In his famous poem “Voyelles” (Vowels) French poet Arthur Rimbaud associated each vowel with a particular colour. MEPs are just as adept at using colour, but don’t be fooled into thinking that they have been inspired by the poetic muse. In their case, the use of colour is a practical way of identifying the composition of the parliamentary week, where each of the calendar’s four colours corresponds to a specific parliamentary activity. Details are “coloured in” below.
Red: Parliamentary sessions and debates
In the calendar, the weeks marked in red are when the plenary sittings are held. During these sittings all MEPs meet in public in the chamber in Strasbourg. Around six additional two-day sittings also take place in Brussels. It is during these plenary sittings that MEPs take the most important decisions, adopt legislation and take positions on all manner of political subjects.
Pink: Proposed laws discussed by Committees
Before being submitted, debated and voted on in plenary session, all proposed legislation is first discussed by MEPs in parliamentary committees.
They scrutinise and amend proposals from the Commission and Council and draft reports which are submitted to the plenary session. Committee chairmen coordinate their work within the Conference of Committee Chairmen.
There are 20 permanent committees and each specialises in a particular field (such as the environment, the internal market, transport and agriculture). They meet once or twice a month in Brussels and pink is the colour used in the calendar to identify the periods when these committee meetings take place.
Blue: Political groups meet
Blue represents the weeks devoted to meetings of the political groups. MEPs are grouped together on the basis of political affiliation rather than nationality. Although MEPs cannot belong to more than one political group, it is possible for a member not to belong to any group. In such a case they are known as “non-attached” members.
Every month, Parliament’s members meet within their groups to discuss proposed legislation which will come up at the plenary session, which is why mainly blue weeks generally precede red weeks. It is during these meetings that the political groups set their priorities and take positions on the main issues on the agenda.
Turquoise: Politics away from the Parliament
Lastly, there are the so-called “turquoise” weeks that are reserved for external parliamentary activities. During these periods of which there are four in 2009, there is usually no formal political activity at the European Parliament itself.
Instead, MEPs have the opportunity to undertake activities away from “base”, for example concentrating on their constituencies and meeting the electorate at home, or possibly by taking part in an official delegation visit to maintain and develop the Parliament's international contacts.
The European Parliament's calendar for 2010
Source: EP
