The Week ahead

Every year, 1.3 million people in the EU die of cancer and 2.7 million are diagnosed with it. On Thursday 9 December, the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) will vote on its final report which proposes a series of EU-wide measures to fight cancer jointly. “We need to make the lives of those who fight cancer, of scientists who want to do cross-border research, more easy. We need to remove obstacles so that they can do their job better in the interest of patients”, said Peter Liese MEP, the EPP Group’s lead negotiator for this file, underlining one of the EPP Group’s main priorities.

On Wednesday, at a new EPP Group flagship event on COVID-19 Therapeutics, Members of the European Parliament will discuss with European Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, national government representatives, scientists, the healthcare industry, medical doctors and patients, the most efficient ways forward in fighting the pandemic. The EPP Group is convinced that focusing on both vaccines and therapeutics is how we can be successful. To find out more about the programme of the event and how to register, please click on this link.

On Monday, EU Member States are to adopt their joint position on new EU rules to increase gender pay transparency. The EPP Group considers it a positive step forward for gender equality. Women currently earn 14.1 percent less than men on average across the EU. While that represents a decrease in recent years, we still have a long way to go. The EPP Group stands for equal pay for equal work and improved gender equality, which would have clear, quantifiable benefits for our economies and societies.

The European Pillar of Social Rights lines out that every European worker should earn a wage which allows for a decent living, wherever they work. On Monday, the Member States are set to adopt the position on minimum wages. The EPP Group is committed to ensuring that every worker in the EU receives a fair and decent wage. This should be a tailored approach that takes into account country-specific conditions and traditions.

Member States and the European Parliament are set to reach an agreement for the new roaming rules for mobile networks on Wednesday evening. “Roam-like-at-home is an unprecedented European success story. It shows how we all directly benefit from the EU Single Market”, said Angelika Winzig MEP, the European Parliament's negotiator for the new roaming rules for mobile networks. “We want to cut costs further and improve the quality of service for all European citizens. This is an opportunity for us to add some notable improvements which will benefit European citizens and businesses and ensure more fairness on the telecom market”, said Winzig.

On Friday, Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs will vote on a Report which proposes measures to make the EU’s Foreign and Security Policy more effective and impactful. “We have set ourselves an ambitious and strategic goal of making the EU a geopolitical actor. But numerous events in 2021, starting from the disaster in Afghanistan, only confirmed that we must do more to act on our own. To achieve our strategic objective of developing the EU’s global leadership role, the Common Foreign and Security Policy needs to be reshaped following five concrete actions”, says David McAllister MEP, Chair of the committee and author of the Report. “The EU has to take the lead in strengthening partnerships on global priorities. The decision-making process within the EU needs to improve as well as our hard and soft powers. The EU must be able to act on its own by interlinking all external policies. Our regional strategies should be further developed, including on security cooperation and the parliamentary dimension. Lastly, we need to strengthen the democratic oversight of the EU’s foreign policy.” 

A revision of the Schengen Borders Code is expected to be presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 8 December. The ongoing hybrid attack at the EU external border with Belarus points to the urgency of reforming European Schengen and migration laws to prevent irregular migration and tackle human trafficking.

On 8 December, the European Commission is set to publish a law proposal on the rights of so-called platform workers. The EPP Group's message is that work must pay and should be done under fair conditions. That accounts for all workers: at the office, in factories and for digital platform workers such as Uber, Deliveroo and alike. “Digital platforms offer great potential for our future economy and played a key role during the COVID-19 lockdowns, helping other businesses to stay open. However, innovation can never be an excuse for mismanagement or exploitation”, says Dennis Radtke MEP, EPP Group Spokesman on Social Affairs.