József Szájer, on behalf of the PPE-DE Group. – Mr President, I would like to welcome this proposal and also to thank Richard Corbett for his hard, and not always rewarding, work.

Very often when we change the Rules of Procedure our colleagues get worried about what is happening. Most of them only realise what has happened and what changes we have made once it has come into effect, by which time it can no longer be changed. I firmly support most of the proposals which have been tabled, especially because they reflect not just your hard work, but also – as you mentioned – that of the parliamentary reform group chaired by Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, which prepared this proposal very well.

However, during the parliamentary reform process, I also made it clear for our group when we had our discussions that this report on parliamentary reform has to be approved by changes to the Rules of Procedure. This is a democratic procedure ending in a vote. Nothing could be changed just by discussions in that group and we worked very much along these lines.

I would also like to mention that I was somewhat critical about what has just been mentioned, namely that some of the informal procedures which we have in the Parliament are institutionalised. I am somewhat afraid because if we have a custom, then it is better to keep it as a custom and not necessarily change the rules.

For our group, the most important point is, however, proportionality. In our Parliament, the committees have very strong roles. In preparing the votes here in Parliament they take a lot of the burden from this House by voting in committee. It is not just a simple question of procedure, but a question of democracy, that the committees reflect the proportions which exist in plenary when important issues are decided. I think this is a basic question of democracy and, on behalf of the PPE-DE, support the report.