The EPP has rowed back on the initial level of its ambition on shining a light on what did not work properly in Europe’s fight against terrorism following the attacks in Brussels, Paris and Berlin.
At the start of the week, the group leader Manfred Weber (Germany) put forward the idea of a committee of enquiry to find out if there were any failures in the cooperation between national authorities and the European police office, Europol.
As a result of the deal between the EPP and ALDE that saw the Liberals back the election of EPP candidate Antonio Tajani (Italy) as European Parliament president, only a special committee will be set up. The chairmanship of this committee will, in all likelihood, go to a Liberal.
The special committee will have lesser powers of investigation than a committee of enquiry. In 2015, the Greens in the Parliament tried to have a committee of enquiry put in place on the Luxleaks scandal and bitterly complained after they managed to get only a special committee – precisely because it was little more than a pale imitation of a full committee of enquiry.
A special committee may, however, have a wide remit whereas a committee of enquiry must concentrate strictly on cases of infringement or maladministration in the application of EU law by an institution or member state. The word from the Parliament is that the investigation on the terrorist attacks must not become a witch hunt but must determine whether more needs to be done on tackling terrorism at the European level. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)