Parliament put on meagre rations

The European Parliament has launched a reform programme in an attempt to make itself more effective and more relevant to European citizens. But some observers fear that the initiative may have come too late and that the assembly is falling victim to the success of the European Commission’s drive to cut the amount of new legislation.

Parliament officials noted that the agenda for the Strasbourg session last week (12-15 March) was conspicuously light. On Tuesday MEPs voted on seven reports. Three were own-initiative reports by MEPs on subjects where the Parliament has no legislative powers, three were under consultation procedure where the assembly has only limited powers and only one was under the co-decision procedure - the Klinz report on shareholdings. Officials commented that voting on Tuesday took 15 minutes to wrap up, whereas in November 2005, at the first reading vote on the REACH chemicals safety proposal there were more than 1,000 amendments put forward.

Wednesday saw the Parliament debating or voting on a further six own-initiative reports and two non-binding resolutions, one on the proposed EU-US open skies agreement and another on nuclear proliferation. MEPs did vote on two co-decision reports (one on statistics for migration and one on the European Aviation Safety Agency) and two reports under the consultation procedure (on beef from animals under 12 months and ratification of a maritime convention).

On Thursday the Parliament debated two more own-initiative reports (on regional policy and local authorities and development co-operation) and voted on seven own-initiative reports.

This already low level of activity would have been even lower had MEPs not been debating the results of the previous week’s summit of EU leaders on climate change and energy policy, the Commission’s work programme for 2008 and the Berlin declaration to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

The European Commission disputes the assertion that the success of the better regulation initiative has led to a dramatic fall in the volume of legislative proposals. Catherine Day, European Commission secretary-general, said recently that the Commission had presented 474 proposals in 2006 compared to an average of 489 a year over the previous ten years. She pointed out that the Commission was active in new areas like justice and home affairs. EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy seems to take a different view. He said at the start of March that the Commission’s agenda was about "less regulation" rather than better regulation. He is opposing regulation of hedge funds, investment funds which exploit price volatility. Moreover, one of the own-initiative reports from the Parliament last week - on collecting societies’ role in on-line music distribution - criticised McCreevy for leaving the development of the market to member states rather than regulating to ensure a level playing-field.

What the Commission’s statistics do not specify is how many of its legislative proposals are under the co-decision procedure and will therefore be decided jointly by MEPs. Justice and home affairs may be a growth area but the European Parliament does not have powers to co-legislate in areas such as police co-operation.

MEPs are waiting anxiously to see how many of the measures to be proposed as part of the EU’s energy action plan will be for co-decision. A senior EU source said last week that the measures dealing with renewable energy would probably be co-decision with qualified majority voting, but that there was some doubt about whether unanimity might have to apply because of the implications of the measures for the national energy mix, which is not covered by qualified majority voting.

Last week, in another instance of Parliament trying to make itself heard on current issues, group leaders agreed to set up a temporary committee on climate change, despite the opposition of the chairman of the environment committee and some other members. The temporary committee will have no formal powers.

The Parliament’s working party on reform held its first meeting last week. Its twin aims are improving public awareness of the Parliament and enhancing its effectiveness. Those goals will be difficult to achieve as long as the assembly’s activity is determined by the other institutions, mainly the Commission, and by the volume of new legislation.

The European Parliament has launched a reform programme in an attempt to make itself more effective and more relevant to European citizens. But some observers fear that the initiative may have come too late and that the assembly is falling victim to the success of the European Commission’s drive to cut the amount of new legislation.