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Onderwerp: Invitation: European Parliamentary Week 2016 - Interparliamentary meeting on the European Semester & Interparliamentary Conference on Stability, Economic Coordination and Governance in the European Union - 16-17/02/2016 - European Parliament, Brussels

Dear all,

 

The States-General of The Netherlands and the European Parliament are pleased to invite you to the Interparliamentary Conference on Stability, Economic Coordination and Governance in the European Union (the Conference following Article 13 of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the EMU (TSCG)). The European Parliament also invites you to the Interparliamentary meeting on the European Semester Cycles 2015/2016. Both events are part of the 2016 edition of the European Parliamentary Week (EPW).

 

The Interparliamentary meeting on the European Semester Cycles 2015/2016 on 16 February, organised by the European Parliament, will provide an opportunity to debate the recently proposed changes to the European semester process and exchange of information on best practices in implementing the Semester cycles, and to strengthen cooperation in order to scrutinise the actions of the executive at national and European levels within the framework of the European Semester cycle.

 

The Interparliamentary Conference on Stability, Economic Coordination and Governance in the European Union on 17 February, co-hosted and co-presided over by the Netherlands Parliament and the European Parliament, will provide a framework for debate and exchange of information and best practices in implementing the provisions of the Treaty in order to strengthen cooperation between national Parliaments and the European Parliament and contribute to ensuring democratic accountability in the area of economic governance and budgetary policy in the EU, particularly in the EMU, taking into account the social dimension and without prejudice to the competences of EU Parliaments.

 

Please find attached the English invitation letter in pdf format. Personalised and translated letters will soon be dispatched to the Speakers of the national Parliaments/Chambers by regular post. I also attach the draft agendas in English (French translations to follow).

 

All documents related to the European Parliamentary Week will be published at www.europarl.europa.eu/EPW2016, and all documents related to the IPC SECG will also be available at the website of the Parliamentary Dimension of the Dutch Presidency https://parleu2016.nl. 

 

Please register online by Wednesday 27 January

All participants from national Parliaments - Members, officials, Brussels-based representatives and officials of national political groups - need to register online at http://www.opinio.europarl.europa.eu/opinio/s?s=secured_epw2016 by Wednesday 27 January. As you know, the Rules of Procedure of the IPC SECG state that the composition and size of delegations shall be determined by each Parliament. The same principle will be applied to the interparliamentary meeting on the European Semester.

In the online registration participants can choose if they will attend both events or only one of them. Participants who will attend both meetings, or only the European Semester meeting on 16 February, will also be asked to choose which of the three parallel interparliamentary committee meetings on 16 February they would like to attend.

 

Activities of political groups

There are four possible timeslots for activities of the political groups: Monday 15 February evening, Tuesday 16 February 8h00-10h00 & 13h00 to 15h00, as well as Wednesday 17 February 13h00 to 14h30. The EPP has already indicated that it intends to organise its meeting on 16 February 8h00 to 10h00, the S&D group will probably organise its meeting on 15 February evening, and the ALDE group will probably organise its meeting on 16 February 8h00 to 10h00. Detailed information to follow. Once the draft list of participants is available, the political groups in the European Parliament will also directly contact the registered participants that belong to their political family.

 

Official meals

The official dinner will take place on Tuesday 16 February and can be attended by invitation only. All Members of national Parliaments who registered either for 16 or for 17 February, or for both days, will receive the invitation card to the dinner together with their access badge to the European Parliament (details about the collection of access badges will follow at a later stage).

For organisational reasons, participation of officials at the dinner on 16 February is limited to two officials per national Parliament/Chamber, including the Brussels-based representatives. I would be grateful to all officials for respecting this limit. We will also organise lunches on both days which will be open to all participants from national Parliaments, including all officials.

 

Written contributions for EP's interparliamentary committee meetings

To prepare its interparliamentary committee meeting on 16 February, the European Parliament's Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) prepared a short questionnaire for which it would welcome written contributions from national Parliaments. Please find it attached in English and French. The EP's Committees on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and on Budgets (BUDG) would also welcome any voluntary written contributions on the topics of the parallel interparliamentary committee meetings that they will organise on 16 February. There won't be any questionnaires for these two meetings.

Written contributions should be submitted on behalf of official parliamentary bodies, delegations or officeholders. Should your Parliament/Chamber wish to submit such a contribution, I would kindly ask you to send them to me by 1 February. Please note that the European Parliament will not translate these written contributions into other languages.

 

Contacts

In the Legislative Dialogue Unit of the EP's Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments, Patrizia Prode and I are preparing the European Parliamentary Week, together with our colleagues Verena Pinzer and Patrizia di Leo. Verena is responsible for registrations and the list of participants, please refer any related questions to her (verena.pinzer@ep.europa.eu).

The administrators from the three EP Committees involved are:

ECON: Mr Samuel de LEMOS PEIXOTO (samuel.delemos@ep.europa.eu)

EMPL: Ms Monika MAKAY (monika.makay@ep.europa.eu)

BUDG: Ms Estelle GOEGER (estelle.goeger@ep.europa.eu)

The IPC SECG is organised by the Netherlands Parliament and the European Parliament. The Brussels-based representatives of the Netherlands Parliament are Suzanne Nollen (suzanne.nollen@natparl.ep.europa.eu) and Jos van de Wiel (jos.vandewiel@natparl.ep.europa.eu).

 

Just let me know if you have any questions, or if I can be of any help.

 

I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

 

Kind regards,

 

Michael