MEPs miss double chance to push one seat debate

MEPs miss double chance to push one seat debate

STRASBOURG: Two attempts to persuade MEPs to register their concern about the two seat of the European parliament failed on Wednesday.
Amendments put forward by German Liberal Alexander Alvaro and others concerning parliament’s 2008 calendar and the scope of the upcoming intergovernmental conference (IGC) were given short shrift by deputies.
Alvaro, who is head of the campaign for parliament reform calling for the scrapping of the Strasbourg seat, had asked MEPs to vote on an end to the Thursday sitting of parliament in the eastern French town.
The amendment was seen as a means of sending a clear signal about the need for reform, and was backed by many other MEPs.
British centre-right MEP Timothy Kirkhope MEP said he had supported Alvaro’s amendment.
“My support for a deletion of Thursday sittings is not in any way an alternative to the principled position I hold, which is to end Strasbourg sessions, but recognition of the fact that the treaties currently stipulate that 12 sessions must be held in Strasbourg.”
Some MEPs had taken the opposite stance, arguing that the Strasbourg session should be a full five-days, rather than splitting the five day period between France and Brussels.
German MEP Werner Langen led the call for a five-day Strasbourg – a move that would effectively make Strasbourg, and not Brussels, the single parliament seat, as it was in the past.
This, he said, would “give us the chance to have more speaking time and more public attention”.
“We are more members and more nations now, so it would be cheaper and more efficient to work more intensively in one week and leave the other weeks free for constituency work.”
But parliament’s plenary session voted to maintain the three-and-a-half day part session in Strasbourg 12 times a year, with MEPs refusing to get drawn into the one-seat debate at this time.
Alvaro had a second chance to push his reform agenda, inserting an amendment into the report by Dutch MEP Jo Leinen on the IGC, calling for the conference to also discuss the two-seat issue.
But despite a healthy round of applause from many MEPs in the hemicycle following the announcement of his amendment, the call was once again rejected.
Speaking to the press after the vote, Leinen explained that this was essentially due to the need to present a united front on the issue of the IGC.
Leinen was adamant that parliament should call on all national governments to stick their commitments made at the EU summit in Brussels – and that parliament adding new items to the IGC agenda at this stage would send the wrong impression.
But, he added, the one seat issue remained an important one for parliament, and the rejection of Alvaro’s amendments should not be seen as a lack of support for the move among MEPs.
A recent poll of MEPs by the parliament reform group showed widespread support for one seat for parliament, with most deputies supporting Brussels but a fair number supporting Strasbourg.