On Monday 12 October, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) adopted the draft report prepared by Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany) by a large majority (by 26 votes to zero against, with two abstentions), thereby proposing to amend Parliament's Rules of Procedure to allow it to function in as normal a manner as possible in exceptional circumstances (see EUROPE 12527/13).
MEPs believe that the temporary measures taken in the spring by David Sassoli, the President of the Parliament, were required to allow the European Parliament to continue to sit, make decisions and pass legislation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The AFCO Committee proposes that, in order to formalise the process, any decision by the President of the European Parliament to trigger temporary emergency measures should require a favourable opinion from the political groups’ Conference of Presidents (CoP). The European Parliament plenary would be able to reject these measures by a simple majority of MEPs.
“This report focuses on the principles of representative democracy, equal treatment, mandate freedom (...), while making sure that the Parliament remains fully operational even in the most difficult circumstances”, Bischoff said in a statement.
The draft report will be placed on the agenda of a future European Parliament plenary session, to take place in November at the earliest. Several MEPs pointed out the difficulty of adopting these new rules when the European Parliament operates on the basis of exceptional circumstances. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)