Almeida Garrett (PPE-DE), rapporteur. – (PT) Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Parliament is today responding to the Commission communication on an operating framework for the European regulatory agencies, in which, as a follow-up to the White Paper on Governance, the Commission presented the general conditions for creating new agencies, the framework within which they are to carry out their activities and the Commission’s own responsibilities as regards supervising those agencies.

I wish first of all, Commissioner, to congratulate you on this initiative and also on the broad criteria it contains. Parliament is pleased to note that due account was taken of its positions, which had already been set out in the resolution on the White Paper, with responsibility for the creation of agencies being attributed to the explicit choice of the legislator, on a case-by-case basis, through an act based on the provision of the Treaty which constitutes the legal basis for the specific Community policy which is to be implemented.

One important point that we wish to emphasise is the Commission’s acceptance that new agencies should be established sparingly and selectively. The use of such agencies is justified only in highly specialised scientific or technical areas, with a precise demarcation of the tasks to be performed and within a framework of responsibility and autonomy which does not call into question the unity and integrity of the executive function or lessen the Commission’s political accountability to Parliament and the Council.

As with everything in life, there is always a ‘but’. The report I am presenting today regrets the fact that the Commission has limited the scope of its communication to the so-called regulatory agencies to be created in future, within the institutional framework of the EC Treaty. It is regrettable that no reference is made to the existing agencies, when we all agree that there is a need to undertake in-depth assessment of the work of these agencies, to propose the reworking of some of their tasks and powers and, possibly, to update the structure and composition of their organs. These are concerns, as you know, Commissioner, that Parliament has expressed to the Commission through the parliamentary committees most directly involved in scrutiny of the agencies’ functioning and which today, once again, we emphasise.

We also deplore the fact that no discussion has taken place on the consequences that will ensue from the thoroughgoing changes proposed in the draft European Constitution, specifically the end to the pillar structure, the introduction of a hierarchy of legislation and the explicit provision made for judicial supervision of agencies’ acts. These must be properly understood in order to define the future legislative environment of the agencies more completely, coherently and boldly.

As regards the limited scope of the communication, Parliament’s main concerns will always be to ensure the unity and integrity of the executive function at European level and the corresponding political responsibility of the Commission. You will also understand, however, that Parliament will pay particular attention to rules that enable tasks to be carried out transparently and effectively, to appointments to posts and cost management at the future agencies. We will, therefore, pay particular attention in the proposal for a future legislative framework to rules that impose on the agencies all the requirements for sound administration, for compliance with legislation on transparency, on access to documents, with the rules for protection against fraud and for protecting the Community’s financial interests.

I wish to conclude by thanking the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Budgetary Control for their competent and judicious opinions and all my fellow Members who, by participating, served as co-authors of this report. Commissioner, we look forward confidently to the initiative for a legal framework for the agencies, which the Commission will present at some time in the future.

(Applause)