Council presidency programme up for debate in Strasbourg

MEPs in Strasbourg will next week debate the programmes and achievements of the current and previous holders of the rotating presidency of the European Union’s Council of Ministers.

On Tuesday (14 January), Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuania’s president (pictured), is scheduled to present MEPs with her assessment of her country’s performance during the second half of 2013. The following day (15 January), MEPs will have an opportunity to debate the programme of Greece, which took over from Lithuania on 1 January, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Samaras, who hosted the college of European commissioners in Athens yesterday (8 January), has listed the presidency’s priorities as growth and employment, stability in the eurozone, immigration, and maritime policy.

MEPs are set to debate a law adopted by Malta’s parliament in November giving Maltese citizenship – and hence the right to reside and work across the Union – to prospective investors for a €650,000 fee. Applicants are also supposed to acquire property worth at least €350,000 and government stocks worth €150,000. Malta’s centre-right opposition fears that the new law could attract questionable investors and dent the country’s image.

On Wednesday, MEPs will discuss the ‘safe harbour’ agreement with the US, which authorises US firms to process data from EU citizens if they self-certify compliance with EU data-protection standards. Claude Moraes, a centre-left UK MEP, has proposed suspending the agreement in the wake of revelations of pervasive US spying on Europeans. The centre-right is split on the proposal. Even if approved, it would fall to the European Commission to initiate a suspension.

On Thursday, following a debate the previous day, MEPs will vote on a common European sales law. Initially proposed by the European Commission in 2011, the new law is supposed to give businesses the choice of a single set of rules for cross-border sales contracts, as an alternative to national contract laws. Parliament backed the main elements of the proposal in 2011.