This was a special week in the European Parliament, as we had to elect or re-elect the President, Vice-Presidents and so on, ending (still to come) with chairs of all the parliamentary committees. This happens every two and a half years, neatly splitting the five year term of the Parliament in two halves.

Most positions, including Vice Presidents of Parliament and Committee chairs, are in practice settled in advance of the election by a gentleman's agreement among the different political groups to distribute these positions proportionally among them, according to the size of each Group. This reflects the tradition in a number of national parliaments, but differs from, say, the US Congress where the majority takes all such positions.

The creation of an extreme right Group in the Parliament (just reaching the minimum number required of 12 thanks to Ashley Mote, elected in Britain as UKIP) poses a problem for democratic parties: should the new Group be given their proportional share (which amounts to a couple of deputy Chairs of committees), raising the prospect of, say, Jean Marie Le Pen or Alessandra Mussolini becoming an official office holder of the Parliament? Most of the democratic Groups appear at this stage to agree that they shouldn't.

This would be perfectly within the rules, as such positions are elected and the gentlemen's agreement to support each others' candidates can perfectly well be an agreement among just some Groups (or among all but one). In any case, you cannot require individual MEPs to vote for a fascist (or indeed anyone) as chair of their committee if they don't want to.