Ahead of the European election, top MEPs think of ways to make the Parliament less, well, dull.
The European Parliament knows it has a reputation for being boring. Now it’s trying to sex things up.
MEPs don’t bother showing up to debates during the monthly plenary sessions in Strasbourg; journalists barely pay the place any attention; and the Parliament’s procedures are a mess — that’s according to the Parliament’s own civil servants who issued the grim diagnosis in a “background note” to senior MEPs earlier this year.
Obtained exclusively by POLITICO, an obscure working group cooked up a document considering ways to overhaul the Parliament’s machinery in time for European elections in June 2024.
“Debates are less lively because Members often come to plenary only for their intervention, they read out their speeches and leave right after without listening to the entire debate,” the document states.
It also bemoans that there is “insufficient media attractiveness of some plenary agenda items resulting from lack of liveliness of debates [and] topics perceived as having less immediate impact and of limited relevance.”
The Parliament is traditionally seen as the junior partner to the European Commission, which proposes legislation, and the EU Council, formed of national governments. The institution is attempting to reform its procedures in order to pack more of a punch in the next five-year legislature, when 720 MEPs will sit in the chamber.
A second document, dated May 24, also seen by POLITICO, summarizes a debate that MEPs in the same working group held in late March in which they discussed the first document and came up with some proposed solutions.
The working group — made up of 13 top MEPs — has met 18 times since January and is chaired by Parliament President Roberta Metsola. “Reforming plenary sessions should further develop, inter alia, the liveliness of debates, their relevance for citizens, and the accountability of other institutions,” says a document from January setting out the group’s mandate.
Chief among its plans to resuscitate the Parliament are proposals to: “Improve attendance by improving the amount of speaking time for Members” and “reduce the amount of parallel meetings with the plenary to encourage participation,” or even holding “key debates” during which MEPs would be strictly prohibited from holding concurrent meetings elsewhere in the building....
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