Brussels, 04/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - At its last meeting before the Summer break, the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs, chaired by Giorgio Napolitano (Democratici di Sinistra), adopted the report by the British Labour MEP Richard Corbett which proposes a modification to the EP's Rule of Procedure to guarantee equal treatment of all MEPs in the context of EP work. This report comes within the framework of the debate begun by the Parliamentary decision opposing the setting up of the Technical Group of Independent MEPs, the members of which had expressly declared that they had "no political affinity" between themselves. EUROPE recalls that that this decision had the been suspended by the President of the Court of First Instance while waiting for a ruling as to substance. The members of the said-Group based their complaint on the fact that being "non-aligned", they have been deprived of a certain number of rights only reserved for political groups, and are thus subject to discrimination in the exercise of their parliamentary mandates. To remedy the situation, several proposals were aimed at authorising the setting up of mixed or technical groups not involving the obligation of political affinity as provided for by the current Parliamentary rules of procedure., which only recognises "political groups". The rapporteur opted for another path consisting in guaranteeing non-aligned members the same rights as those of members belonging to political groups. With 19 in favour, 1 against and 5 abstentions, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, which is also competent regarding issues relating to EP rules of procedure, followed Mr. Corbett's proposal and recommended several changes to the Rules of Procedure.
To rationalise the work of the Parliament, several rights (tabling amendments, for example) are currently limited to political groups or groups of 32 MEPs; the Corbett Report, which notes that non-aligned members may seek the support of their colleagues as would members of political groups, does not envisage changes to these provisions. It nevertheless observes that the possibility of tabling amendments on behalf of a political group is regularly used by individual members who table amendments on behalf of their group when in fact they are expressing their personal views and have not secured the Group's support. To remedy this, the Corbett Report urges the Bureau and the session's services to ensure that amendments, requests for separate votes, by division and/or nominal appeal, made by MEPs "on behalf of political groups" actually do stem from the group and not MEPs acting personally. The report also proposes that the number of non-aligned MEPs required to exercise these rights be aligned on the number of MEPs required to form a political group. The number should be slightly upwardly reviewed: 16 instead of the current 14. Non-aligned MEPs should have a Secretariat on the basis of the criteria similar to those applied to political groups.
The current rules of procedure reserves several rights for political groups: - tabling of a resolution in conclusion of the debate on the approval of the appointed Commission (Article 33); - two-minute explanation of the vote (Article 137); - participation, with a right to vote, in the Conference of the Presidents of the political groups (Article 23); - participation in the Parliamentary delegation in the Conciliation Committee, in the framework of co-decision (Article 82). The rapporteur recognises that Article 33 is an obvious anomaly in the Rules of Procedure, that he proposes correcting. However, each MEP having the right to present an explanation of their personal vote, there is no reason to amend Article 137 that reserves the right for a 2-minute explanation of a vote expressing the stance of a political group. The report proposes granting the two on-aligned MEP who sit in the Conference of Presidents the right to vote when they have an actual mandate to do so. Raging the work in conciliation committees, the non-aligned would, like the political groups not represented in the EP delegation, be allowed to send a representative to all preparatory meetings.