Thursday
28th Jan 2021
The director of the European Medicine Agency, Emer Cooke will be quizzed by MEPs in the parliament on vaccine authorisation on Tuesday. EMA is expected to give the green light to the third vaccine at the end of the week.
EU leaders talk vaccines, while the Portugues EU presidency introduces itself to MEPs. Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president of the United States, and the EU hopes this will mark a new beginning for EU-US relations.
With only five weeks to go before the UK severs all ties with the EU, chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned that the "same significant divergences persist" between the two sides in post-Brexit talks.
The European Parliament's environment committee will hear from the person who negotiated the vaccine contracts, commission director-general of health and food safety, Sandra Gallina.
On Wednesday, MEPs will vote on the seven-year EU budget file as a whole, and also on the rule-of-law conditionality.
Any post-Brexit deal achieved needs to be ratified by the European Parliament before the end of December (and then by national parliaments), while some member states want to see the agreement translated before they can agree to it.
Ahead of the next European summit in mid-December, MEPs will address the EU's long-term budget and rule-of-law conditionality in another virtual plenary session. Discussions will also focus on consumer rights, pharmaceutical strategy and the pandemic.
Talks between the EU and the UK have moved little, with only seven weeks left until the UK breaks ties with the EU. Negotiations are expected to resume on Monday in Brussels.
As the US elects a new president, EU foreign affairs and trade ministers will discuss developments on Monday.
After almost a week of arm-wrestling and ten days before the UK severs all of its EU ties, negotiators are back working hard on a deal on the future EU-UK relations. Budget and rule of law talks will also continue.
Tense post-Brexit talks in London, and EU budget and rule-of-law negotiations in Brussels, will continue this week, as EU countries battle the second wave of Covid-19.
Talks between the UK and the EU have progressed painfully slowly, but a deal on future relations needs to be agreed by the end of October. MEPs and diplomats will have another go at settling the next EU budget.
Breakthroughs are needed this week in both the EU-UK talks and negotiations on the budget between member states and the European Parliament. Migration will also be back, with ministers having their first debate on the new migration pact proposal.
Deciding on Belarus sanctions and the relationship with Turkey will be front and centre on the agenda for EU leaders who will meet this week in Brussels.
Migration and foreign policy will take centre stage next week, as the EU tries to come to a common position on Turkey, China, Russia and the sanctions on Belarus.
Von der Leyen's first annual speech launches the autumn political semester in the EU, in which she is expected to address the Covid-19 pandemic, migration and key foreign political issues.
Negotiations on the EU budget - between the parliament and member states - and on Brexit continue. Meanwhile, MEPs are voicing concern about travelling to Strasbourg during the pandemic for the parliament's next plenary session.
Ireland's deputy prime minster Simon Coveney is reported to be the frontrunner for the post. MEPs will also discuss where negotiations on the EU's long-term budget with member states are heading.
EU leaders resume their summit over the long-term budget and recovery fund, after a fruitless weekend of meetings in Brussels. Meanwhile, the European Commission is to present a new security strategy for the EU plus several action plans.
EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Friday and Saturday to discuss in person the EU's long-term budget and recovery plan to respond to the crisis. Meanwhile, the future of the EU-US Privacy Shield might depend on this week's ruling.
European Council president Charles Michel is expected to present his compromise proposal on the EU's long-term budget and the recovery fund to national capitals in the second half of the week.
Germany will take over the EU's rotating presidency for the next difficult six months, making two of the three EU institutions led by German politicians and officials. Poland will digest the results of the first round of its presidential election.
This week, the European Union and China are holding their first joint summit since April 2019. It comes amid the pandemic, which first surfaced in China's Wuhan, protests in Hong Kong and a belligerent US president.
This week will see the start of key talks on how to kickstart the EU's economy, while British PM Boris Johnson and top EU officials will discuss how to move forward, plus eastern partners and Pampeo will also be online.
"Freedom is the rule," in Belgium, the EU institutions' home, from Monday, when bars and cafes reopen. But 90 percent of EU talks - on economic rescues and Africa diplomacy - to stay online.
Post-Brexit talks between the UK and EU enter a crucial phase this week - the last round before a legal deadline expires on extending a transition period.
Tough negotiations start this week on both the EU's recovery fund and its revised long-term budget, which are likely to determine the entire future of the bloc.
Talks on how to spend Europe's way out of a post-lockdown economic slump and how to restart higher education dominate a short week ahead for EU institutions.
MEPs will debate the new EU budget and recovery efforts, Hungary's emergency measures, borders and mobility on coronatimes. Meanwhile EU-UK talks will continue, but with little progress in sight.
Worldwide efforts will be made to find €7.5bn for a possible cure for Covid-19. The commission will also flesh out its estimates of the coming recession.
EU ministers will discuss how and when to reopen borders after the pandemic abates, as lockdown-Europe waits with baited breath for summer.
EU leaders will again try to hammer out a compromise on how to fund an economic recovery after the deepest crisis since the Second World War - but divisions are still running deep. MEPs meanwhile will quiz various commissioners, online.
While EU leaders are meeting the week after to deal with the economic consequences of the pandemic, the commission is expected to roll out a roadmap for exit strategies from lockdowns.