MEPs return to Strasbourg for their second plenary session of the month. To comply with EU treaty requirements that there should be 12 plenary sessions a year in Strasbourg, September is the one month that gets two plenary sessions, to allow MEPs to have a month off in August. The second plenary session this month will be dominated by the second annual State of the Union speech by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, on Wednesday morning at 8am Last year he told the European Parliament that economic recovery was gathering pace and that growth in the EU was set to increase. However since last autumn the EU - and especially the eurozone - has been in a deep economic crisis. MEPs will be expecting Mr Barroso to explain what the Commission is doing to end the crisis. Countries including Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain have all been struggling with large deficits and governments are having to push through unpopular austerity budgets. The crisis in the eurozone will once again dominate proceedings in Strasbourg. One way by which the European Commission has tried to prevent a repeat of the crisis has been to set out the so-called "six pack" of six pieces of legislation designed to strengthen economic governance across the EU. This has been debated on numerous occasions by MEPs, and it finally comes to a vote during the voting session at 11am on Wednesday. A number of left and centre-left MEPs oppose the proposals, as they say it focuses too much on deficit reduction, at the expense of employment. However a coalition of centre-right, liberal and conservative MEPs means the legislative package is likely to be approved. The euro crisis will also feature heavily in Tuesday's agenda with MEPs putting questions at 2pm to Jean-Claude Juncker who heads up the Eurogroup, made up of the finance ministers of all 17 eurozone countries. Aside from the economy, there are two debates on Palestine - one, on Tuesday afternoon, will focus on the attempt to get UN recognition of Palestinian statehood, whilst a debate on Monday afternoon will be on a proposal from the Council of Ministers to increase free trade between the EU and the Palestinian territories. The proposal would give free access for Palestinian exporters to the EU markets as a means of stimulating economic growth. Other highlights include a debate on trade with Taiwan, and a Thursday morning debate on the future of the European Globalisation Fund. This fund was set up in 2006 to provide emergency one-off funding to help people who had lost their job as a result of globalisation and more recently the economic crisis. It was due to end at the end of this year, but MEPs are being asked to extend the fund for a further two years. There will also be an emergency statement on Wednesday afternoon at 2pm by the European Commission on the future of the "Food for Free" scheme. The scheme, which funds provision of meals for the poorest people in 20 EU countries and has been running since 1987 could end, after six EU countries - including the UK - opposed continuing the scheme which costs around 500m a year. Full schedule below: Monday 26 September 4pm: Opening of the session

Next: Report on funding research and innovation across the EU

Next: Proposal on free trade agreement between the EU and the Palestinian territories

Next: Question to Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht on trade between the EU and Taiwan

Next: Report on tourism in Europe

Next: One minute speeches by MEPs on "matters for political importance"

Next: Presentation of reports by parliamentary committees Tuesday 27 September 8am: Report on the effectiveness of European disaster response mechanisms

Next: Report on EU trade policies

11am: Questions to the European Commission on trade with non-EU countries

11.30am: Voting session

12.30pm - 2pm: Lunch break

2pm: Questions to the President of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker

3.30pm: Statement on the UN General Assembly

Next: Statement on the forthcoming Eastern partnership summit on relations between the EU and former republics of the Soviet Union

Next: Statement on the policies of the UN Human Rights Council on sexual orientation and gender identity

Next: Statement on current relations between Turkey and Cyprus Wednesday 28 September 8am: State of the Union address by European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso

11am: Voting session, including votes on the new package of legislation on economic governance

12pm - 2pm: Lunch break

2pm: Statement on the EU's "Food for Free" programme

Next: Question to the Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard on the twentieth anniversary of the Rio summit on climate change

Next: Statement on EU support to refugees in Tunisia Thursday 29 September 8am: Debate on the European Globalisation Fund

Next: Question to the Competition Commissioner Joaquim Almunia on state aid guidelines

Next: Statement on the use of security scanners

11am: Voting session





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