Observer MEPs must squeeze into overcrowded Parliament

By Martin Banks

Date: 15/09/05

THE arrival at the European Parliament this month of 53 'observer' MEPs from Romania and Bulgaria risks being marred by disputes over whether the assembly has the facilities to accommodate them.

A total of 35 Romanian and 18 Bulgarian observers will join the 732-strong Parliament at the start of the next plenary session in Strasbourg on 26 September.

Although Romania and Bulgaria are not scheduled to join the EU until 1 January 2007, the observers, who are all national parliamentarians in their respective countries, are meant to familiarise themselves with the ways of the European legislature, just as happened before the last EU enlargement.

But the European People's Party (EPP-ED), the assembly's biggest political group, is standing by its complaint that the Parliament does not yet have the facilities to accommodate the observers.

Unlike MEPs, who each have their own office, the observers will have to share offices for up to 14 months.

According to the Parliament, there will be an average of three observers to each office in Brussels, while at the Parliament in Strasbourg, where the shortage of office space is less acute, two will generally share.

Nor will the observers be able to benefit from interpretation into their own languages during committee meetings, Parliamentary hearings or news conferences.

Parliament will draft in a small number of freelancers who will provide interpretation into Romanian and Bulgarian but this will be only for the Wednesday of each plenary session, when a representative from the Council of Ministers is normally present. None of the paperwork of the Parliament will be translated into Romanian or Bulgarian until January 2007.

The observers will be allowed to sit in the hemicycle during debates but a shortage of space in the chamber means that they will have to leave during votes to accommodate MEPs. The EPP-ED had wanted the arrival of the observers delayed until 1 January 2006.

A group spokesman said: "The shortage of office and hemicycle space and lack of interpretation facilities clearly suggests that the Parliament does not yet have the appropriate facilities for these observers.

"It is not very dignified for the new arrivals to have to share offices and to have to leave the hemicycle so that MEPs can take their seats."

A spokesman for Parliament said that as the observers did not have the right to vote in meetings until they became fully-fledged MEPs, there was not the same requirement for them to be present during votes.

He said a shortage of office space was being addressed with the construction of new offices for the observers which overlook Place Luxembourg in Brussels.

On the interpretation issue, he said: "We shall be recruiting Romanian and Bulgarian interpreters but, in the meantime, I expect most of the observers will understand at least some English or French to enable them to follow proceedings."

Spokespersons for both the Romanian and Bulgarian missions to the EU said they were satisfied that Parliament's facilities were adequate.

The 53 observers include a smattering of ex-government ministers, including, from Romania, ex-foreign affairs minister Adrian Severin and former labour minister, Alexandru Athanasiu.

The 18 Bulgarians include Lydia Shouleva, a former deputy prime minister, and formal social affairs minister, Hristina Hristova.

The observers will receive the usual €262 daily allowance and will have their transport costs reimbursed.

Various events are being staged to welcome the observers including a 'gastronomic' evening, featuring local Alsace dishes, a cocktail reception hosted by Parliament's President, Josep Borrell, and concerts by Romanian singers and a Bulgarian pianist. The cost will be met mostly by the embassies of Romania and Bulgaria.

Article reports on disputes over whether the European Parliament had the facilities to accommodate the 53 'observer' MEPs from Romania and Bulgaria, scheduled to arrive at the start of the plenary session in Strasbourg on 26 September 2005.