Strasbourg, 14/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - The new plenary session of the European Parliament opened late Monday afternoon as scheduled. The agenda was confirmed except for one slight change for Wednesday. The leader of the United Left Group, Mr Wurtz, called for the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, to be invited so that he could explain his "unusual and inopportune" message to the new Austrian government. He must, according to Mr Wurtz, clarify this message in order to avoid his wishes for success addressed to the Austrian chancellor from being interpreted as trivialising the extreme right coalition. President Nicole Fontaine invited Mr Wurtz to question Mr Prodi directly in plenary, when he comes to present the Commission's five-year programme.
The Parliament then begun discussions on regional policy issues.