MEPs to hold urgent eurozone talks

Debate with Commission and Council moved forward.

The European Parliament will tomorrow (25 October) hold urgent talks on the eurozone debt crisis with senior figures from the European Commission and Council of Ministers.

MEPs gave their backing for the debate at the start of their four-day plenary session in Strasbourg. The request to hold the debate was made by Rebecca Harms, co-leader of the Green group in the Parliament.

Harms said that because of the seriousness of the crisis, the Parliament could not wait to hold talks with Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the Council, and José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, which were planned for Thursday (27 October). A summit of the countries of the eurozone on Wednesday night will be preceded by a meeting of the leaders of all 27 countries and before that by a meeting of the finance ministers of the 27 and then of the eurozone.

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“We cannot possibly turn our backs on having a debate on this crisis. We cannot wait until Thursday,” said Harms.

Hannes Swoboda, an Austrian centre-left MEP, agreed, adding that the Parliament had to use the emergency debate to send EU leaders “a message” to resolve the crisis during their meetings on Wednesday.

Parliament officials said it was unclear whether Van Rompuy would attend tomorrow’s debate or whether a minister from Poland, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, would fill in.

Also on the agenda of this week’s plenary session are debates and votes on the Parliament’s position on the 2012 budget, rules to combat child abuse and web pornography, and public procurement reform.