Borrell’s Parliament reforms in jeopardy

By Simon Taylor

Date: 22/06/06

Plans to reform the European Parliament put forward by its President, Josep Borrell, risk running aground because of opposition from the leaders of the two biggest political groups, according to Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal MEPs.

Watson said: "There is no move on the Borrell reforms. It is sad because he tried hard but the Socialists and the EPP don't want reforms."

Borrell has been pushing for a package of reforms designed to increase the visibility of the Parliament, liven up debates and improve attendance of plenary sessions.

But the plans are not being supported by the leaders of the centre-right and Socialist groups, Hans-Gert Pöttering and Martin Schulz, who are being accused of cooking up initiatives to implement if Pöttering takes over as president from Borrell next January.

Schulz, leader of the Socialist group, has said he "totally agrees with Borrell's proposals". But instead of backing Borrell in his aim to get the measures agreed this year, he has called for a group of experts to consider "broader reforms" for the assembly. This group could be made up of officials and former presidents, suggested Schulz.

This expert group was needed, Schulz said, because "every president tries to make a little change here and there, but no one tackles the basis".

But one senior Parliament official said: "Creating an expert group is the polite way of killing Borrell's reforms because it's not easy for the big political group leaders to explain why they're against [the reforms]".

Pöttering said: "Generally speaking we must have reforms." But he repeated his criticism of Borrell's package that "decisions should not be centralised in the conference of presidents [leaders of political groups]".

In order to establish the degree of consensus for changes to how the Parliament operates, Borrell has sent out a questionnaire asking political groups 21 questions on key reform ideas. These include issues such as changing the current structure of debates with commissioners and national ministers to have more backbench MEPs speaking - the so-called catch-the-eye system - rather than being dominated by the group leaders.

"More catch-the-eye exchanges would make debates more spontaneous and lively but they are not wanted by group leaders because they fear that would lose control of the political messages," said one Parliament official.

Other ideas include holding a weekly plenary session in Brussels to react to Commission proposals as well as restricting the number of own-initiative reports and delegation visits to third countries.

Borrell wanted to send the questionnaires directly to MEPs but group leaders insisted they were discussed within the groups with a response coming from the groups' secretariats rather than individual MEPs.

The Parliament president wants to have another debate on reform at a meeting of group leaders on 5 July and is hoping that groups would have formally replied by then. But a spokeswoman for Pöttering said that she was not sure the centre-right EPP-ED group would submit its response by then as the package was still being discussed within the group.

A spokeswoman for Borrell said that he "wanted to do the maximum he can" and that he still hoped to find compromise on reform to finalise a package of measures for implementation in the first half of 2007 after he steps down.

Parliament sources believe that prospects of agreeing reforms before Pöttering takes over as president next year, under the deal with the Socialists, were fading fast. But this is fuelling discussions among the other groups to put up rival candidates to Pöttering to obtain from him commitments on reform.

Article reports that the plans for reform of the European Parliament by its President, Josep Borrell, were not enough supported by the leaders of the centre-right and Socialist groups, Parliament's two largest groups.

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