Brussels, 17/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - Contrary to what was foreseen, President Romano Prodi and Loyola de Palacio will not be taking part at the meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the political groups at the European Parliament, to be held this Thursday in Strasbourg. They should, however, intervene during the meeting of 8 June, which could witness the conclusion of the framework agreement on relations between the Parliament and the European Commission. Thursday's meeting must allow the presidents of the political groups to reach an agreement on the Parliament's position regarding the last elements still under discussion.
The main stumbling block in negotiations remains Annex III on access to documents. German Christian Democrat Diemut Theato and Giorgio Napolitano (Democratici di Sinistra) had been charged by the Conference of Presidents with negotiating on behalf of the Parliament and had resulted in a first text, presented to the presidents of the political groups on 13 April. During a recent meeting of the representatives of the political groups, the president of the EPP/ED group, German national Hans-Gert Pöttering, accompanied by Ms Theato, had presented a text in ten points calling for access to confidential documents to be extended to all Parliament rapporteurs (this proposal also received the support of the Greens Group). The document supported almost total transparency. It also called for the abolition of the mention of the ban on diffusion of confidential information to third parties by the person who receives the document. It refused the fact that Member States should give their agreement for documents issued by them. The taking into account of all these requirements would practically have meant having to take negotiations up again from zero. Mr Napolitano then wrote to the president of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, to inform her that he considered his task had ended. The Conference of Presidents then decided that Ms Fontaine should directly resume negotiations. In addition to Annex III, which has still to be finalised, another problem concerns the wording of Article 19 relating to discharge procedure. EUROPE has reason to believe that Ms Fontaine does not intend to insist on the new requests made by the EPP.