The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, is expected to report on the results of the Cardiff summit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday, when he will also outline the achievements of the British presidency over the past six months.
Later today, the European Parliament will debate the Agenda 2000 proposals which have been drawn up by the European Commission to reform the Common Agricultural Policy. All the main political parties in Ireland had difficulties with the proposed reforms.
Last night in Strasbourg, the Green MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, challenged the users of genetically-modified micro-organisms to accept the principle of public liability for accidental escapes of such material, including genetically-engineered viruses.
She told the European Parliament that it had supported this principle last year when the matter was debated and had held the view that laboratories and research establishments should be required to take out voluntary insurance.
She said the parliament was coming under intense pressure from industry to reject this idea and while the council and commission had rejected compulsory insurance, the parliament's Environment Committee had reinstated it for this plenary session.
"It is essential that parliament does not give in to this pressure and face up to its duty to protect the public and insist that these provisions which will ensure that labs and research establishments bear full public liability for damages to human health and to the environment" are retained.
"Public liability is the acid test. If researchers are so sure their genetic experiments are safe, why are they afraid to accept responsibility?" she asked.
Her party colleague, Ms Nuala Ahern, complained that a magazine called the Parliament Magazine had censored an article she had written for a special edition on nuclear safety. She said her article, about the pollution of the Irish Sea from Sellafield, had been withdrawn because British Nuclear Fuels had advertised heavily in the magazine.
She formally asked the parliament to request that the official masthead of the European Parliament be removed from the magazine if it were the case that the magazine which purported to be a record and represent the opinions of parliament, did not do so.