Defense: new committee established in the European Parliament: 4 Italian members, all from the center and the right

Strasbourg – The Defense Committee of the European Parliament (SEDE) has been established. Merely a subcommittee until today (Jan. 23), it has been elevated in rank to address the political and economic priorities decided by the European Union for the coming years. It is a tool for Parliament to better work with (and oversee) the activities of the new European Commissioner for Defense, Lithuania’s Andrius Kubilius, and the EU Council.

The limited presence of Italians among its members stands out (but the reasoning could be very complex as one must evaluate the balance of all parliamentary committees). There are four out of 43, a little less than ten percent, which roughly mirrors the composition of the Parliament. However, they are all from the center-right and the extreme right: one from the EPP (Forza Italia), Salvatore De Meo, one from the Patriots (League), Roberto Vannacci, and two from the Conservatives (Fratelli d’Italia), Elena Donazzan and Alberico Gambino.

A constituent session is scheduled for Jan. 27 when the leadership bureau will be elected. On Jan. 29, it will be the turn of the new Public Health Committee, which includes Italians Letizia Moratti (FI), Alessandra Moretti (PD), Michele Picaro and Ruggero Razza (FdI), Ignazio Marino (AVS), Valentina Palmisano and Dario Tamburrano (M5S). Following is the full list of members of the Defense (SEDE) Committee released by the Parliament:

EPP (11)
BEKE Wouter
DE MEO Salvatore
GOMART Christophe
HERBST Niclas HERBST
MEIMARAKIS Vangelis
NOVAKOV Andrey
PASCUAL DE LA PARTE Nicolás
SZCZERBA Michał
TEODORESCU MÅWE Alice
TERRAS Riho
TOVERI Pekka
C01A SEDE

S&D (8)
CREMER Tobias
DI RUPO Elio
GLUCKSMANN Raphaël
LÓPEZ Javi
MAVRIDES Back
MENDES Ana Catarina
MIKSER Sven
TUDOSE Mihai

PfE (5)
György HÖLVÉNYI
POKORNÁ JERMANOVÁ Jaroslava
STÖTELER Sebastiaan
THIONNET Pierre-Romain
VANNACCI Roberto

ECR (5)
DONAZZAN Elena
DWORCZYK Michal
GAMBINO Alberico
POZŅAKS Reinis
VONDRA Alexandr

Renew (5)
AUŠTREVIČIUS Petras
LOISEAU Nathalie
ŠAREC Marjan
STRACK-ZIMMERMANN Marie-Agnes
YAR Lucia

Greens/EFA (3)
NEUMANN Hannah
STAKIS Martins
VAN LANSCHOT Reinier

The Left (3)
BOTENGA Marc
DEMIREL Özlem
KYLLÖNEN Merja

ESN (1)
NEUHOFF Hans

NI (2)
PAPADAKIS Kostas
VON DER SCHULENBURG Michael.