Strasbourg, 19/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - After a heated debate about the moment when the European Parliament should "take note of" the dethronement of MEP Jean-Marie Le Pen, the MEPs decided, as we pointed out yesterday, to wait for the State Council to give its stance on eventual appeal by the National Front President against the French decree signifying the loss of his mandates - or for the time limit to expire without Mr Le Pen making use of this right.
The EP must "take note of" the French decree, which became enforceable end April, as is its obligation to do so. Formally, this act is necessary for the French extreme-right leader to lose his seat and his financial allowances as MEP. Nonetheless, given the possibility of appeal and therefore of annulment of the decree, the EP legal committee advised not to act on the decree at this point. Once this decision taken, the decline in the MEP's mandate would in fact be "irreversible", stressed EP President Nicole Fontaine, announcing her "intention" to follow the opinion of the legal committee. The opinion of the legal committee is based on a rule of "precedent". When the same question was asked for Bernard Tapie, the EP had decided to await the decision of the State Council.
The plenary finally accepted this position, after a choppy debate on the right of the EP - which must "take note" - to delay this decision, and therefore on the right of the EP to delay application of a French decision. While the EP president proposed to follow this opinion, the leader of the Socialist Group, Enrique Baron Crespo, protested and asked for the decision to be put to vote in plenary. In his view, the EP regulation makes it essential for the EP to take note of the French decree from now on. Except for Francis wurtz (United Left, France), the MEPs who then took the floor gave their support to the position of the legal committee. Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens, France) declared that the EP "is sovereign" in taking its decisions and that there was no need to mix up internal contradictions with French law (a decision with irrevocable consequences, enforceable before action is exhausted). The chairperson of the legal committee, Ana Palacio de Vallelersundi (Partido Popular) specified that, in the absence of a report, the plenary could not give its views on this affair.