European Parliament this week: Budget talks, migration and appointments to Single Resolution Board

This week MEPs are discussing a number of issues that need to be finalised during the last plenary session of the year which commences in Strasbourg next Monday. Among the issues on this week's agenda are the ongoing budget negotiations between the Parliament and Council, a resolution on migration responsibilities and appointments to the banking union's Single Resolution Board. At the Conference of Presidents Jean-Claude Juncker will present the Commission's programme of work for 2015.

Negotiations on the EU budgets for 2014 and 2015 continue between the Parliament and the member states this week. If agreement is reached before the end of the week, MEPs can adopt the 2015 budget at next week's plenary session. Without agreement the EU will have to run on provisional monthly installments.

On Thursday (11 December) Parliament's civil liberties committee votes on a resolution on the migration situation in the Mediterranean and on fair sharing of responsibilities among the member states. Search and rescue duties, cooperation with third countries and human trafficking are mentioned in the text of the resolution.

The role of the Single Resolution Mechanism is to ensure the orderly winding down of troubled banks in the eurozone. The Single Resolution Board is responsible for carrying this out and on Monday (8 December) the economic affairs committee holds public hearings with candidates for the position of board chairperson. Candidates for other posts will be assessed on Tuesday (9 December) with the final vote scheduled for the upcoming plenary.

On Thursday European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker meets the Conference of Presidents of political groups to discuss the Commission’s 2015 work programme.

From Monday to Friday a delegation of 12 MEPs is at the UN climate talks in Lima where countries are preparing a new global agreement to be finalized next year in Paris.