Brussels, 10/02/2010 (Agence Europe) - Welcoming the Commission president's intention to create a “special partnership between the European Parliament and the Commission”, MEPs, on Tuesday 9 February, adopted a resolution on the new framework agreement which will govern relations between the two institutions for the next five years. The resolution, approved by a show of hands, had been agreed in principle by José Manuel Barroso and EP negotiators (see EUROPE 10066). The points it sets out will now form part of a formal agreement (which is likely to be adopted at the May or June 2010 plenary session). There will be a review of the operation of the framework agreement before the end of 2011.
“This framework agreement should drive forward our common efforts to deliver genuinely European responses to the issues faced by Europeans today,” said the Commission president in the debate on Tuesday morning. Not only will it have to take account of the innovations brought in by the Lisbon Treaty, it must “set out new ways in which we will make cooperation a day-to-day reality,” said Barroso, laying great stress on this “new culture of partnership”.
Several points in the agreement involve cooperation with the Council: “I would very much welcome a broader agreement that united the co-legislators, together with the Commission, on a set of principles for inter-institutional cooperation,” he added. The main points of the agreement are:
1) a guarantee that the Commission will apply the basic principle of equal treatment for Parliament and Council (as regards access to meetings and the provision of contributions or other information, in particular on legislative or budgetary matters);
2) implementation of the special partnership between Parliament and Commission which states inter alia that: - the president of the Commission will hold a regular dialogue with the president of the European Parliament on key horizontal issues and major legislative proposals (this should include an invitation to the Parliament president to attend meetings of the College of Commissioners); - the Commission president or vice-president is to be invited to attend meetings of the Conference of the Presidents and the Conference of Committee Chairs when specific issues relating to plenary agenda setting and legislative and budgetary matters are to be discussed;
3) commitment by the Commission to report on the practical follow-up to any legislative initiative requests within three months of the adoption of a legislative initiative report (either the Commission is to bring forward a legislative proposal within the year, or it is to include the proposal in the next year's annual work programme, or if no proposal is brought forward, the Commission is to give a detailed explanation of the reasons;
4) commitment to close cooperation at an early stage between Parliament and the Commission on any legislative initiative requests resulting from citizens' initiatives;
5) commitment by Parliament and the Commission to agree on key changes in preparation for future negotiations with the Council of Ministers on adapting the Better Regulation agreement to the new provisions of the Lisbon Treaty and on inter alia changing the practice of implementation of the current arrangement; among others: - impact assessments are to be conducted under the responsibility of the Commission, following a transparent procedure; these assessments are to be published in due time, taking into consideration a number of different scenarios; including a “do nothing” option; - the use of recasting as a standard procedure is to be guaranteed, where possible and relevant; - the Commission and Parliament will endeavour to include compulsory correlation tables and a binding time limit for transposition, which, for directives, should not normally exceed two years; - the Commission will make available to the Parliament summary information about all infringement procedures;
6) agreement to the following demands in order to improve the accountability of the executive: - whenever the Commission brings forward a revision of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners, it will seek Parliament's opinion; - whenever Parliament brings forward a revision of its Rules of Procedures on relations with the Commission, it will seek the opinion of the Commission; - if Parliament asks the Commission president to withdraw confidence in an individual member of the Commission, he will seriously consider whether he should ask that member to resign (either he will require the resignation of the member or explain his refusal to do so before Parliament in the following part-session); - if the Commission president intends to reshuffle the portfolios in the Commission during its term of office, he will inform Parliament in due time for the procedure to be started for the relevant Parliamentary consultation with regard to these changes; - where a commissioner is to be replaced, the Commission president will give serious consideration to the result of the consultation of Parliament before giving his consent to the decision of the Council; - the Commission will support Parliament in the forthcoming discussions on the European External Action Service (EEAS) with a view to guaranteeing the full accountability of that service, including a transparent procedure for the appointment of special representatives and ambassadors; - the Commission will support Parliament in the forthcoming negotiations on the EEAS with a view to continuing and reinforcing the “Community approach” in development policy, including the programming of development aid instruments (the European Development Fund - EDF - should remain within the remit of the Commission, in respect of which it should be fully accountable to Parliament); - a “Question Hour” with commissioners, including the vice-president for external relations/EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy is to be introduced;
7) nominees for the post of executive director of regulatory agencies should be interviewed by Parliamentary committees;
8) commitment by the Commission to more closely associate Parliament by immediately providing it with full information at every stage of negotiations on international agreements (including the definition of negotiation directives), in particular in trade matters and other negotiations involving the consent procedure;
9) the support of the Commission in facilitating the granting of observer status to the chair of the Parliament's delegation in international conferences and relevant meetings (and thus, access to EU facilities);
10) commitment to improve current arrangements on programming by means of a number of measures including: - presentation of selected key Commission initiatives, first in plenary, and only afterwards to the public; - commitment on the part of the Commission rapidly to initiate “the Union's annual and multiannual programming with a view to achieving inter-institutional agreements”; - annual meetings between the College of Commissioners, the Conference of the Presidents and the Conference of Committee Chairs prior to adopting the annual work programme; - the principle that the Commission should explain when it cannot deliver individual proposals scheduled in the annual progamme or when it departs from this annual programme. (A.B./transl.rt)