1995 REPORT RECOMMENDATION
The role of national parliaments
...The Declaration on the Role
of National Parliaments in the European Union[16]...should
be made binding, by its inclusion in the Treaty, and should specify
the period of notice to be given to national parliaments: the
Commons have recommended that a minimum period of four weeks'
notice should elapse between an official text of a proposal being
available in the appropriate language in every national capital
and a decision on the document being taken in Council. We concur.(307)
We do not favour giving institutional
formality to co-operation between national parliaments. However,
we recognise the value of the less formal contacts which have
developed between the parliaments of the Union in recent years.
In particular, the Conference of European Affairs Committees (CEAC
or COSAC) has developed into a useful forum for the exchange of
views, ideas and experience, although we agree with the House
of Commons European Legislation Committee, which concluded that
"[CEAC] has been most successful when it has considered the
technique and practice of parliamentary scrutiny rather than engaging
in inconclusive political debate".(306)
OUTCOME OF THE TREATY
The role of national parliaments
The Declaration in the Maastricht
Treaty is replaced by a protocol which will have binding force.
This provides that:
Commission Green and White
papers, and communications, shall be "promptly" forwarded
to national parliaments.
Commission proposals for
legislation shall be "made available in good time" so
that member governments may transmit them to their parliaments.
A six week period shall elapse
between a legislative proposal, or a proposal under Title VI of
the TEU (police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters)
being made available by the Commission in all languages to the
European Council, and a decision being taken by the Council to
adopt an act or a common position, subject to exceptions on grounds
of urgency.
On the role of COSAC, the present
text of the Protocol gives COSAC the role of commenting to EU
institutions on legislative texts-expecially as regards subsidiarity-or
on proposals related tot he area of freedom, security and justice
which might bear on the rights and freedoms of individuals. The
final Amsterdam text introduced an additional sentence underlining
that contributions made by COSAC to the discussion of particular
proposals do not bind national parliaments. The provisions of
the Treaty are entirely permissive and the differences between
the Protocol and what COSAC could do anyway, if it wished, are
marginal.
16 Declaration 13 to the Treaty on European Union. Back
