MANUAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY: THE EU AND BRITAIN

After the formal adoption of an item of environmental legislation, there often remain several practical issues still to be decided, such as measurement methods, reporting requirements, technical specifications etc. The Commission can sometimes decide these issues (in the form of a Commission Decision) with the help of committees chaired by the Commission and composed of Member State experts which are provided for in the parent legislation. This type of decision-making whereby committees ‘assist’ the Commission in the exercise of its powers of implementation delegated by the EU legislator (Council and Parliament) is often referred to as ‘comitology’. There are various types of comitology procedures, each with a different role for and balance of power between, the Commission, the Member States, and, ultimately, the Council and the European Parliament. Reference to the full Council is possible in the case of Management and Regulatory committees in the event of disagreement between the Commission and a majority of Member State representatives.

As a result of a long-standing institutional dispute between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission, comitology procedures were reformed in 2006 to increase parliamentary scrutiny. As a result, Decision 1999/468/EC has been amended by Decision 2006/512/EC and provides now 4 basic procedures instead of three:

Under the regulatory procedure with scrutiny the Parliament (and the Council) have the right to veto the Commission’s implementing measures under certain conditions. The Parliament can do this if it believes that the Commission has exceeded its implementing powers, that these measures are not in line with the aims of the basic act, or on the grounds of susbisidiarity and proportionality. This new procedure has been created to for those quasi-legislative implementing acts that arise from co-decided basic acts.

The reform provides for application of the new provisions to existing legislative acts which contain delegation of implementing powers that are considered as falling into the quasi-legislative category. These acts all need to be revised to include a reference to the new provisions of Decision 1999/468/EC as amended by Decision 2006/512/EC. In order to effectively apply these new provisions to existing legislative acts the Commission drew up a list of over 200 instruments requiring adaptation (COM(2007)740). The actual adaptation process involves formally amending the comitology provisions of each instrument, without changing the substance of the legislation. It is a gradual process based on rounds of general alignments that is still ongoing. Acts amended so far include legislation on waste electrical and electronic equipment recycling, the restriction of hazardous substances, drinking water, ozone depleting substances, national emissions ceilings, and emission trading.

As there is an increasing tendency in EU environment policy to have recourse to framework legislation which delegates important implementing powers to the Commission, the importance of comitology is growing in this policy area.