THE WEEK IN STRASBOURG:THE EUROPEAN Parliament chamber in Strasbourg echoed to the sounds of an orchestra this week as MEPs celebrated the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the European Parliament with a special sitting on Wednesday.
Much of the discussion centred on changes that the parliament and the world in which it operates has undergone since 142 delegates from six countries assembled in Strasbourg on March 19th, 1958, for the first meeting of what was then the European Parliamentary Assembly.
Renamed the European Parliament in 1962, it now has a directly elected membership of 785 MEPs from 27 countries and has decision-making powers on legislation, the budget and control and scrutiny of the European Commission.
Should the Lisbon Treaty be ratified, its powers are set to be increased with the extension of the principle of co-decision between the parliament and the EU Council to cover 85 areas.
Elsewhere, Independent MEP Kathy Sinnott argued on Wednesday that the implications of a recent European Court of Justice decision should be discussed at the two-day EU leaders' summit that began in Brussels yesterday.
In its landmark Laval Vaxholm ruling, the EU's highest court ruled that Swedish trade unions could not force a foreign company to observe local pay deals.
This could mean companies registered abroad can pay inferior wages, based on local rates in their own country, to workers in other EU member states.
The house also heard concerns about financial reporting standards in the EU, while the challenges which EU development co-operation policy poses for new member states was discussed at yesterday's final session.
A report on gender equality and the empowerment of women in development co-operation was discussed by MEPs yesterday.
The Common Agriculture Policy has undergone a "health check" by the European Commission and many MEPs were anxious to have their say on it this week .
Meanwhile, parliament approved proposals to allow member states increase dairy quotas by 2 per cent on a voluntary basis from next month.
Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness took it upon herself to "doorstep" EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in the parliament buildings this week.
Handing a letter to one of his aides, she sought to highlight concerns about the implications of the current WTO talks for Irish agriculture.
Elsewhere new security rules for the aviation industry, approved by parliament this week, include provisions for armed "sky marshals" and the creation of a "one-stop" system for security clearance, through the promotion of agreements between the EU and certain non-EU countries.
Welcoming this development during Monday evening's debate, Fianna Fáil MEP Seán Ó Neachtáin nonetheless noted it was a "great shame" that a "ridiculous system" remained whereby liquid duty-free goods bought in a non-EU country were confiscated from passengers transiting through another EU country.
He noted that a passenger travelling from the US to Ireland and who transited through Paris would have such goods confiscated.
Only Singapore was exempt from this rule, due to an agreement with the EU.
One member of the parliament, however, had concerns of an altogether more personal nature this week.
Following a vote this week, Austrian MEP Hans-Peter Martin had his immunity waived in relation to a commercial defamation case brought against him in the Vienna Regional Criminal Court last June.
The case involves allegations of improper use of his secretarial assistance allowance for staff, which Mr Martin attributed to an error by his accounts manager at the time.
According to the parliament's legal service, he could face a term of imprisonment of up to six months or a fine.
Such a sentence, however, would not affect Mr Martin's mandate, since, under the relevant Austrian legislation, an MEP loses his seat only if he or she is sentenced to a term of imprisonment of one year or more.