Strasbourg, 05/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Conference of Presidents (the President of the Parliament Nicole Fontaine and the President of the political groups) had, on Thursday afternoon, a roughly two hour discussion, apparently rather heated, over the case of the lifting of the immunity of the Forza Italia MEPs, Silvio Berlusconi and Marcello Dell'Utri, request which has been pending for around eight months (see, among others, EUROPE of 30 March, p.6).
As was indicated to the press by the President of the Socialist group, Enrique Baron, two proposals were made, and accepted by the Conference of Presidents:
- One proposal from the President of the Liberal group, Pat Cox, to entrust the Constitutional Affairs Committee with examining the issue of interpreting the Articles of the Parliament regulation applicable in the case of the request for the lifting of an MEP's immunity (Article 3, according to which each MEP must have access to all the documents received by the Parliament - in this exact case, the request for the lifting of the immunity of Forza Italia and his colleague - and Article 6, according to which the Parliament President passes on without delay any request for lifting immunity to the Legal Committee - which was not done until now: Ed.). Mr Baron reminded the press that he had already personally proposed to refer to the Constitutional Committee.
- A proposal from Enrique Baron to send an MEP to Madrid so that he may discuss the details of the Berlusconi-Dell'Utri case with the Spanish government, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. The President of the Socialist group suggested to entrust this mission to Neil McCormick, Scottish member of the Green/ALE group, who is the rapporteur for the Legal Committee on issues related to the lifting of parliamentary immunity. Though it can be another MEP, he said to the press, adding that the that that of President Nicole Fontaine. I will ensure that this takes place as quickly as possible, indicated Mr Baron.
Furthermore, the President of the Socialist group noted that certain participants in the meeting, such as the President of the EPP-ED group, Hans-Gert Pottering, had reproached him for "politicising" this case before the Italian elections on 13 May (where Berlusconi is the candidate for the right to the position of Prime Minister). I replied, said the President of the Socialist group, that if the case had been dealt with at the time of the presentation of the request for lifting immunity, during the summer of 2000, there would not have been this politicisation.
