Following the internal discussions around the reform of the committees’ competences at the European Parliament, most of the political groups prefer to keep the existing structure of the parliamentary committees, a source from the European Parliament close to the matter told Euractiv.

Only the European People’s Party (EPP) is making proposals that could radically change the structure of the committees, which form the core of European Parliament legislative work, according to the source.

The other groups would prefer to keep the same structure, or make minor changes, the source added.

When a legislative proposal is published by the European Commission, the European Parliament decides which committee will manage the file. Afterwards, a committee (or more committees) are chosen to proceed with the legislative work. After an agreement is reached at the parliamentary committee level, the text goes to the plenary session, where all 705 MEPs vote on the legislation.

In September, the European Parliament secretariat delivered a ‘reflection paper’ to political groups on how to change the committees’ structure, to reduce the conflict of competences among the 20 permanent committees, a document seen by Euractiv at the time, explained.

LEAK: European Parliament gets ready to shake up internal committee structure

The European Parliament secretariat has prepared a ‘reflection paper’ – exclusively seen by Euractiv – addressed to political groups with concrete examples on how to reshape the Parliament’s committees in the next legislative mandate.

Since then, secretary generals of political groups have been periodically meeting to establish a majority in a proposal of reform. With the European elections approaching in June, there is only a slight window of opportunity to approve the reform.

The state of play of the discussion in January, is still far from finding a common ground, with only four plenary sessions ahead to use for the final vote.

Groups’ positions

The EPP proposed to split the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), creating a separate committee for health and food safety. The centre-right party took the same approach for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, in which it wants to split home affairs from migration.

The socialists (S&D) proposed to have a human rights committee (DROI) which is currently a sub-committee of Foreign Affairs (AFET). More generally, however, the group is reluctant to make major changes, the source told Euractiv.

The liberals (Renew Europe) proposed instead to have a committee on Security and Defence (DEVE) which is currently a subcommittee of AFET.

The other groups, namely the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), the Greens/EFA, the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID), and The Left are not proposing changes, the source explained.

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