Brussels, 29/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - Discussing the future role of the European Parliament at a conference organised in Brussels by the IFRI (Institut français des relations internationales) on Tuesday 28 April, British Labour MEP Richard Corbett (PES) argued for greater Parliamentary supervision of the executive. “So long as European Parliament action has no visible effect on the executive government (the Commission: Ed.), the logical outcome is a low turnout at the European elections,” he argued. On the appointment of the next European Commission President, he stated that “the choice of the future Head of the Executive should be a political choice”. In any event, “the decision on the make-up of the next Commission should be taken before the elections,” claimed Sylvie Goulard, Chairwoman of the Mouvement européen de France and Modem candidate at the European elections. She called for “more democracy in the election of the European Commission”. The European Greens' “Stop Barroso” campaign was presented by Italian MEP Monica Frassoni (Greens/EFA) as a way of “politicising the European election campaign”. If people have to go out and vote, they also have to be “convinced that they must not miss the opportunity to make the right choice,” she added, arguing that “better regulation” and the “green revolution” were the ways to face up to the economic and financial crisis.
The EP's lack of visibility also came from the “lack of transparency in the European decision-making process,” said German Professor of Economics Joachim Starbatty. With the confusion of the various levels (European, national, regional and local), “citizens do not understand how Brussels can have an impact on their daily lives”. This, he said, explained why “Brussels gets more criticism than compliments”. For example, “Germans are delighted with improved passenger rights but are unaware that this is the transposition of a European directive”. With the Lisbon Treaty currently before the German Constitutional Court testing whether the European test complies with German Fundamental Law, Starbatty was critical that there was “no public debate” on the issue. He said that “the European project has to be explained to citizens”. The Lisbon Treaty, by transferring more powers to Europe, was moving, he said, towards “a federal system without there being any structure or any European federal unity”. “If more federal characteristics bring more democracy, then I can see any harm in that, even as a British citizen,” replied Corbett, singing the praises of European parliamentarism, with its greater “political pluralism” and its “many oppositions”. Unlike national parliaments, which sometimes serve only to rubberstamp decision taken by governments, the “majority in the EP has always to be built up, issue by issue,” he said. (Y.P./transl.rt)