The best way to limit the European Parliament going too far is not to give them any proposals to work on. That at least appeared to be the thinking behind the Juncker Commission in November 2014.
Juncker’s Commission brought forward the least amount of proposals since President Santer in 1999. He spoke with passion about political discontinuity. He would not push his legislative agenda onto his successor.
When President Juncker took office, he faced a live legislative agenda pushed out by President Barroso in the last months of office.
President Juncker’s solution was swift and brutal. On 16 December 2014, the Commission’s Work Programme proposed several withdrawals of legislation. At the time, the environment proposals seemed to be targeted, from waste to national emissions, to reviews to cull the birds and habitats directive.
People tried to understand the logic behind the kill list. None existed. A senior official just went through a list and struck out every 2nd item. The Commission turned around on the birds and habitats directive after NGOs returned to political campaigning and raised a public outcry . They quietly backtracked on all.
For a few years the Environment Committee had a lot of spare time on their hands. They got around to looking at the poor state of the implementation of EU environmental legislation. Their degree of scrutiny of secondary legislation went through the roof.
Casting off political discontinuity
In May 2018, the Commission’s reluctance to bring forward meaty legislative files got cast off. From the revision of the EU Fisheries Control, reform of pharmaceutical waivers, to Single Use Plastics, the Commission pushed out an avalanche of legislation into the laps of the EP and Council.
Many experienced legislative hands did not think the timing accidental. It struck some that the timing seemed designed to limit MEPs ability to scrutinise and table amendments and make sure the proposals become law before the European Elections 23-26 May 2019.
It is clear that many existing legislative files won’t be agreed to by the time the European Parliament goes into recess (week 18 April 2019). So, a question that is coming up is what happens to the unfinished business.
What happens to unfinished legislative files
After speaking with 3 experienced legislative officials, the practice of dealing with unfinished legislative business is clearer to me.
As a general rule, any unfinished Parliamentary business lapses. After all the agreements of old Parliaments should not bind their successors.
The Parliament has figured out a way to deal with this through their rules procedures (Rule 229).
| Rule 229 : Unfinished business
At the end of the last part-session before elections, all Parliament’s unfinished business shall be deemed to have lapsed, subject to the provisions of the second paragraph. At the beginning of each parliamentary term, the Conference of Presidents shall take a decision on reasoned requests from parliamentary committees and other institutions to resume or continue the consideration of such unfinished business. These provisions shall not apply to petitions and communications that do not require a decision. |
The position depends on (1) if the Parliament has an agreed position, expressed by a plenary vote, or (2) the file was stuck in the Committee.
If the old Parliament held a plenary vote, the new Parliament can carry on.
The new Committee agrees on whether to take forward the previous Parliament’s position. The discussions between the MEPs and officials usually lead to an agreement to continue. After the Committee agrees, the Conference of Presidents endorses it. This stage seems to be a formality.
Case Study – Plastic Bags
For example, on Plastic Bag Directive, published on 4th November 2013, the Parliament reached a first reading agreement on 16th April 2014. The European Parliament faced elections on 22-25 May 2014.
When the new European Parliament returned, the re-elected Margrete Auken (Denmark/Green) MEP resumed work on the file as Rapporteur. She secured the agreement of the Committee to go forward on the basis of the first reading agreement of the previous Parliament. On 24 September 2014, the Environment Committee decided to open negotiations with the Council.
Yet, if the file is still languishing in the Committee in the old Parliament, the new Parliament must start work on the proposal from scratch.
Commission
The new Commission can choose to withdraw proposals they inherited from the previous Commission. If this happens again, and the Commission re-evaluates everything, it would be the middle of 2020 before any new legislation is put forward.