Reform group finalising report to bolster Parliament plenaries

The European Parliament’s reform working group will make its first set of recommendations on changes to the organisation of plenary sessions in September, according to the MEP chairing the group.

Speaking to European Voice, German Socialist MEP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt said that the group would present its first interim report to political group leaders in September. The report, which is still being drafted, would focus on ways of improving plenary sessions. It is expected to include proposals to improve the planning of the plenary agenda and debates, to bring debates and votes closer together and to redress the balance in speaking time between MEPs, commissioners and representatives of the Council of Ministers.

Roth-Behrendt said that she was "disappointed" by the vote by MEPs in July against plans for eight extra micro-plenaries in 2008. While pointing out that the proposal did not come from the Parliamentary reform group, she said that it was a "very good idea" which would have contributed to one of the main aims of the group, ie, improving the visibility of the Parliament. The plan would have allowed MEPs to react directly to important new initiatives from the Commission or debate important political issues. But MEPs rejected eight possible dates for extra sessions, largely because of opposition from members of the centre-right EPP-ED group. Roth-Behrendt, who has been in the Parliament since 1989 and is a former vice-president of the assembly, said that it would have been useful for MEPs to know in advance when extra plenary sessions would be held and that the European Commission had been co-operative towards MEPs by adjusting its work programme to fit with the Parliament’s schedule.

The rejection of the sessions was partly driven by fears from French MEPs and their centre-right allies that the move was designed to shift more of the Parliament’s activities to Brussels as a way of stepping up pressure to stop meeting in Strasbourg. The official EPP-ED explanation was that extra Brussels sessions would interfere with committee meetings which are held in Brussels. But Roth-Behrendt pointed out that the Parliament’s calendar for next year included 50% more meeting time for committees than in 2007. In 2007 there were around 97 half days for committee meetings compared to 123 planned for 2008. She said that some MEPs actually wanted fewer meetings overall.

Following the presentation of the interim report on plenary sessions in September, Roth-Behrendt said that the group would be focusing on the work of committees including their responsibilities and improving their ability to check on the implementation of legislation. She said that the group of committee chairs would give its views on own-initiative reports to feed into the reform group’s deliberations.

Josep Borrell, the former Parliament president, launched his own attempt at reform last year and questioned the value of the large number of own-initiative reports from MEPs. But his efforts failed to receive the backing of the two biggest political groups, which proposed instead that the reform group take a wider look at possible changes to Parliament’s business.

The group chaired by Roth-Behrendt was set up in February and includes a representative from each political group. It will present its final report by June 2008 at the latest and any proposals it makes should be implemented in time for the 2009 European Parliament elections.

The European Parliament’s reform working group will make its first set of recommendations on changes to the organisation of plenary sessions in September, according to the MEP chairing the group.