Brussels, 12/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - The framework agreement to govern relations between the European Parliament and the Prodi Commission, on the basis of the major lines agreed in September 1999 before the new Commission was invested, should be approved next Thursday in Strasbourg, during a meeting of the EP Conference of Presidents, to be attended by the president and the vice-president of the Commission, Mr Prodi and Ms Loyola de Palacio.
On Thursday, the Conference of Presidents attributed the negotiating brief to President Nicole Fontaine for concluding negotiations as swiftly as possible. The MEPs responsible for details of this negotiation had taken radically different positions. The chairman of the Constitutional Committee, Giorgio Napolitano, felt the results of negotiations were satisfactory, while the president of the Committee on Budgetary Control, Diemut Theato, affirmed that the preliminary ruling by the Court of First Instance on the Olaf investigation among MEPs created a new situation, and that it was necessary to take this into account before finalising the framework agreement.