Commissie constitutionele zaken verwerpt plan om drempel voor oprichting politieke groepering te verhogen (en)

The Constitutional Affairs' committee rejected on Tuesday a proposal to raise the thresholds for creating a political group. The issue will now be debated and put to the vote by the full Parliament during the July plenary session. In a separate vote, the committee approved a modification of Parliament's rules on the operation of the plenary session itself.

At present, a group can be formed by a minimum of 20 Members (or 2.5% of EP's membership), who also represent at least one fifth of the Member States (i.e. at least 6 countries). Richard Corbett (PES, UK), rapporteur, proposed an amendment to Parliament's rules of procedure to raise the threshold to 30 MEPs (4% of total membership), representing at least one quarter of the Member States (i.e. 7). But this amendment was rejected by a majority of one vote, with 15 against and 14 in favour.

An amendment was instead approved to introduce new rules on the possibility for a political group to continue to exist if it falls below the required threshold, under certain conditions.

MEPs in committee adopted the report as a whole as amended (i.e. with no change to the thresholds), by 15 votes in favour to 14 against. Now it will be up to the full Parliament to discuss and vote on the report at the July session in Strasbourg. Any changes adopted would come into effect after the 2009 European elections. An absolute majority of MEPs is required to approve amendments to the EP's Rules of Procedure.

A lively debate

During Monday's lively debate on the report, rapporteur Mr Corbett explained that his proposal aimed at avoiding excessive fragmentation of the EP and pointed out that "all national Parliaments have thresholds". He added: "Let's look at all financial and human resources provided to groups: is it right for us to have such a low threshold?". Iñigo Méndez de Vigo (EPP-ED, ES) agreed, on behalf of his group, that the reform was needed. He said: "We can guarantee pluralism and at the same time have political decisions which are consistent".

Other members, speaking on behalf of respective their groups, disagreed with the proposal. Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK), said that small groups are important, adding that approving the proposed change of threshold, "would mean to force MEPs inside one or the other big group" without "contributing to efficiency and effectiveness of the Parliament ".

Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (GUE/NGL, DE) said: "All 5 smaller groups are strongly opposed to this reform". "There's no reason to change the rules", she concluded. Johannes Voggenhuber (Greens, AT) also criticised the proposal to increase threshold to form a group: "This report represents a further limitation to smaller groups". He added: "Agreement on changing rules should always be broad". Finally, Hanne Dahl (IND/DEM DK): asked: "Is it right to limit pluralist debates?" She concluded: "Every call for efficiency is a risk for democracy".

New rules on written questions

Another report, also by Mr Corbett, was approved by the committee by 17 votes in favour, 8 against and one abstention. If endorsed by the plenary, this report will introduce new guidelines for MEPs wanting to table a written question to either the Council or the Commission. According to the proposed changes, written questions will have to fall within EU's competences, be concise and not contain offensive language.

This report formalises some of the reforms proposed by the Working Party on Parliamentary Reform, chaired by Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (PES, DE). The plenary vote on this second report is also scheduled for July in Strasbourg.

26/05/2008

Committee on Constitutional Affairs

In the Chair : Jo Leinen (PES, DE)

Procedure: REG (change of Rules of Procedure, Art. 202)

Plenary vote: July, Strasbourg