Opening - Journalists are the first guardians of human rights

President Tajani recalled the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, at the opening of the session in Strasbourg.

“The European Parliament has always been at the forefront of defending human rights”, said President Tajani. It set up the Sakharov prize for Freedom of Thought thirty years ago, awarded to those who have made an exceptional contribution to the fight for human rights. On Wednesday, the 2018 Sakharov Prize will be awarded to Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov.

Five Sakharov winners have gone on to receive the Nobel peace prize and President Tajani offered his warmest congratulations to Sakharov prize winners Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, who receive the Nobel Peace Prize today in Oslo.

President Tajani expressed his regret at the passing of Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the 2009 Sakharov prize winner.

Recalling that the first guardians of human rights are journalists, President Tajani said his thoughts were with Daphne Caruana Galizia, Ján Kuciak, Jamal Khashoggi and all those imprisoned unfairly around the world.

Changes to the agenda

Tuesday

A Commission statement on “Adequacy of the protection of personal data afforded by Japan” will be added to the Joint debate on the EU-Japan Partnership agreement. The debate will be wound up with a resolution.

A VPC/HR statement on "The ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on the case of Selahattin Demirtas" will be added as the third item in the afternoon (after the joint debate on the EU-Japan Partnership Agreement).

Wednesday

The debate on the Council and Commission statements on "Conflicts of interest and the protection of the EU budget in the Czech Republic" will be wound up with a resolution, to be voted on Thursday,

Requests by committees to start negotiations with Council and Commission

Decisions by several committees to enter into inter-institutional negotiations (Rule 69c) are published on the plenary website.

If no request for a vote in Parliament on the decision to enter into negotiations is made by Tuesday 24.00, the committees may start negotiations.