The Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs debated, on Tuesday 14 July, a proposal by Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany) to revise the European Parliament's Rules of Procedure to allow MEPs to continue their work in the event of “extraordinary measures”, in light of the experience obtained with the Covid-19 pandemic.
This draft report, prepared with the help of the ad hoc working group, formulates new provisions based on the following principles: equal treatment for all MEPs, preservation of freedom of mandate, right to speak and freedom to vote.
Applicable when the President of the European Parliament comes to the conclusion that it is “impossible or dangerous” for the Parliament to meet in accordance with the usual procedures, exceptional measures concern notably: - postponement of a plenary part-session to a later date; - moving the plenary part-session or committee meeting from the Parliament’s seat to one of its places of work or to an external location; - the holding of a plenary session allowing for “appropriate physical distancing”.
See the draft report: https://bit.ly/2OriyZA (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)