EU Parliament week ahead: International Women’s Day tops agenda

To mark International Women's Day 2019 on 8 March, MEPs and national MPs will gather for an inter-parliamentary meeting on “Women's Power in Politics.”
Photo Credit: European Parliament Audiovisual

By Martin Banks

Martin Banks is a senior reporter at the Parliament Magazine

01 Mar 2019

The event, organised by the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee, will include two panels, on ''Real power of women in politics and how to boost it'' and ''Young women in politics.”

There will be a keynote speech by Croatia’s President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović as well as closing remarks by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

Meanwhile, political groups will also be preparing for the 11-14 March plenary session in Strasbourg, where MEPs will vote on the EU’s long-term strategy to fight climate change, cybersecurity and counteracting foreign propaganda in the context of the upcoming European Elections.

EU-Russia relations, security threats from Chinese IT technology, unfair trading practices in the food chain as well as a reform of the European citizens’ initiative will also come under the spotlight.

MEPs will debate their priorities for the 21-22 March European Council and continue the debate on the future of Europe with Slovakia’s Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini.

In a packed week, a legislative proposal to discontinue the current system of bi-annual clock changes, between so-called summer time and winter time, will be up for a vote in the Transport and Tourism Committee.

In 2018, Parliament called for a thorough assessment of the current arrangements, quoting studies indicating the negative effects of the clock change on people and concerns expressed by citizens’ initiatives.

Elsewhere, a proposal to set up a Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), to combine most existing EU funds for EU external policy, will be voted on by the Foreign Affairs Committee and Development Committee.

The Commission proposed a budget of €89.2bn for this new instrument.

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