The Council and the European Parliament continued to clash over the German proposal to exclude town planning from the scope of application of the notification procedures directive, but also over the possibility of freezing the adoption of a set of draft measures for three months in the event of a non-compliance alert, at the most recent inter-institutional meeting on Wednesday 6 June.
Readers may recall that the German delegation hopes to introduce an exemption to the services notification directive for land-use and town planning (see EUROPE 12009). Keeping these within the scope of application of the directive would lead to an excessive administrative burden, for the European Commission as well, Germany argues.
The Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU therefore has no negotiating mandate at the inter-institutional meeting, as the German proposal is not yet a matter of consensus between the delegations, particularly the French and Spanish ones, according to a diplomatic source. Parliament is reported to be annoyed at the proposal, which it feels comes at too late a stage in the legislative process.
Another stumbling block is the possibility envisaged by the Commission to suspend a project for three months in the event of a non-compliance alert (article 6, §2). The proposal has the support of the Parliament, which, in view of the Council's misgivings, suggested reducing this period to two months. However, the member states are opposed to the very principle of this new provision, as they consider that it directly affects their sovereignty. The Commission's draft also contains a risk that it may increase Euroscepticism within the EU, one source told us.
A further meeting must now be scheduled. The two co-legislators aim to reach an agreement before the end of the Bulgarian Presidency. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)