A3-0266/94

Resolution on the transparency of Community legislation and the need for it to be consolidated

The European Parliament,

-having regard to Rule 148 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights (A3-0266/94),

A.convinced that legal certainty is essential to the survival and development of the European Union and the Communities, with a view to protecting citizens and safeguarding the activities of the institutions,

B.whereas the simpler and clearer the provisions adopted by the institutions of the Union, the greater the degree of legal certainty,

C.dissatisfied at the current state of Community legislation, the opaque and confused nature of which it has frequently condemned, notably in its annual resolutions on the application of Community law,

D.noting that the need for extensive simplification of Community legislation has finally been recognized by:

(a)the Member States, in the declarations annexed to the Treaty on European Union on the hierarchy of Community acts and the implementation of Community law,

(b)the European Council, in the conclusions of its meetings in Birmingham and Edinburgh in 1992 and in Brussels on 10/11 December 1993, on the basis of which the Commission has been asked to submit proposals for the simplification and revision of various Community provisions,

(c)the Council, in numerous resolutions calling for the consolidation and simplification of provisions relating to the internal market, the environment, etc.,

(d)the Council and Commission in the interinstitutional declaration of 25 October 1993 on democracy, transparency and subsidiarity, in which the Council undertakes to 'simplify and consolidate Community legislation in cooperation with the other institutions', and the Commission agrees to publish plans for the consolidation of Community legislation in the legislative programme,

(e)the Commission, which has finally submitted a coherent strategy for the revision and consolidation of legislation in force in its recent communications to the European Council, Parliament and the Council,

E.aware however that, despite this series of declarations and commitments at all levels and by all institutions, little or nothing has been done in recent years to remove the sources of legislative confusion and that, although some 300 to 400 legislative measures are adopted each year, the number of consolidation measures adopted can be counted on the fingers of one hand,

F.whereas of the 19 proposals contained in the 1993 legislative programme only a few have been forwarded to the European Parliament,

G.aware also of its own new direct responsibilities drawing from the extension of its legislative powers following the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union,

H.having regard to the amendments it has made to its own Rules of Procedure, in particular the new wording of Rule 82, so as to be able to give rapid consideration to consolidation proposals,

1.Proposes to the other institutions that, as far as possible, a consistent and gradual approach be developed as regards the strategy to be followed in respect of:

(a)the revision and simplification of Community legislation in the fields mentioned (such as implementation of the new VAT system, revision of legislation on the structural funds, the new regulations on the right of residence, a new approach to technical regulations and as regards the recognition of qualifications, etc);

(b)the reformulation of a Community measure when it is being amended significantly (without, however, fundamentally calling into question the objectives and principles of the legislation in force - see the customs code);

(c)the consolidation of texts solely for the purpose of certainty as to the law without, however, making further amendments to the legislation in question;

With regard to the revision and simplification of existing legislation,

2.Approves the need to revise and simplify legislation generally as proposed by the Commission in its communications on the adaptation of existing legislation to the principle of subsidiarity (COM(93)0545) and on legislative consolidation to enhance the transparency of Community law in the area of the internal market (COM(93)0361);

3.Proposes that the Commission put forward when drawing up the legislative programme, its views and proposals for revising and simplifying Community legislation and undertakes to react, item by item and as part of the same exercise, to those views and proposals. Once the priority sectors have been approved under the legislative programme, the Commission will draw up revision proposals after consulting, where necessary, the social and business circles concerned, where appropriate on the basis of strategy documents (green or white papers) and in the light of the guidelines drawn up by Parliament pursuant to Article 138b and by the Council pursuant to Article 152 of the Treaty;

With regard to reformulation undertaken when a significant amendment is being made,

4.Welcomes the fact that the Commission has finally accepted Parliament's recommendation that it should systematically update existing legislation whenever a significant amendment proves necessary:

-the Commission will submit to Parliament and the Council a proposal which also includes those provisions that do not require amendment so that once the adoption process has been concluded the new text will completely replace the previous provisions;

-Parliament and the Council undertake to consider the Commission's proposals without reopening basic questions or submitting large numbers of amendments to existing provisions;

With regard to official consolidations,

5.Considers it appropriate that the legislative programme should indicate not only the content of the legislative revisions mentioned in paragraph 2 but also the list of desirable official consolidations,

6.Agrees to the 'proposal for an accelerated working method for the official consolidation of legislation' adopted on 11 March 1994 by the Legal Services of the three institutions (see Annex 1) subject to the following amendments:

(a)it should be emphasized, to begin with, that where the act consolidated is to be adopted on the basis of the codecision procedure, becoming as a result an act of Parliament and the Council, Parliament considers that it is entitled to determine in the first place whether the proposed consolidation is desirable;

(b)recalls in this connection, inter alia, the terms of its resolution of 16 December 1993 on questions of comitology relating to the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union and, in particular, the principles laid down in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the resolution;

(c)agrees that 'official' or 'constitutive' consolidation shall mean the procedure of repealing the acts being consolidated and replacing them by a single act which does not amend their substance;

(d)endorses the proposal that the priority sectors to be consolidated should be approved by the three institutions concerned on a proposal from the Commission. The latter will include in its work programme the consolidation proposals which it intends to submit and Parliament will discuss them when the annual legislative programme is adopted;

(e)endorses the suggestion that the Commission should undertake not to introduce into its consolidation proposal any substantive amendment to the acts being consolidated;

(f)endorses the proposal that the advisory group consisting of the legal services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission will consider the proposal in question as soon as it has been adopted by the Commission and will give its opinion in time for it to be available to the institutions before they begin, respectively, to consider the proposal under consideration. In the event of disagreement, the group can set out the positions of the different services;

(g)stresses that the Community's normal legislative procedure will be fully respected;

(h)considers that the objective of the Commission proposal, ie the consolidation of existing texts and nothing more, in principle limits the submission of any amendment of substance by the European Parliament or the Council, on the understanding that it is for each institution to assess the concept 'amendment of substance';

(i)agrees in principle that all aspects of the Commission proposal should be considered under an accelerated procedure in the European Parliament (a single committee will consider the proposal and a simplified procedure will be followed to approve it) and the Council (a single working party will consider it and it will be included among the I/A items for COREPER/the Council);

(j)considers that if it is necessary, during the legislative procedure, to go beyond mere consolidation and make substantive amendments, the three institutions will consider the best way to take account of any decisions already taken. It would be the Commission's task to submit, where appropriate, the required proposal(s). Parliament reserves the right to suspend the adoption of the legislative act of consolidation if it regards it as undesirable;

With regard to the consolidation of legislative texts purely from a drafting point of view,

7.Believes that, pending swift and more extensive recourse to the method of consolidation referred to in the preceding paragraph, the institutions responsible for adopting legislative acts, in accordance with the treaties in force, should have the task of deciding when and how the consolidated versions of those acts may be published for information;

8.Renews its request to the Commission that when the latter puts forward a proposal for a substantial amendment proposal for a substantial amendment (unless the procedure laid down in paragraph 4 is followed) it should submit to Parliament, for information, a consolidated version of the existing legislation as it would be once the amendment were adopted;

9.Reserves the right to check on an annual basis that these criteria are being observed in connection with the report on the application of Community law and the establishment of the legislative programme;

With regard to the procedures for drafting legislation,

10.Considers that common rules should be drawn up in conjunction with the Council and Commission on the drafting of legislation and, to that end, that note should be take of the criteria laid down by it for the adoption of its own acts (resolution of June 1993);

With regard to the actual ability of citizens to access to legislation,

11.Considers that, for obvious reasons of transparency and the protection of legal certainty, by a joint decision of Parliament and the Council and pursuant to Article 191 of the EC Treaty and Article 163 of the Euratom Treaty, the decision of 15 September 1958 creating the Official Journal must be revised. As is the case with the corresponding provisions for the Official Journals of the Member States, the new decision should state:

-which acts must or may be published and within what timescale;

-where and how citizens must have access to the Official Journal on the territory of the Union;

-whether it is desirable and possible, for reasons of efficiency and in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, for the Union to use networks for distributing Official Journals in the Member States;

12.Considers that, in addition to the legal publicity provided by the Official Journal, the Union's institutions may, by agreement with the Member States and in accordance with the spirit of Article 5 of the EC Treaty, use other forms of communication (press, radio, TV, computer networks, etc) to inform citizens that directly applicable measures have come into force;

With regard to computer access to legislation

13.Considers that, as a priority, the IDA programme should contemplate the establishment of a network linking the offices responsible for publishing Official Journals in the Member States and in the Community so as to provide access to the full text of national provisions transposing Community legislation and make it possible to consult these texts via the CELEX database;

14.Considers that joint efforts should now be made by Parliament, the Council and the Commission to upgrade the CELEX (Communis Europae Lex) database and, with this in view, proposes that guidelines for overhauling this information system on Community legislation should be drafted on the basis of material supplied to the Management Committee of the Publications Office by :

-the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights;

-the relevant body of the Council;

15.By agreement with the Council and the Commission, reserves the right to draw up and publish collections of legislation in specific fields (environment, tax, company law, etc), including the implementing provisions intended for members of the legal profession and the relevant national and regional bodies;

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16.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission and to the parliaments and governments of the Member States.