The European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) is suggesting that the Conference of Presidents (CoP) of the political groups should be empowered, as a measure of last resort, to set up ad hoc temporary committees to settle conflicts of competence on issues involving more than three parliamentary committees.
In approving all the compromise amendments tabled to the draft ‘De Meo’ report on Wednesday 20 March, MEPs took the view that this temporary parliamentary committee would be set up for the duration of a specific legislative procedure or to prepare the European Parliament’s position on a strategic issue prior to a legislative proposal.
The CoP will then have to decide on the size of this ad hoc parliamentary committee, and the MEPs on this committee will be appointed by their political group according to their representation on the parliamentary committees involved. It would also be up to the CoP to decide whether a rapporteur, or several co-rapporteurs, should be appointed to steer Parliament’s position on the dossier in question.
The draft ‘De Meo’ report, which will be submitted to the mini-plenary session on 10 and 11 April for approval by an absolute majority of MEPs, contains internal reform measures designed to strengthen the monitoring of the European Parliament’s democratic process. Public hearings, or even specific sessions during plenary sessions, could be convened to hear the President of the European Commission and/or European Commissioners. Other measures concern political dialogue with the President-designate of the European Commission, so that he or she can inform MEPs of his or her intentions regarding the structure and functioning of the next College of Commissioners, according to an European Parliament press release.
Finally, the AFCO Committee wants future European Parliament requests for legislative initiatives to include an assessment of their budgetary and/or financial impact. If the Commission does not react quickly to such a request, the European Commissioner responsible for the dossier would be invited to explain him or herself to MEPs.
To see the draft report and the compromise amendments adopted: https://aeur.eu/f/bi9; https://aeur.eu/f/bi2 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)