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29 November 2009
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New proposals to reform European Governance 

Published: Thursday 12 December 2002   

The Commission adopted on 11 December a set of measures for improving EU decision-making within existing Treaties and presented a report on progress made since its July 2001 White Paper on European Governance.

Background:



When taking office in 1999, Commission President Romano Prodi drew attention to the need for fundamental reform of the EU decision-making process and the way that the EU institutions function. Promoting new forms of European governance then was made one of the four strategic priorities of the Prodi Commission at the beginning of 2000. This current Commission initiative is the renewal of long-standing efforts for institutional and policy-making reform. The need to improve the quality of and to simplify regulation has been recognized at both at EU level and within individual Member States since the mid-1980s.

The White Paper on European Governance and its ensuing action plans are intended to involve the Parliament, Council and Commission and Member State governments in improving the way in which legislation and policies are prepared and implemented under the existing EU treaties . The Commission has defined governance as "the rules, processes and practices that affect how powers are exercised at the European level" as defined by the treaties as they stand.

The choice of promoting new forms of governance under the existing institutional framework became the only options available following the decision of the Nice European Council in December 2000 to call for an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on institutional reform in 2004. Some of the initiatives proposed in the Commission's White Paper on European Governance may be taken forward in the preparation of treaty amendments.

The Commission is also presenting separate contributions on the reform of the treaties to the Convention on the Future EU, drawing upon the contents and processes launched by the White Paper. A link is thus established to the work of the Convention and the IGC.

 



The Report on European Governance reviews the progress achieved over the past 16 months with regard to governance issues. It shows that the Commission has already developed and launched the majority of the actions proposed in the White Paper. A public consultation had been launched following the publication of the White Paper and ran through 31 March 2002. The Commission reports that the response to its public consultation "was modest in numbers (260 contributions) but rich in content." It is worth noting that some EU institutions and Member States did not contribute to the consultation. Similarly, a geographical imbalance across the EU was in evidence as regards contributions, perhaps reflecting differences in public consultation culture and tradition.



The Commission reports that the public response largely supports the White Paper's definition of the principles underlying European governance of openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence. Part of the public response regrets the apparent limits of the White Papers understanding of "governance" which focuses predominantly on the effectiveness and efficiency of the EU decision-making system. The Commission was seen to disregard issues of democratic legitimacy and democratic deficit in European integration. The principles of democratic legitimacy and subsidiarity thus have been proposed as additions to the underlying principles.

The public consultation supported the following key governance approaches of the Commission:

  • improving bottom-up involvement in EU policy shaping and implementation;
  • widening the choice of instruments to respond to new governance challenges;
  • more focused European institutions with clearer responsibilities.
The Commission's new communications include proposals for:
  • improved quality of control as regards the application of legislation: the duty of the Commission "as guardian of the Treaties" will become more relevant in the perspective of enlargement;
  • a "more balanced" implementing committee system, or so-called 'comitology';
  • a framework for new regulatory agencies;
  • the use of "tripartite conventions and contracts" with local, regional, national authorities for a more "adapted and flexible" implementation of EU legislation and programmes.


 

Next steps:

 

  • In 2003, the Commission intends to pursue the agenda defined in the White Paper in light of the results of the public consultation
  • The Commission also intends to reach agreement on the initiatives already launched and to provide further governance inputs as part of the reform of the treaties under the Convention and the IGC.

 

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