Alicante, 19/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Kangaroo Group has initiated a discussion on the nature of the power of the European executive, in the framework of a working group set up this week on the initiative of its chairman Karl von Wogau, CDU member of the EP. In that perspective, the group organised a parliamentary visit, on Thursday and Friday, to the European Trade Mark Office in Alicante, to study the way it works. A similar visit has already been held at the Patents' Office in Munich and another should be held at the Medicines' Agency in London this summer.
"The aim is to see how an example of a successful agency works, what the problems are and to what extent this model may be applied to other fields", commented Karl von Wogau. The discussion was launched following the conclusion of the agreement he negotiated, for Parliament, with the Council and Commission, on implementing the Lamfalussy method which delegates to the Commission and technical committees, the drawing up of secondary legislation regarding financial services with a posteriori control by the EP (regarding the von Wogau Report on this problem, see EUROPE OF 6 February, P.13). This temporary agreement should, in the long-term, be replaced by definitive solutions on the power of execution, Karl Von Wogau believes, recalling in passing that the Commission's executive role and that of national and local administrations remain vague.
The goal of the Kangaroo Group is to ensure the development and efficiency of the internal market. "The three or four years it takes the European legislative process disadvantages the industrial sector, especially in relation to its American rivals", remarked von Wogau. Whence, the model of the European Standardisation Centres and the Offices in Alicante and London, could, he believes, be extended to other areas, like chemical substances, "where decisions concerning producers should be taken by a specialist administration and not the central administration". "The agency model is interesting for framing industrial policy when it comes to placing substances on the market", Karl von Wogau points out.
For now, not all the members of the Group agree with the idea of developing the agency model, Mr. Von Wogau acknowledges, remarking that the Spanish Socialist Manuel Medina Ortega, for example, has reservations about this model of delegating executive power. "The central problem of agencies is that of the balance between efficiency and democratic control", says von Wogau.
The other solutions would pass through the European Commission itself, "which is not always efficient", through self-regulation or "soft law", through Commission recommendations, he points out. Solutions could be combined, as is the case of the standardisation process, which comprises a part of self-regulation through the involvement of industrialists and consumers within working parties.
The reflection of the Kangaroo working group should end this autumn with "conclusions" which could take the form of a parliamentary own-initiative report or possibly be taken on board in the work of the Convention on the future of Europe. The Group, currently made up of, notably, Karl von Wogau, Klaus-Heinz Lehne (also CDU member) and Manuel Medina Ortega, as well as former MEP Fernand Herman (Belgian Christian-Democrat), has invited legal experts from the Commission, Parliament and the Council to take part in the work.