Brussels (AFP)

Pascal Canfin of France took the lead on Wednesday in the Environment Committee of the European Parliament, a key position targeted by Macronist newcomers against the backdrop of the rise of climate issues.

Two other Frenchmen, Karima Delli (Greens) and Younous Omarjee (La France Insoumise), have obtained committee chairs.

However, two elected members of the National Assembly (RN) did not succeed, blocked by the "cordon sanitaire" of other political groups facing the far right.

Parliamentary committees play a major role in the work of the European Parliament. In particular, they are at the forefront of legislative negotiations with the European Commission and the Member States, ahead of the votes in plenary.

Mr Canfin, elected on the LREM list, will chair the most provided, with 76 MEPs. "This is the symbol that this Parliament is taking very seriously the climate emergency, the protection of biodiversity and the health of consumers," he said.

"There is always a high priority in a mandate: in 2009 it was the financial crisis, in 2014 it was the migration crisis, my belief is that in 2019 it will be the climate crisis and the response to this crisis ", he told AFP.

MEP Karima Delli (Greens) has been re-elected head of the committee on transport and tourism.

Ultramarin Younous Omarjee, elected chairman of the regional development committee, has promised him to be "a staunch supporter of cohesion policy" and "to fight against poverty and recovery of islands "two of his priorities.

But the French Maxette Pirbakas (RN) did not get the head of the Agriculture Committee, awarded a large majority to the German Norbert Lins (EPP).

Similarly, the French Gilles Lebreton (RN) failed to obtain the chair of the commission in charge of legal affairs, attributed to the Briton Lucy Nethsingha, member of the group Renew Europe.

It is a "denial of democracy", deplored Mr. Lebreton, saying that the group Identity and Democracy, fifth largest in the European hemicycle in terms of staffing, "should have been assigned a number of positions of responsibility equivalent to its electoral weight ".

The rule of distribution of key positions which is customary in the European Parliament indeed provides for reflecting the weight of the groups. These apply a complex mathematical formula called "d'Hondt method" to decide their choices.

Its application should have allowed the extreme right to obtain the two presidencies it claimed but the other political groups agreed to block the road in the vote.

In particular, they consider that the extreme right is not legitimate to claim responsibility in an institution which, according to them, it does not respect.

The Renew Europe group, the third political force in the European Parliament behind the EPP and the Social Democrats, had made the Environment Committee one of its priorities. And the French macronistes, the strongest delegation of the group, had obtained that its presidency be attributed to one of theirs.

Pascal Canfin, former leader of the environmental organization WWF France, had been Green MEP before joining the LREM list led by Nathalie Loiseau.

In particular, in order to preserve Mr. Canfin's chances of obtaining the Environment Committee, Ms. Loiseau had given up the idea of ​​running for Renew Europe, where the former minister was challenged by her European liberal allies.

Mrs Loiseau was elected Wednesday chair of a subcommittee of the European Parliament, responsible for Security and Defense.

? 2019 AFP