Brussels, 19/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - In a letter to the president of the European Parliament on 18 October, French MEP Jean-Pierre Audy (EPP) proposes that European Council President Herman Van Rompuy be invited to take part in regular debates with MEPs, particularly to prepare for European summits. In his letter Audy argued that “institutional and political relations between the European Council and our European Parliament are not good enough”.
Stating that, given “the scale of the political problems to be resolved”, ministerial level is now not high enough and that decisions are taken at the level of heads of state and government, Audy says that “to remove misunderstanding between the Community and the inter-governmental, it would seem essential that there should be regular political dialogue between the representative of the heads of state and government who make up the European Council (Mr Van Rompuy) and the European Parliament”. He says this dialogue “would mean that the permanent president of the European Council, in this new and important function, would be more closely involved in Community matters”.
Audy also called on Buzek to ensure that Article 15-5d of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) is complied with. This article states that the European Council president must present a report to the European Parliament after each European Council. Audy also wants an end to the “practice whereby this report is delivered to the Conference of Presidents extended to include members of the European Parliament”. If this practice were to become the norm, Van Rompuy would have no institutional relationship with the European Parliament as an institution, Audy argued. (CG/transl.rt)