Monitoring of the application of Community law. 15th annual report 1997

The Parliament adopted its Resolution drafted by Ms. Angela del Carmen SIERRA GONZALEZ (GUE/NGL, Spain) concerning the application of Community law. The resolution was adopted without amendment. The Resolution stresses that the lack of clarity in Community law is not only a problem stemming from the complexity and the increasingly technical nature of the EU's legislative process, but is primarily a political problem since it affects everyday people who simply do not understand Community legislative texts and this leads to an even more serious consequence, namely a questioning of the Union's legitimacy and that of its representative bodies. It states that the European Parliament should, under these circumstances, assume its political responsibility to legislate in order to serve the people, this being the basis and foundation of democracy. It undertakes to implement (once it is signed) the inter-institutional agreement on the quality of the drafting of legislative texts. In relation to the implementation of the procedure laid down in Art. 169 (future Art. 226) of the EC Treaty, it calls on the Commission to indicate the average amount of time that passes between the sending of a letter of formal notice and the delivery of a reasoned opinion, and between the latter and the point at which a case of infringement lapses or is brought before the Court of Justice. It calls on the Commission to discuss cases of infringement at least once every three months instead of once every six months. It also calls on the Commission to establish, as part of the general register of the documents it has received, a register of all complaints received. �