EU-begroting en kernafval op 'magere' agenda Europees Parlement tijdens vakantieweek (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Talks on next year's EU budget and fresh European Commission rules on nuclear waste stand out as the main events in a holiday week in Brussels.
EU Parliament President Jerzy Buzek i will meet with colleagues from the commission and member states on Thursday (4 November) after butting heads with EU leaders on the subject at a summit last week.
The EU institutions want a 6 percent hike for 2011, including an 85 percent hike in the entertainment budget of the parliament. But 11 member states, chief among them the UK, have drawn the line just short of 3 percent amid painful austerity programmes at home.
Energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger i will on Wednesday put forward a directive on Management of Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste. The bill, seen by EUobserver, says: "It is broadly accepted ... that deep geological disposal represents the safest and most sustainable option." Green groups do not like the paper.
Energy will also be top of the agenda at conference with Georgian Prime Minister Nikoloz Gilauri in Brussels on Friday. The war-damaged country already hosts oil and gas pipelines connecting the Caspian Sea region to Europe and could in future host part of the Nabucco gas pipeline bringing in resources from Azerbaijan, Iraq and Turkmenistan.
The parliament is closed on Monday and Tuesday due to the Roman Catholic holiday of All Saint's Day and most MEPs are spending the week in home constituencies.
But other deputies are taking a series of election observation and fact-finding missions.
One delegation will report on local elections being held in Ukraine on Sunday. The vote is a test of the democratic credentials of President Viktor Yanukovych amid multiplying reports on the return of authoritarianism in one of the EU's biggest neighbours. A delegation will also watch over Tanzania's poll on the same day. A final mission will look at Azerbaijan's presidential vote next Sunday on 7 November.
The fact-finding trips will take in Albania (on visa-free EU travel), China (on prospects of an EU strategic partnership), Cyprus (prospects for re-unification) and Lebanon (security on the Israeli border).
For her part, environment commissioner Connie Hedegaard i will travel to Grenada and Mexico on Monday and Wednesday, respectively, to take part in pre-Cancun-climate-change-summit talks with the Alliance of Small Island States.
And neighbourhood commissioner Stefan Fuele will visit Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday. The trip comes amid EU soul-searching on how to conduct relations with nearby countries in the next 10 years.
The EU last week granted Jordan "advanced status" in a move leading to more trade perks and joint projects. Israel was in 2008 on track for a similar diplomatic upgrade but the process was frozen after it killed hundreds of civilians in an attack on Gaza.