EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT/COMMISSION: MEPS GIVE IN TO COUNCIL ON FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT.

The Council's offensive (see European Report No 2513 for further details) raised the ire of a number of MEPs led by Jens Peter Bonde, President of the EDD group, and Heidi Hautala, President of the Greens, who demanded that the draft text be referred before the Legal Affairs Committee and the vote adjourned until September. This request was rejected by 314 votes to 210 with 30 abstentions. Confirming the guidelines agreed on 4 July at an extraordinary Conference of Presidents, the other group Presidents ordered their troops to vote for the Framework Agreement in spite of the substantial amendments to Annex III, the subject of tough negotiations between the Parliament and the Commission before a compromise was reached on 8 June (see European Report No 2507 for further details). The Parliament's docility is all the more surprising in that several prominent Members, including Dietmut Theato (EPP, Germany), the President of the Committee on Budgetary control, had deemed the initial draft framework agreement to be insufficient in respect of the transmission of confidential documents.Hans-Gert Pottering, President of the EPP Group indicated that even though Parliament failed to see all its demands met, the agreement does represent significant progress as it will permit more effective...