The news of the last few weeks break into Strasbourg. The plenary session of the EU Parliament, convened from Monday 13th to Thursday 16th February, will deal with the publication by the EU press of some satirical cartoons about Muhammad, which "caused manifestations of protest and even violent reactions in some Muslim communities, especially in the Middle East". The floor will include people from the EU Council and the EU Commission; then, "the political groups will express their views about the right of expression and the respect of religious faiths". Then, the EU MPs will review the Rothe report, "which asks the Commission to submit, before July 31st 2006, a bill of law for doubling the use of renewable energies by 2020". The Russian gas affair marked the continental debate: the report shows there’s the need to "guarantee secure energy supplies while protecting the environment". The agenda of the plenary meeting also includes a vote on the Services Directive, which divided the institutions and the political forces who are members of the EU Parliament, and which intends to set up a single market for this area of continental economy. "The proposed Directive explains a release from the press office of Parliament is part of the process of economic reforms that has been started by the EU Lisbon Council in order to turn the EU into the economy based on the most competitive and most dynamic knowledge in the world by 2010".
