Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. - Mr President, on a point of order, as Chair of and on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee, I ask you to support amendments that have been tabled by the LIBE Committee.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly the proposal on the eCall system raises serious concerns on matters of privacy and, secondly, despite the LIBE Committee having exclusive competence under Rule[nbsp ]50, amendments to Article[nbsp ]6 and Recital[nbsp ]13 have not been included by the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) in their report which is contrary to Rule[nbsp ]50.
The LIBE Committee can only express regret that the Conference of Presidents has been called on to preserve the LIBE Committee’s exclusive competence on those two points and the principle of cooperation between committees.
Secondly, the LIBE Committee welcomes the decision that was taken by the Conference of Presidents on 20[nbsp ]February which safeguards the prerogatives of the committees under Rule[nbsp ]50, clarifying the meaning and functioning of the said Rule[nbsp ]50.
Malcolm Harbour, Chair of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. - Mr[nbsp ]President, considering that my committee bent over backwards to work with the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs when they came to us incredibly late on this proposal – we had to delay our vote for two weeks to accommodate their work – and that we worked closely with their rapporteur, I would remind the Chair of that committee that, under Rule[nbsp ]50 of the Rules of Procedure, in relation to reports on which committees do not have an equal division of competences, we are indisputably the lead committee, and that we have taken into account almost all the points he made to us.
I invite you, Mr[nbsp ]President, to support my committee’s position and the position of my incredibly hardworking rapporteur, Ms[nbsp ]Sehnalová, who, in 2012, brought to this House a report on which you voted, colleagues, supporting this proposal. Did the Civil Liberties Committee ask for an opinion on that report? No. And we had a public hearing with Mr[nbsp ]Peter Hustinx, the European Data Protection Controller, so the idea that we have not taken into account the views of the Civil Liberties Committee or considerations of data protection is an insult to the working methods of my committee. I invite you to support my committee and to support our amendments.
Der Präsident. - Meine Damen und Herren! Es sind beide Stellungnahmen abgegeben worden. Die Anträge des LIBE-Ausschusses sind auch in der Abstimmungsliste. Wir haben hier zu entscheiden, welche Anträge eine Mehrheit bekommen.