Prodi under fire over access to documents

Date: 18/05/2000

By Simon Taylor

MEPS have attacked European Commission President Romano Prodi's plans for a new agreement designed to end political clashes between the European Parliament and the EU executive, arguing that it would not give them enough access to sensitive documents.

The new accord being negotiated with the assembly would lay down rules for giving MEPs access to papers in cases of alleged fraud and mismanagement, and is aimed at preventing repeats of last year's battle between the two institutions over the Parliament's demand for the right to see internal Commission documents. The assembly's frustration at being denied access to key documents was a factor in the events which led up to the resignation of former President Jacques Santer's team.

But MEPs argue that the current proposal for a new framework agreement would still impose unnecessary restrictions on certain papers. They have also criticised the Commission for failing to set clear deadlines for providing documents.

Dutch Liberal MEP Lousewies van der Laan, a member of the assembly's budget control committee, attacked Prodi's plan to exclude all papers relating to infringement and competition cases. "There should not be a blanket exclusion on these grounds because you can exclude certain documents for the normal reasons of commercial confidentiality," she said.

Van Der Laan also criticised the current proposals for failing to set a clear timetable for the Commission to provide documents or inform the Parliament as to whether certain papers were confidential. "Without deadlines things could drag on for months," she warned.

MEPs are also insisting that the new accord should be agreed as quickly as possible so that the Parliament can turn its attention to scrutinising decisions made in the Council of Ministers.

Commission officials are also predicting a clash with the Parliament over a bid by MEPs to expand their powers to scrutinise the EU executive's handling of the budget. Under existing rules, they can only examine one year of accounts at a time under the discharge procedure, but they now want the right to look at the institution's performance over a wider period.

This demand is being fiercely resisted by Prodi. "The Commission will stick to its position that the budget discharge should be dealt with as per the treaty, which limits it to one year," said one official, pointing out that the Parliament had the right to demand information on any budget period whenever it wanted.

The Commission's proposals for a new framework agreement will have to be discussed by the Parliament's budgetary control committee and the leaders of political groups before it can be approved.

Commission sources said that any further changes would have to be negotiated in meetings between MEPs, Prodi and Commission Vice-President Loyola de Palacio.

MEPs have attacked European Commission President Romano Prodi's plans for a new agreement designed to end political clashes between the European Parliament and the EU executive, arguing that it would not give them enough access to sensitive documents. The new accord being negotiated with the assembly would lay down rules for giving MEPs access to papers in cases of alleged fraud and mismanagement.