ORIGINS A “delegation for the European Communities” was created in 1979, within the French National Assembly and the Senate, in order to follow up European issues. Indeed, from 1979, since the members of European Parliament were no longer National representatives but European deputies elected through direct universal suffrage, a bound had to be recreated between the French Parliament and Europe. In 1990 and 1994, after enactement of the “Single European Act” and the Maastricht Treaty, competences of both delegations were extended. They became the “Delegations for the European Union”. FORMATION The delegation of the French Senate for the European Union includes thirty six members. Each senator also belongs to one of the six standing committees of the Senate. The delegation is now being chaired by Hubert Haenel. Its former president was Michel Barnier, ex European Commissioner. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION : www.senat.fr/europe/compo.html From left to right : Bernard Frimat, Robert Bret, Jacques Blanc, Hubert Haenel, Jean Bizet, Simon Sutour et Denis Badré, members of the Bureau of the delegation for the European Union 1 WORKS AND MISSIONS Meetings The delegation has the duty to follow the work done by the institutions of the European Union. Its first mission is to scrutinize the European Union documents before an agreement is reached by the Council, and to express its opinion about them. Therefore, its activity is cross-disciplinary for its examination focuses on every subject tackled by the European institutions. The delegation holds a meeting every week. Hearings The delegation regularly invites and hears members of the Government, in particular the Minister in charge of the European affairs. It also hears on a regular basis European Commissioners and competent personalities on European issues, including representatives of the Parliaments of the other Member States. During the last months, the delegation has auditioned: t Mr Günter Verheugen, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Enterprise and Industry, and Mr Leonard Orban, EU Commissioner for multilingualism ; t Mr Jean-Pierre Jouyet, French minister in charge of the European affairs, on the stance of the French government on late European issues ; t Lady Hayman, Speaker of the House of Lords, on the reform of the House ; t Mr Péter Medgyessy, ex Prime Minister, extraordinary and plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Hungarian Republic, on the current evolution of the European Union and his assessment of the enlargement ; t Ambassadors of Germany in Paris and of France in Berlin, and ambassadors of Portugal in Paris and of France in Lisbon before these Member States took presidency of the European Union. Reports In the framework of its activity, the delegation carries out reports on specific matters that deserve a deeper study. For instance, since January 2007, the delegation has published six reports : 2 Recent reports published by the delegation - « The European Union and health services » by Mr. Roland Ries (n° 186, 2006- 2007) - « The European development Fund » by Mr. Charles Josselin (n° 202, 2006-2007) « Towards a reform of the common organization of the wine market » by Mr. Simon Sutour (n° 203, 2006-2007) - « The European trade defence instruments » by Mr. Jean Bizet, Robert Bret, Hubert Haenel and Roland Ries (n° 272, 2006-2007) - « The Community preference » by Mr. Jean Bizet, Robert Bret, Hubert Haenel and Roland Ries (n° 112, 2005-2006) - « Russia and the European Union : what relationships ? » by Mr Yves Pozzo di Borgo (n° 307, 2006-2007) SPECIFIC PROCESSES The delegation can recommend for a debate on the Senate Floor issues that seem particularly important to it. Thanks to the procedure of the “oral questions with debate on European issues”. Various themes have been discussed under this procedure : t Future of the European regional policy t Reform of the common agricultural policy t Prospects for the negotiations with the World trade organization (WTO) before the Hong-Kong conference t European means of fighting terrorism t Circulation in the E.U. of the workers from the new Member States FOR FURTHER INFORMATION : www.senat.fr/europe/debats.html Besides, major European issues are regularly monitored by the delegation, for example the enlargement process of the European Union. Likewise, from February 2002 to July 2004, the delegation focused many of its works on the elaboration of the Constitutional Treaty. This was all the more interesting as two of its members, Mr Hubert Haenel and Mr Robert Badinter, participated in the Convention for the future of Europe. 3 PUBLICATIONS AND WEBSITE The delegation has to inform the Senate about the activities of the European Union. It fulfills this mission by drafting and circulating a specific publication titled : “Latest news of the delegation for the European Union”, which introduces the delegation’s work. Moreover, the “Europe” page of the Senate website (www.senat.fr/europe/index.html), which is regularly updated, provides all the works of the delegation as well as complementary information about Europe. 4 THE SCRUTINY PROCESS What European texts ? The article 88-4 of the French Constitution states that the Government must submit to the National Assembly and the Senate any proposal for European legislation containing measures that, in a French law perspective, would necessarily be discussed by the Parliament. Those European Union documents are supposed to be sent to both assemblies as soon as they are transmitted to the Council by the European Commission. The delegation for the European Union has also the opportunity to express its opinion on other important European texts, without any legislative reach, such as Green or White papers, or the annual Commission legislative and work programme. Article 88-4, French Constitution « The Government shall lay before the National Assembly and the Senate draft proposals for legislation of the European Union together with draft of or proposals for acts of the European Communities containing measures which are matters for statute as soon as they have been transmitted to the Council of the European Union. It may also lay before them other drafts of or proposals for acts or any document issuing from a European Union institution. In the manner laid down by the rules of procedure of each assembly, resolutions may be passed, even if Parliament is not in session, on the drafts, proposals or documents referred to in the preceding paragraph. » Examination The delegation examines each year from 250 to 300 European Union documents. These documents do not all have the same importance. Most of them are actually considered of minor importance and are dealt with through a “written procedure”. In the framework of this procedure, the President of the delegation addresses to his 35 colleagues, for each text, a summary note outlining the contents and the reasons why an extensive scrutiny is not necessary. If a member of the delegation expresses, within 8 days, his/her wish that one of this text should be thoroughly examined in a meeting, this text is removed from the written procedure and scheduled on the agenda of the delegation. Otherwise, the President of the delegation informs the Government at the end of the 8-day- period that the delegation has decided not to intervene on the texts. 5 On the contrary, the texts regarded as of particular importance are examined in meeting. Once its scrutiny is achieved, the delegation can : - either conclude to the presentation of a draft resolution, - either adopt conclusions addressed to the Government, - or consider that the text examined does not need further intervention. The presentation of a draft resolution only concerns the most important texts which roughly correspond to 5% of the texts transmitted every year. Every senator – not only members of the delegation - can make such a proposal on his/her own initiative. This proposal is then sent to the relevant standing committee, and a final resolution is adopted by the committee, or in the plenary session. The Government takes the Parliament’s positions into account and more particularly those resolutions adopted by the assemblies on the occasion of negotiations happening at the level of the Council of the European Union. Even if the Government is not legally bound by the delegation’s resolutions, which are political commentaries and no binding texts, experience has shown that the position defended by the Government within the Council of the European Union takes the concerns of the parliamentary resolutions into account. Deadlines The Government must put its veto to the final adoption of a European legislation as long as the Senate and the National Assembly have not achieved their scrutiny and have not expressed their opinion. However, if the Senate wants to have a real influence on the elaboration of a European text, it is not sufficient that it gives its position before the definitive adoption of the text. Therefore, the Senate must express its opinion at the very beginning of the European legislative process so that the Government effectively takes its observations into account. Furthermore, an emergency procedure enables the President of the delegation to take a position very rapidly about the texts that must be adopted very soon, for example texts regarding the Common Foreign and Security Policy. 6 MONITORING EUROPEAN LEGISLATION FOR COMPLIANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY Since 1st September 2006, at the initiative of its President José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission has been sending its proposals and consultation papers directly to the Member States’ parliaments. They, in turn, have six weeks to make representations on the compliance of these texts with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The delegation for the European Union examines these texts. When it deems that a text infringes the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, it adopts observations which it addresses to the Commission. These observations generally express the delegation’s doubts with regard to subsidiarity and proportionality.