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National parliaments risk failing to use powers over EU |
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Tuesday, 06 November 2007 |
The European Union’s new Reform Treaty will give national politicians such as MPs a far greater say on new EU legislation, but this could mean little if member states remain as non-responsive as they have proved so far.
The treaty, expected to come into force in 2009, introduces a "yellow
card" system meaning that the European Commission must review a
legislative proposal if one third or more of national parliaments
believe the proposal falls outside EU competencies.
This would happen if the planned law was believed to breach
“subsidiarity” or “proportionality” principles – meaning that the
proposed law addressed an issue that could instead be tackled at a
national level, or if it contributes unnecessarily to an excessive
amount of EU legislation.
There is also an "orange card" that means that if a majority of
national parliaments and MEPs reject a proposal the Commission has to
abandon it.
However, information given to European news website EU Observer by
Commission officials suggests that national parliaments will have to
become much more active if they want to make use of such provisions.
In September 2006, the European Commission started to send draft
legislation directly to national parliaments, including the UK
Parliament, with Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso clearly
inviting MPs to react to the proposals.
But during that time the Commission received only 142 reactions to its
proposals from parliaments across the EU, equivalent to only a
“handful" of reactions for each proposal. Only plans for cross-border
divorce and the liberalisation of postal services bucked the trend by
provoking 16 responses each from member state parliaments.
The dearth of responses mean that national parliaments are a long way
from reaching the thresholds required to activate the yellow and orange
card procedures. One Commission official said: "We are still very far
from any threshold whatsoever… There is a risk that something which
looks good on paper, actually remains inactive."
John Edward, head of the European Parliament office in Scotland, said that the UK Parliament would have to raise its game.
"It has often been recognised that House of Lords' scrutiny of EU
legislation is probably the best and most detailed across Europe. But
it is clearly a task for all national parliaments to respond to the new
powers proposed for them by the member states in the Reform Treaty.
“Not only will they have to respond rapidly and decisively on new
proposals, but they will have to communicate between themselves like
never before if the collective powers to hold up or block proposals are
to be used. Of course, this all depends on one key piece of
parliamentary scrutiny, namely that of the Reform Treaty itself."
Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, who has campaigned for the rights of
national parliaments in the EU process, told the EU Observer he was sad
that national MPs are not more engaged.
"For me it was a big personal victory to have the Commission send
proposals directly to national parliaments - but it now appears this
victory is empty."
"National parliaments have been invited to influence EU-lawmaking but
they don't respond to it. Perhaps because they don't win any votes with
it."
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