As the European Parliament delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe prepares to meet on the morning of Friday 3 September, the key for distributing seats among MEPs in the Conference’s thematic groups is under debate.
Indeed, although the distribution of the 109 MEPs is under discussion, subordinates of Parliament’s delegation coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium), reportedly submitted a new distribution key on Tuesday 31 August during a technical meeting about the distribution of the seats, a source told us, whose information has been corroborated by two documents seen by EUROPE.
The proposal would reportedly introduce a distribution rule among the major political groups (with more than 9 representatives in the Parliament delegation) of ‘fixed seats’, a threshold that would potentially exclude The Left, leaving it only the option of recovering the remaining seats by thematic group. This would be the first time that the d’Hondt rule would not be fully applied, according to our source.
The Left would not be represented in the three most important thematic groups, including the one dedicated to European Democracy, and would be over-represented in others (notably the one dedicated to Health issues).
Our source added: “Above all, the very principle of the Conference is being trampled underfoot: how can we claim to be carrying out a democratic reform of the EU when representative groups are being silenced?”
To consult the proposal for seats by thematic group: https://bit.ly/3nbttcL (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)