Power struggle over information centre

Date: 23/10/1997

By Rory Watson

A TUG-of-war between the European Parliament and Commission over information policy is emerging as symptomatic of a wider shift of power between the two institutions.

MEPs are preparing to use their budgetary weapons this year to advance the cause of a self-contained European information centre to produce and distribute 'core' EU material to the general public.

This would involve a radical overhaul of present practices and seriously dilute the Commission's control over its own 400-strong Directorate-General for information (DGX).

Supporters of the initiative argue it would be cost-effective and provide a clearer message to the public, which now has to digest a vast range of information, some of it contradictory, from both institutions.

“I would warmly welcome coherent steps taken to ensure the European citizen gets information as directly and efficiently as possible. It is helped by having European houses in member states where the Commission and Parliament can work together under one roof and by having a central distribution system,” said UK Conservative MEP James Elles, a leading campaigner for change.

Elles insisted any marriage of the Commission and parliamentary information services in a separate centre in Brussels would not prevent either institution from running its own public campaigns on specific issues.

Some MEPs are also pressing for the two information departments to be placed under the same roof in Brussels, with both moving into the Van Maerlant premises soon to be vacated by the Parliament.

Euro MPs are planning to use their hold over the purse-strings to consolidate the change in policy and to press for even more restructuring in DGX.

Budget rapporteur, German Christian Democrat Stanislaw Tillich, has recommended that MEPs copy last year's tactics and freeze part of the funds earmarked for three information projects on the euro, the single market and the Amsterdam Treaty until the Commission provides further information on how it intends to run them.

He has proposed a similar approach to the Commission's general information budget. The funds would only be released after a high-level meeting between the two institutions to agree common information policy guidelines, whose implementation would be regularly monitored.

But while many MEPs fully approve of withholding funds from the Commission to bring about change, many on the receiving end are extremely critical.

Although Information Commissioner Marcelino Oreja supports the idea of a largely unified information centre and has begun to make some preparations for it in DGX, it would certainly face opposition from many of those affected.

There is a strong feeling that information policy should be handled by the cultural, not the budgetary committee and growing criticism that the Parliament is becoming too involved in the Commission's executive activities.

If eventually approved, the new centre is unlikely to see the light of day before 1999.