The ambitions of Martin Schulz

By Maia De La Baume

The Parliament president demands equal standing in the EU.

STRASBOURG — Martin Schulz wants a bigger political role for the European Parliament, and a bigger role for himself.
The assembly’s president said Wednesday he is finally realizing a goal he’s had since taking office; to make the Parliament a center of vital debate, transforming Strasbourg from a political backwater into a necessary itinerary stop for EU leaders hoping to make an impact on Europe.

“I told myself, the moment I become president of the European Parliament, I will try to make the institution more audible, more visible,” Schulz said in an interview in his Strasbourg office. “And this only happens through political action.”
Parliament has struggled at times to use the new powers it was given by the 2009 Lisbon Treaty, which sought to put it on an equal footing with member states when it comes to approving legislation and gave it control of the process for electing the European Commission president.

“I will try to make the institution more audible, more visible” — Martin Schulz

With the Commission now focused on streamlining the regulatory process by doing “less but better,” the Parliament has less to do, legislatively speaking.
That has forced Schulz and other leaders of the assembly to rethink their role on the Brussels stage. Part of their answer has been to try to turn the Parliament into a political theater, where the big debates of the day are played out before an audience of 751 MEPs and, the thinking goes, a larger European audience engaged by something more exciting than a Commission press briefing or a closed-door summit.
Essential to this effort, Schulz said, is demonstrating that the Parliament is just as important as the Commission and the Council, and that the powers of all three of their presidents are “the same.”
“If we want to be taken seriously with our more politicized role, we need the president of the Parliament to act at the same level as the two other presidents,” Schulz said.
Throughout a year in which the EU has struggled to contain several threats to its very existence — from the Greek bailout crisis to refugees to the possibility that one of its most powerful countries will quit the bloc — the Parliament has worked to carve out a more visible public role.

Tsipras builds Europe

In recent months, the assembly has become a debating platform for several important European leaders, including Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, French President François Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, all of whom came to Strasbourg to defend their countries’ policies.
The assembly also worked hard to turn this year’s State of the Union speech by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker from what is normally a bland recitation of legislative priorities into an important media event with a dedicated website and high hashtag expectations.
The appearance by Tsipras in July, days after the Greek prime minister had won a referendum in which his country rejected the terms of an EU bailout, was seen as a turning point.
Tsipras made an impassioned plea for a better deal from Greece’s creditors, and then engaged in lively debate with members of all parties. The event was covered on most major European news outlets, and led to a speech by one voluble MEP, Belgium’s Guy Verhofstadt, becoming a viral sensation with millions of views on YouTube.
The next leader on the Parliament wish list is British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been invited by Schulz to come to Strasbourg for a debate on reforms he wants ahead of a referendum on the U.K.’s EU membership. Cameron has yet to accept, though parliamentary leaders say they expect him to come at some point before the In-or-Out vote.
“We must invite powerful countries in Europe before MEPs to justify what they think, what they do, what they decide, which is binding on millions and millions of citizens,” Schulz said.


He has worked to emphasize this aspect of the Parliament’s role ever since he took office in 2012. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, was one of the first leaders who asked to appear before the assembly, Schulz said, “and I said yes.”
“There has been a long list of people, but as with everything it takes time in Europe,” Schulz said. “It was with Tsipras, Merkel, Hollande that people took note of this development.”
Schulz said there are now more leaders who want to book a Strasbourg date, including many prime ministers. “It gives them an international visibility,” he said. “They find an international audience, and it has an impact on the national policies.”

Martin vs. Orbán

Schulz is also looking at ways to make Parliament more effective by reining in its members and giving more power to his own office and to the heads of the main political groups.
The Parliament president confirmed that he is exploring proposals spelled out in a recent internal draft paper for boosting the role of the president from “interlocutor to political power broker,” strengthening political groups by giving them more sway over the legislative process, and “reducing excess” in the activities of individual members by curbing their use of parliamentary questions submitted to the Commission.
It won’t by easy. Like many national legislatures, the European Parliament has no majority party, and operates under a fragile power-sharing agreement between political opponents on the center-right and center-left that sometimes makes decisive action difficult.
Schulz has tried to go beyond his role as chairman of the plenary sittings and as head of the Conference of Presidents of political groups and its Bureau, made up of vice presidents. He sees his job as different from that of the speaker of the British House of Commons, who mainly chairs debates and must be impartial. Schulz is much more visible in the media, and can at times seem ubiquitous in giving his opinion on issues such as the migration crisis over which the Parliament has limited influence.
To make the Parliament efficient, he said, there is a need for a “common political line” that only a strong president and party groups can ensure.
Never one to shy from media attention, Schulz is also now taking bolder actions behind the scenes. He said he called Orbán after the Hungarian leader’s controversial speech in Strasbourg in May in which he hinted that he had the right to consider reintroducing capital punishment. Schulz said he reminded Orbán that the death penalty was abolished in the treaties.
“I called him and he distanced himself from it,” Schulz said, “because he knew it would be impossible.”
MEPs from several parties praised the more political dimension the Parliament has shown this year, and its growing role as an important stage for leaders.

“There is awareness now on the impact that the European Parliament can have on public opinion.” — a European diplomat

“In the past, leaders would come only if their countries held the presidency of the European Council,” said Markus Ferber, a German MEP from the center-right European People’s Party. “But political speeches on current issues from heads of state who are not in charge, that is something new.”
“State leaders now understand that while they are elected in their countries, it is in their own interest to act in a more transparent way and explain things at a European level,” said Sylvie Goulard, a French MEP from the centrist Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group who has long pushed for more transparency in the EU, including on economic issues.
Another French MEP, Alain Lamassoure, said the new political spotlight is helping give the Parliament more legitimacy. “It was a dimension that the Parliament was lacking,” he said. “It has re-energized the debates in plenary, which were often very disappointing.”
A spot on the Parliament stage is becoming something European leaders strive for without having to be coaxed — a phenomenon being recognized outside the institution.
“There is awareness now of the impact that the European Parliament can have on public opinion,” said a European diplomat. “The French president accepted Schulz’s invitation without one single hesitation and now the French prime minister is eager to come.”