Hearings
A committee is permitted to organise a hearing with experts, where this is considered essential to its work on a particular subject. Hearings can also be held jointly by two or more committees. Most committees organise regular hearings, as they allow them to hear from experts and hold discussions on the key issues. On this page you will find all the available information relating to committee hearings, including programmes and contributions from speakers.
On Wednesday 24 May 2023, the Committee on Petitions, in association with the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, held a public hearing on “The state of implementation of the Habitats Directive”.
On Monday 27 March, the PECH Committee, in association with the ENVI and PETI Committees held a public hearing on the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) "Stop Finning – Stop the Trade".
On 28 February 2023 the Committee on Petitions held a public hearing with professors and experts on the topic “The language immersion model in Catalonia, Spain“. The public hearing assessed a follow up on several petitions on the impact of the immersion model in Catalan at schools.
On December 1st 2022, PETI Committee held a public hearing entitled 'Discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation', in association with LIBE Committee and JURI Committee. This public hearing addressed different forms of discrimination of LGBTI persons in some Member States.
This public hearing assessed the situation of children and youth in the field of mental health as childhood and adolescence are a time of special sensitivity. The pandemic, the need to cope with distance learning, and isolation from peers have brought the psychological problems of teenagers to the forefront, while access to therapy and rehabilitation has been significantly limited during the pandemic.
On 15 June 2022 the Committee on Culture and Education will hold a public hearing on “The United Kingdom and Erasmus+” in association with the Committee for Petitions. The hearing will assess the impact of the UK's decision to withdraw from Erasmus+ on higher education institutions and their students.
This public hearing focused on how renewable sources of energy are growing in proportion in the current electricity generation mix. Nevertheless, this necessary development, essential to decarbonize the electricity sector, must be respectful of the environmental and social considerations to achieve public acceptance and avoid rejection that is noticed in many territories and can put the energy transition at risk.
The Committee held a hearing on cultural and linguistic diversity in the EU, vital components of European cultural heritage. Linguistic diversity is also an important tool for achieving better intercultural understanding. Many petitions raise the question of linguistic diversity, referring to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the cooperation with the Council of Europe in the field of multilingualism.
On 15 March 2022, the PETI and JURI Committees jointly organised the hearing ‘EU Green Prosecutor - a common toolbox for fighting environmental crime’. The event, which was co-chaired by the Chairs of the two Committees, attracted strong interest, with many participants attending in person.
Over the past years PETI has received many petitions denouncing the bad consequences of reckless mining activities in different Member States, in breach of different EU environmental provisions, and with negative socioeconomic implications, for instance in the field of agriculture ,rural tourism, as well as public health.
This public hearing assessed how effectively air passenger rights have been safeguarded during the COVID-19 outbreak and it examined whether the EU’s current legal framework on passenger rights is adequate to deal with such crises. Many passengers had their flights cancelled by their airlines and national emergency measures were taken, such as flight bans, imposing quarantine requirements or requiring a negative COVID-19 test from passengers.
On 16 June 2021, the PETI and AGRI Committees organised a joint hearing on How to treat farmers in a fair and equal manner across the EU. The hearing began presenting two petitions from Lithuania and Poland complaining about the fact that farmers still receive direct payments per hectare below the EU average. It was structured in two panels; the first panel discussed the currently on-going CAP reform; the second panel dealt with how to solve inequality in CAP payments.