Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-17-Speech-3-329"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060517.22.3-329"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
".
Mr President, Commissioner, first of all I would like to say that it is indeed a pleasure for me to participate in this debate on a question that I consider very important, because in the eyes of the Council the subject matter is very important. I was not invited to feast on asparagus tonight, so my destiny is an easier one than yours; but as a Permanent Representative of Austria to the Council of Europe I had the pleasure for five years to be invited to those feasts.
As the House is aware, the institutional framework of the Energy Community consists of the Ministerial Council, the Permanent High Level Group and the Regulatory Board. Parliament is not directly involved in the decision-making process agreed with the parties to the Energy Community Treaty. However, Article 52 of this Treaty provides that the Ministerial Council must present Parliament, and also the national parliaments of the contracting parties, with an annual report on the work of the Energy Community.
Regarding the position to be adopted by the European Community in these bodies, this is laid down in Article 4 of the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion of the Energy Community Treaty and is adopted by the Council pursuant to the relevant provisions of the EC Treaty. One important aspect of this decision-making process is the requirement for Community positions on Energy Community decisions falling under Titles III and IV of the Energy Community Treaty to be in line with the
with the exception of measures falling under Chapter IV of Title IV of the said Treaty, which concerns mutual assistance in the event of disruption of energy supplies.
Moving on to Parliament’s involvement, Article 4(5) of the proposal for a Council decision stipulates – as proposed by the Commission – that Parliament shall be immediately and fully informed of any decision of the Council on the establishment of Community positions to be taken in the three bodies of the Energy Community Treaty. There is no formal requirement for
informing of Parliament, but it is the Presidency’s firm intention to inform Parliament regularly. The Commission will also be required to do so.
In addition – and the Council will take this into account – the position taken by Parliament once it has been informed will certainly influence the future decisions of the European Community.
I hope that this speech not only answers the honourable Member’s questions, but also allays any fears that Parliament is not duly involved. At all events, I can emphasise once more on behalf of the Council that it is important to us that Parliament is regularly informed and involved regarding not only all the issues in which its involvement is a constitutional right, of course, but also all the issues concerning the functioning of this Treaty.
With your permission, Mr President, and with my apologies to Mr Chichester, I shall continue in German; but I hope that I will be able to give comprehensive answers to the questions that were put to the Council.
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Council does indeed consider the Treaty establishing the Energy Community between the European Community and the countries of South-East Europe to be an important instrument, for obvious reasons: security of the electricity and gas supply to the European Community and also to the contracting parties in the region. This subject came to the attention of the Austrian Presidency somewhat dramatically only a few hours after, at 8 a.m. on 1 January, gas supplies were cut not only to Ukraine and Moldova, but also to Central Europe. That made us all acutely aware of how desperate the situation had become.
As the Committee quite rightly notes, one of the objectives of this Treaty is the extension of the EC energy market to the countries of the region through their implementation of the
on energy, environment, competition and renewables. This strikes me as particularly important in the interests of the homogeneity and coherence of a pan-European strategy.
Hence, the Energy Community Treaty is characterised by the fact that one of the most important aspects of the work of the bodies it envisages is the implementation of the relevant provisions of Community law. In addition, Article 25 of this Treaty provides that measures may be taken to implement amendments to the
in line with the evolution of European Community law. This dynamic reference also strikes me as very important. The Council would like to emphasise that this means, of course, that Parliament is directly involved from the outset in the preparation of Community rules and the adoption of these rules by both of our institutions under the codecision procedure. Therefore, these are rules that are then to be incorporated into the framework of the Energy Community Treaty.
The importance of Parliament’s role in the adoption of the Energy Community Treaty is also reflected in the choice of legal basis, that is to say, in the fact that Parliament has a right of assent, as stated in Article 300(3) of the Treaty establishing the European Community. We are not just talking about a right of consultation, therefore. The Council’s amendment to the Commission proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion of the Energy Community Treaty to which the honourable Member Mr Chichester’s question relates concerns the role of the European Parliament in decision-making. The Council has indeed deleted Article 5(3) of the proposal, which had provided for the consultation procedure. It should be pointed out, however, that the Commission proposal had envisaged consultation of the European Parliament only in a single specific case, namely that of the establishment of positions of the European Communities on decisions to be taken by the Energy Community pursuant to Article 100(iii) of the Energy Community Treaty; that is to say, decisions on the extension of this Treaty to other energy products and carriers or other essential network infrastructures. In other words, under the Commission proposal, the Commission would present the Council with a draft relating to the establishment of a Community position on this kind of amendment of the Energy Community Treaty, and the Council would then have to consult Parliament on this position. Such a procedure is not provided for in the EC Treaty, however, and so would be in addition to its procedures and thus alter its institutional balance.
Instead, the EC Treaty, more specifically Article 300(2)(3), provides that the European Parliament shall be immediately and fully informed. However, even though the EC Treaty does not provide for
informing of Parliament in the event of a scenario such as the one I have just described: for example, the extension of the Energy Community Treaty – where the deletion is relevant – the Presidency of Parliament will provide regular information on all the important aspects of the proposed Council position.
I should like to say in this connection that, as the members of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy will remember, the last Council Presidencies that dealt with this issue informed Parliament, within the framework of their speeches to this Committee, on the state of affairs with regard to the Energy Community Treaty. I should also like to draw the attention of the House to the fact that, in certain cases, particularly when this is necessary for reasons of political importance, there is nothing to prevent the Council from consulting Parliament on its own initiative.
I would also point out that the Energy Community Treaty chiefly extends the
in whose adoption Parliament is fully involved. Let me now turn to the decision-making process in the bodies of the Energy Community and to the positions to be adopted by the European Community in these bodies."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples