EP this week: lessons from the crisis, NSA inquiry, EU summit - Main contents

MEPs are back for a busy committee week in Brussels. The economic committee reviews the impact of the bailout programmes for crisis-stricken countries, while the civil liberties committee continues its inquiry into the NSA scandal after the return of their fact-finding delegation from Washington DC. Political group leaders will revisit the conclusions of the last European Council and MEPs will also vote on the future of the Erasmus programme.

The economic committtee is organising a hearing on Tuesday to look into how the crisis was handled in the worst affected countries. They will focus on the widely-contested policies pursued by the Troika of international lenders, made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund. MEPs will hear from experts and representatives of the Commission and the ECB.

The eighth hearing in the NSA inquiry will be held on Thursday and it will focus on the companies involved with surveillance as well as on the role played by the UK and Germany.

The political group leaders will hold a debate on Tuesday open to all MEPs on the outcome of the EU summit on 24-25 October. MEPs will discuss the progress on issues such as immigration and data protection with European Council president Herman Van Rompuy i and Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič i.

Committee votes

The culture committee votes Tuesday on an informal deal with the Council on the establishment of a new programme called Erasmus+, that will bring together various youth-oriented initiatives, including the Erasmus student exchange programme.

The fisheries committee votes Monday on new rules on deep sea fishing in the North-East Atlantic to ensure the sustainable exploitation of the stocks.

Other events

Vítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira, the president of the European Court of Auditors, presents his institution's report on how the EU's budget was spent last year to the EP's budgetary control committee on Tuesday.

Introduced 20 years ago, the co-decision procedure gave the European Parliament and the Council an equal say on a wide range of legislative proposals. A conference on Tuesday will mark this important moment.

On Monday EP president Martin Schulz i speaks at a conference in Athens that will bring together MEPs and journalists from several European countries to discuss how to launch the economic recovery and stimulate growth.

People from across Europe will gather in the EP from Wednesday to Friday to share ideas on how to tackle youth unemployment in Europe.

REF. : 20131104STO23603