EP Rules of Procedure: adapt the internal procedures to the cases of simplification of Community legislation

The committee adopted the report by Marie-Line REYNAUD (PES, FR) on changes to be made to Parliament's Rules of Procedure to bring internal procedures into line with the requirements of simplification of Community legislation in the framework of the 'Better Lawmaking' initiative.

The committee proposed to change Rule 80 to adopt new procedures for the codification of Community legislation. Although no amendments can be made to the text of a Commission proposal for codification of Community legislation when it is submitted to Parliament, the committee suggested that, at the rapporteur's request, the chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee should submit amendments relating to technical adaptations "provided that those adaptations are necessary in order to ensure that the proposal complies with the codification rules and do not involve any substantive change to the proposal". Moreover, if the Legal Affairs Committee takes the view that the proposal entails a substantive change to Community legislation, it should propose that Parliament should reject the proposal.

The committee also proposed a new Rule 80a on the recasting of Community legislation (which was previously not covered by the Rules of Procedure). The new rule contains similar provisions to the modified Rule 80. However, it also stipulates that amendments to the provisions which remain unchanged in the recasting proposal  may be admitted "as a special dispensation and on a case-by-case basis" by the chairman of the committee responsible if he considers this necessary  "for pressing reasons relating to the internal logic of the text or because the amendments are inextricably linked to other admissible amendments". Moreover, if, as provided for in Rule 80, the Legal Affairs Committee proposes that Parliament should reject the proposal on the grounds that it entails substantive changes other than those identified as such in the proposal, the President of Parliament shall call on the Commission to withdraw its proposal.