A few days after the historic agreement in Lisbon on the new Reform Treaty, the president of the European Parliament, Hans Gert Pöttering, said he opposes the decision for the Parliament's president to be stripped of his voting right.

According to the deal struck last Friday, Italy was allocated an additional seat while the maximum number of MEPs in the European Parliament was kept at the agreed threshold of 750 after 2009.

The European Council agreed that this would be done by not counting the European Parliament president as an MEP with voting rights, as is the case today.

This decision, however, has not gone down well with Mr Pöttering who, at the first possible opportunity, told fellow MEPs that the European Parliament president would retain his vote.

Contacted by The Times, Massimo Farrugia, press officer at the Maltese representation office of the European Parliament, referred to media reports across the EU that the European Parliament president would lose his/her voting rights as a result of the new treaty.

"This was allegedly the trade-off which came about when EU leaders agreed to grant Italy an extra seat in the European Parliament.

"We want to stress, however, that all 751 MEPs, including the president, will retain their voting rights under the new treaty," he said.

Raising the issue last Monday at the opening of this month's plenary session in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Mr Pöttering stressed that the new Reform Treaty does not call into question the right of the president to take part in the plenary session. He emphasised the fact that at no point during the Inter-governmental Conference in Lisbon, for which he was present throughout, had this been raised or suggested.

"I want to underline again, that the European Parliament president's right to vote was not discussed at the European Council.

"The president of the European Parliament will, when voting, use his right to vote.

"Nobody can deprive him/her of this right and the European Council did not do this. I want to make this clear very officially," Mr Pöttering said.