Agence Europe, 02/08/99

"The constitutional committee has become a court of inquisition", states Belgian Olivier Dupuis, elected on the Lista Bonino, in a communique. He reproaches the committee with having had a "purely political and literally anti-legal" approach, when it decided that the constitution of the Technical Group of Independent Members (TDI) was not conform to regulations because it was not founded on political affinity (see EUROPE of 29 July, p.5). Mr Dupuis considers that the constitutional committee has acted counter to the provisions of procedure, according to political criteria and not according to the law, thus violating its prerogatives and those of the MEPs to associate freely, or, in other words, "without being subject to political control in any form whatsoever".