Strasbourg, 16/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - The working group on the reform of the EP announced by Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering is taking shape. On Thursday, the Conference of the Presidents agreed the mandate of the group, which will be charged with reflecting on how the institution operates and making proposals on how to improve the quality of the work. Following the meeting, Mr Pöttering welcomed the “wide mandate”, which would focus on the work of the committees and the plenary sessions, “particularly with a view to improving their efficiency and how they are perceived by the public, and also issues related to maintaining multilingualism and the responsibility of the Commission and Council in relation to the Parliament,” says the text adopted. German Socialist MEP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt will chair the group, and the other representatives of the political groups are Françoise Grossetête (EPP-ED, France), Graham Watson (ALDE, United Kingdom), Salvatore Tatarella (UEN, Italy), Monica Frassoni (Greens/EFA, Italy), Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (GUE-NGL, Germany), Jens-Peter Bonde (IND-DEM, Denmark), Irena Belohorska, representing non-attached members, and a representative of the ITS group, who has yet to be selected.
A first interim report, with proposals for the 2008 budget, is expected before September and a final report will be presented by June 2008. In particular, it will examine the working practices of the parliamentary committees, with focus on the codecision procedure, "Better Regulation", comitology, impact assessment, transposition into national law and implementation, simplification, programming and conciliation. The structure and mandate (duration, responsibilities) and composition of committees will also be looked at from the point of view of practicability, as will improving coordination between committees and delegations. The working group will also consider how to make plenary sessions more lively and interesting and how to deal more efficiently with amendments. Also to be considered are the introduction of a "State of the Union" debate, measures to increase the obligation of the Commission and Council to be accountable before the Parliament, and measures to ensure more members attend during important sessions, along with the review of the current practice of renewing the senior positions in the Parliament halfway through the legislature. The working group will be able to add further matters not currently in the mandate, adds the mandate text - and this will not exclude the issue of where the Parliament sits, said Graham Watson, adding, however, that this would not be one of his demands, even though the majority of MEPs in his group favour a single seat. Mr Watson stressed, however, that it should be possible for the plenary session to meet on Wednesdays, the day when the College of Commissioners meets. (ab)