After the Commission’s publication of reform proposals yesterday, rapporteurs were appointed in the European Parliament through an unusal move, leaving three party groups with all the reports and a greater influence over the results.
In the European Parliament (EP), it is customary that a legal proposal from the Commission that is of interest to the relevant committee – in this case the Committee on Fisheries (PECH) – is appointed to a member of the Parliament (MEP). That MEP becomes “the rapporteur” and will draft the EP report, including amendments to the Commission’s proposal.
These appointments are usually made through a points system, taking the proportional representation in the EP into account. This time, however, the system was side-stepped through a compromise negotiated between three groups in the Committee that have majority, giving all of the six reports to the groups of the European People’s Party (EPP), European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Needless to say, members from the other groups protested.