MEPs voted in plenary the reform of parliamentary committees

Strasbourg – The Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament’s political groups (CoP) on Friday 13 December approved, by written procedure, the transformation of the ‘Security and Defence’ (SEDE) and ‘Public Health’ (SANT) sub-committees into fully-fledged committees. The European Parliament also set up two special parliamentary committees, one on a ‘European Democratic Shield’ and the other on the ‘housing crisis’, which will have an initial 12-month mandate. MEPs voted today on these changes in plenary in Strasbourg; the names of the members will be announced at a later date.

The ‘SEDE’ committee will work in particular on the defence industrial component, such as EU defence capabilities, preparedness and resilience of the Union and its Member States, including research, development and innovation and joint production. Actions relating to EU defence industrial integration and cooperation with a view to a single defence market, as well as those “aimed at strengthening the European defence technological and industrial base and consolidating defence industrial cooperation intended for exclusively military use by the Member States and the relevant EU capabilities” would also be part of the Committee’s remit.

SEDE’s expanded mandate hasn’t been without controversy, as tensions have arisen with other committees over its claimed areas of jurisdiction. On the other hand, the EPP pushed for the Public Health subcommittee (SANT) to be reinforced to focus on health issues, which it felt were going unnoticed in the larger Environment Committee. The areas of competence of this new ‘Public Health’ committee will include pharmaceutical products and medical devices, programmes and specific actions in the field of public health, preparedness and response to health crises, mental health and patients’ rights, the European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Tomislav Sokol MEP, the EPP Group’s Spokesman in the Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Public Health, stated “By establishing a fully-fledged European Parliament’s Committee on Public Health, we are sending a strong message that health must remain a priority for the European Union. To complete the European Health Union, we need to build a competitive Europe with equal access to treatment and medicines for European citizens, regardless of where they live in the EU. By focusing on innovation, equitable access to care, robust funding, and collaboration across Member States, we can ensure that every citizen, from urban centers to rural communities, receives the care they need and deserve. Prioritizing health isn’t an expense but a long-term investment”.

The aim of the ‘European Democratic Shield’ special committee, which will follow on from the INGE special committee of the previous mandate, will be to strengthen the EU’s action against hybrid threats, manipulation of information and interference, whether internal or external. Notably, this special committee will work in particular on actions contributing to the EU’s democratic processes, democratic resilience, media freedom and pluralism, information literacy and the fight against interference using online platforms. Meanwhile, the creation of a special committee on the ‘housing crisis’ in the EU, will come up with “solutions for decent, sustainable and affordable housing”, members want to “map current housing needs across territories and population groups” in order to “best assess the impact of this crisis on the European population”.

Parliament’s committees are responsible for drafting the institution’s positions on legislative proposals, preparing own-initiative reports, organising hearings with experts and scrutinising other EU institutions and bodies, among other tasks. Until now, the Parliament had 20 committees and four subcommittees covering policy areas ranging from the economy to agriculture and international trade – most of them chaired by the centre-right EPP Group. 
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