Brussels, 29/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the legal committee at the European Parliament adopted the Draft Opinion that will be sent to President Cox on public access to the register of Parliamentary Assistants. This Opinion had been requested by the Conference of Presidents in order to check whether an obstacle to the diffusion of names of MEPs' assistants existed, due to European regulation on access to documents and personal data protection. Doubts were raised as to the preliminary agreement mentioned in Article 9 of the 2001 Regulation. In the Draft Opinion, Finnish Green, Heidi Hautala believed that divulging information about the professional situation of MEP' Parliamentary Assistants could not be considered as an attack on the private life and the integrity of the persons mentioned but that divulging the content of a contract between the Assistant and MEP should not be possible. This line was not taken up by the legal committee, which preferred to adopt an amendment by Klaus-Heiner Lehne (CDU), who was not long in launching a polemic linked to the refusal by MEPs for more transparency on the conditions in which they employ assistants. This document asserts that there is no public interest in knowing the names of the assistants employed by MEPs and introduces the principle according to which assistants must give their consent to their names being divulged. It also discriminates between those assistants who are accredited and those who are not. As for the latter, the text outlines that the request for access badges to EP premises can be interpreted as the consent of accredited assistants to the publication of their names.
Following the vote, Finnish Liberal, Astrid Thors protested against the way the vote had been carried out. Heidi Hautala, the rapporteur withdrew her signature from the opinion, which will now bare the name of the Committee Chairman, Giuseppe Gargani (Forza Italia). The two MEPs criticised Mr Gargani for having contributed to the success of his group (EPP-ED) to which Mr Lehne belongs and proceeding to a vote fifteen minutes before it had initially been planned. In a press statement, Ms Hautala pointed out that many of her colleagues had missed the vote due what Ms Hautala did not hesitate in describing as an "abuse of the Committee Chairman's power". She also declared that she was surprised to learn that Mr Lehne had given a warning about the change of time.