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European Parliament: Civil Liberties Committee orientation votes on the FRONTEX regulation and a directive combating sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography

01 May 2011

European Parliament: Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE): The Committee has agreed "Orientation" vote results on the following two measures:

- Orientation Vote Result on the proposal for a regulation amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2007/2004 establishing a European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX)
(pdf)

- Orientation vote held on 14 February 2011 during the extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on the proposal for a directive on combating sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, repealing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (pdf)

"Orientation votes" are part of the "trilogue" process where the European Parliament is meeting with the Council of the European Union in secret meetings - no documents are published - to discuss, as two legislatures, a new measure. The "Orientation vote" document compares the original Commission proposal with the position to be taken by the LIBE Committee in the trilogue meetings. The EP position agreed needs to be compared with the text ("compromise") that emerges as the final text agreed with the Council at 1st reading. Documents on the Council's position are not made public.

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:

"This a very welcome but small advance in making secret trilogues more open. The first essential step is that all the documents from the Council, the EP and the Commission discussed at these meetings have to be made public as they are produced. This needs to be followed by introducing a timetable that enables national parliaments and civil society to digest, discuss and make their views known.

There is a fundamental principle in a democratic system that meetings of legislatures must be public - secret 1st reading deals should be no part of EU decision-making"

See: European Parliament: Abolish 1st [and 2nd] reading secret deals - bring back democracy “warts and all” (pdf) and Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit (pdf)