Meeting of the EP Conference of Presidents in the EP in Brussels. Arrivals, roundtable, cutaways of Martin SCHULZ, Philippe LAMBERTS (Verts/ALE, BE), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE) and with Giovanni PITTELLA (S&amp;D, IT) and statement by Martin SCHULZ, EP President

Brussels

VERHOFSTADT, Guy (Renew, BE)

statement

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

PITTELLA, Gianni (S&D, IT)

LAMBERTS, Philippe (Greens/EFA, BE)

EP conference of presidents

fight against tax fraud and evasion (T)

SCHULZ, Martin (S&D, DE)

Meeting of the EP Conference of Presidents: arrivals, roundtable and Statement by Martin SCHULZ, EP President

Interior, Arrival shots of the Presidents of the political groups, (5 shots)

EP President Martin SCHULZ speaks with Philippe LAMBERTS, (Verts/ALE, BE), (1 shot)

Martin SCHULZ, EP President, speaks before the opening of the Conference of the Presidents with Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE) and with Giovanni PITTELLA, (S&amp;D, IT), (2 shots)

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHULZ, EP Presidnet , "With a large majority did the Chairs of the groups take the decision to create a special committee that should work on the basis of the mandate proposals presented by the Green group. A large majority has accepted the definition by the Greens, which had been presented and supported by 191 MEPs, but sees the special committee as a better instrument than the inquiry committee, because a large majority of colleagues believes that the inquiry committee has limited rights. The inquiry right here is unfortunately not to be compared to the inquiry rights of National Parliaments."

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, "The inquiry committee of the European Parliament is put in place if you can proof that a breach of law took place. And here is the enormous problematic part, you need to identify when, where did somebody break European law and not speaking out I have the suspicion who and where, that is done by a National Parliament, unfortunately not by us. I would wish that we get this right and I will use this for a reason to talk with the governments about this case, that we also need that right."

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, "I cannot exclude that there will be a revised mandate for the creation of an inquiry committee, again supported by 191 signatures, than I need to launch a new procedure. At this moment I must make clear that the introduced request is inadmissibly and I will inform the colleagues. And I cannot let vote about it as it is unlawful."

SOUNDBITE (English), Martin SCHULZ, EP President, "The broad majority of the members of the Conference of Presidents decided on the basis of the mandate the Greens tabled on behalf of the 191 signatures, to set up a temporary committee, this is decided on the basis of the evaluation that the temporary committee in the European Parliament has and there is a difference to National Parliaments, stronger powers and more flexibility then an inquiry committee, which in the frame of our rules, procedure and the Treaty has limited rights."