Rule 61  : Adoption of amendments to a Commission proposal

1.    Where the Commission proposal as a whole is approved, but on the basis of amendments which have also been adopted, the vote on the draft legislative resolution shall be postponed until the Commission has stated its position on each of Parliament's amendments.

If the Commission is not in a position to make such a statement at the end of Parliament's vote on its proposal, it shall inform the President or the committee responsible as to when it will be in a position to do so; the proposal shall then be placed on the draft agenda of the first part-session thereafter.

2.    If the Commission announces that it does not intend to adopt all Parliament's amendments, the rapporteur of the committee responsible, or else the Chair of that committee, shall make a formal proposal to Parliament as to whether the vote on the draft legislative resolution should proceed. Before submitting this proposal, the rapporteur or Chair of the committee responsible may ask the President to suspend consideration of the item.

If Parliament decides to postpone the vote, the matter shall be deemed to be referred back to the committee responsible for reconsideration.

In this case, the committee responsible shall, orally or in writing, report to Parliament within a period decided by Parliament which may not exceed two months.

If the committee responsible is unable to meet the deadline, the procedure provided for in Rule 60(4) shall be applied.

Only amendments tabled by the committee responsible and seeking to reach a compromise with the Commission shall be admissible at this stage.

3.    Application of paragraph 2 does not preclude a request for referral being tabled by other Members pursuant to Rule 188.

A committee to which a matter has been referred back under paragraph 2 is principally required under the terms of that referral to report within the deadline given and, where appropriate, to table amendments seeking to reach a compromise with the Commission, but not to reconsider all the provisions approved by Parliament.

However, within these terms of reference, in view of the suspensory effect of the referral, the committee enjoys a greater degree of freedom and may, where necessary in the interests of the compromise, propose reconsidering provisions which received a favourable vote in Parliament.

In such cases, in view of the fact that the only admissible amendments from the committee are those seeking to reach a compromise, and with a view to preserving Parliament's sovereignty, the report referred to in paragraph 2 must clearly state which provisions already approved would fall if the proposed amendments were adopted.