European Parliament Plenary Session – April I 2024

Written by Clare Ferguson with Sara Van Tooren.

Members meet in Brussels this week for the penultimate plenary session of the ninth legislature. As the main topics for debate on the agenda include subjects as weighty as migration and asylum, energy and equality, access to pharmaceuticals and scrutiny of EU budget spending – the debates and voting sessions in particular, are likely to last much longer than usual. The session begins on Wednesday lunchtime with an address in a formal sitting by His Majesty King Philippe, King of the Belgians, whose country currently holds the Council Presidency. Parliament’s President is also expected to make a statement to mark International Roma Day, which takes place this week.

Migration and asylum

High numbers of migrant arrivals at the EU’s external borders and the rise in asylum applications have long raised concern about how to share responsibility for vulnerable people, the length of time and efficiency of the procedures employed and differences between EU countries’ systems. The comprehensive revision of the EU laws that make up the migration and asylum package, piloted by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), is set to reach a conclusion on Wednesday afternoon. Members are expected to consider formal adoption of a set of interinstitutional agreements reached in December 2023, in a debate covering a total of 10 files:

• The compromise text agreed on a revised Asylum and Migration Management Regulation to replace the ‘Dublin’ Regulation, seeks to establish a harmonised EU procedure for asylum requests and ensure swifter processing, with shorter time limits for inadmissible asylum requests. With a strong accent on sharing responsibility fairly, the revision introduces mandatory solidarity for EU countries under migratory pressure – either by relocating asylum applicants, making financial contributions, or by providing support.
• To better equip EU countries to face future migrant crises, the package includes a proposed crisis and force majeure regulation. This proposal would introduce a separate solidarity mechanism. Triggered by a Commission assessment and decided by the Council, this should ensure countries facing exceptional demand from third-country nationals are supported through mandatory measures and derogations to the rules. The new rules also aim to counter hostile moves to destabilise the EU by instrumentalising migrants.
• People who do not fulfil the conditions to enter the EU may be refused entry as a result of screening of third-country nationals at the EU’s external borders. This procedure may also apply to those staying illegally in the EU. Parliament’s negotiators have ensured the agreement includes mandatory preliminary vulnerability checks, that the principle of the best interests of the child is a primary consideration throughout the screening process, and a stronger independent monitoring mechanism.
• A revised common procedure for asylum could speed up the asylum procedure, by harmonising the procedure across the EU and introducing shorter deadlines for rejecting inadmissible claims.
• To identify irregular migrants to the EU more effectively, changes to the Eurodac Regulation aim at adding facial images to fingerprints (including for children from six years old) and maintaining records on those who pose a security threat. The new rules will also require amending rules on law-enforcement databases and the interoperability regulations, where Parliament’s negotiators succeeded in limiting the purpose of security checks. However, the compromise text does not exclude third-country nationals already present in the EU from the scope of the regulation. The agreed text also shortens the deadlines for national authorities to send an opinion.
• The agreed package also sets new EU-wide standards for legal recognition of people applying for international protection and their rights. Under a revised Qualification Directive, the EU Asylum Agency would undertake analysis of migrants’ countries of origin, to set EU-wide standards for treatment of applicants.
• To ensure treatment of asylum applications complies with the law, the common procedure also establishes a separate return border procedure. This procedure would be used immediately after pre-entry screening (for up to 12 weeks – or 20 weeks during crises). When facing mass arrivals, the threshold to engage this border procedure would apply to applicants with up to 50 % recognition rate, and to all arrivals in instrumentalisation situations.
• The revision of the Reception Conditions Directive further sets out measures to help ensure asylum-seekers receive the same treatment wherever they arrive in the EU. Critical of the original proposal’s punitive approach, the LIBE committee insisted that registered asylum applicants be able to start working sooner and called for improved integration prospects. The new rules should also discourage applicants from moving around the EU.
• Finally, the new EU resettlement framework creates a voluntary scheme for EU countries to offer resettlement to vulnerable refugees hosted by non-EU countries. This should provide a legal, organised and safe way for refugees to obtain a long-term solution to their situation.

Energy and the environment

During a debate on reform of the EU energy and electricity markets set for Thursday morning, Members are expected to consider a provisional agreement to improve EU electricity market design. To reduce price volatility for consumers and improve low-carbon energy investment, Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) approved an interinstitutional agreement aimed at strengthening consumer protection through improved information and greater choice of contracts. Special provisions for vulnerable consumers would apply, in line with Parliament’s position, including a ban on suppliers unilaterally changing the terms of a contract or cutting off supplies. The agreement aims at facilitating integration of renewables into the energy system and paving the way to more predictable and flexible electricity generation. The Council would also be able to declare an energy crisis.

Members are also scheduled to debate a further two agreements endorsed by the ITRE committee, on the hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package. The agreement on the recast EU Gas Directive would increase consumer protection by preventing disconnection and creating new rules providing for a supplier of last resort. It would also allow targeted price regulation in the event of a gas price crisis. The provisional agreement on the recast EU Gas Regulation would enable restrictions on pipeline gas from Russia and Belarus to protect EU security interests. Parliament has succeeded in introducing a voluntary mechanism to support hydrogen market development, to be implemented under the European Hydrogen Bank.

To help deliver climate neutrality by 2050, the EU is also working on an EU certification framework for carbon removals – a voluntary tool to certify three types of carbon removal activity. Members are set to vote on a provisional agreement reached by the co-legislators that extends the scope of the Commission’s proposal, specifies additional minimum requirements and adds elements to increase environmental integrity. Minimum carbon storage periods are defined per activity, and carbon-farming activities must deliver at least a biodiversity co-benefit under the sustainability objectives, with provisions added to avoid land speculation.

To tackle road transport emissions, Parliament is set to vote on stricter CO₂ standards for heavy-duty vehicles on Wednesday. The text agreed between the co-legislators extends the scope of the regulation from July 2025 to almost all new heavy-duty vehicles, includes vocational vehicles from 2035, and requires all new urban buses to be zero-emission by that date. As Parliament demanded, the Commission will have to produce an assessment methodology for the full lifecycle emissions of new heavy-duty vehicles.

Healthy soil is essential for growing food, and regulating our water, carbon and nutrient cycles. On Wednesday, Members are scheduled to vote on a report from the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on a Commission proposal aimed at establishing the first-ever EU-wide common framework on soil monitoring and resilience. The committee proposes a more nuanced, five-level classification of soil ecological status. The ENVI report also adds more flexible sustainable soil management requirements, asks the Commission to compile a practical toolbox, and supports the creation of a public register of contaminated and potentially contaminated sites.

Scrutinising EU budget spending

To ensure the transparent and democratic scrutiny of how public funds are spent, Parliament’s elected Members decide whether the EU institutions have disbursed their budget in accordance with the rules. On Wednesday evening, therefore, Members are due to discuss a large number of reports concerning the discharge procedure for the EU’s 2022 budget.

The Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT) recommends that Parliament grant discharge to the European Commission, (including spending under the Recovery and Resilience Facility), all six executive agencies and the European Development Funds, for the implementation of the 2022 budget. The committee nevertheless highlights a ‘deterioration in the rule of law in some Member States’, and urges a consistent approach across financing instruments, as well as highlighting the low absorption rate in some Member States and a high level of error in 2022 expenditure.

Once again, in the light of the continued institutional differences between Parliament and the European Council and the Council, the committee proposes to postpone the decision on discharge of their 2022 budget. In the interests of transparency, Parliament has refused to grant discharge to the Council each financial year since 2009. In contrast, the CONT committee proposes to grant discharge to most other EU institutions and bodies, although it again makes observations on opportunities to improve budgetary management. The CONT committee also recommends granting discharge to all 33 EU decentralised agencies and 9 joint undertakings and welcomes their corrective actions following previous observations.

Other issues

In a debate scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, Members consider ENVI committee reports on a pair of Commission proposals to revise EU pharmaceutical legislation. These aim to ensure medicines are more available, accessible and affordable across EU countries than is currently the case. Parliament has consistently called for a more coherent policy on pharmaceuticals that takes both public health interests and industry’s needs into account. The ENVI committee emphasises the need to support EU research and market attractiveness, calling for minimum regulatory data protection for new medicines, and two years’ market protection following market authorisation. Longer protection from competition would be afforded to medicines tackling rare diseases and unmet needs. New measures would encourage prudent use and development of new antimicrobials, while companies would have to submit an ‘environmental risk assessment’ when applying for market authorisation.

Shortcomings have been flagged in the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) since it became applicable in 2018, particularly regarding cross-border processing of personal data. A vote is therefore scheduled for Wednesday on proposed new rules that should address differences in the procedures employed by national data protection authorities.

Members are set to vote on Wednesday on two proposals on new EU standards for equality bodies to strengthen national bodies and their mandate to fight discrimination on grounds of sex, race, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) have endorsed a political agreement with the Council that stipulates equality bodies should have sufficient resources and independence, and apply impartial staff selection procedures. Member States should empower their national bodies to assist victims of discrimination, including by acting for them in court.

Members are also expected to vote on Wednesday on a provisional agreement reached between Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee (TRAN) negotiators and the Council Presidency to update the EU principles governing the investigation of maritime accidents. While the EU directive has largely been successful, Parliament agreed to the obligation to inform maritime security authorities if an accident investigation body suspects an offence has been committed, and to remove the mandatory quality management system entailing significant additional workload with limited added value.

Finally, on Wednesday, Members are set to consider a Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) report on amending Parliament’s Rules of Procedure to implement recommendations made by the ‘Parliament 2024’ working group. Implementing the ‘Parliament 2024’ reforms – with some 116 amendments, to apply from the start of the next legislative term – will facilitate the legislative procedure, with among other things: expedited attribution of files to committees, improved procedures on overlapping committee competences, limits on use of the urgent procedure in plenary and stronger assessment of the budgetary implications of new proposals. If Members agree, a new format for ‘special scrutiny hearings’ would be introduced and the rules for Commissioner hearings (renamed ‘confirmation hearings’) would be simplified and clarified, in time to apply for the nominees to the next Commission.

• European Parliament plenary session April I, 2024 – agenda
• Asylum and Migration Management Regulation
• Crisis and force majeure regulation
• Common procedure for asylum
• Establishing a return border procedure
• Screening of third-country nationals at the EU’s external borders
• Recast Eurodac Regulation
• Amending ECRIS-TCN and the interoperability regulations for the purpose of screening
• Qualification Directive
• Reform of the Reception Conditions Directive
• EU resettlement framework
• Improving EU electricity market design
• Hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package
• EU certification framework for carbon removals
• Stricter CO₂ standards for heavy-duty vehicles
• Soil monitoring and resilience
• Discharge for 2022 budget: Commission (including RRF), executive agencies and EDFs
• Discharge for 2022 budget: EU institutions other than the European Commission
• Discharge for 2022 budget: EU decentralised agencies and joint undertakings
• Revision of EU pharmaceutical legislation
• New procedural rules to strengthen GDPR enforcement in cross-border cases
• New EU standards for equality bodies
• Maritime accident investigation review
• Implementing the ‘Parliament 2024’ reforms