Well, some of it anyway.

In my last post, I regretted that agreements between the political groups on the distribution of positions in the European Parliament took most of the suspense and interest out of the consituent sitting of the Parliament, especially for those not party to the internal rumour mill. Yes indeed, the week, now ending, has essentially seen things go according to script in the vast majority of cases.

But it is the exceptions that count, and hardly had I pressed the “publish” button on the last post than the Parliament provided its big surprise of the week. While the process of electing vice-presidents to the Bureau of the EP may seem to most normal people of interest to hard core political geeks only, it actually provided the main excitement of the new parliament so far. Its consequences are sufficiently interesting to stimulate the interest of the mainstream press, and incidentally provide an insight into the interconnectedness of all the deals and agreements that are struck between politicians.

MEPs voting. Not always the expected result... (EP Flickr page)

The story, if I can sum it up very quickly, goes as follows. Parliament has 14 vice-presidents.  These people are important because, together with the President as the Bureau, they take decisions on organisational and budgetary matters in Parliament and oversee the activities of the administration. (Yes, that is important.) Like most such bodies, membership is shared out between the political groups on a roughly proportional basis.  Prior agreements are met as to who should be elected, and if all goes to plan 14 candidates stand for 14 posts, are duly elected and get on with it. But this time there were 15 candidates, thanks to the “rogue” candidacy of UK Conservative Edward McMillan-Scott, a long-standing MEP and outgoing vice-president, who was not however the approved candidate of his political group – the newly formed  ECR, which had put forward Polish Law and Justice MEP Michal Kaminski for the position.  The ECR group’s two largest component delegations, the UK conservatives and the Polish Law and Justice party, has essentially agreed the group leadership should go to the Brits and an EP vice-presidency to the Poles.

After several rounds of voting (a complicated way to decide which of 15 candidates not to elect, admittedly, but one which maintained the suspense nicely) it emerged that McMillan-Scott had made it. The unlucky victim of his candidacy was – indeed – none other than Kaminski.  Hmmm.

The ECR Poles were reportedly – and understandably – furious and, at the group meeting later the same day already scheduled to elect the group leader, the only way to placate them appears to have been for the Tory leadership contenders to withdraw from the race, leaving the way open for Kaminski to ascend to the group leadership and thus to membership of the institution’s most exalted political body, the Conference of Presidents, which sets Parliament’s political agenda.

McMillan-Scott who, for the record, has been very publicly opposed to the decision of the UK conservatives to leave the EPP group to form a new, much smaller group in alliance with Law and Justice and others, was punished by expulsion from the group and saw the Conservative party whip withrawn.  He thus becomes that rarest of EP animals, a non-attached vice president. (Has there ever been one? Some-one may know)

The events of the week demonstrate that – just sometimes – things do not go strictly according to plan

The political repercussions are significant and need no elucidation from me. It is however worthy of note that the UK’s largest political delegation in the European Parliament, is now represented in neither the Conference of Presidents nor the Bureau, an unusual situation.

But this is not about political analysis, but about political interest and excitement. This episode has undoubtedly provided that, as intense press interest has testified. (Another story here)

A little coda to the tale the next day was the election of another rogue candidate to the position of quaestor (though quaestors’ elections have proven unpredictable in the past also), thanks to the election of UK LibDem, Bill Newton-Dunn (what is it with these Brits?), who was one of three MEPs who challenged the official group candidates.

Anyway, the events of the week demonstrate that – just sometimes – things do not go strictly according to plan. And that’s why I have to eat my words: it was an interesting week, one indisputably more interesting than the less interesting week I predicted!