What keeps Council up at night
The letter from the Council pushes back against parts of the agreement that would allow the Parliament to be present during international negotiations. The treaties “do not grant the Parliament a right of consultation during the negotiations stage, but only a right of information which does not include, nor justify, the participation of members of Parliament in coordination meetings,” the letter reads.
Countries also don’t like a clause that would require the Commission to get approval from Parliament before temporarily putting trade deals into effect while they are still being ratified. Under the treaties, only the Council has a say in allowing a trade deal to be applied on a temporary basis.
Included in the deal between Commission and Parliament is the former’s promise to provide a detailed justification if it uses Article 122 of the treaties, which allows the Commission and the Council to bypass the Parliament in emergencies. For example, Article 122 was used when setting up the loans-for-arms program SAFE to boost defence. The Council says this would “interfere with the Council’s prerogatives and therefore alter the institutional balance.”
While the treaties grant only the Commission the power to propose or amend legislation, Parliament has increasingly pushed the Commission to draft laws at the request of MEPs. Under the new deal, the Commission pledges to provide a detailed justification if it does not follow through with a Parliament request to draft a law, and it vows to give lawmakers technical and financial support in designing pilot projects to test proposed laws.
Countries argue this creates an imbalance at the heart of EU lawmaking, as it risks the Commission straying from its role as a neutral broker, giving Parliament “a more favorable position” over the Council when it comes to initiating laws.
MEP Simon dismissed the countries’ concerns, saying the new text follows EU law and simply “strengthens democratic accountability.”
“This is not a matter of institutional rivalry, but of making the Union more capable, more transparent and more responsive to citizens,” he added.