Brussels, 05/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - It's been in the air for a few days and now it's official: the conference of the presidents of the groups of the European Parliament decided, on 5 February, that it will put before the plenary session of February the creation of a special committee on tax rulings following the LuxLeaks scandal, rather than the committee enquiry the Greens/EFA have been fighting for in recent months.
This special committee will have limited powers compared to a committee of enquiry, particularly in terms of access to documents. Nor will it have the same visibility, stressed Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany). These are key differences which were worth defending, said the co-president of the Greens/EFA group, Belgium's Philippe Lamberts. After all we have been through (gathering signatures, having the mandate vetted by the legal services and drafting a modified mandate), the EPP-S&D-ALDE grand coalition “has decided not to go the final mile”, he said. Or rather, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, has turned down the Belgian's request to submit the proposal for a committee of enquiry to the plenary, even if it was accompanied by a negative recommendation. “The legal opinion (of the EP) is weak, we wanted the plenary to give a political judgement. Mr Schulz denied the request”, Lamberts explained, adding that he feels the opinion of the legal services interprets the internal rules of the EP in a restrictive way. However, the Greens had received many legal warnings and had asked for an expert opinion.
Lamberts went on to stress that the negative opinion of the legal services of the EP is not binding, but Schulz has chosen to see it as such. “The President did not use the space he had to try to reach the right solution”, added Gabi Zimmer (GUE/NGL, Germany), whose group supported the proposal of the Greens/EFA. She went on to say that the final outcome decided upon was born of the desire of the group presidents to save face, not to find a solution.
Sven Giegold said that he was furious that a minority at the EP had been denied something it would be able to do in a national parliament. He spoke of plans to bring the matter before the Court of Justice of the EU, stressing that it was the conference of the presidents, and not the plenary session, which had denied them that right.
The presidents of the political groups therefore voted only on the proposal for a special committee, which was pulled out of the hat as a compromise by the President of the S&D group, Italy's Gianni Pittella, but which has been under discussion as an alternative for several weeks. The Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL and EFDD abstained during the vote. However, this does not mean that the Greens/EFA will not work constructively. “It's the second best solution, even though we wanted the first best”, said Lamberts. If approved by next week's plenary, the special committee, which will be set up under the aegis of the committee on economic and monetary affairs, will have a one-year mandate, indefinitely renewable, in the framework of the current mandate of the EP. Its basis will be the revised mandate presented by the Greens EFA for the committee of enquiry (see EUROPE 11246). (EL)