01/29/2020 09:07 | Image Patrick Seeger
Brussels, Jan. 29 (EFE).
MEPs Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín have withdrawn their application for
admission to the Greens / European Free Alliance group in the European
Parliament on Wednesday, just hours before the final debate on their acceptance
as members, to which part of the group was opposed.
Sources close to the negotiation have informed that the independent MEPs have communicated in a letter to the two co-chairs of the group, Ska Keller and Phillipe Lamberts, the withdrawal of their request for entry, so they will remain among those not enrolled in any group in The European Parliament
In
the letter, sent by Puigdemont and Comín but also addressing the situation of
Clara Ponsatí (MEP as of February 1), they indicate that they want to
“avoid internal division” that has generated their possible admission
into the group.
The
group Greens / ALE in the Eurochamber is composed of about 55 MEPs of the
Greens, whose highest positions had been opposed to the entry of Catalan
independence leaders, and 7 of ALE, favorable to their entry, as well as a
dozen not affiliated with either of these two parties, such as the MEPs of
several European pirate parties.
“The last thing we would like is to enter a group after a process that may have caused serious discrepancies between some of its members and that our acceptance is an element of discord”, the letter notes.
One
of the group’s co-chairs, the Belgian Lamberts, had been publicly opposed to
the entry of Puigdemont and Comin into the group because of their links in
Belgium with the N-VA, a Flemish nationalist party.
Greens
/ ALE planned to address this issue at its meeting this Wednesday after in two
meetings of the conciliation committee to try to reach an agreement on this
matter no consensus was reached.
In today’s meeting the more than 70 MEPs in the group would have debated the admission of the three MEPs (including Ponsatí, who will be MEP from February 1 aft the “brexit”) and, if no agreed solution would have been found, then they would have to solve the issue by a vote by absolute majority that Puigdemont, Comin and Ponsati had little chance of winning.
Remaining in the unregistered group, which include parties such as the Brexit Party or the Italian Five Star Movement, leaves them without the support and infrastructure of a parliamentary group, as well as without the floor shifts in the plenary sessions that correspond to the larger groups and unable to access the presidencies of parliamentary committees.
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