A thunderstorm is approaching – Eu Parliament is about to disrupt the organization of its Committees. Too many (20) and often of low-impact, hopefully many will be merged or eliminated. A good improvement of the legislative process, and yet some don’t like the idea, for some reason…

The new organisational plan was handed over to the internal working group of the Conference of Committee Chairmen (CCC), a political body that has a major say in coordinating the work of the Parliament's internal committees - which carry out essential preparatory work on reports and dossiers before they are approved in plenary.

The European Parliament is currently organised into 20 standing committees, with four subcommittees each linked to a standing committee, but without legislative powers. In addition, there are temporary committees dealing with specific matters created ad hoc.

European legislators have been reflecting on a major reform of the parliamentary committee structure which, if approved before the end of this legislative term, will lead to major changes in the entire parliamentary legislative process once the new term begins after the European elections in June. The discussion paper, filed in mid-September and obtained by Euractiv, proposes halving the number of committees as a solution to resolve the many conflicts of competence that often arise between committees.

According to the current rules, some legislative proposals submitted by the European Commission end up falling under the competence of more than one parliamentary committee. In these cases, the administration of the European Parliament has the task of resolving the conflict and deciding whether to allow a sharing of competences or simply assign the dossier to a specific committee.

The organisational plan proposed by the secretariat would, on the one hand, simplify the workload of the committees and eliminate subcommittees. However, this would also strengthen the decision-making power of the administrative bodies and concentrate legislative power on fewer Members.
When discussing committee reform, parliamentarians are called upon to strike a balance between the necessary simplification and the risk of a concentration of powers in internal administrative bodies, which could also lead to new forms of internal conflict.

The last time the European Parliament reformed the organisation of its committees was almost 20 years ago. According to the document viewed by Euractiv, the main objective of this reform should be to 'modernise' the structure in order to reflect it more closely to today's society.

For instance, 'International Affairs and Enlargement' would be the name of the new Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), which will deal with EU foreign policy in general and, more specifically, with overseeing the work of the EU External Action Service (EEAS), relations with third countries and other multilateral bodies.

Furthermore, it would work on the accession processes and international agreements of the EU - in its field of competence - and coordinate the work of the EU delegations.

A 'partnership and international cooperation' committee would unite the policies of economic and trade relations with third countries, along with development and humanitarian aid, in order to resolve the clash of competencies between the current Development (DEVE) and International Trade (INTA) commissions.
A new commission on 'security and defence' would aim to bring together 'all aspects of defence', including industry.

It would include foreign interference and disinformation, the elimination of conflict of competence with industry (ITRE), security and defence (SEDE) and the two temporary committees on foreign interference (INGE and ING2).

The Competitiveness, Internal Market and Industry Committee would bring together policy areas such as competition, taxation, internal market legislation, small and medium-sized enterprises and industrial policy. The work of the Internal Market Committee (IMCO), Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (ECON) and ITRE would fall under its responsibility.

A separate commission for tax matters would be set up to eliminate conflicts between ECON, IMCO and the Judicial Affairs Commission (JURI).

The internal body also considers the possibility of setting up a committee on 'energy, transport and mobility' to avoid conflicts of competence in the field of 'energy efficiency' in the transport sector.
As an alternative to the latter, the paper proposes putting energy and climate together, since energy 'is the most important sector contributing to climate change', it says.

Two different options for conflicts over agriculture are presented: one committee combining 'agriculture and fisheries' or another combining 'food security, agriculture and fisheries', to resolve conflicts between AGRI, ENVI and PECH - respectively, agriculture, environment and fisheries committees.

On health, the paper proposes creating a committee on 'health and food safety' - if food safety does not merge with agriculture and fisheries - or alternatively another committee on 'ecosystem, health and food safety'.

There is also a proposal to create a commission on 'environment, oceans and forests' as an alternative option to the one on the ecosystem.

A single committee would be dedicated to technology, bringing together 'digitisation, innovation and new technologies', grouping all topics under 'general digital infrastructure'.

The document also proposes to merge the Employment Commission (EMPL) and the Cohesion Policy Commission (REGI) into a single one called 'Employment, Social Inclusion, Cohesion Policy and Regional Development'.

A single committee for 'justice' affairs is proposed, which would unite the JURI and LIBE committees. Besides eliminating the conflict of competences between JURI and IMCO, a 'justice and consumer affairs' committee is added as a possible alternative to 'justice'.

The dossier also suggests the creation of a new committee to tackle migration with a 'holistic' approach, called 'citizenship, migration and home affairs'.

As an alternative to the 'justice' and migration committees, a general committee is proposed to include all aspects of JURI, LIBE and IMCO, called 'fundamental rights, security and justice'.

The proposal also suggests the creation of a Committee on Research, Media, Education and Culture, which would combine the Committee on Culture (CULT) with parts of ITRE.

The last grouping will consist of budget issues (BUDG) and budgetary control (CONT), the latter being referred to in the document as the 'neutralised committee'.

Five horizontal committees are planned for the new structure, called 'special committees' on procedural status, immunity and legal issues, EU constitutional affairs, relations with citizens, gender equality and gender mainstreaming, human rights and democracy.