Brussels, 25/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a letter addressed to European Parliament President Nicole Fontaine, the chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Giorgio Napolitano (Democratici di sinistra), notes that, during its meeting on 21 June, where all political groups were not represented, his committee had not reached agreement on the report by British Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff concerning amendment of the articles of the EP regulation on requests to lift parliamentary immunity. In consequence, Mr Duff will not be able to present these conclusions to the meeting of the conference of presidents to be held in Strasbourg on 5 July. EUROPE recalls that the report, which is not intended for the Parliament's plenary, had been requested by the conference of presidents following the Berlusconi/Dell'Utri and Le Pen affairs to clarify articles pertaining to internal procedure.
In his report, which does not tackle the problems linked to the Le Pen affair still pending before the Court of First Instance, Mr Duff proposes two solutions so that, in future, problems linked to the validity of transmission of a request for lifting immunity may be avoided. The first would consist in providing for the Parliament president to inform the plenary and transmit to the relevant committee any request to waive immunity coming from a relevant authority (this formula would take into account the fact that there may be more than one relevant authority per Member State). The second, more radical solution mentions any request "from a Member state that is not manifestly inadmissible". EUROPE has reason to believe that fewer than ten MEPs were present at the meeting on 21 June, most of whom were from the EPP/ED group (represented by elected members of Partido popular and British Conservatives). Contacts are under way to have this blockage lifted.