Proposals from the Folketing

1. Subsidiarity and the Political Dialogue. Exchange of information

The Folketing finds that it could be useful to exchange information betweenNational Parliaments and the European Parliament at an early stage and putsforward following initiatives for consideration:1) To establish cooperation between National Parliaments/Chambers and therelevant committees in the European Parliament on draft legislative actswhich raise problems in relation to subsidiarity, including exchange ofinformations as early in the process as possible, also during the 8 weeksperiod, which means that the committees in the European Parliament shouldrefrain from voting on proposals in this period.2) Extending the Political Dialogue with the Commission to the EuropeanParliament and establish a (more or less) formalised cooperation between thespecialised committees in national Parliaments and the relevant committeesin the European Parliament - in this way opening up for a more specificcooperation on legislative proposals at a time before decisions are taken inthe parliaments.

2. Interparliamentary meetings

The Folketing finds that we need a reform of the meetings between NationalParliaments, especially the meetings co-organised with the EuropeanParliament. Organisation of Joint Parliamentary Meetings and JointCommittee Meetings takes a long time and the result of the these meetingsare often difficult to see.If a committee in the European Parliament wants to talk to relevantcommittees in national Parliaments on a specific proposal before the adoptionin the committee it should be possible for the commitee to do so within thetime at its disposal. Today procedures make this almost impossible.

The Folketing finds that the organisation of meetings should be rationalised ina way that allows for calling meetings within a short time frame (a few weeksor less) in order to be able to react to political issues or influence draft EUlegislation. The possibility of using new technologies should be made moreconcrete (time for preparation, number of participants, interpretation etc.)The Folketing proposes that the Speakers´ Conference on the basis of areport from the Secretaries General decides-which interparliamentary meetings (and not just the meetingsarranged in cooperation with the European Parliament) shall bearranged on a regular basis,-format(s) of organisation for other (not regular) meetings which areheld on an ad-hoc basis according to the political situation, and-possibilities of an on-going political dialogue between the nationalParliaments and the European Parliament: Networks of specialisedcommittees, structured information exchange before and afteradoption of legislative acts (first reading agreements etc.) and onother questions of common interest (foreign and security policy,Europol, Eurojust etc.).In general the Folketing finds it more useful to arrange meetings (physically orelectronically) about important legislative proposals rather than on moregeneral political topics where it can be difficult to see the need and results ofthe meetings.The possibility of influence should be the key for a more concrete cooperationbetween parliaments.It is important for the Folketing to emphasize that we do not see thecompetences for national Parliaments in the Lisbon Treaty as a negativeinfluence, trying to stop legislative proposals, but as a means to take part inthe decisions in areas where national parliaments may have specialcompetences and possibilities of influence (i.e. in relation to their owngovernment) and in this way giving the adoption of EU legislation a doubledemocratic legitimacy.