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Aligning a number of legal acts with the TFEU: Commission delegated and implementing powers

2013/0365(COD)

The European Parliament adopted by 451 votes to 48 with 10 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council adapting to Article 290 and 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union a number of legal acts providing for the use of the regulatory procedure with scrutiny (RPS).

To recall, the Commission committed itself to assessing by the end of 2012 how many legislative acts containing references to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny remained in force, in order to prepare the appropriate legislative initiatives and thus complete the adaptation to the new legal framework. The stated objective was that, by the end of the seventh term of Parliament, all provisions referring to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny would have been removed from all legislative instruments.

The Commission put forward three proposals fulfilling this commitment (Please see 2013/0220(COD) and 2013/0218(COD)).

This resolution is related to a proposal covering more than 30 legislative acts containing RPS measures.

The position adopted by Parliament in first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure amended the proposal.

Parliament opposed most of the adaptations of provisions for the use of RPS to the regime and implementing acts. Therefore, except for specific exceptions, most of the provisions included by the Commission in Annex II (legal acts adapted to the regime of implementing acts) have been moved to Annex I (legal acts adapted to the regime of delegated acts.)

In the same way, most of the acts in Annex III (deletion of powers) have been moved to delegated acts.

Parliament wants the power to adopt delegated acts to be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years from the date of entry into force of the Regulation.

Owing to the highly technical and complex nature of the delegated acts in certain policy areas, Parliament proposed that the time limit for objections to the act should be three months, extendable by a further three months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.