The hot topics on the table will be economic governance, maternity leave and the EU budget.

Mini-plenary in Brussels

MEPs’ diaries will be full  next week in Brussels.

A dozen committees  will get back to work.

The highlight being a mini-plenary  Wednesday and Thursday.

At issue: the future of economic  governance in the EU

based on recommendations  from the rapporteur.

The first one is the idea of establishing  a robust framework

for the surveillance of the microeconomic  policies in the Union and Member States.

The second one is strengthening  the rules of the Growth and Stability Pact.

The final report will be put to MEPs  at the Strasbourg plenary in October.

Tuesday, the Women’s Committee will  revisit the extension of maternity leave.

The vote was delayed twice,  but the results of an impact study

on costs and benefits of maternity leave  for Member States is now out.

as the Open Days for European regions  is happening throughout the week.

Thursday, MEPs will debate the future of  regional and cohesion policy post-2013.

Regional policy takes up almost  45% of the EU’s budget annually.

There are many people  who want a smaller budget.

But I think it’s a mistake  which we are not allowed to do.

With all the problems  with national budgets,

and we will have to do more  at the EU level.

Thursday, the Parliament  will celebrate

the 20th anniversary of German  reunification with 2 persons of note:

the former PM of East Germany  Lothar De Mazière

and Jacques Delors  ex-European Commission president.