Brussels, 28/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, British Labour MEP Richard Corbett says he is "delighted that the meeting of the Constitutional Committee of the European Parliament… backed his draft report on Comitology by an overwhelming majority". The rapporteur recommends approval, "with only a few amendments" of the European Commission's proposal amending the 1999 Council decision on comitology, noting that the Commission's proposal would place Parliament and Council on an equal footing in being able to scrutinise and, if necessary, "call back implementing measures or delegated legislation adopted by the Commission. As amended, Parliament and Council would each have up to 2 months to object to an implementing measure. If either objects, the Commission must either amend the measure or table a legislative proposal to Parliament and Council under the codecision procedure, or withdraw it entirely".
In the explanatory statement to his report, Corbett says this is a golden opportunity to clarify the respective powers of the legislature and the executive. "This simple reform …could prevent a considerable number of disputes… where comitology is still frequently a problem in the final stages of conciliation, reassure Parliament that it can delegate technical measures without losing all powers of oversight". "No one is claiming that Parliament should be involved in all the details of technical implementation measures, merely that it should have the opportunity to step in when these measures raise significant or politically sensitive policy problems. The Council has always insisted on this right, and Parliament, as the other branch of the legislature, is also entitled to do so", notes Corbett.
The rapporteur points out that the comitology problem "was created with the development in the 1960s and 1970s of a system for delegating implementing powers to the Commission whereby the latter is empowered to act in conjunction with a committee of national representatives (at the level of officials). Except where they are purely advisory, such committees could block the Commission's decision on implementing measure and refer the matter back to the Council" (management or regulatory committees). MEPs criticised the system, with its hundreds of committees, as complex and lacking transparency, and the fact the EP had not right of call-back. In 1993, under the new codecision procedure, the EP went on the offensive and the new Council decision of 28 June 1999 improved the system, but not sufficiently. In the 2002 revision of the EP's Rules of Procedure (Corbett Report), if the EP objects to a measure, the President must request the Commission to withdraw or amend the measure or submit a proposal under the appropriate legislative procedure. The December 2002 Bourlanges Report on the typology of acts stipulates that if the Council (acting by a qualified majority) or Parliament (acting by a majority of its Members) "object within three months to an implementing measure, then the measure in question would be the subject of a legislative procedure (codecision) to confirm, amend or repeal the measure, unless the Commission withdraws it". The Commission's new proposal follows these guidelines, notes Corbett, but cuts the deadline for objecting to measures from three to two months. The Commission also "recognises that Parliament may have a say on the substance of the draft and not just a right to object that the measure exceeds the powers delegated".