Draft proposal for a Council Regulation laying down maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination of food and feed following a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency. Draft presented under Article 31 of the Euratom Treaty for opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee

On 1 April 1987 the Commission decided to instruct its services that all acts should be codified after no more than ten amendments, stressing that this is a minimum requirement and that departments should endeavour to codify at even shorter intervals the texts for which they are responsible, to ensure that their provisions are clear and readily understandable.

The codification of Council Regulation (Euratom) No 3954/87 of 22 December 1987 laying down maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination of foodstuffs and of feedingstuffs following a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency, Commission Regulation (Euratom) No 944/89 of 12 April 1989 laying down maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination in minor foodstuffs following a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency and Commission Regulation (Euratom) No 770/90 of 29 March 1990 laying down maximum permitted levels of radioactive contamination of feedingstuffs following a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency was initiated by the Commission, and a relevant proposal was submitted to the legislative authority. The new Regulation was to supersede the various acts incorporated in it.

In the course of the legislative procedure relating to that initial codification proposal, it was acknowledged that a provision appearing in the draft codified text provided for a reservation of implementing powers by the Council which was not justified in the recitals of Regulation (Euratom) No 3954/87. In the light of the judgment of the Court of Justice of 6 May 2008 in Case C-133/06, it was considered necessary to insert a new recital in the new act replacing and repealing that Regulation in order to justify that reservation of implementing powers. In the light thereof, codification of Regulation (Euratom) No 3954/87, Regulation (Euratom) No 944/89 and Regulation (Euratom) No 770/90 was transformed into a recast in order to incorporate the said amendment, and a relevant proposal was submitted to the legislative authority.

In the course of the legislative procedure relating to that recast proposal, it became apparent that certain existing provisions contained in Regulation (Euratom) No 3954/87 have now become incompatible with the new "Comitology" system laid down in Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers.

It has therefore been decided to withdraw the recast proposal and to draft a revised proposal of Regulation (Euratom) No 3954/87, which includes its consolidation and the implementation of the new "Comitology" system. According to the two-stage procedure laid down in Article 31 of the Euratom Treaty, the Commission shall first obtain the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the present draft before submitting a proposal to the Council.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)576: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:576:FIN

---