European Parliament resolution on the institution of the petition at the dawn of the 21st century (2000/2026(INI))
Date: 2001-05-15
Institutions: Committee on Petitions, European Parliament
Subjects: European citizenship, appeal to the European Ombudsman, application of EU law, institutional cooperation, legal status, petition

7.2.2002

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Official Journal of the European Communities

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1.

2.

Approves the Commission proposal as amended;

Calls on the Commission to alter its draft regulation accordingly;

Asks to be consulted again if the Commission should intend to depart from the text approved by

3.
Parliament;

4.

Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council and Commission.

8. The petition at the dawn of the 21st century (procedure without debate)

A5-0088/2001

European Parliament resolution on the institution of the petition at the dawn of the 21st century
(2000/2026(INI))

The European Parliament,

(cid:129) having regard to Articles 21 and 194 of the EC Treaty establishing the right of petition,

(cid:129) having regard to its decision of 9 March 1994 on the regulations and general conditions governing

the performance of the Ombudsman(cid:146)s activities (1),

(cid:129) having regard to the 1989 Interinstitutional Agreement on the right of petition (2),

(cid:129) having regard to Article 10 of the EC Treaty on cooperation between the Community institutions and

the Member States,

(cid:129) having regard to the judgment of the European Court of Justice of 30 March 1995 on interinstitu-

tional cooperation between the European Parliament and the Council (Case C-65/93) (3),

(cid:129) having regard to the Opinion of its Legal Service of 23 November 2000 on proposals by the Com-

mittee on Petitions aimed at improving its working methods (4),

(cid:129) having regard to Annex VI to its Rules of Procedure establishing the powers and responsibilities of

standing committees,

(cid:129) having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union adopted on 7 December

2000 (5),

(cid:129) having regard to Rule 163 of its Rules of Procedure,

(cid:129) having regard to the report of the Committee on Petitions (A5-0088/2001),

A. whereas the Treaty on European Union grants all European citizens, either individually or collectively,
and any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State, the right to
address a petition to the European Parliament on a matter which comes within the Community(cid:146)s field
of activity and which affects them directly,

B. whereas every European citizen also has the right to bring a complaint before the European Ombuds-

man against any case of maladministration,

C. whereas this right must be made easier and quicker to exercise and more effective and direct in its
outcome, in accordance with the values of pluralist, participative, citizen-centred democracy which
must inform its actions and those of its Member States and the other institutions and bodies of the
Union,

(1) OJ L 113, 4.5.1994, p. 15.
(2) OJ C 120, 16.5.1989.
(3)
[1995] ECR, p. I-643.
(4) SJ-197/2000, 23.11.2000.
(5) OJ C 364, 18.12.2000, p. 1.

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D. whereas petitions received by Parliament and complaints to the Commission and the Ombudsman
make a significant contribution to monitoring the implementation of Community law whenever they
report violations of, or failures to comply with, Community law or bad or slow administration at
either Community or national level,

E. whereas its Committee on Petitions, aware of the responsibilities incumbent upon it, wishes, in agree-
ment and synergy with the bodies concerned, to shorten the time spent on, and the deadlines set for,
processing petitions, thus making the procedure and its outcome quicker, more transparent and more
participatory,

F. wishing to make full use of the chances and opportunities offered by the new information techno-
logies in the interest, first and foremost, of petitioners and also of all the other bodies and people
involved,

G. whereas over the last decade the practice of interinstitutional cooperation has significantly increased,
including in the field of dealing with complaints and petitions submitted to Parliament, the Commis-
sion and the Ombudsman,

1.
Draws attention to the particular importance it attaches to the institution of the petition and to the
role of the European Ombudsman, which enable it to remain attentive to European public opinion and its
expectations and to deepen its parliamentary scrutiny of the shortcomings and inadequacies of existing
regulations and discretionary measures taken without the slightest regard for the citizen;

Takes the view that the exercise of the European citizen(cid:146)s right to petition Parliament and the
2.
Ombudsman constitutes an instrument with which to exercise control after the event over the application
of Community law to specific cases, making it possible to condemn cases of failure to apply Community
law, in particular violations of the principle of non-discrimination;

Takes the view that Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights should be taken into consider-

3.
ation in determining when the principle of non-discrimination has been violated;

4.
Takes the view that its duty to take action on petitions received, which correlates with European
citizens(cid:146) right of petition, can be exercised all the more effectively if it is accompanied and served by clear,
precise and transparent legal and administrative rules, which define, inter alia, the cooperation that Parlia-
ment is entitled to require from the Council and Commission and, through their mediation, from the
Member States and national governments;

5.
Calls on the Council and Commission in consequence to review the 1989 Interinstitutional Agree-
ment linking them to the European Parliament in order to shorten the time taken to deal with petitions
and define a binding, clear and coherent framework for the cooperation with Parliament which is essential
in this area;

6.
Stresses the need for the bodies administering petitions and complaints to the European Ombudsman
to equip themselves in the long term with a codified set of administrative and procedural rules applicable
throughout the Union, so that procedures are made quicker and more transparent, and the petitions pro-
cess can be completed more effectively while adhering to the law and the principle of legal safety; this does
not preclude the need to have recourse in future to new legal instruments based on the general principles
applicable in the Member States;

Stresses that the petition, as a right of European citizens enshrined in the Treaties, whose full exercise
7.
Parliament must ensure, concerns, in different degrees, many bodies and internal services of the Union,
which must all play their part within the limits of their competences to address the grievances raised by
these petitioning Parliament;

8.
Stresses that the powers and responsibilities of the Petitions Committee, as defined in Annex VI to
Parliament(cid:146)s Rules of Procedure, are to be adapted in the light of the revised Interinstitutional Agreement
on the right of petition; calls on its Secretary-General to submit proposals which will facilitate optimum
synergy among the services concerned in order to ensure that the right of petition is as effective as
possible;

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9.

Expresses a preference for the setting up, in accordance with the procedures in force, of:

(a) a European network linking its Petitions Committee with those of its national counterparts, the Euro-

pean Ombudsman and the national and local ombudsmen;

(b) a meeting of these bodies once during every legislature;

(c) an annual seminar to assess cooperation between the European Parliament, the Council and the Com-

mission on the basis of the new Interinstitutional Agreement;

10.
Regards as unacceptable the delays that sometimes occur and the obstructiveness of some auth-
orities as regards making available information and clarification on the content of petitions to the Com-
mittee on Petitions and the European Ombudsman; therefore considers that, in urgent cases and after
having given the offending authorities sufficient warning, the Committee on Petitions can make this
obstructive behaviour public before the procedure to refer the matter to the European judicial authorities
begins;

Considers that there must be no delay in making optimum use of the new information technologies
11.
in the interests of petitioners and of all those using these essential data-processing tools in their various
capacities, in particular through better access and monitoring of petitions by means of databases, while
fully complying with the rules on the protection of privacy and confidential information;

Stresses the need for a rigorous assessment of the human resources necessary for the efficient con-

12.
sideration of petitions presented to Parliament;

Stresses also that the processing of petitions by the various services must be speeded up, which,
13.
together with measures adopted earlier, should make it possible for its Petitions Committee better to focus
its efforts;

Stresses the importance of further consideration of the question of language policy in the Commit-

14.
tee on Petitions, inter alia in the light of enlargement;

15.

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.

9. Company accounts ***I

A5-0130/2001

Proposal for a European Parliament and Council directive amending Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/
349/EEC as regards the valuation rules for the annual and consolidated accounts of certain types of
companies (COM(2000) 80 (cid:129) C5-0106/2000 (cid:129) 2000/0043(COD))

The proposal was amended as follows:

TEXT PROPOSED
BY THE COMMISSION (1)

AMENDMENTS
BY PARLIAMENT

Amendment 1
RECITAL 1

(1) Article 32 of
cle 54(3) (g)

(now 44(2)

the Directive 78/660/EEC based on Arti-
the Treaty requires the items

(g)) of

(1) Article 32 of the Fourth Council Directive 78/660/EEC
of 25 July 1978 on the annual accounts of certain types of

(1) OJ C 311 E, 31.10.2000, p. 1.