Parliament pushes home its advantage

By Martin Banks

Date: 09/12/04

THE European Parliament this week took the first steps towards achieving formal recognition of the "changed state" of its relationship with the Commission.

Senior officials from both institutions met for the first time yesterday (8 December) in a bid to re-draft an agreement which sets out how the two bodies work together.

The agreement was last revised in 1999 at the start of Romano Prodi's mandate but one senior MEP says that the recent institutional crisis, which led to a three-week delay to the start of the José Manuel Barroso's Commission, shows that it is in "bad need of refurbishment".

Barroso was forced to withdraw his original Commission line-up in the face of a likely defeat at the hands of MEPs, many of whom were incensed with Italian Rocco Buttiglione being given the justice portfolio.

Parliamentarians are now insisting that any new agreement incorporates proposals designed to weed out weak commissioners.

They want a new accord that increases Parliament's powers over Barroso and his 24-strong team.

A Parliament insider said that the Buttiglione affair was seen by many as a victory for the assembly, once dismissed as a talking shop, and its demands reflected the 732 MEPs' new found confidence.

One recommendation is that, in the event of a Commission reshuffle, a commissioner moved to another portfolio must be subjected to another Parlmentary hearing before he or she takes up office.

It is also proposed that if Parliament expresses a vote of 'no confidence' in a commissioner, Barroso must demand his or her resignation, or personally appear before MEPs to explain why he has not.

MEPs say that it is Barroso himself who should determine whether there are grounds to investigate a commissioner for a conflict of interest.

Parliament has also called for a revision of the current regulations concerning public access to documents.

The high-level technical group which met yesterday includes David O'Sullivan and Julian Priestley, secretaries-general of the Commission and Parliament.

It is expected to complete its negotiations by the middle of next month.

A draft of any new agreement will then go to Parliament with a view to it being adopted in the Spring.

UK Liberal Democrat MEP Andrew Duff, whose report for Parliament calls for changes to the way commissioners' hearings are held, said that he hoped Barroso moved more "swiftly" than Prodi, who took six months to draft the current framework agreement.

Duff, spokesman on constitutional affairs for the ALDE group, said: "The agreement between the two institutions is in bad need of refurbishment to reflect the changed state of the relationship.

"The increased democratic accountability of the Commission to the Parliament must be spelt out in the new agreement. But the agreement must also seek to develop a close partnership between commissioners and MEPs wherever their political agendas converge."

A spokesman for Margot Wallström, the commissioner responsible for institutional affairs and communications, said that Parliament's proposals were a "good basis" for future discussion on a revised agreement.

Senior officials from the European Commission and the European Parliament met for the first time on 8 December 2004 in a bid to re-draft an agreement which sets out how the two bodies work together.