Press release – EP TODAY
State of the European Union debate
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will give her first State of the European Union address at 9.15. She is expected to highlight the impact of the Commission’s work in mitigating the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, and to outline her vision for economic recovery, fighting climate change, and the situation in Europe’s neighbourhood.
Political group leaders will react to her speech, assess the Commission’s work and set out their views on the 2021 priorities. The German Council Presidency will also take the floor.
#SOTEU #StrongerTogetherEU
See separate media advisory for more details.
Watch the debate from 9.15 to 12.30 live on Parliament’s Multimedia Centre and on EbS+
Baptiste CHATAIN
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Votes
Results from yesterday evenings’ votes will be announced at 9.00, on, among other things,
- the EU’s role in protecting and restoring the world’s forests. In this resolution, MEPs outline how the EU can contribute to tackling worldwide deforestation and call for domestic policies to be revised to protect European forests.
- the EU-African security cooperation in the Sahel region, West Africa and the Horn of Africa .
The first voting session lasts from 13.00 to 14.15 with results announced at 16.45. During this voting session, MEPs will cast their final vote on, among other things,
- Recovery Plan/Own Resources, paving the way for the EU to borrow €750 billion for the “Next Generation EU” recovery plan. A press conference is scheduled at 14.30 on Wednesday;
- Enhancing the EU Civil Protection capacity so that the EU can better respond to large-scale emergencies such as COVID-19;
- The implementation of the EU Association Agreement with Georgia.
The second voting session lasts from 17.30 to 18.45 with results announced on Thursday morning at 8.30. During this voting session, MEPs will cast their final vote on, among other things,
- Setting up the Just Transition Fund to mitigate the social impact of greening the economy by supporting regions most affected by the energy transition;
- Revised testing rules to ensure that cars respect EU limits on NOx emissions under real driving conditions as of September 2022;
- EU arms export rules: In light of growing arms production in the EU, MEPs are set to call for tighter controls and greater transparency.