Activites

• 2004/03/12 Final act published in Official Journal
• 2003/04/08 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0143/2003 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Francois ZIMERAY (PES, France) on the Commission's report on better lawmaking. It pointed out that legislative and regulatory inflation in the Member States and at Community level weakens the rule of law and alienates citizens from their institutions. Drafting laws more simply and clearly, in line with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, is a precondition for their being properly used by the citizens. Parliament called on the Council and the Commission to assume their responsibilities in this area and committed itself to doing the same. It deplored the proliferation of preparatory documents issued by the Commission. The report was criticised on the following grounds: - the Commission's plan to alter the format and nature of the Better Lawmaking reports from 2002, though welcome, will not necessarily tackle the tendency towards vague and unfocussed statements which is apparent in the 2001 report, - an explanation of what action has been taken by the Commission under a variety of policy headings is not a report on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. Parliament pointed out that this is unnecessary, as there are already a number of reports on the activities and achievements of the Union. The other aspects of law-making explored in the report (such as legal drafting or codification) are also important and interesting, but the Commission should focus more closely on the raison d'étre of the report. It needs to produce a review of how and with what measure of success the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality have been applied by the Community. Parliament went on to state that a reduction in the number of Commission proposals (as announced in the 'Better Lawmaking 2001' report) does not imply compliance with Article 5 of the EC Treaty. It invited the Commission to consider other ways of analysing and reviewing the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in the year's legislation. Such a new approach could involve: - describing how specific proposals are measured against the criteria of subsidiarity and proportionality before adoption by the Commission; - summarising comments and amendments presented by interested parties and other EU institutions during the pre-legislative consultation and referring to these criteria; - giving examples of how comments and criticisms were responded to; - exploring the implications of Parliament and Council amendments for the compliance of legislation adopted by the Community with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality; Finally, Parliament asked the Commission to inform the national parliaments at the beginning of each year of the areas where it intends to propose legislation.�

• 2003/03/25 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0100/2003
• 2001/03/15 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2000/11/30 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(2000)0772 summary

    PURPOSE : to present the Commission report on "Better Lawmaking 2000" (pursuant to Article 9 of the Protocol to the EC Treaty on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality). CONTENT : in this report for the year 2000, the Commission has placed the stress on how the principle of subsidiarity is applied. This section has been strengthened compared with the previous year for two reasons: on the one hand, because the Commission itself wishes to explore all possible avenues on the subsidiarity issue; and on the other hand, because of comments made by certain Member States and the European Parliament on the 1998 and 1999 reports. Article 5 of the EC Treaty is backed up by a protocol on subsidiarity and proportionality which underlines the dynamic nature of the concept of subsidiarity: on the one hand, it allows Community action to be restricted or discontinued where it is no longer justified; on the other hand, it allows it to be expanded within the limits of its powers. The Better Lawmaking report 2000 gives pride of place to examining how the principle is put into practice, without forgetting the principle of proportionality, the quality of legislative texts and their codification and simplification, these being vital elements if we are to have a lawmaking system which is easier for the practitioners to understand. The enlargement process enhances the need for strict application of the subsidiarity principle, given that society in the applicant countries is even more differentiated than in the present Member States, and in the light of the new policies designed to ease integration of the new Member States. Moreover, in certain sectors for which the Amsterdam Treaty introduces new responsibilities (e.g. for creating a European area of freedom, security and justice, and in the fields of social policy and non-discrimiation), there is a need for "active subsidiarity" as a means of achieving the new objectives set out in the Amsterdam Treaty. In other sectors, the Commission is seeking greater cooperation with Member States, the local and regional authorities and civil society, with a view to the shared application of Community and national instruments in order to achieve a common goal. In addition, in areas in which the Community has particularly strong powers because its normative input is so marked, for example, in certain aspects of freedom of movement and competition policy, the Commission is using fairly innovative procedures to ensure that its initiatives are not disproportionate to the requirements of the Treaty and to the growing capacity of public and private partners to achieve the EU's objectives themselves. Lastly, preparing legislative proposals by way of communications and Green and White Papers is a way of organising the ongoing consultation of civil society and institutions at levels of expediency, level and content of legislative instruments.�

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/index_en.htm', 'title': 'Secretariat General'}],

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2000)0772
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A5-0100/2003
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0143/2003

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)