12/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - British Labour MEP Richard Corbett hopes the chair of the EP's Constitutional Affairs Committee, Jo Leinen, will 'mark the recent end of the British Presidency with a statement acknowledging the remarkable record of the Presidency on issues of concern to our committee.' In a letter to Jo Leinen, Corbett says the British Presidency's record on institutional questions includes a number of important achievements, like securing the agreement that the Council should from now on deliberate in publish when dealing with codecision legislation (see EUROPE 9095); taking the initiative for Council to resume consideration of Parliament's proposals to reform the comitology system, securing the agreement of Council to deal with the Data Retention Directive as an item of EU legislation with Parliamentary codecision rather than as a third pillar intergovernmental agreement 'as several other governments wanted'; and a 'record number of Ministerial appearances in Parliament with no fewer than 78 visits overall and including four from the Prime Minister', Tony Blair.