MEPs wrangle over committee chairs

The distribution of committee chairmanships in the European Parliament has been put off until the end of the month.

Traditionally, a decision on the committee chairs would have been taken during this week’s plenary in Strasbourg.

But bitter infighting between the various political groups has resulted in parliament taking the unusual step of postponing the matter.

MEPS this week passed a resolution which means that the composition of the 29 committees will, for the time being at least, remain as it was before this week’s mid-term election of German member Hans-Gert Poettering as the new parliament president.

A parliament spokesman said: “It is hoped that the infighting which currently seems to be taking place over the make-up and, in particular, the chairmanships of the committees will be resolved in time for the Brussels mini plenary on 31 January.”

Arguably, the keenest battle centres on the chair of the prestigious foreign affairs committee, traditionally one of parliament's most sought-after posts.

The current incumbent, German centre-right MEP Elmar Brok, is thought to be facing a challenge from the senior Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski.

Brok has held the post for seven years but Civic Platform deputy Saryusz-Wolski, a former Polish government minister, is said to want the job as compensation for failing to be re-elected as a vice-president of the assembly.

Another key battleground is for the chairmanship of the influential environment committee where Miroslav Ouzky, a Czech Republic MEP, is challenging German deputy Karl-Heinz Florenz, the current holder.

Usually the posts are divided up under the complex D’Hondt system, which allocates positions according to the size of groupings.

Current convention has it that the EPP, the largest group in parliament, is allocated nine committees (including foreign affairs and industry), the Socialists five (including economic and monetary affairs) and Alde group two.

But, according to a parliament source, such has been the scale of the infighting between the groups in the last few days that, so far, it has proved impossible to resolve the issue.

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