Strasbourg, 17/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament Conference of Presidents put the finishing touches in Strasbourg on Thursday to its 16 member delegation to the Convention that will prepare for the upcoming reform the EU Treaties. Two EP representatives had already been nominated for the Convention Presidium, namely Inigo Mendez de Vigo of the Partido Popular and German Social Democrat Klaus Hänsch. The 16 MEPs on the Convention will be: for the EPP-ED, full members Elmar Brok, Timothy Kirkhope, Alain Lamassoure, Hanja Maij-Weggen, Inigo Mendez de Vigo and Antonio Tajani; with Teresa Almeida Garrett, John Cushnahan, Piia Noora Kauppi, Reinhard Rack, the Eearth of Stockton and Joachin Wuermeling as deputies; for the PES, full members: Klaus Hänsch, Olivier Duhamel, Luis Marinho, Linda McAvan and Anne van Lancker; with Pervenche Beres, Maria Berger, Carlos Carnero Gonzalez, Elena Paciotti and Helle Thorning-Schmidt as their deputies; the main ELDR member is Andrew Duff, seconded by Lone Kybkjaer; for the Greens/EFA, the main member will be Johannes Voggenhuber with Neil McCormick as his deputy; Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann will be the main member for the GUE/NGL, with Esko Olavi Seppänen as her deputy; Christiana Muscardini will be the UEN's main member with Luis Queiro as her deputy and Jens-Peter Bonde will be the EDD's main member with William Abitbol as his deputy.
This list demonstrates that Parliament tried to remedy the lack of women, so far, among the representatives announced for the Convention: thus, of the 16 Parliamentary representatives, there are 5 women, and 7 among the deputies. EUROPE has reason to believe that there was discontent among the Socialist Group, on the one hand because it is the only one not to send its co-ordinator in the Committee …/..
on Constitutional Affairs to the Convention, and, on the other, because among its representatives there was not the name of the chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Giorgio Napolitano, either, nor the rapporteur on the Nice Treaty, Jo Leinen. As for the EDD Group, it seems that the battle was quite tough between the President Jens-Peter Bonde and the French "sovereignist" William Abitbol.