Monday

4th Dec 2023

Opinion

Why three MEPs withdrew from EP petition committee hearing

  • The European Parliament building in Brussels (Photo: EUobserver)
Listen to article

For a long time, various political groups have consistently expressed their concerns about what is going on in the European Parliament's petitions committee (PETI) — the committee where all EU citizens or residents are allowed to submit a petition to air their grievances or ask for change from the EU institutions.

At least two letters have been sent complaining about the PETI chair's decisions.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • A screengrab of the hearing in question at the European Parliament's petitions committee (Photo: European Parliament)

That is why the Greens/EFA, the Socialists & Democrats and The Left withdrew from Tuesday's (28 February) committee hearing committee — it is a symptom of a structural problem.

We would like to highlight the unfortunately biased approach of the chair of the committee, the European People's Party's Dolors Montserrat.

The parliament's PETI committee was once again manipulated for partisan purposes by the Spanish Right.

Since 2017, this committee, chaired by Montserrat, has been instrumentalised in the service of the centre-right's People's Party's (PP) domestic political battles in Spain.

A public hearing was held on Tuesday on the language immersion model in Catalan schools. A system that seeks full mastery of the official languages of the territory at the end of compulsory education, which are Catalan and Spanish throughout Catalonia, and also Occitan Aranese in the Val d'Aran.

The language immersion system in Catalonia enjoys a broad social and political consensus. This is not a debate that divides pro-independence and non-independence supporters, but one that has cross-cutting support in the Catalan Parliament.

Specifically, 116 of the 135 deputies in the Catalan chamber belong to political parties that defend the system.

The Catalan school model generates social cohesion — avoiding separating citizens by linguistic community — and offers positive academic results recognised in studies such as PISA.

In fact, Spanish statistical sources show that Catalonia's system of linguistic immersion is the one that gives the best results in the learning of the official languages compared to the models of other autonomous communities with more than one official language.

We denounce the organisation of this totally-biased public hearing, which will lead to the committee being used once again as a loudspeaker for the political struggles that the Spanish Right cannot win in Spain or in Catalonia.

The process of setting up the hearing has been fraught with irregularities. The four experts who will participate (three proposed by the PP and one by the far-right Vox party) are opposed to Catalonia's language immersion model, which goes against the plurality pursued by the European Parliament's hearings.

Moreover, none of them is an expert in language education and, what is more serious, one of them is a member of the far-right Vox party in the Catalan Parliament.

This situation, which we have been denouncing since 2017, but which is even more staged today with this public hearing, creates a worrying and dangerous precedent, which goes beyond the PETI committee.

That is why the political groups of the Greens/EFA, the Socialists and the Left are not going to participate, in total rejection of Montserrat's manipulation of this committee, which negatively affects the institutional credibility of the European Parliament.

Author bio

Margarete Auken is a Danish Green MEP and PETI committee coordinator, Ana Miranda is a Spanish Green MEP and vice-chair of the PETI committee, Diana Riba is a Spanish Green MEP from Catalonia, and culture and education committee coordinator.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Catalan spyware victims demand justice

Victims of the widening spyware scandal in Spain are demanding justice and reparations, following the revelations that journalists, lawyers, civil society and politicians had been targeted.

Spain's Court of Auditors vs Catalan independence

Only days after what some considered to be a detente between the Spanish government and pro-independence Catalans, ex-Catalan politicians and their associates tied to the independence movement have been charged millions of euros for the misuse of public funds.

Why EU's €18m for Israel undermines peace

The optics of a nine-fold increase of annual funding for Israel, in the middle of its devastating military campaign in Gaza, stands in contrast with the attempted suspension, delaying and constraining of EU development aid for the Palestinians.

Dubai's COP28 — a view from the ground

Discussion of the biggest existential threat humanity has ever faced is barely mentioned on billboards or signage in Dubai — yet visitors are made aware quite quickly that t world rugby sevens tournament is imminent.

'Pay or okay?' — Facebook & Instagram vs the EU

Since last week, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta corporation is forcing its European users to either accept their intrusive privacy practices — or pay €156 per year to access Facebook and Instagram without tracking advertising.

My experience trying to negotiate with Uber

After working with people in unusual employment situations for a decade, I thought I had seen it all as a union organiser. Then I began dealing with Uber.

Latest News

  1. EU-China summit and migration files in focus This WEEK
  2. COP28 debates climate finance amid inflated accounting 'mess'
  3. Why EU's €18m for Israel undermines peace
  4. Israel's EU ambassador: 'No clean way to do this operation'
  5. Brussels denies having no 'concern' on Spain's amnesty law
  6. Dubai's COP28 — a view from the ground
  7. Germany moves to criminalise NGO search-and-rescue missions
  8. Israel recalls ambassador to Spain in new diplomatic spat

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us