10. Quorum

Verbatim reports

The President announced that he had received a request signed by 40 Members pursuant to Rule 149 to establish the quorum for the three afternoon votes. Having referred to paragraph 4 of the said Rule, he noted that the Members who had made the request were not present. He questioned the admissibility of the request, made in writing, when the Members who had made it were absent.

The following spoke to clarify their position on the paragraph of the Rules: Jo Leinen, chairman of the AFCO Committee, Bernd Posselt, Pierre Pribetich, Sarah Ludford, José Ribeiro e Castro, Ewa Tomaszewska, Esko Seppänen, Marios Matsakis, Zdzisław Zbigniew Podkański, Neena Gill, Jo Leinen and Bernd Posselt on the last speaker's remarks.

The President, having listened to the different opinions, stated that he intended to follow legal parliamentary precedent as regards the establishment of the quorum and that before the AFCO Committee (to which the matter had been referred) had provided its interpretation he would proceed as follows:

- the debate would take place as planned;

- at the time of the vote he would put the matter to the House to see whether at least 40 Members supported the request to establish the quorum. If this was the case, the vote would not take place and the motions for resolution would fall (Rule 115(6)); if not, the request would not be accepted and the votes would take place as normal.