Empty chamber sparks reform call

Date: 06/04/2000

By Gareth Harding

FIGURES showing that more than two-thirds of MEPs fail to attend debates and votes on the last day of their monthly plenary session in Strasbourg have prompted calls for the Friday sessions to be abolished.

A cross-party group of members has launched a campaign to end the practice of holding five-day plenaries, arguing that the poor attendance on Fridays discredits the Parliament and wastes millions of euro of taxpayers' money.

The move comes as a new study from the London Scool of Economics (LSE) has revealed that one-quarter of MEPs regularly fail to turn up for votes throughout the entire week-long plenary session.

Under present rules, at least one-third of MEPs must be present when a vote is taken. However, the three Dutch members behind the call for reform claim this figure has not been reached on a Friday since last June's Euro-elections. At last month's plenary session in Strasbourg, only 174 of the assembly's 626 MEPs signed the attendance register on the last day and 68 of those did not bother to take part in a single vote.

Dutch members Kathalijne Buitenweg, Lousewies van der Laan and Michiel van Hulten will try to call members' bluff next week by asking the speaker to establish whether there is a quorum for votes to be taken. If 209 members are not present in the chamber, no votes will be allowed.

The MEPs, who come from the Green, Liberal and Socialist parties, have vowed to repeat the process every month until the rule is changed.

"Fridays are an embarrassment as nothing substantial is on the agenda and no one turns up to vote," said Van Der Laan, who described the current practice as "extremely damaging to Parliament's image". She added: "Either we have a meaningful agenda on Fridays that will make MEPs turn up or we get rid of them."

As well as being harmful to the assembly's already-tarnished reputation, the practice of holding votes on the last day of the five-day meeting is also extremely expensive. The three Dutch members have calculated that if the 200 MEPs who on average turn up on Fridays each claim their €240 daily allowance, the cost to the taxpayer is €576,000 annually. However, this sum rises to millions of euro if the cost of keeping the assembly's thousands of support staff in Strasbourg for an extra day is taken into account.

The call for the abolition of the Friday sessions coincides with a new study of voting records since last June's election which shows a high level of absenteeism throughout the Strasbourg week.

The report drawn up by the LSE's Simon Hix reveals that, on average, 25% of MEPs fail to show up for votes. The worst culprits are Italian, Portuguese and Irish deputies, followed by the French - who often fail to attend despite having launched a long and vociferous campaign to keep the Parliament in Strasbourg and have less far to travel than most other MEPs. The best attenders are Dutch, Greek and Finnish members.

The study shows that some of the Parliament's biggest names are the least likely to make the trip to Strasbourg. Italian Northern League leader Umberto Bossi has never been to the assembly, French Communist Robert Hue has only turned up once or twice, and former Commissioner Emma Bonino, Italian media magnate Silvio Berlusconi and Ulster Unionist Ian Paisley are all rare visitors.

Figures showing that more than two-thirds of MEPs fail to attend debates and votes on the last day of their monthly plenary session in Strasbourg have prompted calls for the Friday sessions to be abolished.