The week ahead: 1-7 June 2015

Political group and committee meetings, Brussels   

EU PNR. Civil liberties MEPs will debate changes to the draft legislation that would oblige airlines to hand over Passenger Name Records (PNR) data to member state authorities. The proposed amendments touch on a wide range of issues, including which flights should be included, retention periods of the collected data and data protection provisions. (Thursday (4 June))   

LuxLeaks & tax rulings. The international dimension of tax rulings will be debated by the special committee on tax rulings with speakers including former Competition and Tax Commissioner Mario Monti, Luxembourg whistleblower Antoine Deltour and Tax Transparency Network founder Richard Murphy. The discussion will feed into the committee's recommendations for improving transparency and cooperation between member states in this field. (Monday (1 June))

Animal and public health. Parliament and Council Presidency negotiators will try to reach agreement on a European Law on Transmissible Animal Diseases. The legislation would establish for the first time the link between animal welfare and public health and allow urgent measures to be passed to tackle outbreaks of diseases that have a major impact on public health and agricultural production, such as bluetongue, African swine fever or avian influenza. (Monday)

United Nations and development. The President of the 69th UN General Assembly, Sam Kahamba Kutesa, will meet foreign affairs and development MEPs to discuss preparations for the July UN conference on financing for development and the September UN summit on the post-2015 development agenda. (Wednesday)                     Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. MEPs and members of Latin American parliaments will gather for the 8th plenary session of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. Migration, TTIP, relations with China, climate change, financing of political parties and the fight against poverty and organized crime are some of the topics to be discussed. (Thursday and Friday)

Plenary preparations. Political groups will prepare for the 8-11 June plenary session in Strasbourg, where MEPs will vote on recommendations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations; reform of EU economic governance; rules to allow major companies' shareholders to vote on directors’ pay; EU-Russia relations and the military situation in the Black Sea Basin; gender equality in the EU; sport and human rights; and the situation in Hungary.

President's diary. European Parliament President Martin Schulz and all political group leaders will visit Luxembourg to meet the government before Luxembourg takes over the EU presidency, on Monday. President Schulz will have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, with whom he will hold a press conference. Schulz will deliver a speech at the ceremony launching the European Development Days; meet the UN Special Advisor on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, and deliver the closing speech at the 'Towards an effective Economic and Monetary Union' event, on Wednesday.

Pre-session press briefing. The European Parliament Press Service will hold a press briefing with the EP's political group spokespersons at 11h on Friday (5 June). (Anna Politkovskaya room, press centre, Brussels).

Press seminar on development. The European Parliament press service is holding a seminar for journalists on the EU and the Millennium Development Goals. Key MEPs and experts will discuss Parliament’s ongoing work on financing for development, tax evasion in developing countries and the role of the private sector. (Tuesday).

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