Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-23-Speech-3-120-000"
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"en.20120523.6.3-120-000"2
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"Mr President, the Lisbon Treaty included many innovations for the European Parliament, one of which is Parliament’s new right of initiative to set the ground rules for committees of inquiry. This clearly puts democracy in the driving seat and we should all applaud that.
It is now our joint responsibility to implement this new provision as soon as possible, in constructive cooperation between the three institutions, with common sense and in full respect of the letter and the spirit of Article 226 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The Commission has always defended the need for strong parliamentary oversight. Therefore, nearly a year ago, we engaged in the first discussions on Mr Martin’s draft report. I very much appreciated his cooperative spirit and good collaboration with the Presidency and Minister Wammen. At that time, we drew your rapporteur’s attention to some of the problematic elements of the initial draft, but only a few of our concerns have been reflected in the outcome of the final vote in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. Likewise, the Hungarian Presidency and now the Danish Presidency have also expressed certain concerns and I very much welcome your rapporteur’s openness to taking some of these on board.
We welcome Parliament’s readiness to seek a constructive solution, which is clearly reflected by the set of compromise amendments Mr Martin tabled with a view to today’s vote, which try to accommodate some of the main concerns previously expressed by the Council and the Commission. But it is probably no secret that there are still some key elements to be discussed before the necessary consent of the Commission, foreseen by Article 226, can be given.
Let me mention some of the important elements for the Commission. We believe that the scope of the future regulation should remain the same as in the current decision. Indeed, as Article 226 states, the European Parliament may only set up committees of inquiry in the course of its duties and, pursuant to Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union, it shall act within the limits conferred on it in the Treaties. The Commission explicitly welcomes your compromise amendments in this regard.
We should also not forget that changes in Article 226 concern only the procedure and the type of act, not the mandate of a committee of inquiry, and that committees of inquiry are a fundamentally political rather than legal tool, at Parliament’s disposal for the exercise of political control. This is why I believe further discussions will be necessary also on the investigative tools proposed in the Parliament draft, which still appear rather excessive.
Last but not least, let me also mention Article 17 of the draft regulation, which concerns the hearing of officials and other servants of the EU and of Member States. Your compromise amendments address some of our key concerns as regards the issue of ‘freedom to testify’ and we can accept the inclusion of a ‘comply or explain’ procedure, but a certain perplexity still remains on our side as regards the different treatment of national and EU officials that you propose, which in our view, cannot be objectively justified.
Against this background, the Commission welcomes your intention to vote today only on the report, including some additional amendments, but not on the legislative resolution. This gives the three institutions the chance to engage in constructive trilateral discussions after the vote, so as to agree on a text to which the Council and Commission could easily give their consent according to Article 226, after Parliament has voted on the legislative resolution.
I very much look forward to working with you and with the Council in order to achieve an early and successful conclusion on this important file."@en1
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