EP committee chairs
Coup against chair distribution system would be a blow to democratic process in EP
The European Parliament's committees will elect their chairpersons and vice-chairpersons next Monday. The long-established practice in the European Parliament has been to ensure a fair distribution of these posts, based on the relative sizes of the EP's different political groups, using the D'Hondt repartition system. However, there are concerns that an agreement, allegedly concluded between some of the political groups, would mean the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group would lose the post of chair of the EP's petitions committee, to which it is entitled under the D'Hondt system. Commenting on this, Greens/EFA spokesperson on the petitions committee Margrete Auken said:
"Excluding any political group from a committee chairmanship to which it is due under the established system for fairly distributing these posts would be a blow to the democratic process in the EU Parliament. This goes beyond petty politicking but to the heart of European democracy. It is all the more important for the petitions committee, given its role in defending rules and rights and standing up to interference by special interests. The candidate nominated by the EFDD group appears to have all the qualifications and the right approach to adequately exercise this duty. Against this background we strongly urge the other political groups not to go ahead with a coup against the D'Hondt system, which would jeopardise the necessary minimal cooperation that is needed to make this parliament work."
