Echoes of the war in Ukraine, worries about instability in the Middle East and in a large part of Africa, disappointment for the mediocre results of Cop27: these are some of the issues that will bounce off to Strasbourg, where the plenary session of the European Parliament will be opening this afternoon (21-24 November). Also today, at the opening of the session, a debate will be held about the state of human rights in Qatar in connection with the football cup that is taking place in that country. “FIFA’s decision to award the World Cup 2022 to Qatar has aroused controversy among human rights organisations and football fans”, says a release from the EU Parliament. “The information collected by several human rights groups on a diplomatic mission to Doha shows that, in the run-up to the championship, thousands of foreign workers died in the building sites or from building-related operations”. Qatar “has also been accused, among other things, of hindering freedom of the press and repressing women’s and LGBT people’s rights”.
The week’s issues in Strasbourg include, on Wednesday, the matter of asylum, migrants and sea rescues: the MEPs will question the Czech Presidency of the EU Council and the EU Commission about “guarantees of solidarity and sharing of costs in the management of migratory flows in Europe”. The debate at the plenary session is expected to be focussed on how to develop the reform of the common European migration and political asylum policy.