Communication from the Commission to the Council - Opinion of the Commission on the draft Council Decision adopting the Statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee
Date: 1998-12-18
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: comitology, committee (EU), institutional structure, operation of the Institutions, third stage of EMU

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels,  18.12.1998 
COM(1998) 783 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL 

Opinion of the Commission 

on the draft Council Decision 

adopting the 

Statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee 

•  w 

Communication from the Commission to the Council 

Opinion of the Commission 

on the draft Council Decision 

adopting the 

Statutes of the Economic and Financial Committee 

In accordance with Article 153 of the Treaty, the Council shall, after receiving an opinion 
of  the  Commission,  determine  the  rules  governing  the  Economic  and  Financial 
Committee. 

Overall,  the  Commission  considers  that  the draft  Statutes  provide  an  appropriate  set  of 
rules  for  the  functioning  of the Economic  and Financial  Committee  in stage 3 of  EMU. 
They  reflect  the  different  tasks  and  responsibilities  of  the  EFC  compared  with  the 
existing tasks of the Monetary Committee. In addition, the draft  Statutes seek to address 
many  of  the  concerns  raised  in  the  Report  of  the  European  Parliament1  on  the 
Commission  proposal  for  a Council  Decision  on the detailed  provisions  concerning  the 
composition of the EFC. 

Article  4  of  the  Statutes  provides  that  members  from  the  Commission,  ECB  and  the 
national  central  banks  shall  not  participate  in  votes  on  questions  on which  the  Council 
may  subsequently  take  a  decision.  This  formulation  underlines  the  collegiate  nature  of 
the Committee with votes being the exception rather than the rule. It also provides  for a 
parity of status between the members of the Committee while recognising that members 
from  national  administrations  have  particular  responsibilities  on  matters  where  the 
Council takes decisions. 

The Commission considers that several amendments should be made to the draft  Statutes 
as follows: 

• 

in Article  2, the term '''moreover''' should be replaced with the term "inter alia". This 
is because  the term  "moreover" suggests  that  the tasks  specified  in  Article  2  are in 
addition to tasks defined  in Article  1 of the Decision which refers to the Treaty. It is 
not  possible  for  the  Committee  to  acquire  tasks  additional  to  those  specified  in  the 
Treaty. The term "inter alia" makes it clear that the purpose of Article 2 is to  specify 
in more detail some of the tasks of the EFC. 

A4-0264/98 of 1  July  1998: Rapporteur: Mrs Pervenche Berès 

"2. 

Article 2, second indent should.be qualified  to better reflect  the role of the European 
Commission  as  provided  for  in  the  Resolution  of  the  European  Council  of 
Luxembourg  of  13 December  1997 on  economic  policy  co-ordination  in  stage  3 of 
EMU and on Treaty Articles  109 and  109b. To this end, an additional recital  should 
be added stating "Whereas the Resolution of the European Council of Luxembourg of 
13 December  1997 on  economic policy  co-ordination in  stage  3  of  EMU  and  on 
Treaty Articles 109 and  109b provides that the Commission should provide analyses 
to  the  Council,  and  the  Economic  and  Financial  Committee should prepare  the 
Council's reviews  of the development of the exchange rate of the euro. " 

• 

the voting rules in Article 4 could be clarified. The current draft  states that "Opinions, 
reports or communications  shall be adopted by a  majority of  members, if a  vote is 
requested'. This rule is ambiguous as there are 34 members of the EFC, and thus 18 
votes  constitutes  a  majority  of  members.  However,  in  most  cases  only  the  15 
members  from  national  administrations  shall  participate  in  votes  and  thus  8  votes 
would constitute a majority.  It is therefore  suggested that the first sentence of Article 
4  be  moved  to  the  end  of  that  Article  and  that  it  be  modified  to  read  "Opinions, 
reports or communications shall be adopted by a majority of the members entitled to 
participate in a vote if a vote is requested." 

the  last  sentence  in Article  5 should  be deleted.  It is not possible  for  the  President's 
alternate  to  become  a  member  of  the  Committee  even  on  a  temporary  basis.  The 
President  does not  cease being  a member  of the  Committee  on becoming  President. 
Were  his  alternate  to  assume  temporary  membership,  then  the  Member  State 
concerned  would have three members of the Committee, which is in contradiction  to 
the limit of two members per Member State imposed  in Article  109c(2) of the Treaty. 
The  Commission  acknowledges  that  for  the  President  to  be  able  to  fulfil  his 
chairmanship  duties, he should  be able to delegate the tasks of ordinary  members  of 
national administrations to his alternate. This outcome can be achieved by  modifying 
Article 7 of the Statutes as suggested below. 

The  second  sentence  of Article  7 should  be  modified  to  read  "They shall  not  vote. 
Unless the Committee decides otherwise, they shall not take part  in the discussions". 
This  change  has  two  benefits.  Firstly,  alternates  may  be  invited  to  speak,  e.g.  the 
Chairman  of the alternates could be invited  to make a presentation  to the  Committee 
on the discussions of the alternates. Secondly, enabling the alternates to speak would 
overcome the problem with Article 5. The Committee  as a general  rule could permit 
the President's alternate  to take part in discussions, thus leaving the President free to 
chair the meeting in an efficient  manner. 

a  new  Article  10  bis  should  be  inserted  to  take  account  of  paragraph  16  of  the 
Resolution of the European Parliament which calls upon the President of the EFC to 
appear before the relevant Committee of the Parliament. It could read "The President 
of the Committee shall have responsibility of maintaining the Committee's relations 
with the European Parliament " 

• 

the sentence in Article 12 which states "The Secretary and his/her staff shall act upon 
the instructions of the Committee" must be deleted. This is because the Secretary and 
staff of the secretariat will be Commission officials,  and the Staff Regulations prohibit 
Commission  officials  from  taking instructions from outside bodies. This  sentence  is 

5 

superfluous  as  the  first  sentence  states  that  the  Committee  shall  be  assisted  by  a 
secretariat under the direction of a Secretary. 

V 

ISSN 0254-1475 

COM(98) 783 final 

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