The European Parliament adopted, on 6 July 2006, by large majority, the compromise reached in June with the Commission and the Council on the so-called comitology reform.
Although implementing powers often boil down to the day-to-day management of technical details, they can also touch upon highly sensitive political issues relating to the health, environment and safety, as in the case of the approval of GMOs or the implementation of the REACH Directive.
Call-back right: Up till now, only a committee of national officials, and not the Parliament, had the right to revoke the Commission's implementing measures. Furthermore, a decision blocked by the committee was referred back to Council alone with no Parliamentary involvement. Under the new scrutiny procedure, Parliament will be able to block any implementing measures under co-decision legislation. This will however require an absolute majority of MEPs, i.e. more than 366 of the 732 members of parliament will have to vote in favour of the call-back for it to be passed, regardless of how many MEPs are present for the vote.
Sunset clause: At present, MEPs have the right to limit the Commission’s implementing powers by setting maximum periods, known as ‘sunset clauses,’ for it to adopt the necessary rules for applying new laws in Member States. Under the new agreement, MEPs will only be able to confer powers on the Commission for an indefinite period, except in exceptional circumstances.
Information right: The new rules are meant to improve the transmission of information from the Commission to Parliament. Currently, documents are delivered in one to three languages. The Commission has now agreed to set up a detailed information system on all comitology committees' activities in all Parliaments' official languages.
