A4-0001/96

Resolution on the Commission's Twelfth Annual Report to Parliament on monitoring the application of Community law - 1994 (COM(95)0500 - C4-0233/95)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to Declaration 19 on the implementation of Community law, annexed to the Final Act of the Treaty on European Union, adopted by the conference of the representatives of Member State governments on 7 February 1992,

- having regard to the Council resolution of 7 December 1992 on making the single market work ((OJ C 334, 18.12.1992, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the Council resolution of 8 June 1993 on the quality of drafting of Community legislation ((OJ C 166, 17.6.1993, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the Commission communication to the Council and Parliament of 16 February 1994 on the development of administrative cooperation in the implementation and enforcement of Community legislation in the internal market (COM(94)0029 - C3-0108/94),

- having regard to the Council resolution of 16 June 1994 on the development of administrative cooperation in the implementation and enforcement of Community legislation in the internal market ((OJ C 179, 1.7.1994, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the Council resolution of 20 June 1994 on the electronic dissemination of Community law and national implementing laws and on improved access conditions ((OJ C 179, 1.7.1994, p. 3.)),

- having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 20 December 1994 on an accelerated working method for official codification of legislative texts ((OJ C 293, 8.2.1995, p. 2.)),

- having regard to certain proposals in the report by the Molitor Group on legislative and administrative simplification, submitted to the European Council in Cannes in June 1995,

- having regard to the Commission communication to the Council and Parliament of 3 May 1995 on the role of penalties in implementing Community internal market legislation (COM(95)0162),

- having regard to the Council resolution of 29 June 1995 on the effective uniform application of Community law and on the penalties applicable for breaches of Community law in the internal market ((OJ C 188, 22.7.1995, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the Commission report of 15 June 1995 to the Council and Parliament on the single market in 1994 (COM(95)0238 - C4-0239/95),

- having regard to the discussion in Brussels on 21 June 1995 at the symposium of its Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights on the relations between international public law, Community law and national law in the Member States,

- having regard to certain petitions submitted to its Committee on Petitions on faulty transposition of certain Community directives,

- having regard to the discussion at the meeting of 27-28 September 1995 in Brussels between the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and representatives of the national parliaments, including discussion on monitoring the application of Community law,

- having regard to the Commission's Twelfth Annual Report to Parliament and the Council on monitoring the application of Community law (1994) (COM(95)0500 - C4-0233/95) ((OJ C 254, 29.9.1995, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the code of conduct of the Council of 2 October 1995 concerning the publishing of Council minutes and statements in the minutes and Parliament's resolution of 12 October 1995 on the transparency of Council Decisions and the Community's legislative procedures ((OJ C 287, 30.10.1995, p. 179.)),

- having regard to Rule 44 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and the opinions the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy, the Committee on Research, Technological Development and Energy, the Committee on External Economic Relations, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Petitions and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (A4-0001/96),

A. whereas, since the European Community is a constitutional community, its legislation must result from a transparent decision-making process, characterized by texts of an intrinsic quality that will ensure they are read with ease by those to whom they are addressed,

B. whereas it is indubitably the responsibility of the institutions to endeavour to improve the quality of Community legislative texts,

C. whereas efforts to increase transparency in the decision-making process, and to simplify and codify Community law, are still clearly inadequate,

D. having regard to the ideas and policy statements made public by some national parliaments and political leaders on the subject of the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference,

E. whereas such ideas cannot be allowed, however, to jeopardize the acquis communautaire (established body of Community legislation) or the basic principles of the Community legal order deriving from the case law of the Court of Justice,

F. having regard to the judgments handed down by national constitutional courts concerning the Treaty on European Union,

G. whereas the annual reports on monitoring the application of Community law provide an opportunity not only to assess the Commission's activities as guardian of the treaties but also permit thinking on the direction the law is taking and the way it is being applied by national judges, who are Community judges in ordinary law,

H. whereas the Community treaties have established a new legal system, in favour of which the Member States have in increasing areas limited their sovereign rights, and the subjects of which are not only the Member States but also their nationals,

I. whereas the essential features of the Community legal system are, in particular, the primacy of Community law over the laws of the Member States, and the direct applicability of a whole range of provisions on Member State nationals and on the Member States themselves,

J. whereas the Treaty on European Union explicitly intended to maintain the acquis communautaire in full and develop it by creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen,

K. whereas the experience of recent years has shown that the vigilance of individuals in safeguarding their rights constitutes an essential means of ensuring the correct application of Community law by the Member States, as it involves an effective form of monitoring in addition to that entrusted to the good offices of the Commission by Article 169 of the EC Treaty,

L. recognizing, in this regard, the fundamental role played by the Court of Justice, notably in the judgments handed down in application of Article 177 of the EC Treaty,

Nature of Community law

1. Draws attention to the fact that monitoring carried out by constitutional courts of the validity of Community legislative acts in the light of their respective constitutions may jeopardize the uniform application and interpretation of Community law;

2. Recalls that the Communities are based on the principle of the powers conferred upon them as laid down in Article A of the Treaty on European Union and Article 3b of the EC Treaty and that it is understood that new powers for the Union can only be granted after amendment of the Treaties (Article N of the TEU) and subsequent ratification by national parliaments;

3. Stresses that, if a Community act should exceed the limits of the Community's powers, as defined by the Treaties, it would in the final instance be for the Court of Justice of the Communities, guardian of the legality of acts, to annul it; the cooperative relationships existing between national courts and the Court of Justice constitute an efficient remedy to that end; similarly, it is for the Court of Justice to monitor respect for fundamental rights and the general principles of law by the institutions as well as by the Member States when their activities are carried out within the scope of Community law;

4. Calls on the Commission to step up its efforts to achieve a dynamic interpretation of the rules of Community law, including before the Court of Justice, so as to use their potential to the full for the benefit of the citizens of the Union and other persons residing in the Member States;

Transparency in the decision-making process

5. Considers that the transparency of the decision-making process is an integral part of the democratic nature of the European Union and that such transparency is essential if citizens are to have complete confidence in the institutions and future projects for the Union;

6. Takes the view that all the institutions must be aware of this requirement of transparency and show the political will to put it into practice;

7. Reiterates its previous requests that the Council should henceforth legislate in public;

8. Deplores the Council's habit of inserting in its minutes unilateral declarations on legislation in the course of adoption, particularly under the codecision procedure; cannot understand how the Commission could have associated itself with the Council in such declarations and calls on it to put an end to this practice which contradicts its repeated claims that it seeks to construct a 'Community close to its citizens' (EC Bull. 10/1992, p. 9);

9. Takes the view that the institutions must not refuse public access to documents concerning the Community legislative process, save in quite exceptional cases where disclosure might jeopardize protection of the public interest or the private life of the individual, on the understanding that the institution concerned must justify its refusal and interpret these concepts in a restrictive manner;

10. Notes in this context the above-mentioned code of conduct of the Council of 2 October 1995 concerning the publishing of minutes and statements made in the minutes of the Council acting as legislator and believes that this code clearly fails to attain the objective pursued, namely to guarantee the requisite transparency of the legislative work of the Council and to make such work more accessible to citizens of the Community (see letter from the Council to the European Parliament dated 4 October 1995); calls on the Council, therefore, to review its position at an early date and states that it is willing to cooperate in the drawing up of an interinstitutional agreement on this subject;

Quality of Community legislation

11. Insists that the Commission should submit as soon as possible all the proposals for legislative codification listed in the 1995 legislative programme;

12. Asks the Commission, with a view to improving the quality of legislation, to print the full existing text and the full text of its proposal side by side in future when it forwards proposals to amend existing European law and submit the consolidated text in this form to the Council and Parliament;

Content of the Annual Report

13. Regrets that the Commission did not forward the Twelfth Annual Report to the European Parliament until 19 June 1995 and that it was not published in the Official Journal until 29 September 1995; takes the view that this delay limits the usefulness of considering these reports and that the Commission should be aware of this fact; calls once again, therefore, for the annual report on 1995 to be forwarded to Parliament at the latest by March 1996;

14. Notes that, in this annual report, the Commission has not undertaken a global assessment of the state of the transposition of Community law although it did so in its earlier reports; such an assessment should set out not only the major data which characterized the state of application of Community law during the year in question but above all the specific proposals envisaged by the Commission to improve the situation in the most problematical sectors and the measures which should be taken by the Member States, as well as by Parliament and the Council; only in this way could a genuine constructive political dialogue be established between the institutions and the Member States, rather than Parliament reviewing, after a time lapse, a text which the Commission itself says is 'inevitably routine' (see third paragraph of the introduction); considers that, as part of the efforts currently being undertaken by the Commission with a view to establishing a genuine information policy, the global assessment referred to above should be part thereof and be widely distributed to the general public, given the negative impact of faulty transposition of Community law;

15. Notes that there has been some improvement in the transposition of Community law, but regrets that in some sectors (environment, public contracts, insurance, intellectual property and pharmaceuticals) there is still a backlog;

16. Considers that each parliament should be able to devise internal procedures for monitoring the application of Community law and, where necessary, intercede effectively with the government when the latter is responsible for the transposition or implementation of Community obligations, in particular when proceedings have been initiated in the Court of Justice for failure to fulfil obligations or when the Court has ruled against the party concerned; in this context, Declaration No. 14, annexed to the final act of the Treaty on European Union, on the Conference of the Parliaments should be recalled with a view to establishing a regular political dialogue between the European Parliament and the national parliaments;

17. Takes note of Annex 15 to the Presidency conclusions of the European Council meeting in Madrid which states, with a view to greater transparency within the Union, that when any substantial legislative proposal is made, the national parliaments should be duly informed and supplied with documents in the official languages of the country in due time to allow proper discussion from the beginning of the legislative process;

18. Considers, as regards the single market, that public procurement is clearly a problem area, with a sharp increase in the number of infringement proceedings; notes that the same is true for value-added tax, where cases of failure to comply with Community law continue to proliferate; points out that these problems and others were highlighted in its resolution of 15 November 1995 on the Commission's report on the single market in 1994 ((Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 10.)); notes, moreover, that there are areas where as yet there exists no Community law, but where there is still a void in single market legislation: harmonization of indirect taxation is an example;

19. Points out, as regards the environment, that the practical application of a number of directives is inadequate in some Member States, and calls on the Commission to include detailed information on the reasons for incorrect application of the various directives in its next annual report;

20. Notes that Council Directive 85/337/EEC of 27 June 1985 on assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment ((OJ L 175, 5.7.1985, p. 40.)) again gave rise to most problems in 1994 and believes that this downright disappointing result is partly attributable to the lack of clarity in the text of the Directive; insists, therefore, that an amended directive with a legally clear text should be prepared; notes finally, as regards the water directives, that compliance is in many cases lamentable, although this legislation is nearly 20 years old;

21. Considers, as regards agriculture, that additional efforts need to be made by various Member States in order to speed up the process of transposition of those directives that relate to essential aspects of agricultural legislation: animal feedingstuffs, veterinary and plant health standards, and seeds; without this effort, the single market and the free movement of agricultural products risk coming up against difficulties and obstacles caused by complex administrative and bureaucratic procedures, or which are set up to protect the national markets from imports from other Member States of the Union, using these procedures as a pretext;

22. Considers, with regard to the transport sector, that the main problems arose in the transposition of Council Directive 90/314/EEC of 13 June 1990 on package travel, package holidays and package tours ((OJ L 158, 23.6.1990, p. 59.)), Council Directive 91/440/EEC of 29 July 1991 on the development of the Community's railways ((OJ L 237, 24.8.1991, p. 25.)) and Council Directive 92/106/EEC of 7 December 1992 on the establishment of common rules for certain types of combined transport of goods between Member States ((OJ L 368, 17.12.1992, p. 38.));

23. Calls on the Commission, with regard to technological development, to monitor the Member States closely to ensure that they transpose Council Directive 90/219/EEC of 23 April 1990 on the contained use of genetically modified micro-organisms ((OJ L 117, 8.5.1990, p. 1.)) and Council Directive 90/220/EEC of 23 April 1990 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms ((OJ L 117, 8.5.1990, p. 15.)), already in force for a number of years in the Community's legal system but not yet transposed by any Member State;

24. Hopes, as regards the Union's external economic and trade relations, that the Commission will revise the nomenclature of its report and include the application of that section of Community law;

Commission consideration of complaints and petitions

25. Calls on the Commission to speed up its consideration of individual complaints and petitions by exercising stricter control over the deadlines for replies from Member States, the average time taken between sending formal letters of notice and reasoned opinions, and between the latter and termination of the infringement or referral to the Court of Justice;

26. Calls on the Commission and its Committee on Petitions to devise jointly new working methods to speed up the examination of petitions and improve the level and quality of information available to the public regarding their right to petition;

Proceedings under Article 169 EC

27. Notes that, according to the judgments of the Court of Justice, the Commission is taking too long to send to recalcitrant Member States formal letters of notice, reasoned opinions and, where appropriate, initiate the procedure for failure to act before the Court of Justice; it would appear that, on average, one year is required for each pre-litigation phase, a situation which seriously affects the uniform nature of Community law throughout the Union;

Member States' failure to implement Court of Justice judgments

28. Condemns the fact that some Member States have not yet implemented some Court of Justice judgments, certain of them dating back more than 13 years, and insists that the Commission, without further delay and in all cases, invoke Article 171(2) of the EC Treaty which empowers the Court to impose penalty payments,

Informing individuals of their rights

29. Considers, taking note of the Court of Justice's latest judgments, that the Commission would be well advised to draw up a practical guide for individuals as soon as possible, translated into all the Community languages, listing the main rights and obligations deriving from Community law and their opportunities for asserting them;

Role of Court of Justice in preliminary rulings

30. Recognizes the essential role played by the Court of Justice, in particular when it is consulted through the preliminary ruling procedure by the courts of the Member States, but expresses its concern at the length of the procedure provided for in Article 177 of the EC Treaty;

31. Notes that in some Member States the courts put in hardly any requests for preliminary rulings under Article 177, while such requests are numerous in others, and asks the Commission to give detailed reasons for these disparities, which are at first sight connected with the degree of familiarity of national magistrates and lawyers with Community law;

Access to Community courts

32. Is aware of the practical difficulties encountered by individuals in gaining access to the Community courts, and asks the Commission to look into this matter and consider setting up a Community fund to improve the situation;

Training in Community law

33. Regrets that the Commission is not making greater efforts to train and inform the legal professions in the field of Community law and asks it to put forward a programme for this purpose as soon as possible, on the understanding that it should be provided with the financial resources required; recommends, further, that the Commission supports initiatives in the Member States and university and other institutions with a view to training lawyers in Community law;

34. Recommends that the Member States include a study of the disciplines of Community law as a compulsory requirement for access to the legal professions;

Penalties

35. Expresses its agreement of principle on the range of guidelines set out in the Commission communication to the Council and Parliament referred to above on the role of penalties in implementing Community internal market legislation;

36. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.