Compromise reached over EP committees

The infighting between the German, Polish and Czech delegations within the European People's Party (EPP) over who will be chairing the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Environment Committees has ended with a major casualty.

Elmar Broek, a prominent German MEP who has led the Foreign Affairs Committee for the past 10 years will be replaced by Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolsk.

According to an electoral system used by the EPP, the Polish delegation had the right to choose first which committee it wanted to chair and it was eyeing the Foreign Affairs Committee. However, Mr Broek, a German high profile MEP, didn't want to budge. The issue has now been resolved following days of closed meetings.

This settlement has cleared the way for the proper elections of the new 20 parliamentary committees.

The five Maltese MEPs will become members of two parliamentary committees each, with some of them also participating as substitutes in other committees.

They will also be appointed on committees representing the European Parliament with other non-EU parliaments. Nationalist MEPs Simon Busuttil and David Casa are currently lobbying to join new committees while Labour MEPs John Attard Montalto, Joseph Muscat and Louis Grech are not expected to join new committees.