Borrell wants revamp for out-of-touch Parliament

By David Cronin and Dana Spinant

Date: 02/03/06

The President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell has drawn up a plan for reform of the institution to improve its public profile.

He wants the Parliament to focus on prominent political issues, to set a political agenda and to stage showpiece debates.

A discussion paper to be debated by political group leaders next Thursday (9 March) argues that the Parliament’s plenary sessions are out of step with events in Europe. The agendas can appear to be "documents for the technocratically initiated", it says, adding that the titles of debates can be "opaque" and their structure not conducive to "interest, liveliness or attendance".

A senior Parliament official said that Borrell had been "really embarrassed" by the poor attendance of MEPs at many debates. In January, Borrell received a complaint from José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, who observed that when he was presenting the Commission’s 2006 work programme there were more commissioners and officials in the Parliament’s chamber than MEPs.

The paper says that poor attendance at debates of the Parliament "erodes its credibility in the eyes of the electorate", while stating that the problem should be kept in proportion, given that MEPs have "all manner of alternative legitimate activities". Borrell is advocating that internal reform should concentrate on "big issue" debates.

Each Wednesday of the four-day sessions in Strasbourg should be devoted to a main debate, he recommends, urging that a ban on competing meetings of committees or delegations should be reinforced. "Each agenda should include a ‘highlight’ debate at which attendance by all MEPs is expected," according to his paper.

His paper also questions the activities of MEPs outside the EU, such as observer missions to elections or delegations to major international events. The growth of these activities carries "the risk of transmitting an unfocused, incoherent and cacophonous message to the outside world", Borrell says, arguing that the work of delegations to foreign countries often bears "little relation to current political priorities of the Parliament as a whole".

Borrell has suggested that medium-term priorities for external relations could be set by political group leaders, liaising with the Parliament’s foreign affairs committee. A "balance of resources" between the EU’s most strategic relationships and ties with other countries should be taken into account, his paper says. He also wants a review of the criteria for taking part in international conferences, indicating that MEPs should only go if they can make "a genuine contribution" to discussions.

Borrell told European Voice that the Parliament had had many interesting debates in recent years but "unfortunately these have not caused an echo in the national press of many countries".

Graham Watson, leader of the liberal ALDE group, said that the rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters last year showed that the Parliament needed to improve how it communicated. Reform was ongoing, he said.

German Christian Democrat Elmar Brok, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said his committee had not been consulted about Borrell’s paper.

Austria’s Hannes Swoboda, vice-president of the Socialist group, said he supported the main thrust of Borrell’s recommendations. But he added that the major debates should not be dominated by a small number of deputies, such as group leaders. "We have to reform in a careful way that does not push aside ordinary members," he said.

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Article reports on an initiative by the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, aimed to improve the assembly's public profile.
In a discussion paper to be debated by the leaders of the political groups at the Parliament on 9 March 2006 Borrell outlines his ideas including an increased focus on prominent political issues, a political agenda and the staging of showpiece debates.