Plenary session
18 May 2026
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PLENARY European Parliament
Follow its sittings08:49 - 10:51
Speaker 2
Good afternoon, dear colleagues, could I ask you to take your seats? Dear colleagues, please take your seats, let's start this plenary session. I have three very quick announcements for you. I would like to start this session with some good news that this house is very pleased that the Sakharov laureate and the fearless journalist Andrzej Poczobut was freed from prison in Belarus a few weeks ago. He has now arrived safely in Poland, we welcome his release and we congratulate the family, the services and the people involved in making this happen.
10:51 - 11:07
Speaker 1
While we celebrate this moment, it also reminds us of the many political prisoners around the world who remain unfairly imprisoned. This Parliament will continue to speak out for them and for all those who stand up for freedom in the face of oppression.
11:07 - 16:24
Speaker 2
Finally, I'd like to inform you that we will welcome Mr. Poczobut to address this House in June, next session. Now looking ahead to this week, tomorrow at 11:30, we will hold the inauguration ceremony of conferral of the European Order of Merit. This is a chance for all of us to honor those extraordinary individuals who have made significant contributions to European integration and to the promotion and defense of European values. So I would ask that you would be present in this chamber, dear colleagues, for this important event. And finally, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind all of you, dear colleagues, of the need for mutual respect during plenary sessions.
As members of this Parliament, we are all required to follow the standards of conduct agreed upon election. This is how we ensure that we continue to work as a House for everyone and deliver for Europeans. And I ask all of you to kindly respect and remember this during your debates here. Now we go to the reopening of the session that was adjourned on the 30th of April. The minutes and the texts adopted of the sitting of the 30th of April are available.
Are there any comments? No, therefore the minutes are approved. Following the appointments of Péter Magyar and Zoltán Tarr to the Hungarian government, Parliament takes note of the vacancy of their seats from the 9th of May 2026 in accordance with the Rules of Procedure. On the proposal of the Committee on Legal Affairs, Parliament verifies the credentials of Marisol Filanig with effect from 27th of March 2026. Nikolas Farantouris is no longer a member of the Left group and has joined the S&D group as of 6th May 2026.
The S&D, Renew and Greens groups have notified me of decisions related to changes to appointments within committees and delegations. These decisions will be set out in the minutes of today's sitting and take effect on the date of this announcement. The ECON, TRAN and PECH committees have decided to enter interinstitutional negotiations pursuant to Rule 72, paragraph 1 of Rules of Procedure. The reports which constitute the mandates for the negotiations are available on the plenary webpage and the titles will be published in the minutes of the sitting. Pursuant to Rule 72, paragraph 2, members of political groups reaching at least the medium threshold may request in writing by tomorrow, Tuesday, 19th May at midnight, that the decisions be put to the vote.
If no request for a vote in Parliament is made within the deadline, the committees may start negotiations. The AGRI committee has transmitted a corrigendum to a text adopted by Parliament. Pursuant to Rule 251(4), this corrigendum will be deemed approved unless no later than 24 hours after its announcement, a request is made by a political group or members reaching at least the low threshold that it be put to the vote. The corrigendum is available on the plenary webpage, its title will be published in the minutes of this sitting. I'd like to inform you that together, bless you, with the President of the Council, I shall on Wednesday sign four acts adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure in accordance with Rule 81 of our rules.
The titles of the acts are the following and will be published in the minutes of this sitting: production and marketing of forest reproductive material, use of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway area, support for workers affected by imminent job displacement, extension of certain data protection periods. Now we come to the order of business. The final draft agenda as adopted by the Conference of Presidents last week on the 13th of May pursuant to Rule 163 has been distributed.
With the agreement of the political groups, I wish to put to the House the following proposals for changes to the final draft agenda. For Wednesday, the This is Europe debate with the Prime Minister of Latvia, Evika Siliņa, scheduled for Wednesday morning, is removed from the agenda. As a consequence, the debate on High time to deliver on the single market, providing certainty and predictability for EU businesses and quality jobs, will now take place from 9:00 a.m. to 11:50. And we therefore move to changes requested by political groups, starting with tomorrow. The PfE Group has requested that Council and Commission statements on Terrorist attack in Modena, Italy, urgent need for Member States to scale up action countering domestic Islamism and to tighten criteria for granting citizenship, that this be added as the third item in the afternoon after the question time with the High Representative.
So as a consequence, the sitting would be extended to 11:00. I give the floor to Ms Susanna Ceccardi to move the request on behalf of the PfE Group.
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