Creating three new special committees in the European Parliament has turned out not to be a smooth process. Although discussions on creating a committee to deal with the fight against cancer seem to be making progress, discussions on the committees on 'artificial and digital intelligence' and on 'disinformation' seem to be less well advanced.
We understand that a meeting on the artificial intelligence committee is scheduled for Wednesday 19 February at assistant level, but that the S&D has not even adopted a negotiating position on disinformation. The idea of creating the three committees was championed by Klaus Welle, the Secretary-General of the European Parliament, and Antonio Tajani, the former President of the European Parliament. They had previously come up with the idea of setting up a European Parliament working group on digital issues.
Manfred Weber, the chair of the EPP group, took up this suggestion and adapted it to his own priorities, thus pressing for a special committee to fight cancer. At the end of their discussions, the leaders of the three most powerful political groups reached an agreement to set up three special committees: - a committee to deal with the fight against cancer, where the EPP will have a pre-emption right with regard to the chair or the rapporteur; - a committee to deal with disinformation, where the S&D will have the pre-emption right; - and a committee to deal with artificial intelligence and digital business, where Renew Europe will have the pre-emption right.
The agreement has, however, aroused a degree of hostility among MEPs, who are concerned that these new structures may reduce the powers of the standing committees. This is the view of the Greens/EFA Group in particular, but they are not the only group opposing the plan. MEPs in each of the three main political groups share their view.
According to one observer, the negotiators are also finding it difficult to agree on practical issues, such as the number of MEPs who should sit on each special committee (the S&D group wants more, the EPP fewer) or the scope of competences (the EPP groups believe it is too limited while the S&D group would like the reference to digital business to be removed).
The meeting on 19 February on artificial intelligence should prove enlightening in this regard. But it is likely that if they leave it too late, MEPs will miss their chance to be involved in these matters. The public consultation on cancer was launched on 4 February (see EUROPE 12418/4), while on 19 February the European Commission is due to present its proposals on Artificial Intelligence (AI), the subject on which the Special Committee on AI (see EUROPE 12427/17) was intended to focus. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)