European Parliament
On Thursday 26 June the Political Groups behind the Chairs and Vice- Chairs of the European Parliament’s 22 Committees were announced. These positions are assigned to the Political Groups relative to their size. As the Christian Democrats are the largest group, they get the first choice on the Committee they want to lead.
But, the days of packing the leadership with one country are gone. Whilst the German EPP is the largest Group in the EPP, they are not anymore going to pack every Chair with a CDU/CSU member.
Each groups assign themselves according to their own rules. For most of the groups they follow the D’Hondt system. That is the usual rule, but those rules sometimes get over-looked. The names will be known next week.
No Real Change
It does not look like any Committees have changed. I have always hoped the fisheries committee get merged into a broader maritime Committee. Clique issue like Committees are not good. The Parliament can dispose of its oversight role just as well, and I’d contend better, if they’d deal with fisheries issues in a way similar to the European Commission, in a broad Marine, Maritime and Fisheries.
Members on the Committees
The MEPs who sit on the Committees will be known on 7th July.
To be honest, some Committees are seen as more prestigious than others. The Foreign Affairs Committee seems to be very popular. I am not sure why. I guess there is a lot of travel involved and politicians get to speak about grand issues. But, if we are honest, it is an area where Europe is a leading force, and the Parliament has very little role to play. That said, MEPs scramble to join this Committee.
The old work horses of the Parliament are the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, Industry, Research and Energy Committee and Economic and Monetary Affairs. You go here if you like the hard work and long hours of doing what Parliament’s second main role is – to scrutinise proposals legislative proposals from the European Commission and to pass laws. It’s seen by some as less the glamorous side of being a MEP, but this is where the real and important decision are taken.
The first role of any Parliament is, of course, to make sure the tax money is spent properly and the public’s money can be accounted for. Some work needs to be done on that front.
Each group gets seats in a Committee that are roughly proportional to the size of their Group. This means that the make up of the new Committees won’t look very different to the previous.
One thing worth bearing in mind is that one country can’t pack a Committee. I remember when it could and was done. This means the Spanish EPP and Social Democrats can’t be the sole representatives on the Fisheries Committee.
Allocating the positions within their national is not as easy as it seems. The EPP have the Environment Committee, but rumour has it that they are having problems finding someone who either wants the job, or who has the support of their national delegation for the job.
It lands up that for some countries they may have no national sitting on a Committee. For a landlocked country, sitting on the fisheries committee may be no huge loss, but it can mean that the national voice of a country on key issues is not heard.
Meeting 7 July
There are still proposals that the old, the 7th European Parliament, were considering and had not finished. The 8th European Parliament will start work in earnest on them.
Some of the Parliament’s legislative leads on proposals, like the National Emission Ceilings, have been re-elected. They can re-start work in September. Others will need to have new Rapporteurs and shadows assigned to the files will need to find new Rapporteurs before they can start work.
The new proposals the European Commission are turning out, like the overhaul of Waste legislation, rumoured for adoption on 1st July, will need a new Rapporteur. Work on this new legislative work wis likely to start work in December.
Comitology
One of the new Committees mot important jobs is to review a pile of delegated legislation that will be released to them. Under a pre-election agreement between the Commission, Council and the Parliament, the transmission of measures can re-start:
- Delegated acts 17th July
- Draft Regulatory Procedure with Scrutiny measures from 9th July
- Some delegated acts in the financial services 21st August
The only challenge is that many MEPs, their personal and group advisors will be on vacation then.