Strasbourg, 16/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - The three European institutions signed on Tuesday in Strasbourg an interinstitutional agreement for legislating better. The European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission agree to improve the quality of legislation with a series of initiatives and procedures including: - better coordination of the legislative process mainly for co-decision; - an annual Commission report on follow-up to its legislative proposals; - participation by Commissioners in debates of parliamentary committees and plenary debates for subjects for which they are responsible; - greater transparency; - clear and specific clarification of the legal base proposed by the Commission; - use of methods of regulation other than the law, whenever possible; - greater consistency in texts; - improved transposition; - and simplification and reduction of the volume of legislation.