Eugene Eteris, European Studies Faculty, RSU
Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission-Responsible for inter-institutional relationship and administration discussed the new role of national Parliaments under the Lisbon Treaty (taking the Spanish Parliament as a practical example in the dialogue with colleagues from the Cortes Generales).

The Commission welcomes the new role given to national Parliaments under the Treaty of Lisbon, and specifically the new Protocol on the subsidiarity check. The new Treaty provisions encourage the Parliaments and the EU institutions to work together and to discuss their respective goals and challenges; these relationships the Commission has been advocating for many years.

Maroš Šefčovič in the present Commission has a specific responsibility for relations with the national Parliaments. Already in 2006, the Commission put the issue of national Parliaments high on its political agenda, considerably strengthening its relations with national Parliaments at all levels, and thus anticipating the greater role foreseen for national Parliaments under the new Treaty; this resulted in a new, informal dialogue with national Parliaments, commonly referred to as the «political dialogue», or otherwise known as the «Barroso initiative».

The Commission’s idea was to transmit directly to national Parliaments its new proposals and consultation papers, and invite them to react. In this way the Commission tried to improve the process of policy formulation and to involve national Parliaments more closely in European affairs.

The Commission also committed itself to reply to all opinions received by national Parliaments, which raise comments, criticism or simply questions, and to take the views expressed by national Parliaments into account.

„Ever since the dialogue has been considerably intensified: until now, the Commission has received almost 830 opinions from 36 Chambers (out of existing 40) of the EU member states, with a clear upward trend“, said the Commissioner.

This major political initiative was an expression of the Commission’s drive for a new culture in European inter-institutional affairs. The direct Commission-national parliaments’ cooperation is important for another reason, i.e. the Commission deals with the future development with the EU citizens that elected national parliaments. And expected positive result of such cooperation could improve Europeans’ trust in democracy.

In order to enhance cooperation, the Commission and the national parliaments, first of all, have to create and maintain a climate of openness, mutual respect, and effectiveness.  

Hence, the presence in Brussels of the representatives of the national Parliaments is extremely useful; it creates an important network for cooperation between national Parliaments, the European Parliament and the Commission. It is important, said the Commissioner, to have them as contact points on the spot, and „to have someone close to the EU institutions, able to follow the decision making process and to provide politicians with information «from the sources». The Commission therefore welcomes that a representative of the Cortes Generales is also present and working in Brussels.

Subsidiarity check

The network of national Parliament representatives in Brussels is currently the platform where the main coordination efforts between national Parliaments are taking place reflecting the application of the Protocol on subsidiarity check.

„The Commission fully trusts that national Parliaments will use this new mechanism in a constructive way, and we have always seen the subsidiarity check mechanism as an opportunity, rather than as a risk“, Commissioner added.

Immediately after the entry into function of the new College beginning of February 2010, the Commission started sending to national Parliaments draft legislative proposals falling under the subsidiarity check mechanism.

Up to October 2010, the Commission has sent 57 proposals to national Parliaments and received 97 opinions (18 of these opinions were negative); so far, the so-called yellow or orange card, have not been triggered;

Most of the negative opinions from national Parliaments referred to Commission’s proposals on Seasonal workers and the Deposit guarantee scheme

The recent examples have confirmed that the 8 weeks deadline is relatively short, that the thresholds are rather difficult to reach and that most of the comments received from national Parliaments actually refer to the content of the Commission’s proposals, rather than to subsidiarity issues, underlined the Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič.  

See: Speech/10/584-Madrid, 22 October 2010.

Therefore, the Commission regards that it is important to continue and to intensify the «political dialogue», which enables national Parliaments to share their comments on all Commission documents, either legislative or non legislative and on all aspects, including content, legal base, proportionality – not only subsidiarity.

In fact, argued the Commissioner, the subsidiarity control mechanism has to be seen as only a part of Commission’s broader political relationship with national Parliaments. „We definitely do not want our relations to be reduced to subsidiarity control, as important as this may be“, he added.

Political contact and debate

Another issue is the needed political contact and debate: the Commissioner intends to visit all 40 Commission’s chambers in the course of the current mandate; the Commission would also intensify contacts with national Parliaments, meeting as many national Parliaments as they can to present the Commission’s positions and to discuss with national Parliaments.

The Commission also welcomes and encourages any visit of national Parliaments to Brussels and the EU institutions; it established also numerous constructive contacts at services level with the participation of national Parliaments in public consultations.

The Commission has always been in favour of giving greater value to inter-parliamentary cooperation, i.e. within the COSAC framework, or through the European Parliament.

National Parliaments have entered a sort of «reflection period» in particular regarding cooperation in the context of the subsidiarity control mechanism.

Discussions will continue in at the COSAC meeting, with the participation of President Barroso and President Van Rompuy.

Maroš Šefčovič expressed a view, that cooperation between national Parliaments and the Commission could have a clear added value in the following spheres where national Parliaments have a greater say:

• the evaluation of Eurojust’s activities and in the scrutiny of Europol;
• scrutiny of the Common Security and Defense Policy, after the European Security and Defense Assembly will have been winded down in June 2011;
• the Commission’s Work Program;
• the Europe 2020 strategy;
• European economic governance, and more specifically
• budgetary questions;

Most important issues

Commissioner touched upon two issues, which had great opportunity for a closer cooperation between national Parliaments and the Commission: the EU 2020 Strategy and economic governance (i.e. generally, the EU’s budget review).

The EU-2020 Strategy and sound public finance aimed at restoring confidence amongst EU citizens and the markets have one thing in common – growth for jobs. The role of national Parliaments in the Europe 2020 strategy is decisive as parliaments have to fully engage with national governments in the preparation of National Reform Programs. Many national Parliaments have already been closely involved in drafting the NRP.

Indeed, a consensus at national level on the reform program is essential, because some reforms will not be easy to implement, but nevertheless necessary.

The European Semester for policy coordination is now in place and provides a framework for an integrated and enhanced surveillance cycle. The European Semester fully respects the prerogatives of national Parliaments, i.e. member states will not be asked to submit their draft budgets to the European Commission before they are discussed in the national Parliament.

As set out in the Commission proposal, Member States would submit:

(i)   an update of the fiscal plans for the current year;

(ii)  a macroeconomic scenario underpinning budgetary projections;

(iii)  concrete indications on plans for the following budget;

(iv)  a description of the envisaged policies, and

(v)   medium-term budgetary projections for main government variables.

To deliver on Europe 2020 strategy, all instruments at the Commission’s disposal will be used; this includes the EU budget.

The European Commission published in October its communication on the budget review „Lessons learnt for tomorrow’s budget“, the result of an open debate about the principles to underpin the future EU budget beyond 2013.

The objective is to achieve a European budget that is up to the EU challenges, not necessarily through increased expenditure, but by focusing on the right priorities, the added value, results and the quality of European spending, underlined the Commissioner. On the resource side, it is high time to promote a fair and transparent system that is understood by European citizens.

„The EU budget can make its own contribution at a time of intense pressure on public spending – by ensuring that we have the maximum impact from every Euro spent, and that we only spend at EU level where this is better value than at national level. We must help deliver key policy priorities for European citizens, programs that have a real positive impact“, he added.

As to the EU „own resources“, the Commissioner underlined that the debate is about finding the right mix of resources for the Union, not to find additional resources. Therefore, it is about increasing the transparency of how the EU is funded and thus making it more understandable for the ordinary citizen. The Commission therefore puts forward the option of reducing member states’ contributions by progressively introducing one or several new own resources as a replacement.

Possible options for the EU „new own resources“ could be a share of a financial transaction or financial activities tax, auctioning of green house gas emission allowances, an EU charge related to air transport, a separate EU VAT rate, a share of an EU energy tax or of an EU corporate income tax. These options are now open for discussion.

The EU priorities are smart, sustainable and inclusive growth; pooling available resources together on key issues will help member states save money and avoid duplications, e.g. costly research and innovation investment (key transnational infrastructures should be financed at EU level as well).

Cohesion policy will remain the best expression of European solidarity – but it will also give best value if it supports the policy priorities common to the whole of Europe, he argued. This is the best way to reduce the gap between poorer and richer regions. So funds should become a way to deliver on the Europe 2020 targets; and Europe 2020 objectives must be translated into investment priorities in line with national reform programs.

Partnership contract

The Commission suggests creating a «development and investment partnership contract» based on a common strategic framework, which would outline an investment strategy on which member states would present their development strategy addressing the priorities of the EU-2020 Strategy. „The contract“ would consist of a development and investment partnership between each member state and the Commission reflecting the commitments of partners at national and regional level.

The Baltic Course The European Parliament’s new role: following the Lisbon Treaty