European Parliament cancels all events amidst Coronavirus outbreak fears
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The European Parliament is to cancel more than 100 events because of the coronavirus outbreak but next week’s plenary session “will unfold properly,” Parliament President David Sassoli said Monday.
As part of measures to try and stop the spread of the virus, Sassoli announced at a press conference that any visit or event planned “in the next three weeks,” including “visits of all MEPs organized in the Parliament, personal visits or of accredited assistants” as well as any seminar or cultural exhibition held on the Parliament’s premises will “not take place,” Sassoli said.
An official close to Sassoli said that the move would affect “130 events and involve up to 7,000 people.”
But the Parliament’s monthly decamp to Strasbourg for a plenary session will go ahead as planned next week, and most of the work of the assembly’s committees and its Conference of Presidents — meetings of the political group leaders — will be unaffected, Sassoli said.
“We have a duty, which is that the Parliament must continue its legislative activity, and we want this to happen,” Sassoli said. “The plenary will unfold properly,” he added, although he didn’t mention Strasbourg by name.
The measures to be implemented include denying “access to the buildings of the European Parliament” to people who have recently visited affected regions for a period of 14 days after their return. Committee hearings and election observation delegations will also be stopped for now.
