer-term economic instability. When a company takes out a loan to boost business, this is often tax-deductible, but the same does not apply to investment. To encourage greater investment in European companies and reduce debt levels, Members are therefore set to consider a report from the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) on addressing the debt–equity bias reduction allowance (DEBRA) on Tuesday. Largely in favour of the proposal, the committee nevertheless seeks to ensure the impact on tax revenue is limited, given the current economic climate. The committee would reduce equity allowances from 10 to 7 years for large company groups and postpone the stricter interest deduction rules to 2027. Should Members agree, the report will set Parliament’s non-binding position, on which the Council must vote unanimously.
In the presence of Emily O’Reilly, European Ombudsman, on Tuesday afternoon, Members are expected to consider the Committee on Petitions (PETI) report on the 2022 annual report on the European Ombudsman’s activities. The PETI committee endorses the report, congratulating Emily O’Reilly on her efforts to improve administrative practices and to promote the accountability and full transparency of the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies. The Ombudsman’s report discusses ethical concerns, including conflicts of interest due to external employment of high-level officials once they have left, interactions with lobbyists, and the inquiry into Frontex.
FURTHER READING
- Agenda – European Parliament Plenary Session January I 2024
- Priority dossiers under the Belgian EU Council Presidency
- Outcome of the European Council meeting of 14-15 December 2023
- Jacques Delors: Architect of the modern European Union
- Parliament’s response to the fisheries package
- 10 Issues to watch
- EU-India relations
- Empowering consumers for the green transition
- Revision of the Ozone Regulation
- Review of the F-gas Regulation
- Debt–equity bias reduction allowance (DEBRA)Activities of the European Ombudsman: 2022 annual report
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