Promoting children’s health and safety [May II plenary session]

Written by Tessa Tumbrägel

On Wednesday 27 May MEPs will meet for a mini-plenary session in Brussels. They will have a brief, but full agenda, beginning with a formal address by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon early in the afternoon.

Parliament will then debate preparations for the 7-8 June G7 summit in Germany, which will again take place without Russia, whose membership of the G8 was suspended following its annexation of Crimea. The agenda includes a variety of issues related to the global economy, foreign, security and development policy and environmental protection.

MEPs are also due to vote on amending legislation on a new single scheme for fruit and milk in schools. The proposal, as forwarded by the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, endorses plans to merge two existing, yet separate schemes – one providing milk and the other fruit and vegetables in school – to make projects more efficient and promote healthy eating habits and the consumption of local foodstuffs amongst children.

Later on, the plenary will hear an oral question, posed by the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, on ending the practice of early, forced marriage of girls, which remains a concern in some EU Member States. Parliament has taken a strong position on this issue, urging the Commission to (among other things) promote national ratification of and the EU’s accession to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (also called Istanbul Convention).

Other items on the agenda include a discussion of EU development aid to Eritrea in the light of documented human rights abuses and a debate on cyber-attacks against the media and their implications for cybersecurity within the EU.