Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-18-Speech-1-107"
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"en.20101018.14.1-107"2
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"Madam President, it is a great pleasure for me to join your debate on the revised framework agreement on relations between our two institutions. I am very satisfied that the resolution on which you are going to vote on Wednesday recommends that Parliament should endorse the framework agreement. This will successfully bring to a close a process that started almost one year ago with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty.
On 7 October, the College and the Conference of Committee Chairs met in the Berlaymont. Furthermore, President Barroso will meet Parliament’s Conference of Presidents again on Wednesday.
All this aims at intensifying the political dialogue between our institutions and, from my perspective, we seem to have designed the right instruments for this in our framework agreement.
As you all know, the negotiations for the revised framework agreement were long and required a major effort by both institutions in order to arrive at a text that caters for both our institutions’ interests and concerns.
We also knew that for a number of aspects in our relations – for example the Union’s programming, introduced by the Lisbon Treaty – we would have to involve the Council too.
As the Council had chosen not to be part of the negotiations on the revised framework agreement, we have taken care not to pre-empt on issues that need to be agreed with the Council.
The negotiators from both sides therefore made sincere efforts to fully respect the balance of the institutions, as defined by the treaties, and the commitment to loyal cooperation between them.
This is repeatedly evoked in the agreement and the Commission is, moreover, firmly convinced that the text we arrived at, after sometimes difficult negotiations, does indeed fully respect the rights and competences of each EU institution and stands the test of legal scrutiny.
Nevertheless, there are voices that consider that the framework agreement already goes too far, and the possibility of a legal challenge against the agreement or against specific instances of its implementation cannot be excluded.
In this context, the Commission notes that the motion for a resolution on the adoption of the revised framework agreement will officially set out Parliament’s own interpretation of the agreed text.
On some important issues, this interpretation goes beyond the text agreed after sensitive discussions. This concerns notably the provisions regarding informing Parliament about negotiations on international agreements and the inclusion of Members of the European Parliament as observers in the Union’s delegations to international conferences, as well as the definitions and conditions for the application of soft law.
On this occasion, I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Mr Lehne and the whole working party: Ms Diana Wallis, Ms Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, Ms Rebecca Harms, Mr Hannes Swoboda and, of course, our rapporteur, Mr Paulo Rangel. We have been working in a great spirit, with great intensity, and our discussions have been very constructive and, at the same time, very frank.
When questioning this approach in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, the Commission was told that these interpretations were, in fact, intended to put Parliament’s initial objectives on record and that only the text of the framework agreement as such had legal value.
To avoid all ambiguity, it is in this sense that the Commission reads Parliament’s interpretation of the text.
The Commission stands firmly by all the commitments that it has made in the agreement, and it intends to apply the agreement following the agreed text. Let me make it clear that the Commission will not be bound by any unilateral interpretation of this framework agreement. The framework agreement text as negotiated will, in practice, give us all necessary possibilities to find solutions in the interests of both Parliament and the Commission without disregarding the rights and interests of other institutions.
In this spirit, we will continue to put into practice the special partnership between our two institutions and, at the same time, loyally cooperate with all the institutions.
I am looking forward to the signature of the agreement and its successful implementation thereafter.
It is evident that Parliament’s increased rights and competences under the new Treaty have an impact in many ways on working relations between our institutions. This was reflected by Parliament’s resolution of 9 February 2010 and by President Barroso’s related statement the same day. It is therefore of great importance that, with the revised framework agreement, our institutions will now get a solid and formally agreed basis for mutual relations and will be able to start implementing all elements of the agreement in daily practice. This revised framework agreement builds on the existing framework agreement from 2005 which, as we have seen, has been a very successful instrument for governing relations between our institutions.
It was in this spirit of successful cooperation that we started our negotiations on the revision of the framework agreement in March. I believe that we should all be very satisfied with the outcome. Like your rapporteur, Mr Rangel, I am also of the opinion that this revision is a significant achievement which will deepen the relations between our institutions and offer practical solutions in line with Parliament’s increased competences following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. This is how we are putting the special partnership between the Commission and the European Parliament into practice.
Let me single out a few elements which constitute real progress. The agreement sets out rules and a timetable for an intensified and structured dialogue between our institutions that allows Parliament to provide important input when the Commission is preparing its work programmes, as its contribution to Union programming.
It sets detailed rules on how the Commission will inform Parliament about the negotiation and conclusion of international agreements. It brings the rules on the provision of classified information to Parliament up to international standards and will thus facilitate informing Parliament, for example, on international negotiations.
It also sets rules to enhance the information provided to Parliament relating to the work of experts advising the Commission.
I expect it to enhance our dialogue and coordination with regard to the planning of Parliament’s part-sessions and ensuring the presence of Commissioners.
Even though the agreement is not yet in force, we have already implemented important elements of it. Let me just mention a few examples related to the preparation of the Commission’s work programme for 2011. On 7 September, President Barroso held his State of the Union address in Parliament, and I attended the Conference of Presidents with information on progress in preparing the Commission’s work programme."@en1
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