MEPs search for a straight answer

Date: 16/05/1996

By Rory Watson

GREEK European United Left Euro MP Alexandros Alavanos has easily surpassed his colleagues in their efforts to prise information out of the European Commission and the Council of Ministers.

He tabled 183 written questions to the two institutions last year, establishing a healthy 28-interrogatory-point lead over second place non-attached Italian member Amedeo Amadeo.

But neither is in the same league as former PASOK MEP Sotiris Kostopoulos, who positively bombarded Commissioners and government ministers with questions, notching up 1,000 in 1993 alone.

MEPs use the technique for a variety of purposes: to dig out crucial technical information, to make rhetorical political points or to raise local constituency issues. A separate category of Euro MPs, which many insist is a minority, is happy to act as a formal conduit for questions drafted by lobbyists and outside interest groups.

From a peak of 4,111 questions in 1993 - Kostopoulos' most prolific year - the number fell to 2,906 in 1994 as MEPs concentrated on getting elected. Last year, as they got back into their stride, it climbed again to 3,661.

An analysis of the procedure reveals that only a small minority of the Parliament's 626 elected politicians make use of this weapon in their armoury. Some 420 MEPs asked fewer than ten questions last year and 70 asked none at all. The most popular subjects were agriculture, environment and social policy.

The sheer numbers cause officials logistical headaches, not least because each question must be translated into the 11 official EU languages. But over the last two years the Commission, after much prodding from its Secretary-General David Williamson, has reduced the average delay for responses from 18 weeks to just over six weeks.

The Council of Ministers, which handles an average of only 500 questions a year, comes nowhere near meeting the six-week target. The lengthy delays, explain officials, are caused by an antiquated system based on paper rather than computers and the fact that every reply has first to be cleared in all 15 national capitals.

There is also a striking difference of view within the Commission on the need to massage an MEP's ego when giving a negative reply to a question judged either irrelevant or nowhere near Union competence. “Nordics and the UK believe a straight 'No' is an operational reply and not disrespectful. But Latins feel it should be dressed up in more diplomatic language,” explained one source.

Thus, when Sir Leon Brittan was recently asked whether the Commission was aware of prison camps for children in China, he gave a curt 'No'. But when Amadeo asked whether the Commission could not intervene to ensure the mortal remains of the members of the House of Savoy were returned to Italy, he was told it was a matter solely for the responsible national authorities.

British Socialist member Richard Howitt managed only a modest 35 written requests for information last year, but he is now averaging between ten and 20 a month. “The advantage of questions is that they are a quick and efficient way to get information. It is an opportunity to ask direct, open and public questions and get a clear response. A parliament like ours, which does not have the powers of a full parliament, should use them to the full,” he insists.

Within the next few days, Howitt will learn just how cooperative the Commission is prepared to be in responding to his request for details of the number of times Commissioners attended parliamentary committee meetings during their first year of office. “I would be very interested to see which members are helping to develop cooperation between the two institutions. Manuel Marín, for instance, has not been to the development committee at all in the past year,” he says.

The question presents the Commission with a dilemma. If it provides a league table, it will be used by critics to attack individual Commissioners. If it does not do so, it will be accused of ignoring a legitimate request.

Ironically, the very same information is available from the Parliament's own records. Some even estimate that up to a third of the MEPs' questions could be answered by the Parliament's own library service.