Spread of ‘high-level groups’ bugs Borrell

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 16/03/06

A new inter-institutional battle has begun over the European Commission's advisory groups for industrial policies.

The European Parliament has refused to nominate any representatives to a high-level group on energy and competitiveness, fearing that the group might undermine MEPs' power to debate future policies.

In a letter sent to Commission President José Manuel Barroso last week (8 March), Parliament President Josep Borrell questioned the "Commission's ever-increasing tendency to set up 'forums' and 'high-level groups'" and the role of his institution in them.

"The conference of presidents unanimously decided to abstain from appointing representatives to the high-level group on competitiveness, energy and the environment, pending further clarification of the wider basic issue to determine to what extent it would be appropriate for the European Parliament as an institution to be represented in such fora by a very limited number of MEPs," the letter reads.

Borrell has invited Barroso to attend a conference of presidents, the gathering of group leaders, to explain the purpose of such groups and their status within the EU policy framework.

Graham Watson, leader of the Liberal group in the Parliament, said: "There is a widespread feeling throughout the Parliamentary groups that these working groups can compromise Parliament's point of view. They set out positions which they say have the support of the European Parliament, when this is not necessarily the case."

Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen launched the high-level group on energy, competitiveness and environment on 24 February. Bringing together the commissioners for enterprise, environment, competition and energy, four industry and economic ministers and various industry and non-governmental organisation representatives, the group will be tasked with advising the Commission on cross-sector policies.

Verheugen has already clashed with the Parliament on the issue, when an original draft of the members list showed that there would be only three MEPs in the group. This was later extended to four.

But sources say that Parliamentary resistance was instigated by the Greens, who also opposed the composition of the Cars 21 working group set up by Verheugen in 2005 to decide how the regulatory framework for the car industry should develop. Industry representatives outweighed the clean car lobby in the group.

Green MEP Claude Turmes said that he was equally concerned that the latest group would rely on the opinions of Europe's biggest businesses. The Greens lobbied, but failed, to include a representative of the renewable energy industry on the group.

"We are extremely worried that the [right of initiative of] environment and energy commissioners will be hindered by the conclusions of these groups that are set in such a biased way," Turmes said. "This way of pre-empting Commission decisions is entirely new."

Verheugen's spokesman Gregor Kreuzhuber said that high-level groups did not "by any means replace the EU lawmaking procedure" and they were "exclusively designed to help the Commission produce better quality proposals".

"The alternative is to return to the old style lawmaking behind closed doors. These groups may not be perfect...but they are a major improvement on the old status quo," he said.

Kreuzhuber added that Parliament's four seats in the energy group were "still free and can be filled when the Parliament is ready to do so".

Article reports on a dispute between the European Parliament and the European Commission on the High-level group on energy, competitiveness and environment, an advisory group launched by Enterprise Commissioner Günter Verheugen on 24 February 2006. The European Parliament refused to nominate any representatives fearing that the group might undermine MEPs' power to debate future policies. The President of the European Parliament, Josep Borell, announced this move in a letter to the European Commission on 8 March 2006.