Opening of the session

At the start of this week's Strasbourg session of the European Parliament, EP President Jerzy Buzek expressed sorrow at the situation in Haiti and at the execution of a British citizen in China.

"Today my thoughts are with the people of Haiti affected by the great tragedy of the earthquake" Mr Buzek told the House. Individual countries of Europe and the whole Union have pledged substantial financial assistance and 150 EU police officers are being sent.  The President also said "It is with great sadness that I must inform you that Ms Pilar Juarez Boal, deputy director of the EU Delegation in Haiti, is still believed to be missing". Ms Juarez Boal previously worked at Parliament.

Mr Buzek voiced regret at the execution in China of Akmal'a Shaikh'a, a British citizen.  He added "The European Parliament has always condemned and condemns the death penalty and will continue its efforts to achieve a moratorium on executions".

With the EP having received no official information yet about the result of the first round of presidential elections in Ukraine, Mr Buzek said he hoped they had been conducted fairly and that the same would apply to the second round.

From 1 January, Spain took over the Presidency of the EU Council.  Mr Buzek looked forward to seeing the new Presidency achieve its objectives under the Lisbon Treaty.

Agenda changes

The House decided on the following agenda changes:

The debate on Haiti will now be the first item on Tuesday afternoon, instead of Thursday, and will include a statement by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs/Commission Vice-President-designate, Catherine Ashton.  The debate on Tunisia is moved from Tuesday to Thursday morning and will open with a statement by the Commission.   Parliament will vote on a resolution on this topic at its February Strasbourg session.

Tuesday's oral question on the EU-South Korea free trade agreement is moved to the February Strasbourg session. The debate on the Joly report on the second revision of the ACP-EU partnership will be held as the first item on Tuesday evening of this week, at 9pm, to enable Commissioner Karel de Gucht to take part.

The three debates on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, will now take place on Thursday morning starting at 10am.

The House rejected a request by the EFD group to add to the agenda a vote on the issue of subsidiarity, relating notably to the question of crucifixes in Italian schools.  Parliament had held a debate on this subject in December but the EP political group leaders subsequently decided not to have a vote on a resolution.