By Martin Banks - 12th January 2012
We cannot have parliament being struck aside
Martin Schulz
The German MEP expected to become the next president of parliament has voiced concern that the institution is being "marginalised" by member states over the eurozone crisis.
Speaking at a debate in parliament on Wednesday, Martin Schulz urged the assembly to adopt a resolution condemning what he branded an "unacceptable" trend.
Schulz, who currently leads the S&D group, said, "We cannot have parliament being struck aside by one stroke of a pen by the council's secretariat."
This was a direct reference to the likelihood that MEPs will have a strictly limited role in drafting a new treaty on fiscal discipline.
He declared, "If elected president, I will fight this. Parliament's negotiators are the only ones who have been eliminated from the eurozone crisis talks but parliament should be an equal partner alongside the ECB, commission and council. I do not want it to be left out in the cold."
Schulz also promised to revisit the issue of parliament's split-site arrangement if the European court rules in favour of the assembly's decision to cut the number of plenary sessions in Strasbourg.
The MEP lined up alongside UK ALDE deputy Diana Wallis and British Tory Nirj Deva who are both also standing in next Tuesday's election to succeed Polish deputy Jerzy Buzek as president.
During the 90-minute debate, each candidate outlined their credentials for the post.
Wallis agreed with Schulz saying that, if elected, she too would "fight for parliament to be in there".
But Wallis, who said she was the "wild card" of the three candidates, suggested the best way of achieving such aims would be for parliament to "forge closer relations" with national MPs.
Wallis, who has spent 15 years as a vice-president of parliament, described the institution as an "amazing" place but one which still needed to communicate more effectively with citizens. "Being vice-president has shown me how we can do things differently."
She said, "My candidacy is a symbolic gesture. It is a risk but at least it has created some interest in the election."
Deva, who described himself as the "kamikaze" candidate, told the packed meeting that he "refused to accept the cosy deal" struck between the EPP and S&D under which Buzek was elected for the first half of the current mandate and an S&D candidate for the second half.
Deva said, "If I had not stood the election would already have been decided in a back room deal by the two big groups. This method of patronage managed by the EPP and S&D should stop."
He also made a direct challenge to Schulz to "repudiate" the political arrangement that consistently sees the two big groups sharing the presidency.
Both Wallis and Deva said they favoured addressing MEPs on their candidacies in the Strasbourg plenary before deputies vote on the presidency on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, parliament's ECR group has complained that the EPP, S&D and ALDE have voted together to prevent the three candidates from addressing MEPs ahead of the vote.
ECR chairman Martin Callanan said in a statement on Wednesday, "It is customary for MEPs to hear a short presentation from the candidates before deciding who they want to represent them for the next 30 months.
"The leaders of the European parliament's main groups may have already determined who will win this election but surely there is no harm in allowing the three candidates to set out their stall in front of the whole parliament. This is, after all, an election that should be determined by the parliament, not by three MEPs," he added.
