European Parliament and national parliaments

AFCO, the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament, discusses a draft report by Elmar Brok on Monday evening 9 March 2009.

The draft Report on the development of the relations between the European Parliament and national parliaments under the Treaty of Lisbon, dated 26 January 2009, is available here:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-415.140+02+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN


The procedure to follow for this own-initiative report is 2008/2120(INI).

Rapporteur Elmar Brok bases his approach on twin tracks of parliamentarisation of the European Union, involving the broadening of the European Parliament’s powers vis-à-vis all the Union’s decisions and the strengthening of the powers of the national parliaments vis-à-vis their respective governments.

The Report presents three groups of rights of the national parliaments under the Lisbon Treaty: rights to be informed, rights to actively participate and rights to object.

The principles of subsidiarity and proportionality are among the key interests of national parliaments (as enshrined in Protocol No. 2 annexed to the consolidated Treaty of Lisbon; OJEU 9.5.2008 C 115/206).

The draft Report contains a number of practical proposals to develop interparliamentary cooperation, including at the level of specialised committees, without encroaching on parliaments' decision-making powers.



Ralf Grahn