Report of the Conference "20 Years of Codecision"

5 November 2013 20 YEARS OF CODECISION Conference report Conciliations and Codecision Secretariat European Parliament Contents Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Opening remarks - Mr Gianni Pittella, Vice President responsible for Conciliation ................................................................................................ 2 First session: The beginning of the codecision procedure............................ 3 Codecision: the silent revolution..................................................................................... 3 Conciliation and the emergence of trilogues................................................................... 3 Institutional responses to the development of codecision ............................................. 4 The rise of first reading agreements, and challenges past and present.......................... 5 Second session: Parliament's codecision powers under the Treaty of Lisbon.........................................................................................................6 Early agreements in the codecision procedure ............................................................... 6 Transparency and accountability of EU law-making...................................................... 7 Dichotomy between the positions of committees and the plenary.................................8 The extension of the codecision procedure to new policy areas.....................................8 Politicisation of the EU....................................................................................................9 Third session: The future of the codecision procedure .............................. 10 Codecision: a stronger role for Parliament ................................................................... 10 Inter-institutional cooperation and dynamics.............................................................. 10 Institutional working methods...................................................................................... 12 First reading agreements, trilogues and transparency ................................................. 12 Concluding remarks - Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President responsible for Conciliation...................................................................... 13 List of recommendations made by speakers during the conference........... 14 Annexes .................................................................................................... 15 Annex I: Conference programme .................................................................................. 15 Annex II: Chair and speaker biographies.......................................................................17 Annex III: Background documentation ........................................................................ 21 20 Years of Codecision - European Parliament 20 Years of Codecision Conference report Introduction On 5 November 2013, almost 20 years to the day since the entry into force of the Treaty of Maastricht, the European Parliament hosted a conference on '20 Years of Codecision', under the auspices of the three Vice Presidents responsible for Conciliation, Mr Gianni Pittella, Mr Alejo Vidal-Quadras and Mr Georgios Papastamkos. The conference was an occasion to reflect critically and openly on all aspects related to the 'ordinary legislative procedure' and the role of the three institutions (Parliament, Council and Commission) involved in it, to confront past and present practices, and to pinpoint current challenges and possible means of addressing them.1 Speakers included former and current MEPs (Ms Nicole Fontaine, Sir Ken Collins, Mr Ingo Friedrich, Mr Brian Simpson, Ms Carmen Fraga Estévez, Mr Bas Eickhout, Sir Graham Watson, and Ms Pervenche Berès), Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič, the Irish Deputy Permanent Representative Tom Hanney, Mr Jean-Paul Jacqué, former Director in the Council's Legal Service, and Professor Adrienne Héritier from the European University Institute. The conference was opened and closed by Vice Presidents Pittella and Vidal-Quadras, respectively. More than 150 people attended the conference. Alongside MEPs and Parliament staff, there were many participants from the Council (both the General Secretariat and Permanent Representations) and the Commission (often from the inter-institutional units), as well as a range of other stakeholders, including academics and past practitioners of the legislative process. The lively discussions, which can still be viewed in their entirety2, covered the very early days of the legislative procedure (including the initial clash of cultures in conciliation, the development of informal trilogue negotiations, and the impact of codecision on inter-institutional relations and internal working practices), an assessment of the current state of play, in part following the latest changes introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon (such as the first experiences in new codecision policy areas, the rise of early agreements, and issues related to transparency and democratic legitimacy), and a look into future prospects for codecision, with speakers making a series of suggestions for ways of improving the procedure in the short to medium term. This conference report, which is sub-divided according to the three sessions, summarises the key debates. It concludes with a series of recommendations made by the conference speakers and participants on internal institutional working practices, inter-institutional cooperation, transparency, and communication to the public. These recommendations draw directly on the fruitful exchanges held, generally reflecting concrete proposals that were made; they address some of the practical issues that have emerged with the evolution of the now ordinary legislative procedure and, more broadly, attempt to sketch out solutions to the ever-present challenges of transparency and communication. The conference programme, speaker biographies and background documentation can be found in the Annexes. 1 The terms 'codecision' and 'ordinary legislative procedure' (which is the new denomination following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon) will be used interchangeably. 2 The conference was webstreamed live: - Sessions 1 and 2: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/other-events/video?event=20131105-0900-SPECIAL - Session 3: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/other-events/video?event=20131105-1230-SPECIAL-UNKN2 1 20 Years of Codecision - European Parliament Opening remarks - Mr Gianni Pittella, Vice President responsible for Conciliation The Vice President recalled that the Treaty of Maastricht had been a true landmark for European integration, paving the way for enlargement in central and eastern Europe, laying the foundations of the Economic and Monetary Union and introducing the concept of Union citizenship. But it had also forged a genuine partnership of equals between the Parliament and the Council, co-legislators in a new legislative procedure. Conceived in part as a response to critics of the democratic deficit, codecision was quickly perceived by some as a complex and lengthy procedure; however, it overcame the initial hurdles, developing over time and with successive Treaty revisions (Amsterdam, Nice, then Lisbon) into the ordinary legislative procedure, covering almost all EU policy areas. In parallel, the institutions had to adapt. The European Parliament, Mr Pittella, argued, was the institution that had undergone the most significant changes (from a body that issued resolutions to a fully-fledged co-legislator). But the two other institutions were also forced to adjust: the Council had to learn to deal with the Parliament as an equal player, while the Commission was increasingly called upon to act as a mediator. Vice President Pittella summarised the key changes to the codecision procedure since its introduction: (i) the progressive extension of the scope, (ii) the changing dynamics of the procedure, from a large number of conciliations in the beginning to an overwhelming majority of first reading agreements now, (iii) the introduction of 'early second reading agreements', and (iv) the rise of informal trilogues. Finally, Mr Pittella turned to the issue of transparency, which, he noted, had forever been an important concern linked to the way in which files were negotiated and agreed under the codecision procedure. This was also closely related to the steady rise in the number of early agreements. Many of the topics mentioned in the Vice President's opening remarks would be discussed at length and in depth by the conference speakers and participants. 2 20 Years of Codecision - European Parliament First session: The beginning of the codecision procedure The first session, on 'The beginning of the codecision procedure', was chaired by Ms Nicole Fontaine, former President of the European Parliament (1999-2001) and Vice President responsible for Conciliation (1994-1999). The speakers were Mr Jean-Paul Jacqué, former Director in the Legal Service of the Council (1992-2008), Sir Ken Collins, former Chair of the Parliament's Environment Committee (1979-1984 and 1989-1999) and Chair of the Conference of Committee Chairs (1993-1999), and Mr Ingo Friedrich, former Vice President responsible for Conciliation (1999-2007). Together they traced the origins and evolution of the codecision procedure, related how the initial clash of cultures was progressively overcome with the development of informal inter-institutional

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