Full of questions
The MEP who has filed the highest number of written questions to the European Commission so far in the 2009-14 term is Mara Bizzotto, from Italy’s Lega Nord party, a member of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group.
Bizzotto has filed 680 questions, according to statistics compiled by VoteWatch.eu, which monitors the voting records of MEPs. Her questions have ranged from asking whether the Commission planned to propose aid for flood victims in Italy last year to whether the Commission was aware of terrorist threats against EU institutions in 2008.
Bizzotto has come under fire from other groups for abusing the system, a criticism she rejects. She said that she was only exercising her duty as an MEP to hold the Commission accountable.
“Parliamentary questions are one of the most important instruments at the disposal of MEPs for the democratic control of the activity carried out by institutions such as the Commission and the Council, that are not (or not entirely) democratic,” she said. “Each MEP represents thousands of voters and they have the right to be informed.”
In general, smaller political groups are the most active in putting questions to
the Commission and Council. Figures for 2004-09 show that the average number of questions from a member of one of the larger groups was 25 to 35 while for the smaller groups it was much higher. MEPs from the Independence and Democracy group, which formed the bedrock of the EFD group, asked 76 questions while MEPs from the Green United Left/Nordic Green Left group asked an average of 87 questions during the parliamentary term.
Nigel Farage, the co-president of the EFD group, vigorously defends the right of MEPs to submit written questions. “Any attempt to limit the numbers of parliamentary questions to the Council or the Commission should be fought off strenuously. They are one of the few ways that a member can hold either institution to account, and provide a precious resource for any citizen to do the same,” he said. The system had been misused in the past, he said. “But better we allow a single fool to continue, than we close down accountability and transparency for millions.”
Fact File
The MEPs that have posed the most written questions over the 2009-14 parliamentary term.
Mara Bizzotto, an Italian MEP (EFD), 680 questions.
Oreste Rossi, an Italian MEP (EFD), 679 questions.
Niki Tzavela, a Greek MEP (EFD), 564 questions.
Raül Romeva i Rueda, a Spanish MEP (Greens/EFA), 522 questions.
Nikolaos Chountis, a Greek MEP (GUE/NGL), 518 questions.