Aides veto new approach to infringements

Date: 23/03/2000

By Peter Chapman

PLANNED new policy guidelines aimed at reducing the European Commission's role in handling complaints about alleged breaches of EU laws have been rejected after a high-level debate inside the institution.

Top aides to the 20 Commissioners unexpectedly vetoed the proposals for a new, more selective approach towards individual complaints from citizens and firms over national rules and regulations which allegedly violate the Union's treaty or directives at a meeting late last week. "The proposals were discarded by the majority of chefs de cabinet to the Commissioners," said a source.

The decision followed last-minute lobbying by MEPS and industry critics of the move, who warned that it would bring into question the Commission's traditional role as 'guardian' of the EU treaties.

The policy guidelines at the centre of the controversy would have formalised an approach to infringement cases advocated by the Commission's chief lawyer, Jean-Louis Dewost.

He argued that the Commission was under no obligation to pursue each and every complaint about isolated breaches of Union law by member states, and said the overworked institution should only refer cases to the European Court of Justice if they would 'break new ground' or if member states had made a "series of misinterpretations" of EU law in a particular area.

Otherwise, said Dewost, individual complaints would be far better dealt with by national courts which had a duty to rule on questions of Union law and could award punitive damages for losses resulting from illegal national rules. In the meantime, he said, the Commission's priority should be to ensure member states continued to transpose EU directives correctly into national law.

But Spanish centre-right MEP Ana Palacio, who chairs the European Parliament's legal affairs committee, argued that forcing citizens to pursue their complaints via national courts was "not a good solution", even though the Commission was having to deal with an increasing number of complaints about alleged infringements. "We have to keep in mind the interests of the European citizen - and keeping them close to EU institutions," she said.

Palacio confirmed that she had contacted "certain Commissioners" to explain her views on the issue in the run-up to last week's chef's meeting.

Brussels-based lawyer Chris Scott-Wilson said the decision to put the proposed new infringements policy on hold "hopefully signalled a greater willingness" to pursue cases. "I would see it as very good news for people who support the concept of the EU," he added. "Were the Commission to abandon its role of enforcing member states to honour their obligations under the treaty, it would be one step further down the road of the disintegration of the single market."

Planned new policy guidelines aimed at reducing the European Commission's role in handling complaints about alleged breaches of EU laws have been rejected after a high-level debate inside the institution.