In a letter approved by the national ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on Tuesday 8 May, the Council of the EU proposes to analyse the implementation of the joint statement on the decentralised agencies to respond to the European Parliament's concerns in the framework of the relocation from London to Amsterdam of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (see EUROPE 11980).
The Parliament and Council are in the midst of inter-institutional negotiations on the revision of the regulation (726/2004) laying the foundations for the EMA, to allow the agency to relocate from London to Amsterdam following Brexit. At this stage, an initial trialogue session has already taken place and a second is being prepared; no date has been decided upon.
The issue concerns amendment 15 of the European Parliament, a statement to be appended to the regulation, in which the MEPs voice concern at their insufficient involvement in the decision-making process.
“The European Parliament condemns the procedure followed for the selection of a new location of the seat, which has de facto deprived the European Parliament of its prerogatives since it was not effectively involved in the process, but is now expected to simply confirm the selection made for the new location of the seat by means of the ordinary legislative procedure”, the statement reads.
Parliament also stresses that the procedure to choose the new location for an agency - the Common Approach, which was signed by the European Commission, the Council of the EU and Parliament on 19 July 2012 - should be reviewed and this method should no longer apply in the future, particularly as the statement is not legally binding, the MEPs point out.
These calls were reiterated in a letter sent on 28 March to the other two institutions by the President of the Parliament, Antonio Tajani.
According to our information, the response prepared by the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council - which was approved by the ambassadors on 8 May - suggests that as a first stage, the Commission could start by analysing the implementation of the joint statement of 2012.
The co-legislators are expected to meet in the next few months for a second trialogue session to be given over to this dossier. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)