The opinion of the Legal Service of the Council of the EU presented in a working group on Monday 17 December does not meet with consensus among the Member States, although time is running out before the European elections. This was the outcome of a conference, co-organised by the S&D Group and the Greens/EFA, held at the European Parliament on Wednesday 9 January.
As a reminder, the Council's Legal Service had suggested dividing the Directive into five separate legislative acts by structuring them around a single legal basis and introducing a new legal basis for tax-related cases (see EUROPE 12159, 12162).
This position does not seem to be shared by the experts of four Permanent representations present at the conference. The Spanish, Finnish, French and Dutch experts all made assurances that they welcomed the horizontal approach put forward by the European Commission.
The French Pauline Dubarry also clearly expressed Paris' wish to maintain a single legislative act, as proposed by the Commission. It would thus appear that intense negotiations are being prepared in the Council between those Member States opposed to the Legal Service's opinion, such as France, and those in favour of it.
According to a source consulted by EUROPE, the United Kingdom, Irish and Swedish delegations support the Council's legal opinion. In particular, these countries reportedly expressed concerns about the tax issue (see EUROPE 12159, 12162). As the positions of the other Member States are not yet clearly defined, there is a risk of pressure and political influence in the coming weeks, the same source told us.
In addition to the legal basis, the question of alerts is also a matter of debate between the co-legislators. While the EU Council supports the Commission's proposal, which provides for a three-step alert (internal, external, public), Parliament calls for the removal of any hierarchy between the first and second steps.
During the conference, the Permanent Representatives defended the Council's position by arguing that this is not a rigid hierarchy between the different levels of reporting. According to them, the Council text under preparation provides for many exceptions that will allow whistleblowers to override this hierarchy as soon as the situation so requires.
A meeting of the Council working group devoted to exchanges of views on the issue of the legal basis is scheduled for Thursday 10 January, with the hope that a majority will emerge. If this meeting does not lead to any progress, the Romanian Presidency of the Council intends to present the European Parliament's report to delegations and to start the first discussions on the main aspects of the report in the context of interinstitutional negotiations (trilogue).
Parliament's rapporteur, Virginie Rozière (S&D, France), wants to believe in a trilogue agreement before the European elections. "This is a political question for the Council. Do the members of the Council want to do everything possible to have a text by the end of the mandate? If the answer is yes, it is possible”, she replied to EUROPE. And to conclude: "The discussion will not, I think, be simple, but with political will, we can do it”.(Original version in French by Damien Genicot - intern)