The European Parliament’s rapporteur on the proposed regulation establishing a ‘Single Market Emergency Instrument’ (SMEI), Andreas Schwab (EPP, German), still has to agree with the shadow rapporteurs on several key elements of the text in the coming weeks. He presented the major amendments included in his draft report to the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) on Tuesday 25 April.
While the parliamentary work seems to be moving in the right direction, there are still diverging positions between the political groups on the level of intervention of the SMEI. MEPs must, for example, agree on whether or not Member States should be obliged to communicate the level of their strategic reserves to the European Commission when the ‘vigilance’ mode is activated.
Mr Schwab suggested that this could be done on a voluntary basis, but the S&D and Greens/EFA groups considered that such a provision would greatly weaken the text.
In the Council of the EU, according to a provisional compromise text consulted by EUROPE, Member States also advocate removing obligations regarding strategic reserves from the regulation (see EUROPE 13155/1).
In addition, the way in which the ‘vigilance’ mode is activated within the framework of the SMEI is also a matter of debate among MEPs. The S&D group believes that the Commission should activate this mode via a proposal to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, which these two EU institutions should adopt within 14 days. The Greens/EFA envisage a delegated act, but are open to the S&D proposal. However, an implementing regulation is not desirable at this stage, due to the lack of involvement of the European Parliament, according to the two groups.
Another aspect of the text that the Renew Europe group would like to address is the role of the advisory board, which must advise the Commission on measures to be taken in the event of a crisis. This should be replaced by a steering committee, with “an active role in the decision-making process, not just an advisory one”, said Dita Charanzová (Renew Europe, Czech). One of its amendments proposes that this steering committee should be responsible for “deciding whether there is sufficient evidence to activate measures to prevent or react to the impact of a crisis on the internal market”.
Finally, several groups, including the Greens/EFA and The Left, are calling for more transparency around the joint procurement procedure for the award of public contracts. In their view, the mistakes made in the joint procurement of Covid-19 vaccines must be avoided. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)