Agenda
Italy and migration will top This WEEK
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Instead of going, former PM Silvio Berlusconi might come back to dominate Italian politics once again (Photo: Nela Lazarevic)
By Eszter Zalan
Italy will vote over the weekend with all eyes in Europe will be fixed on the third largest economy in the eurozone to see if the results will yield to a relatively stable coalition.
The outcome could pave the way for another political comeback to Silvio Berlusconi, former prime minister, who has tipped European Parliament president Anotnio Tajani as his PM candidate in case his centre-right party wins big enough to lead a coalition.
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Germany might also have a new government by the beginning of the week, as the result of a vote of members of the Social Democratic party (SPD) on the coalition agreement with chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats will be published over the weekend.
Migrating ministers
In Brussels, things are looking quiet this week, unless new, unexpected management announcements by the EU Commission will ruffle feathers once again .
On Monday (6 March) environment ministers will gather in the council.
Their colleagues focusing on justice and home affairs will gather on Thursday (8 March).
Migration is always a key issue for the ministers, and work on the asylum reform accelerates as June approaches, when EU leaders are set to decide how they want to organise a mandatory or voluntary distribution of migrants, and defend the external borders.
Cherry picking
After UK prime minister Theresa May's speech on the future EU-UK relationships on Friday (2 March), the European Parliament's leaders - the president and the group chiefs – will put forward a draft resolution on the framework on those future relations, as they see it.
It will be voted on by MEPs the week after. The resolutions can set out the "red lines" of the EP, which will have to ratify a future trade deal, as well as the final withdrawal agreement aimed to be concluded by negotiators this autumn.
EU ambassadors will also start discussing the possible elements of the negotiating guidelines for the commission on those future ties. EU leaders are expected to adopt the guidelines at the end of March.
Le Pen verdict
France's far-right MEP Jean-Marie Le Pen will await the European Court of Justice's decision on Wednesday (7 March) on the annulment of the European Parliament's decisions to recover €320,026 which the parliament said was unduly paid to him for staff.
