Commission's Effect Ive Responsibility Y example essay topic

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES Brussels, 5.6. 2002 COM (2002) 275 final COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION European Governance: Better lawmaking... 2 Accountability, effectiveness, proportionality In July 2001, the Commission presented its White Paper on European Governance. The basic message was a simple one and is as topical now as it was then: we need to govern ourselves better, together - European institutions and Member States. We can do this without changing the Treaty, without necessarily wait ing for the successful outcome of a new intergovernmental conference. Better governance together means active cooperation between the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the nat iona l governments so that the people of Europe can see more clearly how they fit into major projects and into the EU's day-to-day business.

One thing we have to acknowledge is the richness of the Community method. Compared wit h other systems of internat iona l rel at ions, it produces rules which can be applied in any nat iona l context and which have the backing of legal certainty. But this very success raises further questions. There are a lot of complex issues at stake now in enacting good European legislate ion which is mindful of the principles of subsidiarity y and proportional it y. People nowadays take an interest in the effectiveness of the rules handed down 'from Brussels' and the way they are drawn up. The advent of a democratic conscience is strengthening the need for accountability and proportionality in the way powers vested in the European inst are exercised.

This need is expressed more especially in transparency, clarity and the willingness to stand up to scrutiny. What we have here, then, is a veritable ethical requirement. The resolute ion adopted by the European Parliament in November 2001 in the wake of the Kaufmann report strengthens this requirement still further. By clearly stressing the primacy of polit i cal accountability y behind legislate ive act ion, the resolution brings out the need for more transparent, equitable and disputation al consult at ion: it is the very qualit y of the legislate ion which is under scrutiny. Three communications for better lawmaking Inspired by this resolution and by the init i al react ions during the consult at ions on the White Paper concerning the 'better lawmaking' element, and bearing in mind the recommend at ions by the high-level group chaired by Mr Mandel kern, the Commission has now decided that the time has come to act in response to the strategy mapped out by the Lisbon European Council. That is the point of the three communications set out below.

These three communicate ions form a whole centred on the basic lawmaking framework of the European Union, including the way EU law is transposed into national law. They are designed to apply to all the EU's regulatory areas - not just the Communit y "pillar", but also the third "pillar" that relates to just ice and home affairs, bearing in mind the institutional framework and the decision-making arrangements proper to each 'pillar'. The Commission believes that the communications could come into force from the beginning of 2003, keeping in mind that some of the proposed provisions are a matter for an inter-institutional agreement. 'Simplifying and improving the regulatory environment' - an action plan How can the various inst and the Member States improve their lawmaking? This is the question which the first communicate ion addresses in the form of an action plan.

It deals in chronological sequence with the various stages of the legislate ive cycle. This makes it possible 3 to analyse the respect ive responsibility is of the various European inst and to clarify what should be done under an inter institutional agreement. The Commission, first of all, is committed to be more transparent in the way it exercises its right of init it ive and take greater account of divers it is. In particular, the Commission shows how it sets out clearly the reasons why it takes a particular init it ive, and how it sets out to ensure that the substance of its legislate ive proposals are restricted to the bare essentials. Parliament and the Council, which are responsible in the final analysis for the proportional it y of the legislate ive instruments and the's implicit y of the legislate ion, are invited to firmly commit themselves in the same direct ion: returning to the original concept of the direct ive as provided for in the Treaty, laying down common criteria and providing for the involvement of the legislator in co-regular ion, qualified-major it y voting, the way the co decision procedure is conducted, and the use of impact assessments. Finally, the action plan suggests measures under the direct responsibility y of the Member States which could greatly improve the qualit y of the European regulatory environment.

Promoting a culture of dialogue and participation Who is really consulted as part of the Communit y legislate ive process? Are the smallest voices really and always heard? What is the subject matter of consult at ion? And to what extent are people's opinions actually taken into account? This is the subject of the second communicate ion, which gives practical expression to the emerging culture of dialogue and participation. Based on broad experience of mandatory or informal consult at ion exercises, five minimum consultation standards are set out, to be applied by the Commission's departments.

The purpose is to enable the legislator to be sure of the qualit y, and particularly the e quit y, of consultations leading up to major polit i cal proposals. The move is motivated by three concerns: to systematise and rationalism the wide range of consult at ion practices and procedures, and to guarantee the feasibility y and effectiveness of the operation; to ensure the transparency of consult at ion from the point of view of the bodies or persons consulted and from the legislator's point of view; and to demonstrate accountability vis-'a-vis the bodies or players consulted, by making public, as far as possible, the results of the consultation and the lessons that have been learned. Systematizing impact assessment by the Commission How can we take into account the 'impact' of future legislate ion - in other words, what would be the benefit and the cost of implement ing it? That is the subject of the third communicate ion, which explains the systematic approach to assessing the impact of initiatives, essentially legislative ones, which the Commission now intends to apply. Practical and adapted to each instrument, the approach is a measured one, in that the legislate ive process should not get blocked pending an excessively long or over-costly evaluate ion. It takes the form of a general-purpose impact analysis tool which can be applied to all init undertaken under the Commission's programme of work.

Impact assessment is in the same line of thinking as the European sustainable development strategy. The intent ion is that it should play a major role throughout the process of improving the qualit y of European legislate ion, providing a decision-making aid but not taking the place of polit i cal judgement. For one thing, it will guide and just if the choice of the right instrument at the appropriate level of intens it y of European action. For another, it will provide 4 the legislator with more accurate and better structured in format ion on the posit ive and neg at ive impacts, having regard to economic, social and environmental aspects. Thirdly, it will cost it ute a means of select ing, during the work programming phase, those initiatives which are really necessary.

Political refocusing and the quality of policy execution: two sides of the same coin The 'better lawmaking' act ion plan and the two accompanying communicate ions are based on the same premise: to place the three inst - Parliament, Council and the Commission - in a situation to produce better laws; their joint effort along with the Member States will result in a basic legislative framework which is simpler, more effective and better understood. However, the White Paper on European governance did not stop there in terms of 'refocusing'. It pointed out that the arrangements for policy execution and the concrete cond it ions for applying them on the ground formed, together with the basic legislate ive framework, an in dissociable whole in the public's perception. The facts and the quantified trends back up the importance of the execute ive fun ct ions: while the number of legislate ive texts, direct ives and regular ions adopted by Parliament and the Council remains at around 200 per year, the number of execute ive acts adopted by the Commission has now reached several thousand and the trend is rising.

Technological advances and the increase in the number of Member States go a long way towards explaining this dynamism. Against the background of this proliferate ion of execute ive fun ct ions, there is the quest ion of what are the execute ive's 'core tasks', how the legislator monitors the way these tasks are carried out, and how we can ensure full part ici pat ion by the administrative bodies on the ground, national or local, in the way European rules are finally applied. The governance response to these quest ions is decentralization and increased accountability on the part of the beneficiaries. It applies in four areas for which detailed proposals will be made in the autumn of 2002. At this present juncture, a number of broad lines can be set out for discussion. Clarifying executive responsibilities In the first place, the important thing is to clarify in general terms the way in which execute ive responsibility is are exercised, i.e. what currently comes under the 'committee procedures' banner.

The Commission's proposed approach is to start with a clearer definite ion of each inst's remit: as the body to whom the execute ive fun ct ion is delegated, the Commission must take full responsibility y for the corresponding decisions, with the help of expertise from nat iona l administrations in the form of committees of a purely advisory nature. For its part, the legislator must supervise the work of the execute ive. In so doing, the two branches of the legislate ive authority must be placed on an equal footing, at least for matters dealt with under the co-decision procedure. In that respect, the Commission announced in the White Paper on Governance its intention to launch a reflexion on the ion of Treaty Article 202 with a view to the next Inter-governmental Conference. Nevertheless, the Commission believes that adaptations might be achieved without wait ing for a change of the Treaty and will propose already by next autumn an amendment to the Council Decision laying down the arrangements for applying Art i cle 202.5 A framework for the creation of European agencies However, the Commission's execute ive responsibility is do not mean (indeed, the opposite applies) that it must retain all the execute ive fun ct ions, including those which are sometimes of a highly detailed nature, which the Commission is required at present to bear in principle. The decentralization of some of these tasks to European regulatory agencies, within limit's which have to be laid down precisely in advance, does not detract from the Commission's effect ive responsibility y.

The White Paper on governance announced that 'the Commission will define in 2002 the criteria for the creation of new regulatory agencies and the framework within which they should operate'. In more specific terms, the Commission will be submit t ing to Parliament and the Council the terms of an inter institutional agreement setting out the cond it ions for the creation of such agencies, based on the principles of a clear separate ion of responsibility is. Taking account of the regional, urban and local contexts A first stage in the experimental implementation of tripartite contracts will be presented. The plan is to conclude a limited number of pilot contracts between the Commission, certain Member States and regional or local author it is with a view to achieving the Communit y's sustainable development objectives, like sustainable coastal management or urban mobil it y, in full respect of exist ing constitutional provisions in each Member State. These contracts will be of a voluntary nature and will involve no binding legal commit ments.

The results of the pilot experiment will issue in a second stage, which might lead to the amendment of certain legislate ive texts with a view to simplifying the execute ive arrangements and taking more account of the local contexts. A new approach to vetting the application of the law In the same spirit of ion, the Commission will lay down the framework for a new approach to the way it exercises its responsibility y for checking on the applicant ion of Communit y law. This approach will be based on the premise that the Commission's resources are inevitably limit ed, and will be even more limited in a Communit y wit h something like 470 million people. More attention will have to be given to the at times unacceptable delays in implement ing nat iona l applicant ion measures. The Community method: a basis for building the Union Changing what is amenable to change, without necessarily await ing a reform of the Treaties; and in doing so, safeguarding the cond it ions for legal certain y; clarifying ways in which the Treaties can be deepened, and thus facilitate ing reform of the Treaties: this is the basic element which has emerged from the concept of European governance. The first thing is that this approach can underpin the way the three institutions operate - Parliament, the Council and the Commission - and improve the way they work together.

The Commission, with its internal reform supplemented by the White Paper on governance; the European Parliament, with the Corbett report which affects all its rules of procedure; and the Council of Ministers, with the proposals put forward by its Secretary General, have all committed themselves to this approach. The point now is to pursue and deepen these reforms. The real significance of this approach, though, lies in the remit of the European Convention itself, which is to lay down the constitutional found at ions of the European Union, in line with the message which the Commission spelt out in its 'project for the European Union'. 6 Viewed as a quiet revolu t ion in terms of the way we act, European governance illustrates the potential and flexibility y of the Communit y method, the very basis of the European Union.

As the cornerstone of this method, the Commission's right of init it ive is the indispensable counterpart to major it y voting in the Council, in as much as the Commission's right of init it ive guarantees vital minor it y interests when it comes to defining the general interest. In tomorrow's world, this balanced view of the general interest will be even more important with a view to ensuring its autonomy, and that is the very point of the action plan for better lawmaking. Similarly, the complementarity y between the inst, which is at the very heart of the unique Communit y system, will mean having to consolidate this refocusing effort, as prompted by the governance reforms, and for reasons of accountability, proportionality, transparency and legal certainty. And finally, with the move towards more rationalized consultations, the system at ic and a priori consideration of the impacts the proposed legislate ion will have, we are touching on the vital quest ion of the intens it y of Communit y act ion, lying at the very heart of the balance between effect ive ness and the pre servat ion of divers it is which should, according to the Lae ken declarant ion, help to clarify the way powers are exercised between the EU and its Member States.