It would take a cataclysm for Maroš Šefčovič not to be allowed to start a third term as European Commissioner, this time as Vice-President in charge of Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight.
Not surprisingly, the Commissioner-designate promises MEPs that he will treat the European Parliament with the highest consideration and “on an equal footing” with the EU Council, particularly in the areas of political dialogue and access to information.
Traditionally, the Commission has taken the side of the European Assembly to influence the EU Council in all areas of European action to strengthen Community integration at the expense of intergovernmentalism.
In his answers to MEPs' written questions, Mr Šefčovič referred to some of the key promises made by the President-elect of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. In particular, he intends to put in place internal procedures to materialise any request for a legislative initiative formulated by Parliament in resolutions based on Article 225 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and adopted by a majority of MEPs.
“Once such a resolution is adopted, I will alert my counterparts and provoke a political discussion in the College of Commissioners so that the Commission can present a legislative initiative within 3 months”, says Mr Šefčovič. Concerning discussions prior to the adoption of these resolutions, he is of the opinion that a new “early mechanism” to ensure “permanent” dialogue between the Commission and the parliamentary committees should be established.
With regard to Parliament's desire for a genuine right of inquiry, the Commissioner-designate agrees on the need to have an “adequate instrument which fully respects the institutional prerogatives and relevant legal frameworks of the Member States”. “There are still legal and institutional concerns that remain to be solved during the interinstitutional negotiations”, he notes, even though Parliament’s proposal to reform the existing framework dates back to 2012.
On the other hand, while MEPs did not specifically question him on this point, the Slovak Social Democrat did not refer to Mrs von der Leyen's promise, which appears in Mr Šefčovič's mission letter, to withdraw a legislative text for each legislative initiative presented (the ‘one in, one out’ principle).
Parliament's right of initiative and the implementation of this principle, which is supposed to simplify European legislation, are two ideas promoted during the European election campaign by the Christian Democratic family candidate, German Manfred Weber.
See Mr Maroš Šefčovič’s answers: http://bit.ly/2mkpRrG (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)