The European Parliament is often empty – here's how it wants to change that
The European Parliament is often empty – here's how it wants to change that
People who regularly watch debates in the European Parliament (EP) – if they even exist outside the EU bubble – know that the chamber is often mostly empty.
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There's a quote in there:
For instance, it is not possible to interrupt a speaker at will, something that's common in many national parliaments.
Where? At least here in Spain, you can't interrupt the speaker when they have the floor. Doing otherwise seems like a recipe for disaster.
In Germany, MPs can request to ask the speaker a question during their speech (Zwischenfrage). The president of the Bundestag then asks the speaker if they allow it. So it doesn’t end in chaos, but makes it possible to have a small debate during the speech
Now that you mention that, I seem to recall something similar does already exist in the EU Parliament. Blue Cards, which I think every MEP has a few of.
From the first article (which I admit I just skimmed the top of it):
And to spice things up further, the group is also planning to “hijack” next week’s debate by attending as a group and using the so-called Blue Cards system on each other to allow them to start an impromptu Q&A with the speaker, according to Boeselager, who coordinates the group.
Could be interesting to see how that turns out.
Portugal here: interrupting a speaker is not condoned. First there is the chance to deliver whatever is there to be said, then there is a round of questions and answers, carefully timed, by the assembly head.