The four focus groups on the internal reform of the European Parliament presented, on Wednesday 8 September, their recommendations to the Parliament’s President, David Sassoli.
Four focus groups were set up in the spring to work on the following themes: – plenary reform; – strengthening parliamentary prerogatives; – enhancing parliamentary diplomacy; - relations with citizens and communicating effectively (see EUROPE 12768/9).
The recommendations of the fourth focus group aim to increase the visibility of Parliament’s work to the general public, in particular by strengthening exchanges with the media. In particular, MEPs see a need to increase financial and material resources for more in-depth coverage of plenary sessions, including by specialised media in the EU Member States. They also call for a reflection on an increased deployment of the European Parliament on social networks in order to reach a wider audience.
Convinced of the need to increase the transparency of legislative work in order to strengthen the legitimacy of parliamentary work at European level, the focus group on communication issues calls for a better readability of decisions taken and voting results. According to this group, briefings could be organised with the press on ongoing interinstitutional negotiations (trilogues).
These recommendations will be presented to the Conference of Presidents (CoP) of the political groups and to the European Parliament Bureau next week in Strasbourg. If approved, an experimental phase could begin by the end of the year, a step that coincides with the end of Mr Sassoli’s mandate. If this experimental phase is successful, changes could be made to the European Parliament’s internal rules.
See the recommendations: https://bit.ly/3hgJ32L (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)