BETA

Activities of Andrew DUFF related to 2013/2185(INI)

Shadow reports (1)

2016/11/22
Committee: AFCO
Dossiers: 2013/2185(INI)
Documents: PDF(199 KB) DOC(104 KB)

Amendments (41)

Motion for a resolution
Citation 7

– having regard to the conclusions adopted by the Conference of Speakers of the National Parliaments of the EU (EU Speakers’ Conference) at the meetings it has held since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty5 , in particular those held in Warsaw and Nicosia, __________________ 5 http://www.ipex.eu/IPEXL- WEB/euspeakers/getspeakers.do.deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Citation 10

~~– having regard to the contribution from national parliaments to the meeting of COSAC Chairpersons held at the Greek Parliament in Athens on 26 and 27 January 2014,~~deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Citation 11

~~– having regard to the guidelines on interparliamentary cooperation adopted by the EU Speakers’ Conference at its meeting of 21 July 2008 in Lisbon,~~deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Citation 15 a (new)

– having regard to Rule 130 of its Rules of Procedure,

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital B

B. whereas under the principle of sincere cooperation the Union and ~~national institution~~Member States assist each other, in full mutual respect, in carrying out tasks which flow from the Treaties and whereas ~~the latter institution~~Member States facilitate the achievement of the Union's tasks and refrain from any measures that could jeopardise the attainment of the Union's objectives;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital C

C. whereas Article 12 of the TEU, covering the activities of national parliaments, fleshes out the principle of sincere cooperation by stating that the national parliaments ~~should~~ contribute actively to the good functioning of the Union;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital D

D. whereas the principle of conferral ~~circumscrib~~defines the competences of the Union, which are exercised in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, and whereas all EU institutions together with the national parliaments seek to ensure that ~~draft~~ legislative acts comply with the subsidiarity principle;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital E

E. whereas democratic legitimacy and accountability must be ensured at ~~the~~all levels at which decisions are taken ~~and~~or implemented;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital F

F. whereas the Union operates on the basis of representative democracy and a two-fold democratic legitimacy stemming from the European Parliament, directly elected by the citizens, and the Member States, as represented in the Council by their governments, which are in turn democratically accountable to their national parliaments and citizens;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital G

G. whereas the European Parliament and the national parliaments are, in their respective spheres, the pillars of the Union’s two-fold legitimacy, the former as the institution in which EU citizens are directly represented and the latter as the national institutions to which the governments represented in the Council are directly accountable;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital H

H. whereas, accordingly, the national parliaments ~~taken together~~ do not form a ‘'third chamber~~’ in~~' of the EU’'s ~~constitutional set-up~~legislature, but instead serve to ~~make~~hold to account the Union’'s second chamber, the Council~~, more democratic~~;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital I

I. whereas the national parliaments~~’ competence~~' powers in connection with the subsidiarity principle are ~~view~~used by most of those parliaments more as a means of engaging in ‘political dialogue’ with the European institutions ~~than as a formal legal means of blocking legislation~~;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital N

N. whereas the inclusion of national parliaments in a European parliamentary system needs to be properly regulated with a view to building a Union that is ever more integrated, democratic, transparent and close to the people;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital Q

Q. whereas following the establishment of the Interparliamentary Conference for the CFSP and the CSDP and the Interparliamentary Conference on Economic and Financial Governance, as well as the consolidation of sector specific interparliamentary committee meetings~~’ position~~ as the preferred channel for cooperation, COSAC should ~~focus on its role of making periodic reviews of the general stat~~remain the forum for a regular exchange of views, information and best practice ofn the ~~integ~~practi~~on process~~cal aspects of parliamentary scrutiny;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital R

R. whereas the European Parliament should be more closely involved in the ‘political dialogue’ – in particular the enhanced version engaged in as part of the European semester for economic policy coordination – the Commission has established with national parliaments, above all in view of the interdependence between European Parliament and national parliament decisions;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital S

S. whereas although the national parliaments’ role and contribution are clear under the new institutional set-up stemming from the Lisbon Treaty, the new provisions have been implemented in the absence of a clear overall institutional vision;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital T

T. whereas this is due in part to the fact that the role of the EU Speakers’ Conference as a political driving force in interparliamentary relations still needs to be more clearly defined and placed on a more formal institutional footing;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Recital U

U. whereas, almost five years after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, with a view to future Conventions, relations between the European Parliament and the national parliaments ~~now~~ need to be consolidated and properly organised in order to avoid duplication and to help to give greater democratic legitimacy to the European integration process, as well as to ensure that democratic scrutiny is exercised in a timely manner and at the level at which decisions are taken and implemented and that everyone all parties in the legislative process receive the information they requiretinually developed in the light of new challenges;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a

(a) active involvement in EU ~~law-making~~affairs (Treaty ratification powers, participation in Conventions under Article 48 of the TEU, scrutiny of national governments, scrutiny of subsidiarity, ability to oppose legislation under exceptional circumstances, transposition of EU legislation into national law);

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b

(b) political dialogue (~~multitier~~ interparliamentary cooperation, mutual exchange of information with European institutions, in particular the European Parliament);

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2

2. Points out the two-fold legitimacy of the Union, as a union of peoples and of states, is embodied, in the EU legislative process, by the European Parliament and the Council; believes that, if the Member States are to be represented in a unitary, fully democratic manner in the EU, the stances taken by national governments in the Council must reflect the views of their national parliaments; stresses that, by guiding and scrutinising the work of their governments, national parliaments ~~help to make the Council more democratic~~reinforce the democratic nature of the Council;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 – introductory part

3. C~~alls, to this end, for~~ommends national parliaments for taking steps to:

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 – point b

(b) provide ministers and national governments with prior guidance on their work within the Council and European Council,

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 – point c

(c) scrutinise the stances taken by ministers and national governments within the Council and European Council, and

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1

~~and for~~(da) improve the transparency of Council deliberations on legislative acts ~~to be made more transparent~~;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4

4. Deplores, accordingly, the lack of transparency of such deliberations and of balance in the flow of information between the European Parliament and the Council; calls on the Council to apply the same standards of transparency as Parliament, in particular during the drafting of legislative acts;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5

~~5. Believes that the lack of transparency of Council deliberations on legislative acts prevents governments from being genuinely accountable to their national parliaments;~~deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8

8. Believes that the early warning mechanism should be viewed and used as a key means of ensuring ~~proa~~effective cooperation between European and national institutions;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

9. Welcomes the fact that this mechanism is in practice being used as a channel for consultation and cooperative dialogue between the various institutions in the EU’s multi~~tier~~level system;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12

12. Views interparliamentary meetings as places where EU policies and national policies come together and feed off each other, to the benefit of both; believes that a key function of such meetings is to allow national parliaments to take account of the European perspective in national debates, and the European Parliament to take account of the national perspective in European debates; reiterates that the aim of such cooperation is not to form a new joint parliamentary body for inclusion in the Union’s current decision-making set- up, as this would be both ineffective and undemocratic and unconstitutional;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13

13. Draws attention the fact that the novel European interparliamentary system that is in the process of taking shape is in need of a legal framework and of more formal procedures, to be established jointly with the national parliaments, in order to move forward with the process of ‘parliamentarising’ the European Union and consolidate the multitier parliamentary system;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17

17. Draws attention to the need for the EU Speakers’ Conference to lend greater political impetus to and shape interparliamentary cooperation, in keeping with the remit for each conference and meeting;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18

18. Points out, furthermore, that interparliamentary co~~mmittee meetings are more effective and calls for closer cooperation between~~operation would be more effective if every national parliament were to adopt a system of rapporteurs on specific legislative issues;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19

19. Believes that, not least in the light of the new interparliamentary conferences on the CFSP/CSDP and economic and financial governance, COSAC should ~~take on a more specialist role as, primarily, a forum for discussion~~remain the forum for a regular exchange of views, information and best practice ofn the ~~state of the Union;~~ practical aspects of parliamentary scrutiny;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21

21. Stresses that interparliamentary cooperation must be open and inclusive and voices its concern about restricted interparliamentary meetings, to which some parliaments are not invited, being organised without proper consultation in order to adopt positions on EU affairs which are not consensus-based; ~~points out that this practice is contrary to the spirit and letter of the Treaties, as is interparliamentary cooperation conducted at administrative level;~~

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22

22. Notes that the ‘'political dialogue’' (set up under the Barroso Initiative in 2006) and the early warning mechanism are two sides of the same coin; notes the development of wide-ranging relations between national parliaments and the Commission and the establishment of ’'enhanced political dialogue’' as part of the European semester for economic policy coordination; ~~resolves to keep a close eye on relations between the Commission and national parliaments;~~

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23

23. Calls for a careful appraisal to be made of relations between the Commission and national parliaments and calls, in accordance with the spirit of the Treaties, for the European Parliament to be more closely involved in those relations;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24

24. Proposes that an interparliamentary agreement should be concluded between the national parliaments and the European Parliament, to form the basis for organised, efficient cooperation pursuant to Article 9 of Protocol No 1 to the Lisbon Treaty and Rule 130 of its own rules of procedure and to cover, inter alia: (a) the basic features of interparliamentary cooperation; (b) common ground rules; (c) the European issues, both general and sector-specific, that are of shared interest; (d) exchanges of information, documents and best practice; (e) reciprocal arrangements facilitating interparliamentary relations;deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27

~~27. Suggests that a budget line be created in order to provide support for appropriate and effective interparliamentary cooperation at committee and rapporteur level on specific legislative issues;~~deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

~~29. Believes that COSAC should serve primarily as a forum for in-depth discussion of the state of the Union, with a view to the gradual integration of the peoples and states of Europe;~~deleted

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32

32. Calls ~~for~~on all Member States to agree on arrangements to ensur~~ing~~e effective interparliamentary cooperation on Eurojust and Europol ~~to be introduced~~;

2014/03/04
Committee: AFCO