Europese wetgevingsvoorstellen voor scheidingsrecht en posttarieven nader beoordeeld door nationale parlementen (en) - Main contents

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - National parliaments are looking into possible European Commission over-regulation in the areas of postal services and divorce matters - but preparations for a general EU law watchdog scheme have revealed large difficulties.

The network of member states parliaments, COSAC, in October struck a deal on stronger oversight of Commission legislation which is potentially in breach of the principle of "subsidiarity".

The subsidiarity principle, enshrined in the EU treaty, states that the EU shall only take action when it is more effective than action at member state level.

COSAC will on Friday (10 February) publish a list of EU law proposals for 2006 which were most frequently mentioned by national parliaments as potential Brussels over-regulation.

EUobserver has learned that two European Commission proposals in particular have raised national MP's alarm, the "proposal for the full accomplishment of the internal market for postal services" and the "proposal for a regulation on the applicable law and jurisdiction in divorce matters."

These two bills are set to top a possibly larger subsidiarity checklist set to be drawn up by national parliaments representatives in Vienna on 20 February.

The watchdog initiative resembles the "yellow card" procedure foreseen in the EU Constitution, which states that the commission should review a legislative proposal, if at least one third of national parliaments send a "reasoned opinion" arguing that the proposal falls outside the commission's mandate.

But national parliaments agreed to proceed with greater scrutiny of EU regulation in spite of the uncertain future of the constitution, with officials stressing the plan is perfectly in line with the bloc's existing treaties.

Guessing game

However, the preparations for the parliaments' common move have revealed serious difficulties.

Parliaments of just 14 member states (sometimes with more parliamentary chambers per member state) have so far told the Austrian COSAC presidency which Brussels bills they should be on the subsidiarity checklist, despite a January deadline.

The parliaments of Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden have not yet made any suggestions.

The Italian parliament has so far emerged as the only principal opponent to the scheme, arguing that it is a de facto implementation of a single aspect of the constitution which could reduce the chances of adoption of the text as a whole.

But other parliaments encountered great difficulty in actually identifying the laws potentially in breach of subsidiarity in the commission's 2006 legislative programme, which contains about 500 proposals.

National parliament sources complained that the technical document was only in English and French, and that only the minority of proposals that he commission itself identified as "priority areas" contained a vague political description.

"It is like guessing," one insider noted.

Criticism on commission document

An interim report by the Conference of the Speakers of EU Parliaments suggested that in the future, "the LWP [Legislative and Work Programme of the Commission] be translated in a timely fashion before the commencement of the debate."

"The LWP lacks details concerning the individual proposals (...) the separation of priority and non-priority proposals seems arbitrary," the report continues.

The UK's House of Commons decided it could not make a judgement on the basis of the commission programme and failed to submit its list to COSAC, although the House of Lords did submit its wishlist after contacting commission officials itself.

Germany, meanwhile, is facing delay because of recent elections, but an official said Berlin will certainly submit its proposals at a later stage.

Drugs green paper

More parliaments faced with time pressure could still hand in their wish-lists to COSAC, sources said, and the common list topped by postal services and divorce matters could still be expanded.

Discussion is also ongoing on the possible inclusion of non-legislative items on the subsidiarity checklist, such as commission communications and green papers, which represent policy statements rather than concrete bills.

For example, the Dutch parliament and the British House of Lords would also like to see a "green paper on drugs and civil society" subject to early scrutiny by national parliaments.

Although technically these non-legislative documents do not fall under the scope of the COSAC scheme, its members may still decide to include them, sources indicated.