Strasbourg, 21/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament will finally vote on Thursday on the report by Johanna Boorgerd-Quaak (the Dutch Democracy 66 MEP) regarding the impingement to media freedom in Italy and other Union countries (EUROPE yesterday p 13). On Tuesday evening during the debate on the report and on Wednesday morning then at lunchtime before deciding on what procedures to follow, supporters and adversaries of the report clashed in a very lively atmosphere, with each side accusing the other of dirty tricks and electoralism. The president of the European Parliament Pat Cox called on MEPs to calm down, despite the "electoral fever".
All 338 amendments were maintained after examination in the public freedoms committee at the beginning of Tuesday evening, to which were added the 1200 votes on the 51 pages of the demands for voting by division and nominal appeals, indicated Pat Cox. The president of the European Parliament succeeded in avoiding hours of voting or a postponement to another session by proposing that MEPs voted on the original text of the Boogerd-Quaak, paragraph by paragraph, without taking into account the hundreds of proposed amendments. By 214 votes for, 294 votes against and with 15 abstentions, MEPs voted against examining all the amendments and therefore voted for the solution.
Enrique Baron Crespo, president of the Socialist group, added his voice to the polemic by referring to the "incidents surrounding the report", including the disappearance of documents, which angered the president of the public freedoms committee, Jorge Hernandez-Mollar (EPP-ED, Spain). Pat Cox called on Enrique Baron to back up these ideas or withdraw them during the week.
Commissioner Patten underlined that at Tuesday's debate that it was above all up to Member States to ensure the plurality of the media and that there were European rules on free competition.