Strasbourg, 25/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - Ingo Friedrich (EPP-ED, Germany) has submitted amendments suggesting a new method of repartition for the number of MEPs' seats after the European elections in 2009, with a view to the vote on 1 October on the Lamassoure/Severin report within the parliamentary committee on constitutional affairs (EUROPE 9496 and 9499). Among other things, he suggests using the simple proportional method for the 2014 elections in the context of minimum (6 seats) and maximum ceilings (96 seats) fixed per member state - a system that would result in giving an advantage to the most populated countries and especially Germany, France and Spain.
German CDU/CSU members made a “counter-proposal”, said Alain Lamassoure (EPP-ED, France) on Tuesday 25 September, speaking to a small group of journalists. This is “an unexpected difficulty in my group on the part of the Germans” (49 MEPs within the EPP-ED Group), he added, saying that the proposal would run counter to the rules set out within the European treaty. He predicted that the proposal would be “totally unacceptable for some ten countries”, mainly for countries of a modest size such as Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Slovenia and Portugal. However, despite the defections within his own political group, the rapporteur remains confident that it may have a majority in parliamentary committee and in plenary - all the more as Polish MEPs, engrossed in the legislative campaign in Poland, should not campaign against the Lamassoure/Severin proposal, when the draft report recommends decoupling between the number of MEPs elected in Poland and Spain. The rapporteur expressed the fear that a low EP majority on this dossier could have unforeseeable consequences in Council that should then adopt a decision by unanimity.
Other than this counter-proposal on the part of the German CDU/CSU MEPs, the position of the political groups remains favourable to the draft report. The rapporteurs' proposals are “certainly not 100% satisfactory” but “we can live with it”, said German Social Democrat Martin Schulz, PES ¨President. “Three seats fewer for Germany, one cannot ignore it”, he said ironically. Graham Watson, who presides the ALDE Group, said there was “no ideal system”. (mb)