On retourne donc à une forme de fait du Prince, puisque le droit ne s’applique que dans la mesure où il ne gêne pas le Prince et qu’il peut choisir de le suspendre quand ça l’arrange.
🧵As negotiators in the AI Act trilogues are in their 20th consecutive hour of negotiation, it's a good moment to explain what the hell trilogues are, why they are important and so damn long.
A thread on the most iconic and yet obscure word of EU politics.
1) WTF is a trilogue ?
Barring EUCO, trilogues are the epitomy of EU negotiation. The holy of holies of EU policy. The Thunderdome of EU lawmaking.
It’s when the Commission, Parliament & Council lock themselves in a room to finalise EU legislation.
3 texts enter, 1 text leaves
In these closed negotiations, negotiators fight and find a final compromise on what EU law will say.
What it boils down to is the 3 institutions showing up with their respective position on a file and finding a common agreement on every single line of the legislation.
🧵A thread to analyse the #NatureRestorationLaw drama and why the EPP takes a hardcore stance on this file.
I will not look at the substance of the text which, in my opinion, is relatively irrelevant to understand the situation.
In short, it's about sending a message. 👇👇
1/18
The Nature Restauration Law is part of the EU Green Deal, a package of EU laws to ensure that the EU becomes climate neutral by 2050.
The EPP took the very unusual & hardcore decision to push for a full rejection of the text & boycotted negotiations. 2/18 eppgroup.eu/newsroom/news/…
Voting with the far right and part of the liberals, the EPP managed to have the text rejected in 2 committees of the Parliament (the ones on agriculture & fisheries).
Tomorrow is the vote in the main committee on environment. After that only the plenary will remain.
3/18
On top of debates & votes, TONS of stuff happen at the same time: political group meeting, meeting with lobbyists, committee meetings, trilogues, etc.
MEPs agenda are usually packed & hemicycle presence can only be a small part of it.
These side meetings are as important, if not more, as what's happening in the hemicycle. Like deciding what to vote the next day, negotiating legislation or meeting your fellow MEPs to update them.
And then you have the usual parliamentary work that doesn't stop for the plenary.
Members of the European Parliament, like their national counterpart enjoy a number of privileges to facilitate their duty as MEPs.
One of these privileges is a parliamentary immunity that prevents any detention or legal proceeding against them in the course of their mandate.
This immunity guarantees the MEPs' freedom to say/do whatever is necessary to fulfil their mandate, and to protect them from pressures or punishement for their opinions/votes while doing their job.
In short, MEPs must be allowed to piss off people without fear of retribution.