PAPER ON DEVELOPMENTS IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT HANDLING OF EUROPEAN UNION LEGISLATION SINCE THE TREATY OF LISBON

Jacobs, Francis (2015) PAPER ON DEVELOPMENTS IN EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT HANDLING OF EUROPEAN UNION LEGISLATION SINCE THE TREATY OF LISBON. [Conference Proceedings] (Submitted)

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Abstract

Summary: The Lisbon Treaty greatly extended the scope of the co-decision procedure so that it now applies to almost all EU legislation and is now referred to in the Treaties as the normal legislative procedure. The European Parliament has since made use of these new powers in such sensitive policy areas as the reform of the common agricultural and fisheries policies where its role was previously much more limited. The current paper looks at these changes and at the overall impact they have had on the work of the European Parliament. At the same time the way in which Parliament has handled co-decision agreements has also evolved. In recent years, for example, there has been a steady decline in the number of co-decision procedures which have ended up in conciliation and a great increase in the number of first reading or early second reading agreements. This in its turn has raised new concerns about transparency and accountability and the development, in certain cases, of a new system of mandates, whereby Parliament votes on such a mandate before an agreement is reached. The Parliament has also sought to reinforce its own expertise in EU legislative matters, not least by setting up a new European Parliament Research Service (EPRS). One important related development has been the development of an impact assessment capacity within the European Parliament, looking not just at the adequacy of the legislative impact assessments carried out by the European Commission but also at its own amendments and other matters. A further innovation in the Lisbon Treaty was the creation of a new distinction between delegated and implementing acts. Again questions are raised as to how significant a difference that this is making to the handling of EU secondary legislation as compared to the previous “comitology” system. Yet another potentially important change in EU legislative procedures has been the reinforced role of national parliaments stemming from the Lisbon Treaty which has posed new questions about the relationship between the EP and national parliaments in the adoption of such legislation. The Lisbon Treaty also introduced the possibility of Citizens Initiatives, whereby European citizens can themselves propose new EU legislation. Although few such proposals have met the necessary criteria for further consideration they are already posing questions as to how they should be handled by the European Parliament. The paper also looks briefly at the ways in which the European Parliament is seeking to be involved in a more complete policy cycle in the future, with more emphasis on the whole cycle of forward planning, impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation, and implementation of EU legislation This paper examines the above and other changes. It then concludes by looking at the outlook for EU legislative scrutiny in the 2014-19 European Parliament, in the light of two sets of issues, in particular. The first of these is related to legislative planning and the new scope for inter-institutional negotiations and agreements on Multiannual planning. Finally the European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker is setting a new challenge for the other institutions in proposing far fewer legislative initiatives than in the past and also suggesting the withdrawal not just of minor but also of more substantive legislation. How the European Parliament reacts to these challenges will be of considerable significance for the future.

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