Brussels, 09/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament (EP) civil liberties committee decided on Thursday 9 February to delay voting on the report by Carlos Coelho on the Schengen evaluation mechanism, amended by a Commission proposal last September. Coelho said that the Danish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers had sent him a letter indicating that discussions with the Council might be re-opened. The Council and EP are at odds over the legal basis for the proposal, Parliament wishing to maintain the co-decision procedure (Article 77), as proposed by the Commission, while most member states would prefer the EP simply to be consulted (Article 70), as they gave the EP to understand at a meeting of home affairs ministers in Brussels on 13 December of last year. Coelho sees this as a possible change of tune from the Council on the legal basis, even though the Presidency said in 9 February that it intended rather to lay the issue of the legal basis to one side so that progress can be made on all the rest. Once progress has been made in all its other areas (the issue of inspection teams on the ground to assess how well countries are complying with Schengen rules, and formulation of recommendations, for example), then “we will be able to go back over the legal basis”, said a spokesman. This approach is taken by the rapporteur as a sign of openness on the part of the Council. The disagreement is not as technical as it might appear since, with co-decision, the EP would take on powers in an area that currently falls strictly within the member states' area of responsibility, with states evaluating one another. Involving the EP in exercises that currently involve only member states is proving a bitter pill for a number of member states to swallow.
The issue was broached on Wednesday 8 February by the S&D Group in the EP which held a hearing on Schengen governance. In the course of this hearing, criticism was levelled at the current impasses and European governments were called on to engage in a phased reform of the Schengen area - working alongside the EP, of course. (SP/transl.rt)