WRITTEN QUESTION E-2634/01

by Hiltrud Breyer (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(2 October 2001)

Subject: Arrangements for replacing the ECSC Consultative Committee

The ECSC Consultative Committee is, after 50 years of operation, to be integrated into the European Union's Economic and Social Committee. Its membership comprises 108 representatives of producers, employees, consumers and traders in the coal and steel sector, drawn from all 15 Member States. In the past, environmental interests have not been represented either on the ECSC Consultative Committee or on the Economic and Social Committee.

1. Does the Commission intend to include representatives from the environmental sector when, as planned, the ECSC Consultative Committee is integrated into the Economic and Social Committee?

2. How many members does the Commission envisage the new committee having?

3. Does the Commission consider it necessary to include representatives from the environmental sector in the European Union's new enlarged Economic and Social Committee so as to ensure that the Agenda 21 process is firmly established?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(21 November 2001)

The Commission put forward its proposals for the future of the ECSC Consultative Committee in its communication The future of structured dialogue after the expiry of the ECSC Treaty, adopted on 27 September 2000(1).

While acknowledging that the expiry of the ECSC Treaty means that the ECSC's procedures and structures will cease to exist in legal terms, the Commission stressed the importance of the Consultative Committee's experience and its unique contribution to the decision-making process and social consensus, particularly as regards the far-reaching changes which have transformed the coal and steel sectors.

To put that experience to good use while recognising the new situation arising from the expiry of the ECSC Treaty, the Commission recommended that the Economic and Social Committee (ESC) take over some of the ECSC Consultative Committee's advisory tasks. The ESC can, after all, be regarded as a natural successor to the Consultative Committee: set up in 1957 on the basis of experience with the latter, it is one of the ordinary advisory bodies for which the EC Treaty provides. The Commission also proposed that the ESC envisage adapting its structures and working methods so as to derive full benefit from the Consultative Committee's assets.

In particular, the Commission stated that it supported the creation within the ESC of a new operational structure responsible not only for steel and coal-related issues, but also for industrial change and transformation in the wider sense. The purpose of this permanent structure would be to facilitate mutual benefit and the exchange of best practice between the coal and steel industries and the other industries represented within the ESC. This applies in particular to the environment and sustainable development, including the Agenda 21 process. In future, representatives of the steel and coal industries will be able to maintain a systematic dialogue on these vital subjects with the ESC's other advisors.

The Consultative Committee and the ESC are currently in contact with one another to decide what form the new structure will take and how it will work.

Under Article 259 of the EC Treaty it is the Council's responsibility to determine the ESC's make-up.

Given the relative importance of the industries concerned and the volume of consultative activities predicted, the Commission has proposed a structure with a total of between 25 and 30 members. This number must, of course, be compatible with the limits laid down by Article 258 (formerly Article 194) of the EC Treaty, according to which the ESC currently has 222 members. Under the Nice Treaty, the number of ESC members in the future and, in particular, in the context of Union enlargement is not to exceed 350.

(1) COM(2000) 588 final.