THE COMMISSION'S ANNUAL POLICY STRATEGY
FOR 2008
CHAPTER 1: THE BACKGROUND TO OUR INQUIRY
1. For national parliaments to influence effectively
the development of EU policy, it is essential to engage with proposals
as early in their development as possible. A key to this is scrutiny
of the Commission's principal strategic planning documents, the
Annual Policy Strategy and the Annual Legislative and Work Programme.[1]
2. Published each spring, the Annual Policy Strategy
(APS) summarises the main priorities and orientations that the
Commission is looking to include in its Annual Legislative and
Work Programme (ALWP), which is published each autumn.[2]
The APS serves as a basis for consultation within the European
institutions and beyond, and scrutiny of the APS therefore presents
a key opportunity for influencing the Commission's thinking on
cross-cutting and strategic policy matters.
BOX 1
Overview of the contents of the Annual
Policy Strategy for 2008
3. For this, our first inquiry into the APS,
we released a Call for Evidence, and held oral evidence sessions
with Commissioner Margot Wallström, Vice-President for Institutional
Relations and Communication Strategy; with Klaus Welle, chef
de cabinet to the President of the European Parliament; with
the leaders of the Labour and Conservative delegations to the
European Parliament, Gary Titley MEP and Timothy Kirkhope MEP;
and with the Minister for Europe, the Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP.[3]
In addition, each of our seven policy-based Sub-Committees examined
the APS on the basis of their areas of expertise.[4]
4. In this our first Report on the APS, we focus
on examining the document itself. Chapter 3 presents specific
points regarding particular proposals. We welcome the Commission's
improvements to its Annual Policy Strategy documents, and its
commitment to further refinements.[5]
However, we believe that there are flaws in the APS for 2008 which
prevent the document from being as useful a strategic tool as
it could be. Commissioner Wallström has made it clear that
she wants to receive input from the national parliaments into
the process of policy formulation which is based on the APS and
the ALWP, and has said: "It is important that the Commission
pays close attention to what you have to say."[6]
In this Report, we inform the House, the Government and the European
institutions about the ways in which we believe this process of
policy formulation could be improved.[7]
1 The APS
for 2008 is Commission document number COM (2007) 65 final, and
Council document number 6788/07. The APS for 2008 can be found
at http://ec.europa.eu/atwork/synthesis/index_en.htm Back
2 The Annual
Legislative and Work Programme can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/atwork/programmes/index_en.htm
In our Report on Public Awareness of the Scrutiny Role of the
House of Lords, we concluded that enhanced scrutiny of the Commission's
Annual Legislative and Work Programme was desirable, and we now
publish an annual report on the ALWP ("EU Legislation-Public
Awareness of the Scrutiny Role of the House of Lords", 32nd
Report (2005-06), HL 179, p.32, http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldeucom/179/179.pdf
) Back
3 All the written
and oral evidence received is published at the back of this Report. Back
4 Their analysis
is included in the third chapter of this Report. Back
5 Commissioner
Wallström said "We have learned from the process …
We are slowly but steadily getting there" (Q 28). Back
6 Commissioner
Wallström's speech presenting the APS for 2008 to the XXXVII
COSAC Conference of Community and European Affairs Committees
of Parliaments of the European Union, Berlin 15 May 2007, http://www.cosac.eu/en/meetings/Berlin2007/plenary/aps.pdf Back
7 The Commission
has said that it welcomes comments on the Annual Policy Strategy
and Annual Legislative and Work Programme from national parliaments.
Commissioner Wallström said: "I take what you say very
seriously because we can conclude after having worked on establishing
an agenda for increased co-operation with the national parliaments
that it has been a success so far … You can give your views
on what you want on the Annual Policy Strategy … We welcome
that and think it is important"(Q 56). Back
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