During the debate on the Conference on the Future of Europe (see other news) on Wednesday 15 January in the European Parliament, 44 MEPs from the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe and Greens-EFA groups sent a letter to David Sassoli, the president of the European Parliament, calling for reform of the debates within the Parliament.
“Debates in the Plenary as well as hearings and exchanges in Committees are regularly reduced to mere political statements, which often lack reference to and engagement with other speakers”, say MEPs, who are unhappy that they rarely experience real debates, “which would be necessary to spark citizen’s interest and understanding”.
They complain that these discussions, “which even journalists find difficult to cover”, do not attract the attention of the general public and so are calling for concrete changes to the European Parliament's rules of procedure in this area.
For example, the signatories would like to see speaking time extended to allow for “an exchange of arguments and counter-arguments”, and are requesting that MEPs should give speeches from the lectern facing the Chamber. They also suggest complementing the existing “blue card" procedure by authorising short opposing speeches of more than thirty seconds, which the speaker cannot refuse to allow.
Some of the MEPs behind the letter, including Damian Boeselager (Greens-EFA, Germany), used Wednesday's debate to put some of their recommendations into action. In particular, they took their seats at the front of the Chamber and used the “blue cards” as much as possible.
To consult the letter, go to: http://bit.ly/30lEtXg (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki - intern)