“Parliament 2024”: one step closer to reforming Parliament’s internal rules
The Committee on Constitutional Affairs has adopted the report putting forward reforms to strengthen Parliament’s internal working methods, its institutional role, and its capacity to act.
On Wednesday, MEPs approved (with 19 votes in favour, two against, and six abstentions) the report prepared by the Chair of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Salvatore De Meo (EPP, IT) implementing the recommendations by the Parliamentary reform group “Parliament 2024” endorsed by the Conference of Presidents in December 2023.
In order to support the new Parliament from the outset of the next parliamentary term, the reforms will ensure a better functioning of Parliament as co-legislator, arm of the budgetary authority and discharge authority, as well as to increase its capacity to exercise democratic oversight and to hold the other institutions, notably the Commission, accountable. They also include improvements related to plenary sessions and Parliament’s approach to external relations.
Improving the legislative process
The legislative process has been a focal point of the reflections. MEPs voted in favour of amendments that will significantly reduce conflicts of competence among committees and improve instead the way in which they cooperate. This will result in increasing Parliament’s speed and efficiency and ensure better coherence of its positions. Similarly, the new referral procedure will allow for a straightforward attribution of Commission proposals in clear-cut cases, which in turn will translate into an earlier start of legislative work. The Conference of Presidents will now also have the possibility, as a last resort, to set up a temporary legislative committee to deal with especially broad crosscutting legislative proposals that would otherwise involve an unusually large number of committees making the legislative process very difficult to handle.
Regarding Parliament’s institutional role, the amendments aim at ensuring greater democratic control and accountability. They introduce an adequate response mechanism to deal with draft Council decisions addressing severe difficulties in Member States, e.g. disruptions in the supply of certain products (proposals based on Article 122 TFEU) and include a proper review of the urgent procedure limiting it to exceptional and strictly necessary cases only.
More democratic scrutiny and engaging plenary debates
To increase parliamentary scrutiny, MEPs voted in favour of, inter alia, introducing the concept of special scrutiny hearings aimed at questioning Commissioners, or any other relevant persons, on an issue of major political importance. The reforms also include the possibility to hold ad hoc plenary sessions as well as special scrutiny sessions with the President of the Commission or selected Commissioners without a pre-defined theme, to be held once per plenary session. The process of Commissioners’ confirmation hearings is also being simplified and made more flexible.
Parliament’s role as budgetary and discharge authority
On budget and discharge, the cooperation between committees will be improved by a more holistic approach on budget, discharge and legislation. MEPs voted in favour of mutually reinforcing its legislative and budgetary powers with a view to backing up Parliament’s policy priorities with the right amount of money. To this end, all legislative proposals with an impact on the EU budget will undergo a budgetary assessment. Parliament will also update its way of checking how the EU budget is spent, to help ensure good value for money.
Next steps
The report is expected to be tabled at the April I (10 - 11 April) plenary session in Brussels. For the changes relating to interinstitutional procedures to be implemented, the 2010 Framework Agreement between the Parliament and the Commission will have to be revised - a procedure already initiated by President Metsola.
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Kyriakos KLOSIDIS
Press Officer