Strasbourg, 03/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - At the opening of the EP plenary session, co-president of the Greens/FTA group, Monica Frassoni, supported by the presidents of the EPP-ED and Liberal groups, Hans-Gert Pöttering and Graham Watson respectively, called upon the Parliament to hold an extraordinary debate on the European Convention prior to the European Council of Thessaloniki of 20 and 21 June. Expressing his doubts as to the availability of President Giscard d'Estaing on the eve of the Summit, President Pat Cox suggested that Thursday's Chairmen's Conference discuss this proposal (Parliament is to hold a plenary session in Brussels on 18 and 19 June).
As for the requests by the political groups regarding Thursday afternoon's debate on infringement of human rights and democracy, the plenary decided to replace the debate on Nepal with one on Burma, and that on Guinea-Bissau with one on Zimbabwe. Glenys Kinnock (Labour, UK) and her Conservative compatriot Geoffrey Van Orden welcomed this decision, the latter underlining "the inefficiency of sanctions taken up to now" against President Mugabe.
Hans-Gert Pöttering said he hoped that the Commission would keep Parliament informed on recent events at Eurostat, at the mini-session of 18 and 19 June (see Europe of 22 May p.10, on the case of the two Eurostat directors suspected of embezzlement of funds).
Lastly, Lista Bonino MEP Olivier Dupuis roundly attacked the European attitude at the St Petersburg Summit. It was "a festival of unacceptable statements by the Council, and especially by the Commission, where Romano Prodi drowned the issue of Chechnya in vodka and caviar", shot the radical MEP, who said he was amazed that the Chechen issue and relations with Russia are on the agenda neither of this session, nor of the 18 and 19 June one.