New far-right "group" in EU assembly

From Reuters, Tue Jan 16, 2007, by Darren Ennis ...

STRASBOURG, France - A European Parliament committee is to investigate the legality of the assembly's first ever far-right political group just hours after its formation, officials said on Tuesday.

The new group -- called Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty (ITS) -- took to the legislature's floor for the first time on Tuesday and has managed to cause 24 hours of chaos within the assembly which is sitting in the French city of Strasbourg. Numerous lawmakers led by German socialist leader Martin Schulz called for a boycott of the new group and question their legitimacy.
Others said that while they did not agree with the group of Eurosceptic and anti-immigration deputies, they were democratically entitled to form a group.

But Schulz has asked the parliament's constitutional affairs committee to investigate on the grounds that it is a "technical" rather than a "political" grouping which would be in breach of the parliament's rules, assembly officials told Reuters.....

....This argument was upheld in 2001 by the European Court of Justice - the EU's highest court - when a like-minded group was formed. The court ruled that the Technical Group of Independents did not have a common political platform.

Setting up such a group means deputies such as Bruno Gollnisch, facing charges for denying the Holocaust and Alessandro Mussolini, grand-daughter of Benito Mussolini, will get more speaking time and more seats on parliamentary committees. They will also receive more funding, worth in the region of 50,000 euros ($64,860) for each member. "I will do whatever I can to stop this sort of group getting any power," Schulz told a news conference.

But ITS leader Gollnisch, from France's Front National party, said such a move was undemocratic. "Every member should have the same rights and the rules are the same," he told reporters. The group which plans to campaign against the EU constitution, immigration and Turkish membership of the bloc is entitled to at least two vice-presidents on the assembly's various committees due to be voted upon next week.

The European People's Party -- parliament's largest group -- and the third largest Liberal grouping have both said they will not vote for any members nominated by the new group.
But it accepted that it was entitled to exist under the rules.

Groups in the parliament, representing different political interests, control the EU legislature's agenda, voting pacts, speaking time and seats on powerful parliamentary committees, where much of the work is done. The EU assembly has become increasingly more powerful in drafting legislation in key areas such as transport, the internal market and environment.