Tweede I<amer
DER
STATEN-GENERAAL
To
Mr. Martin Schulz
President of the European Parliament
Rue Wiertz 60
B-1047 Brussels
Binnenhof la
2513 AA Den Haag
Postbus 20018
2500 BADen Haag
T
070 318 23 07
www.tweedekamernI
date The Hague, 1 February 2016
subject On communication shortcomings regarding the transmission of
the Proposal for a Council decision adopting the provisions
amending the Act concerning the election of the members of
the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage to the
national Parliaments
Dear Mr. Schulz,
We the undersigned chairs of the competent Committees of national
Parliaments of the European Union are writing you to express our concern for
the way the European Parliament has transmitted its draft legislative proposal
on the reform of the Electoral Act (EP-resolution T8-0395/2015, file number
2015/2035) to us.
You are aware, on 11 November 2015 the European Parliament adopted a
resolution and a proposal for a Council decision, based on Article 223 TFEU,
adopting the provisions amending the Act concerning the election of members
of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (electoral act reform
proposal). This proposal constitutes a draft legislative act as specified in Article
3 of Protocol 2 to the Lisbon Treaty. According to Article 2 of Protocol 1 and
Article 4 of Protocol 2 to the Lisbon Treaty, draft leg islative acts originating
from the European Parliament shall be forwarded to national Parliaments
directly. Then, within eight weeks of a draft legislative act being made
available to national Parliaments in the official languages of the Union, any
national Parliament or chamber has a right to issue a reasoned opinion
concerning the subsidiarity of the proposal.
In this particular instance, national Parliaments were notified of the adoption
of the draft legislative act by the EP not just much later than the Council, but
also on different dates to each other, sometimes without the actual text of the
proposal, and in some instances only via the IPEX system for the