Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-04-26-Speech-3-129"
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Gargani, in answer to your question, I should like to start by saying that I am happy to repeat what has already been said in the past: the Council welcomes the adoption, in July of last year, following lengthy negotiations, of a Statute for the Members of the European Parliament that will guarantee Members the same conditions for exercising their mandate with effect from 2009, in other words in the next parliamentary period. In a statement on the Statute, the Council did indeed state that it was, in principle, prepared to examine the possibility of amending the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities for Members of the European Parliament when the Statute was adopted. It goes without saying that the Council will stand by this statement, and I would stress that we are still prepared to look into this matter even though, as you know, the Statute will not enter into force until 2009 when the next European Parliament is formed.
With regard to the question on convening an Intergovernmental Conference, I would first of all point out that the procedure is laid down in Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union and that, under that article, the government of any Member State or the Commission may submit to the Council proposals for the amendment of the Treaties on which the Union is founded. Under paragraph 2 of that article, a conference of representatives of the governments of the Member States shall be convened by the President of the Council if the Council, after consulting the European Parliament and, where appropriate, the Commission, delivers an opinion in favour of calling such a conference. Those are the rules in the Treaty on European Union.
As the representative of the Council, however, I should like to raise a point for consideration when examining the question of whether the conditions for convening an Intergovernmental Conference have been met. If we were to hold such a conference at the present time, we would be interrupting the period of reflection devoted to a fundamental examination of the goals and future of Europe. I will leave open the question of whether it would be appropriate to convene an Intergovernmental Conference solely for the purpose of amending the privileges and immunities of the Members of the European Parliament. I must admit that, from our point of view, it is doubtful whether a conference dealing solely with Members' privileges and immunities would be helpful at the moment in increasing public confidence in the European Parliament; we feel it would be more likely to meet with incomprehension.
From the wording of today's question, the Council assumes that, in other respects, the European Parliament does not intend to make any new proposals regarding content, but confirms the wishes of the last Parliament. This is important for our future work. In any case, as you know, it is the privilege of the representatives of the governments of the Member States at an Intergovernmental Conference to decide the basis on which their debates will be held. It goes without saying that the Presidency of the Council cannot, at this point, predict what an autonomous Intergovernmental Conference might decide.
Nevertheless, I wanted to bring these rather more general considerations into the debate. It is not a question of whether or not the Council is willing to fulfil a commitment it has made: of course it is willing to do so. The question, though, is whether now is the right time to take such a step solely for the purpose of amending the Treaties with regard to privileges and immunities."@en1
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