HOUSE OF LORDS European Union Committee 17th Report of Session 2008–09 Codecision and national parliamentary scrutiny Report with Evidence Ordered to be printed 7 July 2009 and published 21 July 2009 Published by the Authority of the House of Lords London : The Stationery Office Limited £price HL Paper 125 The European Union Committee The European Union Committee of the House of Lords considers EU documents and other matters relating to the EU in advance of decisions being taken on them in Brussels. It does this in order to influence the Government’s position in negotiations, and to hold them to account for their actions at EU level. The Government are required to deposit EU documents in Parliament, and to produce within two weeks an Explanatory Memorandum setting out the implications for the UK. The Committee examines these documents, and ‘holds under scrutiny’ any about which it has concerns, entering into correspondence with the relevant Minister until satisfied. Letters must be answered within two weeks. Under the ‘scrutiny reserve resolution’, the Government may not agree in the EU Council of Ministers to any proposal still held under scrutiny; reasons must be given for any breach. The Committee also conducts inquiries and makes reports. The Government are required to respond in writing to a report’s recommendations within two months of publication. If the report is for debate, then there is a debate in the House of Lords, which a Minister attends and responds to. The Committee has seven Sub-Committees which are: Economic and Financial Affairs and International Trade (Sub-Committee A) Internal Market (Sub-Committee B) Foreign Affairs, Defence and Development Policy (Sub-Committee C) Environment and Agriculture (Sub-Committee D) Law and Institutions (Sub-Committee E) Home Affairs (Sub-Committee F) Social and Consumer Affairs (Sub-Committee G) Our Membership The Members of the European Union Committee are: Baroness Cohen of Pimlico Lord Plumb Lord Dykes Lord Powell of Bayswater Lord Freeman Lord Richard Lord Hannay of Chiswick Lord Roper (Chairman) Baroness Howarth of Breckland Lord Sewel Lord Jopling Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean Lord Kerr of Kinlochard Lord Teverson Lord Maclennan of Rogart Lord Trimble Lord Mance Lord Wade of Chorlton Lord Paul Information about the Committee The reports and evidence of the Committee are published by and available from The Stationery Office. 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The Committee’s email address is [email protected] CONTENTS Paragraph Page Summary 6 Chapter 1: The codecision procedure: Origins, scope, expansion and the possible effect of the Lisbon Treaty 1 7 Our inquiry 3 7 How codecision works—the procedures as laid down in the Treaties 7 8 Box 1: Some jargon simplified—part one 8 First reading 10 9 Second reading 14 9 Conciliation and Third Reading 17 9 Figure 1: The Codecision Procedure—flowchart 11 How codecision works—the practice 21 12 Box 2: Some jargon simplified—part two 12 Increase in first and early second reading deals 23 12 How these deals occur—informal trilogues 26 13 Box 3: Some jargon simplified—part three 13 Trilogues—composition 27 13 Trilogues—mandates and accountability 30 14 Council, European Parliament and Trilogue meetings— Transparency 35 15 Implications for national parliaments seeking to keep abreast of negotiations? 38 15 Scrutiny of changes made during codecision negotiations? 40 16 Conclusion 44 16 Agreements at early stages 45 17 Conclusion 49 17 Fast agreements 50 18 Conclusions 53 18 Agreements reached in informal trilogues 55 18 Conclusions 60 20 Chapter 2: National parliamentary scrutiny 64 21 Principles behind the UK System 64 21 Our role 64 21 The Government’s role in providing information to facilitate this scrutiny 67 21 Box 4: Some jargon simplified—part four 21 Figure 2: Scrutiny actions flowchart 23 Box 5: Key information the Government should provide to the Committee under the Scrutiny Guidance 24 Assessment of the adequacy of the information we have from the Government 72 24 The opportunity to give our views at each reading or where a text has changed substanitally 72 24 Conclusions 74 25 Ensuring effective scrutiny of proposals adopted at early stages: about what should we be informed 77 25 Ensuring effective scrutiny of proposals adopted at early stages: Departmental performance 82 26 Ensuring effective scrutiny of proposals adopted at early stages: some safeguards 87 27 Key points in the negotiations 91 28 Limité documents: provision 95 28 Limité documents: constraints on use 100 29 Addressing the results of our scrutiny to other parliaments 103 30 Chapter 3: Summary of Conclusions 105 31 Principles underlying scrutiny of codecided proposals 105 31 The existing scrutiny system 112 32 Adding to this system to ensure effective scrutiny negotiations at first and second reading 116 32 Two safeguards 124 33 LIMITE documents 126 34 Addressing our views to MEPs and other national parliaments 127 34 Appendix 1: European Union Committee List of Members 35 Appendix 2: List of Witnesses 36 Appendix 3: Call for Evidence 37 Appendix 4: Sub-Committee responses to Codecision questionnaire 39 Appendix 5: EP Code of Conduct for negotiating Codecision Files 57 Appendix 6: Recent Reports from the Select Committee 59 Oral Evidence Rt Hon Caroline Flint MP, Minister for Europe, Ms Alison Rose, Head of Communications, Institutions, Treaty and Iberia Group, Europe Directorate and Mr Ananda Guha, Deputy Head, Europe Strategy Group, Foreign & Commonwealth Office Written evidence 1 Oral evidence, 5 May 2009 8 Supplementary written evidence 13 Mr Andy Lebrecht, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU and Mr David Tripp, Private Secretary to Mr Lebrecht Oral evidence, 2 June 2009 18 Mr Philip Léglise-Costa, French Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU Oral evidence, 2 June 2009 27 Mr Anthony Teasdale, Head of Strategy, Office of the President, European Parliament, Ms Els Vandenbosch, Director for Legislative Coordination, DG IPOL, Mr Klaus Baier, Head of Conciliation and Codecision Unit, DG IPOL, Mr Andreas Huber, Head of Secretariat, Environment Committee and Mr Niall O’Neill, Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments, European Parliament Oral evidence, 2 June 2009 35 Ms Una O’Dwyer, Acting Director for Relations with the Council, including Codecision, Commission Secretariat General and Mr Niall O’Neill, Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments, European Parliament Oral evidence, 2 June 2009 43 Mr Hubert Legal, Director (Codecision) Legal Service, Council General Secretariat and Mr Jonathan Dancourt-Cavanagh, Senior Desk Officer, Codecision Unit, European Council Oral evidence, 2 June 2009 51 Mr Richard Corbett MEP and Ms Arlene McCarthy MEP, European Parliament Written evidence from Richard Corbett MEP 59 Oral evidence, 2 June 2009 60 Written evidence Tim Ambler, London Business School & Francis Chittenden, Manchester Business School 72 Dr Giacomo Bendetto, University of London 75 Dr Charlotte Burns, University of Leeds 76 European Commission 78 European Council 85 Federal Trust for Education and Research 88 French Sénat 89 German Bundesrat 90 German Bundestag 91 Professor Simon Hix, London School of Economics 92 House of Representatives, The Netherlands 94 Irish Parliament 94 Davor Jančić, Utrecht University 96 Dr Helle Krunke, University of Cophenhagen 105 Parliament of Denmark 107 Parliament of Finland 108 Parliament of Sweden 111 Tapio Raunio, University of Tampere, Finland 112 Dr Christine Reh, University College London 115 Romanian Parliament 118 Dr Klára Szalay 121 NOTE: References in the text of the report are as follows: (Q) refers to a question in oral evidence (p) refers to a page in written evidence SUMMARY Codecision is the European legislative procedure whereby a proposal from the European Commission is negotiated and adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. For some time the perception has been that the codecision procedure, and the way in which its practice has developed, makes it harder for national parliaments to conduct effective scrutiny of EU legislation. This report concludes that there are aspects of codecision which cause difficulties for us in seeking to influence the Government’s position. In large part these difficulties arise because agreements are reached at first and second reading stages though the use of informal trilogues: small, private meetings between the Commission, Council and European Parliament. To minimise these difficulties we review our procedures for conducting