Monitoring of the application of Community law . 16th annual report 1998

The committee adopted the report by Françoise GROSSETÊTE (EPP/ED, F) on the Commission's 16th annual report on monitoring the application of Community law. The committee broadly welcomed the improvements the Commission had made to its administrative procedures regarding the treatment of complaints from individuals about breaches of Community law. It also welcomed the fact that complainants were now kept informed throughout the procedure. The report underlined the need for transparency in disputes over Community law, a point which was constantly stressed by Parliament. It called for the Commission to state reasons for any decisions to propose that a case be terminated. The committee also strongly opposed any move towards a selective approach to complaints, as this would be a way of censoring them: some complaints would no longer be forwarded by the Commission, with the result that access to justice by the public would be restricted. The uneven nature of the Commission's report was seen as a disappointment. Not all areas of Community law were covered equally. For example, the "environment" chapter was very detailed and logically presented but this was not true of all the other chapters.�