In the third week of March, the Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg will deal with various dossiers of interest such as the Data Act and green topics, such as buildings efficiency and the review of the ETS market stability reserve. In the background, there is the Eurogroup meeting with a special focus on macroeconomic developments and the worrying inflation trend.
DIGITAL
Tuesday 14 March 2023. Plenary will discuss and then vote on the Data Act, the rapporteur being Spain’s Pilar del Castillo Vera (EPP). The recent compromise on the draft Data Act clarifies the relationship between data protection laws, cloud-switching provisions, and trade secret protection while improving trade secret protection. On the same day, the Working Group on Telecommunications and the Information Society will work on the compromise text of the Data Act and the Gigabit Infrastructure Act.
HEALTH
Tuesday 14 March 2023. The Labour, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council will meet in Brussels. The first item on the agenda will be a draft law on fees and charges to be paid to the European Medicines Agency, which will be the subject of a policy discussion among ministers. The proposal, which goes back to 13 December, 2022, aims to more accurately reflect the costs associated with the work done and coordinated by the EMA. Later, ministers will discuss the Comprehensive EU Health Policy presented by the Commission on 30 November, 2022. Council conclusions are presently being drafted on this issue.
ENERGY
Monday 13 March 2023. Parliament’s plenary session will debate the Energy Efficiency in Buildings Directive signed by Ireland’s Ciarán Cuffe (Greens). Afterwards, the session will focus on binding annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by MSs (Effort Sharing Regulation) signed by Sweden’s Jessica Polfjärd (EPP). This will then be followed by a debate on the decision to revise the market stability reserve for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The rapporteur is Malta’s Cyrus Engerer (S&D).
Tuesday 14 March 2023. Voting will be held on the various legislative proposals debated on Monday mentioned above.
OTHER APPOINTMENTS
Monday 13 March 2023. The following items will be on the agenda of the Eurogroup meeting: macroeconomic and fiscal developments in the euro area, including those related to fiscal policy for 2024; preparation for international meetings, including exchange rate developments and the debriefing of the February G7 meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors; inflation developments in the euro area and MSs; euro area aspects of the economic governance review; and the policy objectives of a digital euro – strategic discussion.
