On Wednesday 1 February, the College of European Commissioners will hold a guideline debate with a view to revising the so-called "comitology" procedure.
There are certain controversial dossiers, such as GMO and glyphosate (see EUROPE 11591 and 11713) on which it is impossible to achieve a qualified majority of member states and that the Commission no longer wishes to have to deal with as a last resort.
There are four options on the table: - changing the voting rules of the committee of appeal so that abstentions are no longer taken into account when calculating the qualified majority; - in the event of an absence of qualified majority, refer the dossier back up to ministerial level; - ask the Council instead for an opinion, giving the Commission a political role rather than just a technocratic one to make its decision; - require a qualified majority (for or against), in the absence of which the dossier would remain at deadlock.
A legislative proposal is to be adopted by the Commission on 14 February to revise the "comitology" regulation. This concerns all the procedures by virtue of which the European Commission exercises the powers of execution conferred upon it by the European legislator, assisted by the committees of representatives of the countries of the EU. These comitology committees are chaired by a representative of the Commission and issue an opinion on the implementing acts proposed by the Commission.
In his State of the Union speech of September 2016, President Jean-Claude Juncker said "it is not right that when EU countries cannot decide among themselves whether or not to ban the use of glyphosate in herbicides, the Commission is forced by Parliament and Council to take a decision". He promised to change the rules, stressing that this is not democracy. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)