Strasbourg, 17/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (PES, Germany) was pleased to note on Wednesday 16 January that several elements of the interim report by the working group on the way the European Parliament operates, presented in September and adopted by the conference of group presidents the following month (EUROPE 9507), are now in force. The elements in question cover measures supposed to improve the quality of parliamentary work and make plenary session debates more lively and coherent. MEPs thus have more time to speak during legislative debates, the agenda has been reorganised and MEPs may leave the seats attributed to them and move to the first rows of the House when this is not full, explained the working group's chairman. Procedures for preparing plenary sessions have also been improved and reports, which were hitherto put to the vote without debate, may be the subject of a short presentation by the rapporteur, with reactions from the Commission and Council. Other changes will also come about, such as the establishment of a minimum one month delay between voting on a report in committee and debate in plenary or the structure and procedures for oral and written questions. Set up in February 2007 (EUROPE 9368) after Hans-Gert Pöttering's election to the head of the European Parliament, the working group on reform of the way the EP operates will pursue its work on the working procedures of the parliamentary committees and on inter-institutional relations (a second report is not due to be presented to the conference of presidents for another 3 months, said Ms Roth-Behrendt), before examining questions relating to external relations and the structure of the EP after the June 2009 elections. (A.B.)