European lawmakers across the political spectrum are seething over new rules requiring in-person attendance at Parliament meetings, after President David Sassoli scrapped flexible teleworking arrangements that have allowed voting from home since the start of the pandemic.
For the first time since COVID struck, all 705 lawmakers must be physically present at this week’s two-day plenary session in Brussels in order to vote and debate because Sassoli revoked the option to connect online under new measures that came into force last week.
Lawmakers have sounded off about the return to normal, arguing that canceling hybrid work is a retrograde move and could even be dangerous given the rising COVID cases across Europe.
At the start of a packed plenary session on Wednesday, Danish MEP Karen Melchior said: “Member states are reinstating security measures against COVID … and at the same time we are now sitting elbow to elbow in this room, traveling from all across Europe.”
“Where are the lessons learnt from the last year and a half?” the Renew Europe politician asked.
German Green MEP Daniel Freund told POLITICO: “We’re holding the biggest super-spreader event in Brussels.” Freund said it was also a backward step in terms of technical innovation because Parliament has managed to operate fully digitally since March 2020.
Sassoli tightened the screws on MEPs’ whereabouts in an edict — obtained by POLITICO — he sent to all MEPs on October 28. It updated the previous version of the rules from two weeks previous, on October 14, and said that while minimizing COVID risks, “Parliament has the obligation to return to business as usual.”
Hybrid creatures
Now that MEPs and anyone else wishing to enter the Parliament buildings must have a COVID passport showing proof of vaccination, a negative test or coronavirus recovery, voting and debating must happen only in person and “physical distancing in plenary sittings should be lifted,” according to the new rules.
Sassoli himself has been unable to physically attend the Parliament since September after falling ill with Legionnaires’ disease.
Delphine Colard, the Parliament’s deputy spokesperson, said that Sassoli’s decision on changing the rules was motivated by a “general willingness” among MEPs to return to physical proximity to enhance the quality of debates and strengthen democracy.
“The idea was that it was better to represent the citizens to be present somewhere,” Colard said. In any case, over 550 MEPs already physically attended last month’s hybrid Parliament week in Strasbourg, meaning a physical Parliament sitting has “de facto” returned anyway, she added.
One Parliament insider from the Socialists and Democrats group said MEPs have had an easy ride: “MEPs are already mollycoddled … it’s the first Parliament in the world to have allowed people to vote from their living rooms for 18 months.”
During a Parliament committee meeting Tuesday, Luke “Ming” Flanagan, an Irish MEP from the Left group, attacked the mandate for physical presence, saying it was ludicrous to demand MEPs “burn up jet fuel†when remote participation works fine.
He accused the EU political class of hypocrisy more broadly, saying MEPs want to “continue eating in Place Luxembourg, sitting in first class, feathering our nests, while we ask other people to change.”
Class half full
The new regime has also faced a backlash from MEPs in the Parliament’s working committees, which met this week to prepare legislation for the main chamber.
“I was taken aback by this decision,†said German MEP Norbert Lins from the European People’s Party, while chairing a meeting of the agriculture panel on Tuesday. He said he was unhappy that because of the sudden change in rules, numerous key MEPs could not attend the debate, thus preventing a “comprehensive view of opinions.”
Other committees also faced difficulties this week, with the single market committee being forced to postpone a vote planned on Monday because of the recent rule change. “There was too little time between President Sassoli’s unexpected announcement … for Members to adapt — only five working days,” Anna Cavazzini, the Green MEP who chairs the panel, wrote in an email via an assistant.
Parliament spokesperson Colard said: “We don’t see major hiccups.”
MEPs are irked by a clause in the new COVID safety rules that says committee rooms can only be 50 percent full at any time, meaning many MEP assistants and other staff members are barred from entering to make space for lawmakers.
European People’s Party group leader Manfred Weber sent Sassoli a letter — seen by POLITICO — saying MEPs are “not necessarily prepared” for such an abrupt end to the hybrid Parliament. Weber asked for a “transitional period” to allow committees to operate in a hybrid format.
However, the S&D insider said: “It’s a shame to have to insist on MEPs to come and do their duty. We would expect an obligation to be physically present would annoy anti-European or extremist MEPs, not the representatives of a democratic party.”
Just like the EPP, a handful of Renew Europe MEPs are also shopping for signatures to a letter dated November 10, calling for a return to the hybrid system. In the missive, seen by POLITICO, four Danish MEPs compare the return to physical meetings to using an abacus rather than a calculator. Hybrid work is cheaper, greener and more transparent, they argue.
Parliament spokesperson Colard also argued that hybrid working will still be possible for less important meetings, just not for committee or plenary sessions.
The debate on the future working of Parliament is likely to intensify ahead of a meeting of the heads of political groups next week. The Greens’ Freund said his group plans to push for continued hybrid working during the meeting.
Maïa de La Baume contributed reporting.
