Strasbourg, 06/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Regarding the decision taken on Thursday by the Conference of Presidents concerning the request for the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of Silvio Berlusconi and Marcello Dell'Uri (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4), a press release from the private office of EP President Nicole Fontaine stipulates that the latter had decided to consult the presidents of the political groups as the issues had "exceeded the strictly legal domain to move into the political domain". The press release adds that:
- at Thursday's meeting, the EP's Secretary General submitted a study, desired by some MEPs, on all cases of the lifting of immunity since 1979. This document confirms that in "nearly all cases, the requests came from the governmental authority of the country concerned", says the press release.
- following a "broad consensus" on the proposal made on 15 March by Enrique Baron, President of the Socialist Group, Ms. Fontaine had decided to mandate the Committee on Constitutional Affairs to draw up a document on Article 6 of the EP's rules of procedure (which provides for any request for the lifting of immunity of a member addressed to the EP President by the "competent authority of a Member State" be "communicated in plenary session and sent on to the competent committee" - the Committee on Legal Affairs). This, in order to "study whether the details and adaptations were necessary" notably regarding the appropriate procedure to verify the competence of the authority of the Member states concerned or the notion of "competent authority" to ask and transmit to the EP the requests for the lifting of immunity.
The President "will discuss with the Spanish authorities the state of progress of the ongoing procedure in the Council of State", and "appoint an MEP "to pursue the issue in her name".