EUU, Alm.del - 2019-20 - Bilag 272: Breve fra Europaudvalget til EU’s institutioner vedr. bidrag til konference om Europas fremtid

Europaudvalget 2019-20
EUU Alm.del Bilag 272
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European Institutions

Conference on the Future of Europe

Proposals on how to involve national parliaments

The European Affairs Committee of the Danish Parliament welcomes the

idea of the Conference of the future of Europe, and sees it as a central goal

to debate ways of making the EU more democratic. Increasing national own-

ership and understanding of EU policy is crucial for bridging the gap between

citizens and EU institutions. The Committee believes that this may be

achieved within the current framework of the Treaties.

The Commission has welcomed new efforts to enhance the engagement of

national parliaments in EU policymaking

– also referred to as ‘active subsidi-

arity’.

As a contribution to this debate, the Danish Parliament would like to

propose six initiatives:

1. To the Committee,

‘active subsidiarity’

would entail involving national

parliaments at an early stage and going beyond the subsidiarity pro-

tocol of the Treaty. (National Parliaments often struggle with the cur-

rent public consultations, because the questionnaire format is not

well suited for general political input). National parliaments today thus

lack a dedicated channel to the Commission through which political

views may be expressed in a uniform manner. To facilitate this, the

Commission should prepare tailored consultation documents to na-

tional parliaments, covering all significant EU initiatives. A summary

of input received from national parliaments should be included in the

subsequent legislative proposal. We believe that this would motivate

national parliaments to be more active.

The European Ombudsman has pointed out the Council’s failure to

record systematically the identity of Member States taking positions

in the Council, including in its preparatory bodies. Access to such in-

formation would greatly assist National Parliaments in conduction of

parliamentary control of their own governments. Thus, the Council

should proactively make public all documents related to adoption of

20. december 2019

Iben Schacke-Barfoed

Clerk to the European Af-

fairs Committee

Iben.schacke-

[email protected]

+45 3337 3357

Parliament of Denmark

International

Secretariat

Christiansborg

1240 København K

3337 5500

[email protected]

www.ft.dk

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EUU, Alm.del - 2019-20 - Bilag 272: Breve fra Europaudvalget til EU’s institutioner vedr. bidrag til konference om Europas fremtid

legislation at the time they are circulated to member states, including

the minutes of COREPER and Council working groups.

3. The Committee finds impact assessments an important tool in ensur-

ing quality in EU lawmaking. The EU institutions should introduce a

mandatory impact assessment of all major amendments to Commis-

sion legislative proposals before the EU institutions enter into trilogue

negotiations.

4. The

EU’s institutions should

reconsider the practice of concluding

legislation in trilogues. Acknowledging the efficiency of this informal

process, it does, however, put serious constraints on the ability of na-

tional parliaments (and the public in general) to scrutinize how EU

compromises are reached. More transparency in connection with

trilogue negotiations is even more important as the vast majority of

legislative proposals are passed in first reading agreements. The pro-

posal is thus either to return to three readings, or at least

–

as rec-

ommended by the EU Ombudsman

–

make public the dates, agen-

das, positions and minutes from trilogues negotiations in order for na-

tional parliaments and civil society to hold governments/the Council

to account.

5. The current possibility of national parliaments to ask the Commission

questions is of great value for these in their work and should be con-

tinued. The Commission should introduce

–

as a general rule

–

a pe-

riod of six weeks within which a question should be answered. The

Commission should allow each national parliament to ask one/two

question(s) as

a “priority question”

to be answered within three

weeks.

6. The European Affairs Committee warmly welcomes the president of

the Commission’s

promise to have

all Commissioners visiting Mem-

ber States within the next 2 �½ years. An additional suggestion for

having more direct engagement between the Commission and na-

tional parliaments is for the Commissioner responsible for national

parliaments to have the first Monday morning every month available

for meetings with representatives from national parliaments. This

would ensure a more steady and informal room for dialogue with na-

tional parliaments.

These are our contributions to the Conference of Europe.

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EUU, Alm.del - 2019-20 - Bilag 272: Breve fra Europaudvalget til EU’s institutioner vedr. bidrag til konference om Europas fremtid

Yours sincerely

Eva Kjer Hansen

Chairman of the European Affairs Committee

Danish Parliament

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