A3-0056/94

Resolution on the Commission's Tenth Annual Report on the monitoring of the application of Community law

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the Treaty on European Union and the Declaration on the Implementation of Community law in the Final Act of that Treaty, in which the Intergovernmental Conference called on the Commission to ensure, in exercising its powers under Article 155 of the EC Treaty, that the Member States fulfil their obligations, and asked it to publish periodically a full report for the Member States and the European Parliament,

-having regard to the report of the 'Sutherland Group' on the functioning of the internal market and the resolution of the Council of Ministers responsible for the internal market of 10 November 1982,

-having regard to the declarations of the Birmingham European Council of 16 October and the Edinburgh Council of 11 and 12 December 1992,

-having regard to the observations made by representatives of the national parliaments,

-having regard to its resolution of 17 November 1993 on the interinstitutional agreements,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and the opinion of the Committee on Petitions (A3-0056/94),

A.noting that Article 5 of the EC Treaty obliges the Member States to take all appropriate measures, whether general or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaty or resulting from action taken by the Community institutions,

B.noting that Article 155 of the EC Treaty obliges the Commission to ensure that the provisions of the Treaty and the measures taken by the institutions pursuant thereto are applied,

C.noting that Article 7a of the EC Treaty provides for the establishment of the internal market over a period expiring on 31 December 1992,

D.noting that as of 31 December 1992 the Council of Ministers still had to adopt approximately 6% of the measures provided for in the Commission's White Paper on the creation of the internal market,

E.noting also with regret that as of 31 December 1992 the average level of implementation of 'White Paper' measures was only 79%,

F.welcoming the decision by the Commission to publish work programmes and legislative programmes in the Official Journal and to publicise action it has planned in order to increase public awareness of the initiatives it intends to take; welcoming the inclusion in the Commission's legislative programme of plans for the consolidation of Community legislation,

1.Calls on the Commission to undertake, as a matter of priority, and as a result of the growing extent and complexity of the corpus of Community law, the codification and simplification of Community law in the light of the conclusions of the Edinburgh Summit on 11 and 12 December 1992;

2.Calls on the Commission to ensure that all measures adopted by the Council are implemented correctly and on time by the Member States, and that once implemented, the provisions of such legislation are respected;

3.Believes that the Commission, as guardian of the Treaties and as the institution which ensures the correct application of Community law, should seek, as far as possible, to ensure swift and effect compliance with Community directives on the single market, since these have a direct impact on the daily lives of our citizens who, in the final analysis, are the beneficiaries of the legislation which was intended to establish, on 1 January 1993, the entry into force of a common area without frontiers;

4.Takes the view that the Commission should give priority to the implementation and application of Directive 90/313/EEC on freedom of access to information on the environment, as well as to the establishment of the European Environment Agency, both of which will enhance its ability to detect infringements of Community environmental law;

5.Takes the view that the Commission should learn from the failure satisfactorily to implement Directive 85/337/EEC on environmental impact assessment and calls on it accordingly to submit a draft revised version of this directive with a view to making it more effective;

6.Regrets to note the excessive length of time involved in instituting and concluding infringement proceedings;

7.Regrets that the report is not sufficiently explicit about the Commission's negotiations with national administrations in this context and the reasons for deciding whether or not to institute infringement proceedings;

8.Considers that the 'package meetings' held with government departments in the Member States for the purpose of discussing the application and monitoring of directives increase the Commission's ability to pass on information, but takes the view that they must not be used for the purpose of transactions on the application of Community law, which the Commission must enforce in all the Member States and in all fields;

9.Calls on the Commission to ensure that complaints and petitions are dealt with more rapidly by exercising more stringent control over the deadlines for replies from the Member States and by remaining in regular contact with the petitioners, and wishes to be informed on a regular basis of the action taken on these petitions;

10.Calls on the Commission to devote more than two meetings per year to dealing with complaints and petitions relating to infringements referred to as 'A' and 'B' cases in the introduction to the annual report and at any event to give absolute priority to cases where there is a risk of irreversible damage;

11.Congratulates the Commission on having included this year a table giving the means by which infringements were detected (Annex 1), but nonetheless reiterates the calls made in previous European Parliament resolutions on the same subject, relating in particular to the duration, nature and gravity of infringements, as well as to the specific cases in which it has decided to suspend payment of funding;

12.Calls on the Court of Justice to make full use of its powers under Article 171 of the EC Treaty to impose a lump sum or penalty payment on Member States which do not comply with its judgments;

13.Urges the Commission to continue its efforts to foster and encourage the teaching of Community law throughout the Community, in view of the central role to be played by national courts and lawyers practising Community law and the implications of the judgment of the Court of Justice in Francovich and Bonifaci; recommends that Community law should be a compulsory subject in the law faculties of universities throughout the Member States and a prerequisite for access to all branches of the legal profession;

14.Recalls the need for the Commission and the Court of Justice to hold an increased number of relevant seminars on Community law, subsidized by the Community, for Member States' judges and lawyers;

15.Calls on the Commission, in liaison with the Court of Justice, to annex to its annual report a list of the seminars held, mentioning their objectives, their duration and the number of participants per Member State;

16.Calls on the relevant services of the Commission to issue an interpretative note on the implications of the judgment of the Court in Francovich and Bonifaci;

17.Calls on the Commission to undertake a study of those problems at national level concerning the exercise of rights conferred on individuals by virtue of the provisions of Community law, in order to enable the citizens of the Union to assert such rights at national level;

18.Calls for the publication each week in the Official Journal of lists of documents on general topics and for wider public access to documents on specific topics as well as the prompt publication of Commission documents in all official Community languages;

19.Calls for measures to be taken to improve knowledge of existing databases and their accessibility, including improving the existing relay network;

20.Calls for the creation by the Commission of a database on special interest groups as an instrument for use by the general public and by Community officials;

21.Calls on the Commission and the parliaments of the Member States to undertake to work together closely in order to ensure the effective application of Community law;

22.Recalls the importance it attaches to the forwarding of the annual legislative programme, as drawn up by common accord between the Commission and the European Parliament, to the national parliaments so that the latter are better able to follow developments in the Community's legislative process;

23.Is aware of the fact that it is the national governments in each Member State that are responsible for supplying information to their national parliaments but calls on the Commission to respond immediately to any special request for technical assistance so as to back up the information in question and ensure that it is forwarded more effectively;

24.Proposes, by virtue of the provisions of Article 138c of the EC Treaty, to set up, wherever possible and appropriate, temporary committees of inquiry to investigate alleged contraventions or maladministration in the implementation of Community law, particularly in connection with the Single Market and the environment;

25.Instructs its President to forward this opinion to the Council, the Commission and the parliaments of the Member States.