Letter from European Economic and Social
Committee
Thank you for your letter of 10 March 2008 and
for your invitation to give evidence concerning Lord Mance's timely
inquiry into the Initiation of EU Legislation. With your understanding,
I feel it would be inappropriate for me to respond to Questions
1, 2, 4, 5 and 6. On the other hand, Question 3, which mentions
the Committee explicitly, is indeed most pertinent.
The European Economic and Social Committee,
which I have the honour to serve as Secretary-General, is a 344-member
consultative body. It is a venerable institution, established
at the same time as the European Parliament, the Council of the
European Union, the European Commission and the Court of Justice,
in 1957-58. It has "advisory status" (TEC Article 256).
Its members represent "the various economic and social components
of organised civil society" (idem). Its primary and most
longstanding role is to give opinions on legislative proposals
to the Commission and the Council. The Committee may also be consulted
by the European Parliament, and it can issue opinions on its own
initiative (TEC Article 262). In all of these guises, the Committee
has limited, though some indirect, effect on the initiation of
legislation by the European Commission. Thereafter, it can have
considerable, though always (not being a legislature) indirect,
impact on draft legislation, as the attached copy of a recently
published brochure on the impact of the Committee demonstrates
(not printed with this Report). However, the Committee
has increasingly sought to give its opinion upstream of the legislative
process, precisely with a view to influencing the initiation of
legislation or, where it is known that the European Commission
is considering legislation, to influence the nature of the draft
legislation. This can, and is, done through initiative opinions
but, since 2001, the Committee has gradually been expanding its
use of a new form of opinion, dubbed "exploratory".
Initially through a protocol of cooperation with the European
Commission,[44]
but later extended through customary practice to the rotating
Presidencies of the Council of the European Union, the exploratory
opinion is designed precisely to enable the Committee to exercise
its advisory function upstream of any legislative proposal.
A recent example, of an exploratory opinion
on animal welfare labelling, graphically illustrates the way in
which the Committee can have influence (not printed with this
Report). The opinion in question was requested by the 2006
German Presidency. The issue was three-fold: growing public interest,
from both the consumer and animal rights angles, in the welfare
of animals raised for slaughter; a growth within a number of member
states of labelling schemes; and fears that these trends could
lead to consumer confusion and market fragmentation. The Committee's
opinion, adopted in March 2007 (Rapporteur: Mr Lief Nielsen, a
member of the Danish Agriculture Council) called for the current
mandatory animal welfare standards to be backed up by voluntary
labelling rules. The spirit of the recommendations was a sort
of gentle harmonisation, based on commonly-recognised scientific
principles. In late March the Committee followed up its opinion
with a conference in which the German Federal Minister for Food,
Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Horst Seehofer, and the European
Commissioner for Health, Markos Kyprianou, participated, and during
which it became clear that the Committee's recommendations reflected
a growing consensus among stakeholders about the need for action.
On 7 May, the Agriculture and Fisheries Council conclusions took
note of the EESC's exploratory opinion and of the ensuing conference
and, considering "that account should be taken of the recommendations
made by the EESC in its exploratory opinion", called on the
Commission to submit a report which would allow an in-depth debate
on the subject. It is clearly too early to see whether some sort
of regulatory or legislative approach will be adopted but, just
as clearly, the Committee's opinion and its recommendations are
bound to lead to some sort of EU-level action in this area.
From the above it can be seen that the Committee's
advisory function can, on occasion, extend to influencing the
initiation of legislation. I would be happy to explore this growing
role—particularly in the context of the concept of participatory
democracy, as established by the Lisbon Treaty—in more detail
if that were to be felt appropriate. It might also be felt appropriate
for the members of the Sub-Committee to meet and discuss this
issue with some of the members of the EESC. I and my colleagues
are of course at your disposal should that be felt desirable.
7 April 2008
44 "As part of the process of framing the Union's
policies and planning its work, the Commission may provide for
and call on the Committee to draft exploratory opinions in areas
of particular importance to organised civil society, where it
takes the view that the Committee has the appropriate competence
and expertise" (extract from the protocol of cooperation). Back
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