The previous blog post looked at the rules when the Council is heard by the European Parliament. The “silence procedure” laid down in Article 12(2) of the Council’s Rules of Procedure was also presented.
This post adds a few remarks on questions by MEPs to the Council. (The internal EP rules have been discussed earlier.)
A fresh practical example (in French) is Council document 7290/09 from the Council Secretariat to Coreper with references to draft answers by the Council to written questions by MEPs:
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/fr/09/st07/st07290.fr09.pdf
***
Questions and answers
For a view of various types of questions by members of the European Parliament to the Council (and the Commission) you can go to the European Parliament’s web page Parliamentary questions:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-WEB/home.jsp?language=en
If you choose Written questions – Questions with answers, you gain an insight into how the Council replies, but first and foremost how much more popular questions to the Commission are. I encountered the first question with answer from the Council on page 18:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sidesSearch/sipadeMapUrl.do?PROG=WQ&L=EN&SORT_ORDER=D&REF_WQ=2009-*&F_REF_WQ=*/2009&WITH_ANSWER=Y
Ralf Grahn
Showing posts with label question. Show all posts
Showing posts with label question. Show all posts
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Monday, 9 March 2009
European Parliament: Questions for written answer
Question Time and Questions for oral answer with debate may be more “media sexy”, but Questions for written answer offer individual members of the European Parliament more freedom to query the Commission or the Council.
The number of “written questions” is high, but with patience you may find valuable nuggets of information about interesting details not readily available elsewhere.
***
Treaty provisions
“The Commission shall reply orally or in writing to questions put to it by the European Parliament or by its Members.”
This is the text of the third paragraph of Article 197 of the current Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC), published in the consolidated version of the treaties OJEU 29.12.2006 C 321 E/134.
Its substance would not be affected by Article 2, point 185 of the original Treaty of Lisbon (OJEU 17.12.2007 C 306/102).
Article 197 (ToL) appears renumbered as Article 230 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the consolidated Lisbon Treaty, with the same wording of the second paragraph (OJEU 9.5.2008/151).
***
EP Rules of Procedure
Naturally, more detailed rules are needed to complement or implement treaty provisions. The general resource concerning procedures in the European Parliament is the Rules of Procedure (16th edition, October 2008).
Rule 110 concerns questions for written answer to the Council or the Commission. Each member can table one priority question each month, to be answered within three weeks. Non-priority questions should be answered within six weeks, but the Rule does not limit their number. The questions and answers are published:
Rule 110 Questions for written answer to the Council or the Commission
1. Any Member may put questions for written answer to the Council or the Commission in accordance with guidelines laid down in an annex to these Rules of Procedure. The content of questions shall be the sole responsibility of their authors.
2. Questions shall be submitted in writing to the President who shall forward them to the institution concerned. Doubts concerning the admissibility of a question shall be settled by the President. His decision shall be notified to the questioner.
3. If a question cannot be answered within the time limit set it shall, at the request of the author, be placed on the agenda of the next meeting of the committee responsible. Rule 109 shall apply mutatis mutandis.
4. Questions which require an immediate answer but not detailed research (priority questions) shall be answered within three weeks of being forwarded to the institution concerned. Each Member may table one priority question each month.
Other questions (non-priority questions) shall be answered within six weeks of being forwarded to the institution concerned.
Members shall indicate which type of question they are submitting. The final decision shall be taken by the President.
5. Questions and answers shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
***
Guidelines: Annex IIa
More detailed rules are laid down in Annex IIa. While Rule 110 concerns questions to the Council or the Commission, the reference to Rule 111 is with regard to questions to the European Central Bank.
The guidelines set fairly basic norms for the relevance and language of an admissible question, if need be with advice on drafting. In addition, the guidelines try to avoid burdening the Commission and the Council with repetitive answers to essentially the same question or when the information is readily available. The Commission or Council can bundle answers on related matters:
ANNEX II a Guidelines for questions for written answer under Rules 110 and 111
1. Questions for written answer shall:
- fall within the competence and sphere of responsibility of the institution concerned and be of general interest;
- be concise and contain an understandable interrogation;
- not contain offensive language;
- not relate to strictly personal matters.
2. [In effect after the 2009 European elections] If a question does not comply with these guidelines, the Secretariat shall provide the author with advice on how the question may be drafted in order to be admissible.
3. [In effect after the 2009 European elections] If an identical or similar question has been put and answered during the preceding six months, the Secretariat shall transmit a copy of the previous question and answer to the author. The renewed question shall not be forwarded to the institution concerned unless the author invokes new significant developments or is seeking further information.
4. If a question seeks factual or statistical information that is already available to Parliament's library, the latter shall inform the Member, who may withdraw the question.
5. Questions concerning related matters may be answered together.
***
Written questions
Just as questions for oral answers with debate become “oral questions” in everyday parlance, questions for written answer turn into “written questions” colloquially. In other words, search for “Answers to written question(s)” if you want to know more.
But the search and search options did not feel especially intuitive, so try the European Parliament’s web page Parliamentary questions:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-WEB/home.jsp?language=en
A cottage industry opens up. The latest written question this year was numbered P-1583/09 and we are little more than two months into 2009 (an election year).
You can access the most recent questions or all the questions for the year. The headlines give an indication of what the questions are about.
You can find the most recent questions with answer, which might give you valuable information about a certain topic. Because of the number of questions and topics you might want to try the search option on the page.
Ralf Grahn
The number of “written questions” is high, but with patience you may find valuable nuggets of information about interesting details not readily available elsewhere.
***
Treaty provisions
“The Commission shall reply orally or in writing to questions put to it by the European Parliament or by its Members.”
This is the text of the third paragraph of Article 197 of the current Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC), published in the consolidated version of the treaties OJEU 29.12.2006 C 321 E/134.
Its substance would not be affected by Article 2, point 185 of the original Treaty of Lisbon (OJEU 17.12.2007 C 306/102).
Article 197 (ToL) appears renumbered as Article 230 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the consolidated Lisbon Treaty, with the same wording of the second paragraph (OJEU 9.5.2008/151).
***
EP Rules of Procedure
Naturally, more detailed rules are needed to complement or implement treaty provisions. The general resource concerning procedures in the European Parliament is the Rules of Procedure (16th edition, October 2008).
Rule 110 concerns questions for written answer to the Council or the Commission. Each member can table one priority question each month, to be answered within three weeks. Non-priority questions should be answered within six weeks, but the Rule does not limit their number. The questions and answers are published:
Rule 110 Questions for written answer to the Council or the Commission
1. Any Member may put questions for written answer to the Council or the Commission in accordance with guidelines laid down in an annex to these Rules of Procedure. The content of questions shall be the sole responsibility of their authors.
2. Questions shall be submitted in writing to the President who shall forward them to the institution concerned. Doubts concerning the admissibility of a question shall be settled by the President. His decision shall be notified to the questioner.
3. If a question cannot be answered within the time limit set it shall, at the request of the author, be placed on the agenda of the next meeting of the committee responsible. Rule 109 shall apply mutatis mutandis.
4. Questions which require an immediate answer but not detailed research (priority questions) shall be answered within three weeks of being forwarded to the institution concerned. Each Member may table one priority question each month.
Other questions (non-priority questions) shall be answered within six weeks of being forwarded to the institution concerned.
Members shall indicate which type of question they are submitting. The final decision shall be taken by the President.
5. Questions and answers shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
***
Guidelines: Annex IIa
More detailed rules are laid down in Annex IIa. While Rule 110 concerns questions to the Council or the Commission, the reference to Rule 111 is with regard to questions to the European Central Bank.
The guidelines set fairly basic norms for the relevance and language of an admissible question, if need be with advice on drafting. In addition, the guidelines try to avoid burdening the Commission and the Council with repetitive answers to essentially the same question or when the information is readily available. The Commission or Council can bundle answers on related matters:
ANNEX II a Guidelines for questions for written answer under Rules 110 and 111
1. Questions for written answer shall:
- fall within the competence and sphere of responsibility of the institution concerned and be of general interest;
- be concise and contain an understandable interrogation;
- not contain offensive language;
- not relate to strictly personal matters.
2. [In effect after the 2009 European elections] If a question does not comply with these guidelines, the Secretariat shall provide the author with advice on how the question may be drafted in order to be admissible.
3. [In effect after the 2009 European elections] If an identical or similar question has been put and answered during the preceding six months, the Secretariat shall transmit a copy of the previous question and answer to the author. The renewed question shall not be forwarded to the institution concerned unless the author invokes new significant developments or is seeking further information.
4. If a question seeks factual or statistical information that is already available to Parliament's library, the latter shall inform the Member, who may withdraw the question.
5. Questions concerning related matters may be answered together.
***
Written questions
Just as questions for oral answers with debate become “oral questions” in everyday parlance, questions for written answer turn into “written questions” colloquially. In other words, search for “Answers to written question(s)” if you want to know more.
But the search and search options did not feel especially intuitive, so try the European Parliament’s web page Parliamentary questions:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-WEB/home.jsp?language=en
A cottage industry opens up. The latest written question this year was numbered P-1583/09 and we are little more than two months into 2009 (an election year).
You can access the most recent questions or all the questions for the year. The headlines give an indication of what the questions are about.
You can find the most recent questions with answer, which might give you valuable information about a certain topic. Because of the number of questions and topics you might want to try the search option on the page.
Ralf Grahn
Friday, 6 March 2009
European Parliament: Questions for oral answer
Parliamentary questions give elective representatives opportunities to profile themselves and issues outside the legislative treadmill.
UK Prime Minister’s Question Time has probably set the trend in Europe, including the European Parliament, to find ways of more direct interaction between parliaments and governments.
The structure of the European Union is more complicated, but in this blog post we look at the rules concerning oral questions by the EP or MEPs to the Commission.
***
Current treaty
Article 197 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) contains bare bones provisions on two areas concerning the European Parliament:
a) internal organisation, and
b) relations with the Commission and the Council.
The third paragraph of Article 197 TEC concerns oral and written questions to the Commission.
The text is from the latest consolidated version of the treaties, published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 29.12.2006 C 321 E/134:
Article 197 TEC
-----
The Commission shall reply orally or in writing to questions put to it by the European Parliament or by its Members.
-----
***
Original Lisbon Treaty (ToL)
Article 2, point 185 of the original Treaty of Lisbon did not affect Article 197 TEC with regard to questions by the European Parliament or its members to the Commission (OJEU 17.12.2007 C 306/102).
***
Consolidated Lisbon Treaty
Article 197 (ToL) was renumbered Article 230 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the consolidated Lisbon Treaty, with the questions to the Commission in the second paragraph (OJEU 9.5.2008/151):
Article 230 TFEU
(ex Article 197, second, third and fourth paragraph, TEC)
-----
The Commission shall reply orally or in writing to questions put to it by the European Parliament or by its Members.
-----
***
Admissibility of questions
Among the powers of the President of the European Parliament is to rule on the admissibility of questions to the Council and the Commission, according to Rule 19(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament (16th edition, October 2008).
***
Questions for oral answer
Attentive readers may have noticed my deliberately sloppy language above, calling the questions oral and written.
As we see from Rule 108 the questions are submitted to the EP President in writing. Hence ‘Questions for oral answer with debate’.
Submission is reserved for committees, political groups or at least forty MEPs.
The Conference of Presidents decides if a question is placed on the agenda and in what order.
Questions have to be communicated to the Commission one week in advance.
The oral part of the proceedings commence at the sitting where the question is aired and answered (paragraph 4).
Rule 103(2) to (5) refers to winding up the debate with a resolution (paragraph 5).
Rule 108 Questions for oral answer with debate
1. Questions may be put to the Council or the Commission by a committee, a political group or at least forty Members with a request that they be placed on the agenda of Parliament.
Such questions shall be submitted in writing to the President who shall immediately refer them to the Conference of Presidents.
The Conference of Presidents shall decide whether and in what order questions should be placed on the agenda. Questions not placed on Parliament's agenda within three months of being submitted shall lapse.
2. Questions to the Commission must be referred to that institution at least one week before the sitting on whose agenda they are to appear and questions to the Council at least three weeks before that date.
3. Where the questions concern matters referred to in Articles 17 and 34 of the EU Treaty, the time limit provided for in paragraph 2 of this Rule shall not apply, and the Council must reply with sufficient promptness to keep Parliament properly informed.
4. One of the questioners may move the question for five minutes. One member of the institution concerned shall answer.
[Official explanation: The author of the question is entitled to use the whole period of speaking time mentioned.]
5. Rule 103(2) to (5) shall apply mutatis mutandis.
***
Eur-Lex
In principle, you can search on Eur-Lex for Parliamentary questions, but when I tested I got the improbable result that no such questions had been posed during the time span 2008 to 2009. A number of other search options yielded results of a similar nature.
But if you want to try your luck, go to:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/RECH_questions_parlementaires.do
***
EP website
You may be luckier if you try the European Parliament’s web page Parliamentary questions:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-WEB/home.jsp?language=en
The so called oral questions are found here:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-WEB/application/home.do?SELECT_TAB=qo_param
For the year 2009 there were 46 oral questions listed under Rule 108:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sidesSearch/sipadeMapUrl.do?PROG=OQ&L=EN&SORT_ORDER=D&REF_OQ=O-2009-*&F_REF_OQ=O-*/2009
Ralf Grahn
UK Prime Minister’s Question Time has probably set the trend in Europe, including the European Parliament, to find ways of more direct interaction between parliaments and governments.
The structure of the European Union is more complicated, but in this blog post we look at the rules concerning oral questions by the EP or MEPs to the Commission.
***
Current treaty
Article 197 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) contains bare bones provisions on two areas concerning the European Parliament:
a) internal organisation, and
b) relations with the Commission and the Council.
The third paragraph of Article 197 TEC concerns oral and written questions to the Commission.
The text is from the latest consolidated version of the treaties, published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) 29.12.2006 C 321 E/134:
Article 197 TEC
-----
The Commission shall reply orally or in writing to questions put to it by the European Parliament or by its Members.
-----
***
Original Lisbon Treaty (ToL)
Article 2, point 185 of the original Treaty of Lisbon did not affect Article 197 TEC with regard to questions by the European Parliament or its members to the Commission (OJEU 17.12.2007 C 306/102).
***
Consolidated Lisbon Treaty
Article 197 (ToL) was renumbered Article 230 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) in the consolidated Lisbon Treaty, with the questions to the Commission in the second paragraph (OJEU 9.5.2008/151):
Article 230 TFEU
(ex Article 197, second, third and fourth paragraph, TEC)
-----
The Commission shall reply orally or in writing to questions put to it by the European Parliament or by its Members.
-----
***
Admissibility of questions
Among the powers of the President of the European Parliament is to rule on the admissibility of questions to the Council and the Commission, according to Rule 19(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament (16th edition, October 2008).
***
Questions for oral answer
Attentive readers may have noticed my deliberately sloppy language above, calling the questions oral and written.
As we see from Rule 108 the questions are submitted to the EP President in writing. Hence ‘Questions for oral answer with debate’.
Submission is reserved for committees, political groups or at least forty MEPs.
The Conference of Presidents decides if a question is placed on the agenda and in what order.
Questions have to be communicated to the Commission one week in advance.
The oral part of the proceedings commence at the sitting where the question is aired and answered (paragraph 4).
Rule 103(2) to (5) refers to winding up the debate with a resolution (paragraph 5).
Rule 108 Questions for oral answer with debate
1. Questions may be put to the Council or the Commission by a committee, a political group or at least forty Members with a request that they be placed on the agenda of Parliament.
Such questions shall be submitted in writing to the President who shall immediately refer them to the Conference of Presidents.
The Conference of Presidents shall decide whether and in what order questions should be placed on the agenda. Questions not placed on Parliament's agenda within three months of being submitted shall lapse.
2. Questions to the Commission must be referred to that institution at least one week before the sitting on whose agenda they are to appear and questions to the Council at least three weeks before that date.
3. Where the questions concern matters referred to in Articles 17 and 34 of the EU Treaty, the time limit provided for in paragraph 2 of this Rule shall not apply, and the Council must reply with sufficient promptness to keep Parliament properly informed.
4. One of the questioners may move the question for five minutes. One member of the institution concerned shall answer.
[Official explanation: The author of the question is entitled to use the whole period of speaking time mentioned.]
5. Rule 103(2) to (5) shall apply mutatis mutandis.
***
Eur-Lex
In principle, you can search on Eur-Lex for Parliamentary questions, but when I tested I got the improbable result that no such questions had been posed during the time span 2008 to 2009. A number of other search options yielded results of a similar nature.
But if you want to try your luck, go to:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/RECH_questions_parlementaires.do
***
EP website
You may be luckier if you try the European Parliament’s web page Parliamentary questions:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-WEB/home.jsp?language=en
The so called oral questions are found here:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/QP-WEB/application/home.do?SELECT_TAB=qo_param
For the year 2009 there were 46 oral questions listed under Rule 108:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sidesSearch/sipadeMapUrl.do?PROG=OQ&L=EN&SORT_ORDER=D&REF_OQ=O-2009-*&F_REF_OQ=O-*/2009
Ralf Grahn
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