Plenary Priorities 27-30 April 2026
Ensuring Europe’s energy security and competitiveness - We call on the European Commission to urgently implement a unified European strategy to counter rising energy and fertiliser prices.
The escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the resulting turbulence in global energy markets have once again laid bare Europe’s exposure to external shocks.
Europe can no longer rely on switching suppliers as a response to crisis. The structural answer lies in reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels through electrification, clean energy deployment, and deeper market integration.
Each geopolitical shock directly inflates costs for citizens and companies, while increasing uncertainty for investors and industry. Fertiliser production, industrial output, and food security are all exposed to sustained energy volatility.
Our key demands :
-We call on EU leaders, following their informal Council, to commit to an immediate, coordinated and deeply integrated European energy strategy.
-Accelerate REPowerEU, scale up renewable and nuclear capacity, and reinforce joint gas purchasing through AggregateEU to reduce imports, strengthen strategic autonomy and shield Europe from geopolitical price shocks.
-Deploy coordinated measures to limit price volatility, modernise grid infrastructure, and improve cross-border energy flows across the Union.
-Keep energy affordable while defending the EU ETS, and accelerate permitting for renewables to support industrial resilience and climate objectives.
-Rapidly implement the Draghi report to mobilise private capital at scale and close the €750+ billion annual investment gap critical to Europe’s competitiveness and energy transition.
Debate : EU strategy in response to the ongoing Middle East crisis, its implications on energy prices and the availability of fertilisers, Wednesday 29 April, 9:00
What a budget for a competitive and liberal Europe should look like - MEPs will adopt their negotiating position on the 2028–2034 EU budget, a roughly €2 trillion package. The Parliament voted for a 10 percent increase compared to the Commission’s July 2025 proposal.
Our group succeeded in embedding its priorities in the adopted position. The strong competitiveness fund - a long-standing demand of centrists, liberals, and democrats - will now become a reality. Core programmes supporting biodiversity and EU health have been safeguarded. Robust rule of law conditionality is secured across the entire budget. The adoption of new revenue streams to maintain a balanced EU budget is a clear red line for the Parliament.
Finally, we secured a concrete budgetary response to the “My Voice, My Choice” campaign, where over 1.2 million citizens from 19 Member States mobilised to demand access to safe abortion at the EU level. Thanks to our efforts, their demands are now reflected in the Parliament’s position.
Debate and vote : Tuesday 28 April
Lebanon: Europe must act, not watch - Lebanon is caught in a conflict it did not choose, squeezed between Israeli military operations that struck Beirut’s neighbourhoods and razed entire villages and now occupy 6 percent of its territory, and decades of Hezbollah's exploitation on behalf of Tehran. The human cost is devastating: over 1.2 million people displaced, more than 2 000 killed and 7 000 injured, massive destruction, and an enormous reconstruction bill for a country already on its knees.
Europe cannot leave Lebanon alone in its despair. Israel's legitimate security concerns cannot justify destruction of this scale. The fragile ceasefire must deliver real outcomes - Israeli withdrawal, and internationally supervised disarmament of Hezbollah. Lebanon is not a peripheral crisis. It is a test of Europe's ability to act in its own neighbourhood.
Debate : Situation in Lebanon : implementation of the ceasefire, support peace efforts and humanitarian access, Wednesday 29 April, 13:00.
Importance of consent-based rape legislation in the EU - The European Parliament votes Wednesday on a report calling on the Commission to bring forward an EU-wide consent-based definition of rape, after a consent-based definition was dropped from the EU's directive on violence against women in 2024 after several member states challenged the EU's legal competence to legislate on rape.
Most sexual violence happens at home, between people who know each other, and most victims do not fight back. A law built around force and resistance leaves those cases in a legal grey area.
The report makes significant advances: it stresses that the freeze and fawn responses must be reflected in law and judicial practice, establishes that consent can be withdrawn at any moment, and calls for non-consensual sexual acts in digital and virtual environments to be legally recognised and prosecuted. Renew Europe strongly supports the report and is co-signing S&D's amendments to reinsert a definition of "rape culture", make training for law enforcement mandatory, and introduce mandatory sexuality education in national school curricula.
Debate : Monday 27 April. Vote : Tuesday 28 April
Renew MEPs: Abir Al-Sahlani (Centerpartiet/Sweden) & Anna-Maja Henriksson (Svenska folkpartiet i Finland/Finland)