Week ahead: Forewarned is forearmed

Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič will present the Commission’s second annual strategic foresight report on Wednesday (8 September). The report comes a week ahead of the annual ‘State of the EU’ address by the Commission president. The initiative is part of an effort to ensure that the EU is resilient in the face of challenges, but also able to prepare itself by embedding foresight into all aspects of policy making. The 2021 Report will look at structural global megatrends towards 2050 that are set to affect the EU, and will identify areas where the EU could boost its global leadership. 

On Tuesday (7 September) Commissioner Hahn will hold a press conference on the adoption of the Green Bonds Framework, the EUGBS (the European Green Bond Standard) aims to be a “robust tool to demonstrate that they are funding legitimate green projects aligned with the EU taxonomy”.

Parliament

Europe fit for the Digital Age Executive Vice President and Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will meet (6 September) with the chairs of five committees (INGE, ITRE, IMCO, LIBE, AIDA) in the parliament for an exchange of views on the digital agenda. 

The Women’s Rights Committee and the delegation for relations with Afghanistan will meet to discuss the situation of women and girls’ rights.

The Special Committee on Beating Cancer will meet on Thursday (9 September) will meet to discuss the exchange of health data and the digitization in cancer prevention and care, as well as an update on the implementation of the EU’s chemicals strategy for sustainability in the context of cancer prevention.

The Subcommittee on Security and Defence will discuss the situation in Afghanistan, as well as a study on ‘EU preparedness and responses to Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) threats’ and Sven Mikser MEP (S&D, EE) draft report on ‘Challenges and prospects for multilateral Weapons of Mass Destruction arms control and disarmament regimes’. 

Court

European Union Court of Justice will give its opinion on the recovery of €2.7 billion from the UK for its failure to put in place a risk-based approach to customs control, despite repeated warnings from OLAF, the EU’s independent anti-fraud office. The failure to address this issue also meant that EU manufacturers had to compete with undervalued goods coming into the EU via the EU. OLAF’s figure covers the years 2011-2017. Other important judgements are expected in the field of Asylum (C-18/20, C-768/19).

Council

Agriculture and fisheries ministers will be meeting informally from 5-7. Economic and Finance ministers will have an informal meeting by video conference on 6 September, and will have another informal meeting on 10-11. As usual the Eurogroup will be meet ahead of the inclusive meeting on 10. 

ECB

The European Central Bank will have its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, with inflation now exceeding 2% target, all eyes will be fixed on what the ECB will do next.

Tunisia

EU High Representative Josep Borrell will visit Tunisia on Friday (10 September). In July the Tunisian President Kais Saied dismissed the Prime Minister and suspected the parliament invoking emergency powers in the face of demonstrations over economic hardship and a rise in Covid-19 cases, The EU has called on Tunisia to respect its constitution and the rule of law. 

Share this article: