Unrest in Libya will be discussed in Strasbourg next week, as will nuclear power, Iceland and Macedonia while MEPs get a visit from Bill Gates.

Plenary agenda

MEPs will discuss the situation  in Libya and the Middle East

on Monday and Wednesday  of their Strasbourg plenary session.

Apart from the uprisings, they'll be looking  at the influx of mainly Tunisian refugees

who've arrived  on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

We have 23,000 migrants in Italy today  who have arrived in just a few weeks.

We already have  a thousand refugees in Malta.

The illegal immigrants  should go back to their homes,

but we need to intervene there in a strong  and serious way, with proper resources.

It was here, not far from today’s  European Parliament,

that Einstein, Bohr, Dirac,  Schrödinger and others

laid the foundations  for quantum mechanics,

without which we wouldn’t have mobile  phones, lasers and nuclear power.

On Wednesday, MEPs will discuss  the future of the nuclear industry

following the disaster  at Fukushima in Japan.

The nuclear industry is  the safest and most regulated industry,

but that doesn’t mean it’s absolutely safe  and that we can’t look for improvements.

Extreme weather events,  disasters in general,

they do happen in Europe  as in the rest of the world,

so it’s very important that  we’re having these stress tests done

and we will have to look carefully  at the conclusions.

One other benefit of quantum mechanics  has been the computer.

It made a fortune  for Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

He’ll meet President Jerzy Buzek and  the Development Committee on Tuesday

to discuss his plan  for fighting global poverty and disease.

on Wednesday MEPs will look at  the progress towards EU membership

made by Iceland and the Former  Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.