On Thursday 11 January, Angélique Delahaye (EPP, France), who is rapporteur for opinion on the proposal for the reform of the comitology procedure in the EU, called for votes by member states to be disclosed not only within expert committees but also appeal committees. She received broad support from the members of Parliament's committee on the environment, public health and food safety, to whom she had set out the broad lines of her draft report.
The proposal for reform was presented nearly one year ago by the European Commission in order to increase the transparency of the comitology procedure and introduce more accountability by amending the voting rules in the appeal committee. This was to prevent impasse situations arising when member states are unable to reach the qualified majority required for or against a Commission proposal, and when the Commission therefore takes the decision alone, including against the majority opinion of member states (see EUROPE 11725).
Characteristic issues in this respect are those relating to glyphosate and the authorisation of GMOs in the EU.
“The fact of disclosing votes will force member states to give grounds for their positions. There is a difference between not sitting and abstaining. Abstention should not paralyse the system. I support the European Commission’s approach but one must remain cautious as, in most cases, comitology procedure works well”, said Delahaye.
The European Commission for its part suggests that, when calculating a qualified majority at the appeal committee stage, member states that are absent or abstain should be considered as non-participants: only the votes by member states having voted for or against a proposal should be taken into account.
According to Delahaye, the publicity of votes and broader information campaigns recommended by her on risk assessment and the repartition of roles between European agencies and the member states should increase transparency and, therefore, “reconcile citizens with Europe”.
The rapporteur for opinion and several MEPs from other political groups expressed scepticism about the idea of taking issues to the Council of EU level in order to force the latter to reach an agreement, when EU 28 experts failed before them and even when the possibility of a second referral to appeal committee, at ministerial level, is planned in the proposed reform.
The European Commission representative stressed that recourse to the Council was useful because “that is where member states interact”. It will simply be consultation of the Council, he said.
The deadline for registering amendments to the Delahaye report is 18 January.
The European Parliament committee on the environment, public health and food safety deals with a large number of sensitive issues relating to comitology, and is often bogged down in that procedure. However, it is the parliamentary committee on legal affairs, which has competence regarding substance, that is the main player on this dossier. (Original version in French Aminata Niang)