European Parliament comes of age

Date: 27/02/1997

I T WAS a defining moment in the history of the European Parliament and one which may well mark a watershed in its relations with the EU's other institutions.

In the run-up to last week's votes on the committee of inquiry's report into the BSE crisis, it was clear that MEPs had learned the lessons of the past. Instead of issuing dire threats that they would back the motion of censure tabled by Belgian Socialist José Happart unless they were satisfied with the answers given by Commission President Jacques Santer in the debate which preceded the vote, the leaders of the Parliament's biggest political groups urged their members not to opt for what was being described in the corridors of Strasbourg as the 'nuclear option'.

In doing so, they underlined the Parliament's growing maturity. If past experience has taught the institution one thing, it must be that to march its troops to the the top of the hill only to march them down again simply undermines MEPs' authority and reduces their clout.

There is no doubt that the spectre of a censure motion which, if passed, would have forced the Commission to resign en masse, did much to concentrate minds and ensure a rapid response to the criticisms set out in the BSE report. In the face of warnings from senior parliamentary figures that the outcome of the vote could not be guaranteed, Santer delivered the detailed answers they had been looking for. It was enough to persuade many angry MEPs who might have been tempted to vote in favour of immediate censure to hold their fire.

Had those same senior parliamentary figures opted to endorse the threats being issued by some of their members ahead of the vote, nobody would have taken their warnings seriously. It was, after all, never really likely that the Parliament would opt to plunge the EU into crisis at a time when the Intergovernmental Conference is reaching its most crucial stage. To do so would have been to hand those opposed to any extension of the Parliament's powers the ammunition they needed to shoot its ambitions for the future down in flames.

The fact that 118 MEPs - one-fifth of the total - voted for the censure motion despite all the dire warnings about what it could mean reflects the depth of feeling within the Parliament over the issue.

It would be a grave mistake for the Commission to assume its troubles are over. But it is unlikely to do so. The November deadline set for the institution to implement its reform proposals is being taken seriously within the Commission - not least because MEPs have demonstrated clearly over the past month that although they will not repeat the mistakes of the past by making idle threats, they do mean business.