Brussels, 04/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission rejected a request from the EP's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee to "clarify" the Stockholm European Council resolution on the Lamfalussy report (see EUROPE of 24 March, p.10). The reason for this is that it does not intend to back track over the rules concerning the functioning of the comitology as they have been set and feels that itself, the EP and the Council have already agreed on the main aspects of the report.
In a letter sent on 19 April to Commissioner Frits Bolkenstein, responsible for the Internal Market, Christa Randzio-Plath, President of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, formulated a series of proposals which, included in a simple exchange of letter between the three institutions, have allowed to reach an interinstitutional agreement over this report. Mrs Randzio-Plath fully subscribes to the approach of the Wise Persons Group chaired by Alexandre Lamfalussy, which states that the framework legislation in terms of the integration of financial markets will take place according to the co-decision process, while the measures for the technical implementation must follow the comitology procedure. On the other hand, it reiterated in its letter the call, formulated in an EP resolution, for a called back right to be recognised for the Parliament at the comitology stage, in virtue of which it could force the European Commission to re-assess its implementation proposals. Mrs Randzio-Plath also calls for the "adopting of a new legislative framework to be accelerated. Commissioner Bolkestein turned down the proposal through a missive on 2 May, in which he tersely recalls that the working of committee procedure was fixed in a Council decision in June 1999 (1999/468/EC) and that "call back" is not compatible with the Treaty. He nonetheless calls for more intensive dialogue between the three institutions concerned within the 2005 Group created to resolve this kind of problem. He also specifies that he fully supports the aim of speeding up the process, while pointing out that he will present two draft directives at the end of May in the context of stock market integration, one on the European prospectus, and the other on market abuse. In a press release, Ms Randzio-Plath said she was "disappointed" by this answer, but announces that "despite this hitch", she is willing to "promote an accelerated agreement in first reading with the Council if possible".
On Monday, the Ecofin Council will tackle the question and is expected to withdraw its opposition to any call-back clause in favour of the EP, even if one diplomat considered on Friday that Mr Bolkestein's response was "clumsy in form".