MEPs return to Brussels on Monday with a packed programme of legislative issues to deal with.
In a vote by Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, MEPs are expected to call for closer integration of national defence capabilities and increases in financial and staff resources, in particular experts in cyber forensics, to make it easier to identify the sources of cyber-attacks.
The issue is again in the news with the US and Britain recently accusing Russia of launching cyber-attacks on computer routers, firewalls and other networking equipment used by government agencies, businesses and critical infrastructure operators around the globe.
It followed a series of warnings by Western governments that Moscow is behind a string of cyber-attacks. Moscow has denied previous accusations that it carried out cyber-attacks on US and other countries.
Elsewhere, EU funding for migration-related programmes and the challenges that are faced by organisations managing it in the field will be debated at a public hearing organised by the civil liberties, budgets and budgetary control committees.
MEPs will review EU migration expenditure and propose ways to improve the efficiency of EU funding for asylum and migration policies.
As new EU rules on data protection are set to take effect on 25 May, MEPs and national MPs will also meet to discuss their implementation with law enforcement authorities, intergovernmental organisations, enterprises and IT specialists.
In a vote on Wednesday, the budgets committee votes on plans to mobilise more than €100m in financial aid to Greece, following earthquakes in Lesbos, hurricane damage in the French overseas territories of Saint-Martin and Guadeloupe and forest fires in Portugal and Spain, all in 2017.
On Thursday, an overhaul of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) will be up for a vote in the environment committee. The current system is unable to respond effectively to all the requests from EU member states for support. Proposed changes, including the creation of a Civil Protection Erasmus, reflect lessons learned from forest fires in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Greece in 2017.
The assembly’s President Antonio Tajani will be in Sofia for the EU-Western Balkans Summit on Wednesday and Thursday.