Annexes to COM(2015)216 - Proposal for an Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Regulation - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2015)216 - Proposal for an Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Regulation. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2015)216  |
| date | April 13, 2016 |
Common Understanding between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on Delegated Acts
I. Scope and general principles
| 1. | This Common Understanding builds upon, and replaces, the 2011 Common Understanding on Delegated Acts and streamlines the practice established thereafter by the European Parliament and the Council. It sets out the practical arrangements and agreed clarifications and preferences applicable to delegations of legislative power under Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). That Article requires that the objectives, content, scope and duration of a delegation be expressly defined in each legislative act that includes such a delegation ("the basic act"). |
| 2. | In exercising their powers and in compliance with the procedures laid down in the TFEU, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission ("the three Institutions") shall cooperate throughout the procedure with a view to a smooth exercise of delegated power and an effective control of that power by the European Parliament and the Council. To that end, appropriate contacts at administrative level shall be maintained. |
| 3. | When proposing delegations of power under Article 290 TFEU, or delegating any such power, the Institutions concerned, depending on the procedure for the adoption of the basic act, undertake to refer as far as possible to the standard clauses set out in the Appendix hereto. |
II. Consultations in the preparation and drawing-up of delegated acts
| 4. | The Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in the preparation of draft delegated acts. The Member States' experts shall be consulted in a timely manner on each draft delegated act prepared by the Commission services (*). The draft delegated acts shall be shared with the Member States' experts. Those consultations shall take place via existing expert groups, or via ad hoc meetings with experts from the Member States, for which the Commission shall send invitations via the Permanent Representations of all Member States. It is for the Member States to decide which experts are to participate. Member States' experts shall be provided with the draft delegated acts, the draft agenda and any other relevant documents in sufficient time to prepare. |
| 5. | At the end of any meeting with Member States' experts or in the follow-up to such meetings, the Commission services shall state the conclusions they have drawn from the discussions, including how they will take the experts' views into consideration and how they intend to proceed. Those conclusions will be recorded in the minutes of the meeting. |
| 6. | The preparation and drawing-up of delegated acts may also include consultations with stakeholders. |
| 7. | Where the material content of a draft delegated act is changed in any way, the Commission shall give Member States' experts the opportunity to react, where appropriate in writing, to the amended version of the draft delegated act. |
| 8. | A summary of the consultation process shall be included in the explanatory memorandum accompanying the delegated act. |
| 9. | The Commission shall make indicative lists of planned delegated acts available at regular intervals. |
| 10. | When preparing and drawing up delegated acts, the Commission shall ensure a timely and simultaneous transmission of all documents, including the draft acts, to the European Parliament and the Council at the same time as to Member States' experts. |
| 11. | Where they consider this necessary, the European Parliament and the Council may each send experts to meetings of the Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts to which Member States' experts are invited. To that end, the European Parliament and the Council shall receive the planning for the following months and invitations for all experts meetings. |
| 12. | The three Institutions shall indicate to each other their respective functional mailboxes to be used for the transmission and receipt of all documents relating to delegated acts. Once the register referred to in paragraph 29 of this Agreement has been established, it shall be used for that purpose. |
III. Arrangements for the transmission of documents and computation of time periods
| 13. | By way of an appropriate mechanism, the Commission shall officially transmit the delegated acts to the European Parliament and the Council. Classified documents shall be processed in accordance with internal administrative procedures drawn up by each Institution with a view to providing all the requisite guarantees. |
| 14. | In order to ensure that the European Parliament and the Council are able to exercise the rights provided for in Article 290 TFEU within the time limits laid down in each basic act, the Commission shall not transmit any delegated acts during the following periods:
These periods shall only apply when the period of objection is based on point 18. These periods shall not apply in relation to delegated acts adopted under the urgency procedure provided for in part VI of this Common Understanding. In the event that a delegated act is adopted under the urgency procedure during one of the periods specified in the first subparagraph, the time limit for objection provided for in the basic act shall start to run only when the period in question has come to an end. By October of the year preceding the elections to the European Parliament, the three Institutions shall agree on an arrangement for the notification of delegated acts during the election recess. |
| 15. | The period for expressing objections shall start when all official language versions of the delegated act have been received by the European Parliament and the Council. |
IV. Duration of the delegation
| 16. | The basic act may empower the Commission to adopt delegated acts for an indeterminate or determinate period of time. |
| 17. | Where a determinate period of time is prescribed, the basic act should in principle provide for the delegation of power to be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegated power not later than nine months before the end of each period. This point does not affect the European Parliament's or the Council's right of revocation. |
V. Periods for objection by the European Parliament and Council
| 18. | Without prejudice to the urgency procedure, the period for objection defined on a case-by-case basis in each basic act should in principle be of two months, and not less than that, extendable for each institution (the European Parliament or the Council) by two months at its initiative. |
| 19. | However, the delegated act may be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, and may enter into force before the expiry of that period, if the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. |
VI. Urgency procedure
| 20. | An urgency procedure should be reserved for exceptional cases, such as security and safety matters, the protection of health and safety, or external relations, including humanitarian crises. The European Parliament and the Council should justify the choice of an urgency procedure in the basic act. The basic act shall specify the cases in which the urgency procedure is to be used. |
| 21. | The Commission undertakes to keep the European Parliament and the Council fully informed about the possibility of a delegated act being adopted under the urgency procedure. As soon as the Commission services anticipate such a possibility, they shall informally forewarn the secretariats of the European Parliament and the Council to that effect via the functional mailboxes referred to in point 12. |
| 22. | A delegated act adopted under the urgency procedure shall enter into force without delay and shall apply as long as no objection is expressed within the period provided for in the basic act. If an objection is expressed by the European Parliament or by the Council, the Commission shall repeal the act immediately following notification by the European Parliament or the Council of the decision to object. |
| 23. | When notifying a delegated act under the urgency procedure to European Parliament and the Council, the Commission shall state the reasons for the use of that procedure. |
VII. Publication in the Official Journal
| 24. | Delegated acts shall be published in the L series of the Official Journal of the European Union only after the expiry of the period for objection, save in the circumstances set out in point 19. Delegated acts adopted under the urgency procedure shall be published without delay. |
| 25. | Without prejudice to Article 297 TFEU, decisions by the European Parliament or Council to revoke a delegation of power, to object to a delegated act adopted under the urgency procedure or to oppose the tacit renewal of a delegation of power shall also be published in the L series of the Official Journal of the European Union. A decision to revoke shall enter into force the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. |
| 26. | The Commission shall also publish in the Official Journal of the European Union decisions repealing delegated acts adopted under the urgency procedure. |
VIII. Mutual exchange of information, in particular in the event of a revocation
| 27. | When exercising their rights in applying the conditions laid down in the basic act, the European Parliament and the Council will inform each other and the Commission. |
| 28. | When either the European Parliament or the Council initiates a procedure which could lead to the revocation of a delegation of power, it will inform the other two Institutions at the latest one month before taking the decision to revoke. |
(*) The specificities of the procedure for preparing regulatory technical standards (RTS) as described in the ESA Regulations [Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2009/78/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 12), Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2009/79/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 48) and Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Securities and Markets Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission Decision 2009/77/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 84)] will be taken into account without prejudice to the consultation arrangements laid down in this Agreement.
Appendix
Standard clauses
Recital:
In order to … [objective], the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of … [content and scope]. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making of 13 April 2016. In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
Article(s) delegating power
The Commission [shall adopt/is empowered to adopt] delegated acts in accordance with Article [A] concerning … [content and scope].
The following supplementary paragraph is to be added where the urgency procedure applies:
Where, in the case of … [content and scope], imperative grounds of urgency so require, the procedure provided for in Article [B] shall apply to delegated acts adopted pursuant to this Article.
Article [A]
Exercise of the delegation
| 1. | The power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission subject to the conditions laid down in this Article. |
[duration]
Option 1:
| 2. | The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article(s) … shall be conferred on the Commission for an indeterminate period of time from … [date of entry into force of the basic legislative act or any other date set by the co-legislators]. |
Option 2:
| 2. | The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article(s) … shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of … years from … [date of entry into force of the basic legislative act or any other date set by the co-legislators]. The Commission shall draw up a report in respect of the delegation of power not later than nine months before the end of the …-year period. The delegation of power shall be tacitly extended for periods of an identical duration, unless the European Parliament or the Council opposes such extension not later than three months before the end of each period. |
Option 3:
| 2. | The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Article[s] … shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of … years from the … [date of entry into force of the basic legislative act or any other date set by the co-legislators]. |
| 3. | The delegation of power referred to in Article(s) … may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force. |
| 4. | Before adopting a delegated act, the Commission shall consult experts designated by each Member State in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making of 13 April 2016. |
| 5. | As soon as it adopts a delegated act, the Commission shall notify it simultaneously to the European Parliament and to the Council. |
| 6. | A delegated act adopted pursuant to Article(s) … shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or by the Council within a period of [two months] of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by [two months] at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council. |
The following supplementary article is to be added where the urgency procedure applies:
Article [B]
Urgency procedure
| 1. | Delegated acts adopted under this Article shall enter into force without delay and shall apply as long as no objection is expressed in accordance with paragraph 2. The notification of a delegated act to the European Parliament and to the Council shall state the reasons for the use of the urgency procedure. |
| 2. | Either the European Parliament or the Council may object to a delegated act in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article [A](6). In such a case, the Commission shall repeal the act immediately following the notification of the decision to object by the European Parliament or by the Council. |