REPORT on amendment of Rule 29 of Parliament's Rules of Procedure - Formation of political groups

2.6.2008 - (2006/2201(REG))

Committee on Constitutional Affairs
Rapporteur: Richard Corbett

PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION

on amendment of Rule 29 of Parliament's Rules of Procedure - Formation of political groups

(2006/2201(REG))

The European Parliament,

-    having regard to the proposal for amendment of its Rules of Procedure (B6-0420/2006),

–   having regard to Rules 201 and 202 of its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (A6‑0206/2008),

1.  Decides to amend its Rules of Procedure as shown below;

2.  Decides that the amendment will enter into force on the first day of the first part-session following the European elections in the year 2009;

3.  Instructs its President to forward this decision to the Council and Commission, for information.

Present text	Amendments
Amendment  1 Parliament's Rules of Procedure Rule 29 - paragraph 2 a (new)
Present text	Amendment
	2a. Where a group falls below the required threshold, the President, with the agreement of the Conference of Presidents, may allow it to continue to exist until Parliament's next constitutive sitting, provided the following conditions are met:
	- the members continue to represent at least one-fifth of the Member States;
	- the group has been in existence for a period longer than one year.
	The President shall not apply this derogation where there is sufficient evidence to suspect that it is being abused.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

In the discussions so far in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs on the possible revision of Rule 29 (formation of political groups) three issues have emerged. They all concern a possible revision of paragraph two concerning the minimum size of a political group.

(1) Number of member states

The rule currently requires a political group to comprise members "elected in at least one fifth of the member states". The statute on European political parties refers to "one quarter" of the member states being the relevant criterion. It has been suggested that our internal parliamentary rules should reflect the legislation that has been adopted regarding European political parties. If we were to change Parliament's rules to refer to one quarter, this would mean that a group would currently require MEPs from seven member states instead of six. Neither of these figures would change in the event of Croatian accession.

(2) Number of members

The minimum number of MEPs required to form a political group is currently twenty. This represents a mere 2.55% of the membership of the European Parliament. The attached table shows that in 21 of the 25 national parliaments which have rules on political groups, a higher threshold is required in at least one parliamentary chamber, going as high as 8.5% (Luxembourg), 8.1% (Austrian Bundesrat) or 7% (Polish Senat), but generally above the 4% level (15 Member States).

The question arises as to whether the European Parliament's threshold should be raised to something closer to the average practice of national parliaments. If the figure were fixed at 30 Members out of 750 in the next parliament that would correspond to a figure of 4% which would still be less than the average for national parliaments.

An amendment aiming at raising the minimum number of members needed for establishing a political group was tabled by the Rapporteur, but the Committee rejected it by a very narrow vote.

(3) Maintaining a group that slips below the threshold after it has been created

Mr Bonde and others have drawn attention to the difficult situation that can arise when a group has been created with just enough members to reach the minimum threshold. It is then extremely vulnerable to political pressure from a small group of members - even a single member - who can threaten to leave the group, thereby destroying it unless he/she gets their way on a particular matter.

Consideration should therefore be given to allowing a group to continue to exist, at least for a period of time, if after its creation it slips below the threshold needed. For instance, if 30 members are required to form a political group, such a group could continue to exist for up to a year provided that it had at least 25 members. However, for such a rule to be introduced, it should be accompanied by measures to ensure that members cannot be successively "lent to" different groups to help with their creation, then moving on to constitute other groups again and again.

ANNEX 1

Political groups in national parliaments

Country	Total number of Members in Parliament / Chamber	Minimum number of Members for political group	% of total
Austria
Nationalrat	183	5	2,7 %
Bundesrat	62	5	8,1 %
Belgium
La Chambre	150	5	3,3 %
Le Sénat	71	2	2,8 %
Bulgaria	239	10	4,2 %
Cyprus	According to the Constitution 80 (of which 56 Greek Cypriots; the Turkish Cypriots left in 1963); currently de facto 56	7 (out of 56)	12 %
Czech Republic
Chamber of Deputies	200	10[1]	5 %
Senate	81	5	6,2 %
Denmark	179	4[2]	2,2 %
Estonia	101	5	5 %
Finland	200	n/r	n/r
France Assemblée	577	20	3,5 %
Sénat	331	15	4,5 %
Germany	598 (plus potential overhang mandates) 16th German Bundestag: 614	30 plus x 16th German Bundestag: 31	5 %
Greece	300	10	3,3 %
Hungary	386	15	3,9 %
Ireland	166	7	4,2 %
Italy
Camera dei Deputati	630	20	3,2 %
Senato	315[3]	10	3,2 %
Latvia	100	5	5 %
Lithuania	141	7	5 %
Luxembourg	60	5	8,3 %
Malta		n/r	n/r
Netherlands
House of representatives	150	1	0,7 %
Senate	75	1	1,3 %
Poland
Sejm	460	15[4]	3,3 %
Senat	100	7	7 %
Portugal	230	2	0,9 %
Romania
Chamber of Deputies	332	10	3 %
Senate	137	7	5,1 %
Slovakia	150	8	5,3 %
Slovenia	90	3	3,3 %
Spain
Congreso	350	15[5]	4,3 %
Senado	259	10	3,9 %
Sweden	349	14[6]	4 %
United Kingdom	646	n/r	n/r

n/r = not relevant

• [1]  This figure applies to the constitution of a new group during the parliamentary term. After elections a lower threshold of 3 members applies (1,5%).
• [2]  There is no threshold in the Rules of Procedure but groups of less than 4 members would obtain less financial support. Since no party having obtained less than 2% of the vote will have seats in the Folketing there is a practical limit of 4 members in most cases.
• [3]  The Italian Senate is composed of 315 elected Senators, but some Senators may be appointed for life by the President of the Republic. The total number of Senatori is hence greater than 315 and varies over time.
• [4]  In the Polish chambers a distinction is made between "clubs" and "groups". The establishment of groups is possible with a minimum of 3 members (representing 0,65% in the Sejm, 3% in the Senate).
• [5]  A lower threshold of 5 members (1,42%) is applied for parties having obtained either 15% of the vote in the region/constituencies where they presented candidates or 5% of the nationwide caucus/party coalition of which they were part.
• [6]  In theory, 1, if a PP gets more than 12 % of votes in one constituency. This has never happened yet in Swedish elections. The threshold is 4 % of votes in the whole country, which equals about 14 seats

RESULT OF FINAL VOTE IN COMMITTEE

Date adopted	27.5.2008
Result of final vote	+: –: 0:	15 13 0
Members present for the final vote	Jim Allister, Richard Corbett, Brian Crowley, Hanne Dahl, Andrew Duff, Ingo Friedrich, Anneli Jäätteenmäki, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann, Timothy Kirkhope, Jo Leinen, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, Ashley Mote, Borut Pahor, Rihards Pīks, Adrian Severin, József Szájer, Johannes Voggenhuber, Dushana Zdravkova
Substitute(s) present for the final vote	Graham Booth, Costas Botopoulos, Klaus Hänsch, György Schöpflin, Mauro Zani
Substitute(s) under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote	Philip Claeys, Ingeborg Gräßle, Sepp Kusstatscher, Michael Henry Nattrass, Renate Weber