EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

•Reasons for and objectives of the proposal

This initiative follows up on a statement by the President of the Commission in his State of the Union address to the European Parliament in September 2016 when he said: 'It is not right that when EU countries cannot decide among themselves whether or not to ban the use of glyphosate in herbicides, the Commission is forced by Parliament and Council to take a decision. So we will change those rules – because that is not democracy.'.

On several occasions concerning the adoption of acts which are subject to the comitology procedure, the Commission has found itself in the past years in a situation where it is legally obliged to take an authorisation decision in the absence of a qualified majority of the Member States taking position (either in favour or against) in the committee. This 'no opinion' situation is in the Commission's view particularly problematic when it concerns politically sensitive matters of direct impact on citizens and businesses, for instance in the field of health and safety of humans, animals or plants.

The majority of Union legal acts adopted each year are adopted by the Commission pursuant to the powers conferred on it by the European Parliament and the Council as co-legislator, either by means of delegated acts under Article 290 TFEU or as implementing acts under Article 291 TFEU. Unlike for delegated acts under Article 290 TFEU, the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission's exercise of implementing powers under Article 291(3) TFEU are laid down in advance in regulations adopted by ordinary legislative procedure. Such rules and principles are set out in Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 (the 'Comitology' Regulation).

The present proposal provides for targeted and limited amendments to Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 and thus relates to implementing acts only.

The Commission reported to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 in February 2016. That report concluded that the Regulation allowed the effective use of the Commission's implementing powers under the control of Member States. The present proposal therefore does not aim at changing the comitology framework as such. The report however also outlined a limited number of problematic cases, notably in relation to decision-making on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In these cases, there has never been a qualified majority amongst Member States in favour or against a draft Commission decision authorising genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically modified (GM) food and feed. Instead, all votes resulted in so-called 'no opinion' outcomes, i.e. that the committee could not reach a position either in favour or against a draft act. This result was then always repeated in the appeal committee, a body that is meant to help decision-making in sensitive and problematic cases. As a consequence, decisions in this field had to be taken systematically without the support of a qualified majority of Member States in the Committee.

The Commission has already taken steps to take account of the specific situation in the field of GMOs. Following the Directive for authorisations of cultivation, which entered into force in 2015, the Commission adopted in April 2015 a proposal following the same logic to amend the legislative framework in relation to food and feed. The solution proposed is maintaining the centralised authorisation process, while allowing opt-out measures by Member States. This proposal is still in the legislative process.

The discussions around the extension of the approval period of the active substance glyphosate in the appeal committee in summer 2016 have shown that the no opinion problem is not limited to GMOs. Also in this case Member States could neither muster a majority in favour or against the approval decision in the appeal committee and the Commission had to decide without the support of the Member States. As indicated above, this is all the more problematic because these decisions often concern politically sensitive matters of direct impact on citizens and businesses, in particular in the field of health and safety of humans, animals and plants. While the Commission is empowered to decide in such cases, the Commission considers that, due to the particular sensitivity of the issues at stake, Member States should, in these specific situations, also assume their responsibilities in the decision-making process to a greater extent. This, however, is not sufficiently ensured where Member States cannot reach a qualified majority because some of them decide to abstain at the moment of the vote or are not present at the meetings of the committees or of the appeal committee.

The Commission therefore considers that there is a need to address this issue through a few very targeted changes to the rules on comitology procedures. It has accordingly announced an initiative on the modernisation of the comitology procedures in its 2017 Work Programme.

This proposal contains four targeted amendments. The subject-matter of this proposal is strictly limited to these four targeted amendments and does not extend to any other element of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. Indeed, the Commission is of the opinion that the system established by Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 has overall proven to work well in practice and struck an appropriate institutional balance as regards the roles of the Commission and the other actors involved. The Commission therefore considers it essential that this system continue to function unchanged but for the targeted amendments proposed. The sole objective of these amendments is to improve the functioning of the comitology procedures at the level of the appeal committee in order to ensure wider political accountability and ownership of politically sensitive implementing acts, without however modifying the legal and institutional responsibilities for implementing acts as organised by Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.