EP pressing ahead with changes to take in new MEPs
The European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) is in the coming weeks expected to forge ahead with the changes needed for the 18 extra MEPs, including Labour MEP Joseph Cuschieri, to finally take their seats.
The EP office was reacting to recent statements by incoming MEP Joseph Cuschieri, who is set to take up Malta’s sixth seat in the European Parliament. Cuschieri has remarked that he has had no reaction from the EP over when he is scheduled to take up his seat, which has been left pending since the Lisbon Treaty came into force.
“Mr Joseph Cuschieri’s recent expression of frustration regarding his inability to take up his seat in the European Parliament after being democratically elected in the June 2009 European Elections is entirely understandable,” said Julian Vassallo, head of the European Parliament Office in Malta.
The AFCO committee will handle the issue in two reports summing up the Parliament’s position which will be authored by Spanish MEP Inigo Mendez de Vigo (EPP). The vote on both reports is expected at committee level on 7 April 2010 and in plenary later in the spring.
The move follows a December proposal by the Spanish government to change the Treaties so that the extra European Parliament seats foreseen for 12 countries may be filled.
Before the European elections in June 2009, the EP Office had insisted that provision be made for the method of election of Malta’s sixth MEP on which agreement was eventually reached. This was also the case in all the other member states eligible for additional MEPs with the exception of France.
“This has created problems because some in the European Parliament are now opposing France’s idea of simply nominating two members of the French National Assembly as additional MEPs. Some democratically elected MEPs are not satisfied to sit alongside others who have simply been nominated by their national parliament,” Dr Vassallo said.
Even following the Parliament’s eventual thumbs up to the amendments to the Treaty, there could be further delays because a change to the Treaty will need to be ratified by all Member States in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements – which in most cases will involve national parliamentary ratification.
“This is the result of the fact that although we are twenty-seven countries tightly bound in a European Union, when it comes to changing treaties we are unfortunately still operating under international law rules that apply to countries as unconnected as Malta and Tonga,” Dr Vassallo said.
Also it would not be surprising if those countries that do not stand to gain MEPs will not treat ratification with the urgency it deserves.
Meanwhile the European Parliament, which has a strong interest to move ahead with the Treaty changes, had already amended its Rules of Procedure in November 2009 so that Cuschieri and the other new MEPs may take observer status – upon invitation by the Parliament – during the period between the adoption of the modifications to the Treaty of Lisbon and their entry into force after ratification.
“Observer status could come in 2010 and, even if this will not give Malta another vote, it will at least give us another voice and another pair of ears in the EP,” Vassallo said.
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