7. COMITOLOGY REPORT
(24157)
5060/03
COM(02) 733
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Commission Report on the working of Committees during 2001.
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| Legal base: | —
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| Document originated: | 13 December 2002
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| Deposited in Parliament: | 10 January 2003
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| Department: | Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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| Basis of consideration: | EM of 22 January 2003
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| Previous Committee Report: | None
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| To be discussed in Council: | Not applicable
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| Committee's assessment: | Politically important
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| Committee's decision: | Cleared
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Background
7.1 'Comitology' is the term used to describe the workings
of the committee system overseeing the exercise by the Commission
of legislative powers delegated to it by the Council and the European
Parliament. Comitology is currently governed by Council Decision
1999/468/EC which was adopted in June 1999 to simplify the procedures
governing the "comitology" committees and to involve
the European Parliament more closely. In order to improve the
transparency of the workings and decision-making processes of
the committees involved and to improve access to information about
these matters for members of the public, Article 7(4) of Council
Decision 1999/468/EC requires the Commission to publish an annual
report on the working of these committees. This document is the
second such annual report.
The document
7.2 The contents of the Commission's report have been
conveniently summarised by the Minister for Europe (Mr Denis MacShane)
in his Explanatory Memorandum dated 22 January 2003:
"The document is divided into three chapters:
"(1) Preliminary Comments: This chapter sets out the
characteristics of the comitology committees, in particular their
legal nature and role. It also covers the progress made to date
on implementing changes to the comitology procedures made by Council
Decision 1999/468/EC. This includes the publication of this annual
report on the workings of the committees; the publication of a
list of all the comitology committees; the adoption of the standard
rules of procedure for the committees; and the publication of
a register giving the references to all documents sent to the
European Parliament, also to be made available to the public.
"It details the efforts made, including the electronic transmission
of documents, to enable the European Parliament's right to scrutiny
to be observed in respect of implementing measures made pursuant
to an act adopted under co-decision. The report indicates that
there were no cases where the European Parliament felt the need
to adopt a resolution based on Article 8 of the 1999 Council Decision,
where it judged that the implementing measures exceeded the powers
provided for in the basic instrument. The occasions when the committees
have referred decisions to the Council in 2001 are mentioned and
set out: only ten cases were referred. This represents under 1%
of the total number of instruments adopted by the Commission.
"Finally, this chapter raises other issues relating to the
comitology committees:
"a) The European Institutions agreed to allow more frequent
use of the comitology procedures in the field of securities markets.
This was based on the Lamfalussy report. Two sectoral proposals
have consequently been adopted.
"b) The White Paper on Governance, in which the Commission
proposes reexamining the conditions under which it adopts implementing
measures and the need to maintain the existing committees. The
Commission has proposed amending Article 202 of the Treaty to
place the European Parliament and Council on an equal footing
in overseeing the Commission exercise its executive role. It has
also pledged to produce proposals to reorganise comitology procedures
and arrangements, whereby the legislator vets executive instruments.
(See COM(02) 719 final).[5]
"c) In preparation for Enlargement, the report indicates
that candidate countries are represented as observers on approximately
40 of the total 247 comitology committees. The Commission hopes
to extend this, where legally possible, to all committees set
up by comitology in the light of the Accession Treaty to be signed
in April 2003.
"(2) Horizontal Overview of the Activities: The second
chapter consists of a series of tables illustrating the number
of committees and types of procedures, the number of meetings
of (and days spent by) these committee formations, and the number
of consultations undertaken by the committees.
"(3) Presentation of Activities by Sectoral Policy: This
chapter, and its related Annex, present the outcomes from each
comitology committee broken down by sector, and type of procedure."
The Government's view
7.3 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 22 January the Minister
comments:
"The Government welcomes the publication of the Annual Report
for 2001 on the working of the committees. Such an exercise represents
a step towards making the internal workings of the institutions
more transparent and accessible. This is of particular importance
with a view to the aims of the Convention on the Future of Europe,
as set out at Laeken."
Conclusion
7.4 We thank the Minister for his helpful comments
on the Commission's report, and we agree with those comments.
7.5 We note that the Commission suggests an amendment
to Article 202 EC in order to enhance the role of the European
Parliament in the comitology system.
7.6 The Report is essentially descriptive, and we
have no questions to put to the Minister. We therefore clear the
document.
5 See
(24138) 15878/02; paragraph 4 above. Back
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