By Martin Banks - 7th October 2007
The Bulgarian medics who were recently freed from jail in Libya will visit parliament this week for a series of meetings.
After more than eight years in custody, the five nurses and one Palestinian doctor returned to Bulgaria on 24 July.
They had been held in prison since 1999 on allegations of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV/Aids.
They have been invited by parliament’s president, Hans-Gert Poettering, to attend the opening of the Brussels plenary on Wednesday.
During the visit, they will have meetings with political groups and attend a news conference.
A parliament spokesman said, "During their detention, parliament repeatedly called for a fair trial for the medics and opposed the death sentence imposed on them.
The start of parliament’s two-day plenary on 10 October coincides with World/European Day against the Death Penalty and Poettering will open the session with a statement calling for the event to be held annually.
The plenary will also vote on parliament’s future composition and number of MEPs allocated to each member state after the 2009 European elections.
A report says Germany will continue to have most MEPs with Italy set to lose six seats.
Meanwhile, just days before the crucial summit in Lisbon on 18 October, deputies will be given an update on the work of the inter-governmental conference (IGC) from its three parliamentary representatives, Elmar Brok, Enrique Baron Crespo and Andrew Duff.
Elsewhere, the financing of the common agricultural policy (CAP) comes under the spotlight this week.
On Tuesday, the agriculture committee is expected to endorse calls for all national lists of recipients of EU direct farm aid to be published on the Internet and for links to be created from the commission’s website.
Currently, 13 member states have set up online registers accessible to the public via the Europa website.
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