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Parliamentary Scrutiny of the European Commission: Implementation of the Treaty Provisions

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Parliamentary Scrutiny of the European Commission: Implementation of the Treaty Provisions Parliamentary scrutiny of the European Commission: implementation of the Treaty provisions European Implementation Assessment STUDY EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service Author: Milan Remáč Ex-Post Evaluation Unit PE 627.115 – October 2018 EN Parliamentary scrutiny of the European Commission: implementation of the Treaty provisions Study On 11 April 2018, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament requested authorisation to produce an implementation report on 'the Treaty provisions on Parliament's power of political control over the Commission' (rapporteur: Mercedes Bresso (S&D, Italy)). This proposal was approved by the Conference of Committee Chairs at its meeting of 17 April 2018. Implementation reports are routinely accompanied by European Implementation Assessments. This European Implementation Assessment has been drawn up by the Ex-Post Evaluation Unit of the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value, within the European Parliament's Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services. It seeks to contribute to the Parliament's discussion of this topic, improving understanding, and ultimately feeding into the implementation report under preparation by the rapporteur. Abstract The Treaties provide the European Parliament with various opportunities to exercise its powers of political oversight of the European Commission and its actions. The European Parliament's application of these prerogatives increases the democratic legitimacy of the European Union, and the transparency and accountability of the European executive. This study examines the status quo of the European Parliament's powers of scrutiny of the European Commission. The cases examined pertain mainly to electoral and institutional issues, motions of censure, parliamentary questions, inquiry committees and special parliamentary committees and reporting, consultation and provision of information. It also touches upon scrutiny in budgetary issues, scrutiny of delegated acts, scrutiny in the legislative procedure, legal proceedings and the EU's external relations. EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service AUTHOR(S) Milan Remáč, Ex-post Evaluation Unit To contact the author, please email: [email protected] This paper has been drawn up by the Ex-post Evaluation Unit of the Directorate for Impact Assessment and European Added Value, within the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (EPRS) of the Secretariat of the European Parliament. Acknowledgements: This study is based on substantive data provided by various services of the European Parliament, namely - DG PRES: Plenary Organisation and Follow-up Unit, Members' Activities Unit, Institutional Relations Unit, Legislative Planning and Coordination Unit - DG IPOL: Secretariat of the Committee on Budgetary Control, Policy Department for Budgetary Affairs, Secretariat of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Committee Coordination and Legislative Programming Unit, Secretariat of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Legislative Affairs Unit, - DG EXPO: Policy Department for External Relations, - DG EPRS: Budgetary Policies Unit and - Legal Service: Legislative and Judicial Coordination Unit. The services of the European Parliament were invited to provide their substantive comments on the sections of the study for which they provided the information. Subsequently, the whole study was peer-reviewed internally within the European Added Value Unit. The author would like to thank the various contributors for all their valuable feedback and recommendations. LINGUISTIC VERSIONS Original: EN Manuscript completed in September 2018. DISCLAIMER AND COPYRIGHT This document is prepared for, and addressed to, the Members and staff of the European Parliament as background material to assist them in their parliamentary work. The content of the document is the sole responsibility of its author(s) and any opinions expressed herein should not be taken to represent an official position of the Parliament. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorised, provided the source is acknowledged and the European Parliament is given prior notice and sent a copy. Brussels © European Union, 2018. PE: 627.115 ISBN: 978-92-846-3336-4 DOI: 10.2861/136846 CAT: QA-03-18-308-EN-N [email protected] http://www.eprs.ep.parl.union.eu (intranet) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank (internet) http://epthinktank.eu (blog) Parliamentary scrutiny of the European Commission: implementation of the Treaty provisions Executive summary Like the majority of national parliaments, the European Parliament also carries out a scrutiny and oversight function in relation to the executive – the European Commission. The European Parliament's powers with regard to the European Commission are varied and wide-ranging. This European Implementation Assessment (EIA) has been prepared to accompany the European Parliament Committee on Constitutional Affairs' (AFCO) drafting of an implementation report on 'the Treaty provisions on Parliament's power of political control over the Commission'. The objectives of this EIA are threefold: first, to investigate and report on the status of the Parliament's powers in scrutinising the European Commission, which are based on the Treaty provisions; second, to assess the implementation of these Treaty provisions in specific areas in which Parliament can carry out its scrutiny prerogatives; and third, to draw conclusions and suggest a direction for reflection on the exercise of the existing prerogatives. This study briefly describes the background to the development of the European Parliament's prerogatives with regards to the scrutiny of and political control over the executive. The methodology used to carry out the analysis included recourse to desk research and supporting data provided by the internal services of the European Parliament, as well as publicly-available information. However, given that the assessment is intended to feed into the preparation of the AFCO implementation report on 'the Treaty provisions on Parliament's power of political control over the Commission', analysis is limited to Parliament's powers in relation to the Commission alone. In view of the time constraints involved, the cut-off date for the research is December 2009, date of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, and the researched Treaty provisions have been clustered around certain specific topics. The study analyses the European Parliament's powers of scrutiny over the European Commission, based on the text of the Treaties, concentrating on the following ten areas: 1 electoral and institutional issues, 2 motion of censure and withdrawal of confidence in individual Commissioners, 3 parliamentary questions, 4 inquiry committees and special parliamentary committees, 5 reporting, consultation and provision of information, 6 budgetary issues, 7 legislative procedure, 8 delegated acts, 9 legal proceedings, 10 external relations. The analysis concludes that Parliament is well aware of the Treaty provisions allowing it to scrutinise and control the Commission. However, Parliament's actual application of these prerogatives in individual areas varies as to its number, frequency and impact on the Commission and its work. The study notes that the Commission tries to fulfil its obligations towards the Parliament in areas where the Treaties obliges it to do so. The study also notes that the impact of Parliament's scrutiny prerogatives could be improved with regard to some of the fields, such as committees of inquiry, special parliamentary committees, and legislative procedures linked to Article 225 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). 5 Parliamentary scrutiny over the European Commission: implementation of the Treaty provisions In conclusion, the study argues that only a limited number of the scrutiny competences currently afforded to Parliament by the Treaties can have a lasting impact on the executive, since Parliament's powers to influence the Commission are rather limited, both in terms of when they can be used and the nature of their consequences. Beyond the text of the Treaties, provisions contained in the framework of interinstitutional agreements can only strengthen Parliament if its counterparts agree to abide by them. Finally, when assessing the Parliament's prerogatives of control over the European Commission, it is important to bear in mind the main reason behind their original inclusion in the text of the Treaties, i.e. to provide for the democratic scrutiny of the executive. Similarly, the European Parliament's role as a representative of the EU citizens, and as the only directly elected EU institution, must be taken as the starting point when it comes to its scrutiny of the European Commission. 6 Parliamentary scrutiny of the European Commission: implementation of the Treaty provisions Table of contents Executive summary _______________________________________________________________________________ 5 List of abbreviations _____________________________________________________________________________ 11 List of parliamentary committees ___________________________________________________________________ 11 List of political groups ____________________________________________________________________________ 12 1. Introduction and methodology __________________________________________________________________ 13 1.1. General introduction _________________________________________________________________________ 13
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