Brussels, 07/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is not yet prepared to reveal who voted which way in its committee meetings.
On Thursday 6 February, the EP Conference of Presidents decided to postpone the plenary vote (that was due to take place in the 3-6 February session) on the report by Carlo Casini (EPP, Italy) on changes to Article 166 of the European Parliament's operational rules on the final vote and to Article 195, paragraph 3, on committee voting. The ALDE Group at the EP is unhappy about the postponement, and accuses the two big groups, the S&D and EPP, of conspiring to block transparency measures.
Casini's report was adopted by the EP's constitutional affairs meeting on 17 December 2013 by 17 votes to 7. It suggests that, in the final votes on draft reports, there should be a named vote if a quarter of the committee members demand this. Named votes list which way each committee member voted.
Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) said it was not logical for MEPs to refuse to let their voters know how they voted, unless they had something to hide. The gap between the EU and its citizens will just get wider and wider if the two big political parties refuse to agree to the idea of transparency in democracy.
In the EPP particularly, and also among members of the S&D, MEPs prefer to stick to the current procedure (simply listing the number of votes for and against and the number of abstentions), arguing that too much transparency would damage the effectiveness of negotiations after the committee vote (people who voted against may change their minds during the talks, for example). Verhofstadt, however, said that the change in the EP's working methods was perfectly possible technically and would not jeopardise effectiveness in any way.
To demonstrate their attachment to greater transparency, members of the constitutional affairs committee revealed how its members voted on the draft report by Carlo Casini. The MEPs who voted against were Alfredo Antoniozzi (EPP, Italy), Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany), Zdravka Busic (EPP, Croatia), Paulo Rangel (EPP, Portugal), Algirdas Saudargas (EPP, Lithuania), György Schöpflin (EPP, Hungary) and Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany). Those voting in favour included MEPs from the ALDE, Greens and, oddly, the S&D (which did a u-turn at the Conference of Presidents), like Roberto Gualtieri (Italy), Enrique Guerrero Salom (Spain) and Sylvie Guillaume (France). Constance Le Grip (EPP, France) voted in favour of the report.
The roll call system makes it possible to reveal who voted in plenary votes. Committee votes are anonymous. (LC/transl.fl)