Your report on the attendance of MEPs at committee meetings of the European Parliament (TMIS, 25 September) leaves out an important detail, no doubt unintentionally, without which the picture you portray may well be distorted.

This is because on several occasions different EP committees convene meetings at the same time.

This is often the case with the Budgets Committee and the Budgetary Control Committee. These are two different committees and I am a full member of both of them. Clashes with meetings of the Regional Development Committee, of which I am a substitute member, are also common.

As a result, short of having the gift of being able to be in two or three different places at the same time, an MEP must use his discretion and choose which meeting to attend. But this necessarily means that he cannot register full attendance in all committees. Certainly not out of lack of interest but simply because it is humanly impossible to attend two or three committee meetings at the same time.

Needless to say the clash of committee meetings is a continuous complaint registered by MEPs, including myself. But the parliamentary schedule is tight.

When MEPs, like myself, cover three committees rather than the usual two, it becomes more difficult to cope. However, I seek to mitigate this difficulty by sending a Parliamentary Assistant who is based in my Brussels office to replace me at meetings I am unable to attend because of commitments in other committees.

Simon Busuttil

STRASBOURG