28 March 2012
Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
In 2006 the parliament gained new powers (under "comitology") to monitor the implementation of legislative measures adopted under co-decision - known as the Regulatory procedure with scrutiny (RPS). The parliament can block implementing measures where they exceed the implementing measures provided for in the basic instrument or "do not respect the principles of subsidiarity or proportionality". These quasi-legislative powers when implementing a measure can be simple or contentious - one such example happened in the uniform visa format comitology working group discussing the age at which children should be fingerprinted.
This Comitology Decision affected the "entire existing acquis" so the Commission produced, for the parliament to consider, a "priority list" of 27 acts plus 225 legislative acts to be adapted in the period 2004-2009 - these included 46 acts where the Commission sought to amend the substance of the basic act. Overall "around" 300 acts now provide for RPS and this led to 154 RPS draft implementing measures being sent to the parliament and a parliament report said that only in a "very few cases" have the draft measures been opposed.
The volume of the additional scrutiny tasks expected to be undertaken by the parliament raises the consistent complaint of the lack of resources available for the whole co-decision process yet again.
Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.
Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Registered UK charity number: 1154784. Registered UK company number: 08480724. Registered company name: The Libertarian Research & Education Trust. Registered office: MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals "fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.