Monitoring of the application of Community law. 13th annual report 1995

Demanding greater transparency when the Commission used its discretionary power in the pre-litigation stage provided for by Article 169 of the Treaty, the rapporteur insisted that Parliament should be better informed and not just through a press release, which was what had happened when the Commission made known the criteria of application of Article 171 of the Treaty. Mrs Schaffner then recommended establishing, between the Commission and national legislators, a permanent dialogue at various levels in order to create a true legal Community. To this end she also stressed the role of citizens and national courts in the application of Community law. This was why praiseworthy initiatives such as the Grotius or Citizens of Europe programmes should be supported financially, particularly in the area of information for students of law and legal practitioners. Commissioner Kinnock replied by recalling the progress made by the Commission during the reference period of the thirteenth report on the application of Community law: firstly, with regard to transparency, by establishing the rule that all Commission decisions adopted under Article 169 should be published in a press release (from July 1996); secondly, with regard to following up cases of application of Article 171, by publishing a communication (August 1996) allowing the Commission to use an effective method of calculating the penalties to be imposed on Member States should they repeatedly fail to enforce a Court judgment. Finally, while recalling that the diffusion of Community law was the responsibility of the Member States, Mr Kinnock congratulated the Commission for not having spared any efforts throughout 1996 in improving information, particularly through its programmes intended for the legal professions.