Brussels, 13/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, Italy's Monica Frassoni, member of the Ecolo list in Belgium, considers that the two observers appointed by the EPP, Germany's Elmar Brok, and the second by the PES, Greece's Dimitris Tsasos, to take part in the work of the Intergovernmental Conference, do not represent the European Parliament as a whole.
Mrs. Frassoni point hr finger at the method of appointing the two observers. She considers that there is no justification for Parliament only having two observers: the Council never asked for it and the decision was imposed by the two major political groups to exclude smaller groups. Mrs. Frassoni also wonders how Mr. Brok is to fulfil his brief, already being Chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign affairs Committee. She sees in this "an unprecedented accumulation of mandates". She regrets the fact that no woman has been chosen to represent Parliament on the occasion of the IGC.