One Seat petition case heard in European Parliament

4.08.00pm GMT Tue 26th Feb 2008

The petition (N° 630/2006) calling for the European Parliament to have a 'single seat' in Brussels was discussed in the Parliament's Petitions Committee yesterday.

The petition, the brainchild of former Swedish MEP Cecilia Malmström with other members of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, has been signed by more than one million European citizens. It was presented to the European Commission in September 2006. but has been left in limbo for several months. In an attempt to push things forward the Committee has taken the matter of the one-seat petition up.

In the committee, Diana Wallis MEP said that petitioners needed to be treated respectfully and had been waiting long enough for their answers, not least due to obstacles within the European parliament. She said she saw three possible courses for action:

* Submitting a question and committee resolution the Council so that an open debate could take place in plenary before receiving the answer from Council;

* The Petitions Committee should involve itself for example in a current report being prepared in the Constitutional Affairs Committee on citizens initiative;

* Petitions Committee could write its own report on the issue.

The issue is now to be brought to a future meeting of co-ordinators' probably in April, which will explore whether the issue can be moved forward. However, the European Parliament actually has no legal powers on this issue as EU leaders themselves have to decide upon the matter unanimously.