Conference of Committee Chairs

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Strasbourg, 20 November2012

CONFERENCE OF COMMITTEE CHAIRS

Meeting of 20 November 2012, Strasbourg

Minutes

The meeting opened at 14.00 with Mr LEHNE in the chair.

1. Adoption of the draft agenda

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the draft agenda (PE 486.297) andadopted it without modifications.

2. Approval of the minutes of the meeting of 11 September 2012 (PE 486.290)

The minutes of the meeting of 11 September 2012 were adopted.

3. Adoption of a recommendation concerning the agenda for the December(Monday 10 to Thursday 13December 2012) part-session

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents:

-the list of reports and the list of oral questions that the committees wish to have entered on the agenda of the December part-session;

-a draft letter on Delegated and Implementing Acts - screening of current files in view of the December plenary.

The Conference of the Committee Chairs heard Ms Bowles, Chair of the ECON Committee, who requested the inclusion in the December part-session of the following files, although at that stage the committee was not able to assess the possible outcome of the negotiations with Council:

the Karas reports on the Prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms - Part I-2011/0202(COD) and on the Access to the activity of credit institutions and prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms (amending Directive 2002/87/EC)- 2011/0203(COD);

the Thyssen report on Conferring specific tasks on the European Central Bank concerning policies relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions- 2012/0242 (CNS) and the Giegold report (ECON) on the Amendment to Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority) as regards its interaction with Council Regulation (EU) No .../... conferring specific tasks on the European Central Bank concerning policies relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions- 2012/0244 (COD);

the Gauzès report on the Strengthening of economic and budgetary surveillance of Member States experiencing or threatened with serious difficulties with respect to their financial stability in the euro area- 2011/0385 (COD) and the Ferreira report on the Common provisions for monitoring and assessing draft budgetary plans and ensuring the correction of excessive deficit of the Member States in the euro area- 2011/0386 (COD).

Having taken into account these remarks the Conference of Committee Chairs approved the list of reports and oral questions that the committees wished to have placed on the agenda of the December session (Monday 10 to Thursday 13 December 2012) and invited its Chair to submit the recommendation to the Conference of Presidents.

4. Adoption of a recommendation concerning requests for authorisation to draw up own-initiative reports

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents:

-three joint letters of 06.11.2012 and 08.11.2012 from Mr BROK, Chair of the AFET Committee, and Mr DANJEAN, Chair of the SEDE Subcommittee;

-a letter of 17.10.2012 from Mr MOREIRA, Chair of the INTA Committee;

-two letters of 25.10.2012 and 13.11.2012 from Ms BOWLES, Chair of the ECON Committee;

-a letter of 17.10.2012 from Ms SARTORI, Chair of the ITRE Committee;

-three letters of 25.10.2012, 26.10.2012 and 07.11.2012 from Mr HARBOUR, Chair of the IMCO Committee;

-four letters of 22.10.2012, 13.11.2012 and 14.11.2012 from Mr LEHNE, Chair of the JURI Committee;

-a letter of 19.10.2012 from Mr LÓPEZ AGUILAR, Chair of the LIBE Committee;

-the list of INI requests;

-a letter of 19.11.2012 from Ms BOWLES, Chair of the ECON Committee;

-a letter of 15.11.2012 from Mr GROOTE, Chair of the ENVI Committee;

-a letter of 15.11.2012 from Ms SARTORI, Chair of the ITRE Committee.

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted and approved the list of requests with the following exceptions that were removed from the list:

-the request from the IMCO Committee concerning the report "Misleading Packaging Practices" on which the ENVI Committee has contested the competence;

-the request from the LIBE Committee concerning the report "Mid-term review of the Stockholm Programme" on which the JURI Committee has requested the application of Rule 51;

-the request from the ITRE Committee concerning the report "Unleashing the potential of cloud computing in Europe" and the request from the JURI Committee concerning the report "Legal aspects of cloud computing" where the CHAIR invited both committees concerned todelimitate the respective scope of the two reports in order to avoid potential overlapsand to consider methods of association between the two committees, as foreseen under the Rules of Procedure.

The Conference of Committee Chairs heard Ms Bowles, Chair of the ECON Committee, who called for further assurances that financial services were excluded from the scope of consideration of the legislative own-initiative report "The European Code of Private International Law", as requested by the JURI Committee.Mr Lehne, Chair of the JURI Committee, provided such assurances at the meeting and announced that he would confirm them by letter.

The Conference of the Committee Chairs further heard Ms Bowles, Chair of the ECON Committee, as regards the legislative own-initiative report "The Governance of the Single Market", as requested by the IMCO Committee. After an exchange of views, initial reservations by the ECON Committee on the scope of that report were withdrawn.

The Conference of Committee Chairs instructed its CHAIR to forward the list of approved requests to the Conference of Presidents for notification and, where applicable, for final authorisation.

5. Chair's announcements

5.1 - Conference of Committee Chairs Away Days

The CHAIR drew the attention of Committee Chairs to the adjustmentsofthe calendar of part-sessions in Brussels, and, consequently proposed to hold the CCC Away-Dayon Thursday 28 February the whole day.

5.2 - Invitation of Commission Vice-President Šefčovič

The Conference of Committee Chairs agreed to invite Commission Vice-President Šefčovič at its meeting of 15 January 2013 to exchange views on the Commission Work Programme for 2013 and legislative programminguntil the end of the legislature.

5.3 - "Correlation tables" - Implementation of the political declaration on explanatory documents

The CHAIR recalled that when approving a joint political declaration of the EP, Council and Commission on the provision of explanatory documentson 20 October 2011, the Conference of Presidents asked the Conference of Committee Chairs to prepare by the end of 2012a report on the application of the joint political declaration. The CHAIR therefore proposed, and the CCC agreed, to discuss the implementation of the joint political declaration at one of the upcoming meetings in view of submitting a report on the status quo to the Conference of Presidents.

5.4 - Accessibility of information about activities of Committee coordinators (application of Rule 192 of RoP)

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following document:

-Rule 192 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament.

Recalling Rule 192 of the Rules of Procedure, the CHAIR drew the attention of Committee Chairs to different ways of reporting and communicating decisions taken by committee coordinators. He further suggested that the Secretariat conducts a brief screening of different practices and that the Conference discusses the issue of diverging practices and approaches regarding the "accessibility" of coordinators' decisions at one of its next meetings,when a possibility of establishing some guidelines allowing Committees to be equipped with the same tools and report in a coherent way could be explored.

5.5 - Impact Assessment

The CHAIR informed that the Conference of Presidents on 15 November endorsed the CCC proposal on Impact assessmentand invited the CCC to make appropriate arrangements in this regard and to keep the Conference of Presidents informedof the outcome of this process. He proposed to discuss in detail the implementation of the proposal endorsed by the Conference of Presidentsat one of its next meetings.

5.6 - Recording of trialogues

The CHAIR informed that several committees recently signalledthe Council Presidency's repeated resistance to trialogues being recorded. During a brief discussion, Ms BERÈS, Chair of the EMPL Committee, stressed thattrialogues are very important and thatrecording of trialogues is an instrument that is very useful in negotiations. This view was supported by Mr GROOTE, Chair of the ENVI Committee, Ms JOLY, Chair of the DEVE Committeeand Ms BOWLES, Chair of the ECON Committee; Ms BOWLES further suggested that a protocol on the use of recordings be elaborated. Ms SARTORI, Chair of the ITRE Committee, drew attention to a related issue -lack of interpretation at trialogues. She expressed her dissatisfaction with the current situation and called for improvements as regards availability of interpretation facilities during trialogues.

5.7 - Hearings on European Citizens' Initiatives

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents in the file:

-Rule 197a of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament;

-a note of 24.10.2012 from Mr WELLE, Secretary General of the European Parliament on Hearings on European Citizens' Initiatives - Implementing Measures;

The CHAIR informed that the Bureau discussed implementing measures concerning hearings on European Citizens' Initiativesand amended its Rules on public hearings, as a follow-up to the adoption of the Regulation on the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI). The CHAIR drew the attention to the new Article on ECI Hearings inserted in the Rules on public hearings (Article 1a) in the file.

6. Screening of the use of delegated acts

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents:

-three excerpts of the minutes of the Conference of Presidents on 10.10.2012, 27.06.2012 and 19.04.201;

-a letter of 25.10.2012 from Mr LEHNE, Chair of the Conference Committee Chairs;

-a draft letter from Mr LEHNE, Chair of the Conference Committee Chairs;

- a letter of 20.11.2012 from Ms BERÈS, Chair of the EMPL Committee.

The Conference of Committee Chairs endorsed the draft letter and annexes with information about the results of the second screening of delegated acts in view of subsequent communication to President SCHULZ.

7. Commission's Work Programme for 2013 and legislative programming

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents:

-a resolution of the European Parliament of 11/09/2012 on the Commission's Work Programme for 2012;

-a Communication from the European Commission (COM(2012)0629);

-the European Commission's Work Programme 2012 and 2011: Status of execution as of 30 October 2012.

The Conference of Committee Chairsheard the CHAIR say that the Groups will not be able to draft a resolution for the December part-session but announced that there will be an opportunity to discuss the 2013 Commission Work programme with Mr Šefčovič.

During the discussion, Ms BOWLES, Ms BERÈSand Ms JOLY took the floor and highlighted respectively:

• the fact that the 2013 Work programme lacks important proposals in the ECON sphere, such as the Banking Union, a crisis resolution and recovery mechanism and a follow-up to the Liikanen report on the separation of retail and investment banking;
• the fact that social issues are not given enough importance, with some issues blocked in Council and some long-standing demands from Parliament such as a proposal on musculoskeletal disorders not listed for 2013;
• the fact that the DEVE Committee awaits an instrument on Humanitarian assistance which was included in the Commission Work programme for 2011 but was never presented and is not included in the 2013 programme.

The CHAIR proposed that a list of requests and wishes to the Commission be drawn up and forwarded to Mr Šefčovič. The CHAIR also encouraged Committees to draft legislative initiative reports to ask the Commission to come up with legislation.

8. MFF and related legislative proposals - state of play

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents:

-a resolution of the European Parliament of 23/10/2012 on the MFF 2014-2020;

-Post 2013 EU Programmes and Instruments - MFF 2014-2020: indicative timetable of votes in parliamentary committees and in the Council/European Council.

The Conference of Committee Chairs heard from Mr LAMASSOURE, the Chair of the Committee on Budgets, about the latest situation regardingthe MFF and exchanged views on the status quo of related legislative proposals. Mr LAMASSOURE drew attention to the 2013 draft budget which has been rejected in the name of the European Parliament and to the budget deficit as an unprecedented situation in the EU's recent history, given that the annual budget usually results in a surplus which is distributed back to the Member States, rather than in a deficit. The Council refuses to increase the funds to cover the budget deficit amounting to 9 billion euro, whichconcerns programmes already approved and implemented by Member States in 2012, such as Erasmus, Lifelong Learning, humanitarian assistance, and the Social Development Fund.

In talks concerning the 2013 budget, some Member States announced that an increase in the budget may be possible, but not up to 9 billion euro. Mr LAMASSOURE emphasized that the Parliament expects from the Council to honour its obligations.

Mr LAMASSOURE informed the Conference that the ongoing MFF negotiations have reached a crucial stage, in which the European Parliament insists strongly on the following points:

• that political decisions taken in the Council should not prejudice negotiations on the legal bases of the agreement, which will take place afterwards;
• that the Parliament also has the power of veto.

Mr LAMASSOURE noted the importance attached by all EU institutions to finalizing the Agreement as soon as possible.

9. Adoption of a draft programme for committee hearings in 2013

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents:

-a draft programme of public hearings in committees for 2013;

-a letter of 22.10.2012 from Mr LEHNE, Chair of the JURI Committee;

-a letter of 26.10.2012 from President SCHULZ on the hearing by the CRIM Committee on "Corruption and Fraud to the Detriment of the Financial Interests of the EU";

-a letter of 16.11.2012 from Mr LEHNE, Chair of the JURI Committee;

-a Financial statement on estimation of costs of the draft programme of hearings of guests for the year 2013 (DG IPOL and EXPO).

The Conference of Committee Chairs discussed the draft annual programme of parliamentary

committee hearings for 2013.

The CHAIR drew attention to the fact that several committees raised objections to a number of

hearings in the programme.

He suggested to endorse the programme with uncontested public hearings and to set a final deadline until Wednesday 28 November for Chairs to give necessary clarifications and find agreement on the disputed hearings; after this deadline, unresolved hearings would be taken out and the draft programme would be submitted to the Bureau meeting of 12 December for final authorisation.

The Conference of Committee Chairs agreed with the CHAIR's proposal.

DECISIONS WITHOUT DEBATE

10. Application of Rule 50: 'Procedure with associated committees' - Legislative matters

10.1 Medical devices (2012/0266(COD))

10.2 In vitro diagnostic medical devices (2012/0267(COD))

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following document:

-a letter of 17.10.2012 from Mr HARBOUR, Chair of the IMCO Committee.

The Conference of Committee Chairs also noted the following documents in the supplementary file:

-a letter of 14.11.2012 from Mr GROOTE, Chair of the ENVI Committee;

-a letter of 19.11.2012 from Mr HARBOUR, Chair of the IMCO Committee.

The Conference of Committee Chairs, without debate:

• urged the two committee Chairs to meet and to try to find an agreement, if necessary with the assistance of the CCC Chair;
• set a deadline of 30 November 2012 by which an agreement should be reached;
• (should no agreement be reached by that date) charged its Chair to make a recommendation to the Conference of Presidents, based on Annex VII of the Rules of Procedure.

11. Application of Rule 50: 'Procedure with associated committees' - Non-Legislative matters

11.1. FEMM/Empl: Educational and occupational mobility of women in the EU

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following document:

-a letter of 23.10.2012 from Ms BERÈS, Chair of the EMPL Committee.

The Conference of Committee Chairs, without debate:

• urged the two committee Chairs to meet and to try to find an agreement, if necessary with the assistance of the CCC Chair;
• set a deadline of 30 November 2012 by which an agreement should be reached;
• (should no agreement be reached by that date) charged its Chair to make a recommendation to the Conference of Presidents, based on Annex VII of Rules of Procedure.

11.2. CULT/Empl: Implementation of the EU Youth Strategy 2010-2012

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents:

-a letter of 23.10.2012 from Ms BERÈS, Chair of the EMPL Committee;

-a letter of 14.11.2012 from Ms PACK, Chair of the CULT Committee.

The Conference of Committee Chairs also noted the following document in the supplementary file:

-a letter of 20.11.2012 from Ms BERÈS, Chair of the EMPL Committee.

The Conference of Committee Chairs, without debate:

• urged the two committee Chairs to meet and to try to find an agreement, if necessary with the assistance of the CCC Chair;
• set a deadline of 30 November 2012 by which an agreement should be reached;
• (should no agreement be reached by that date) charged its Chair to make a recommendation to the Conference of Presidents, based on Annex VII of Rules of Procedure.

12. Application of Rule 51: 'Procedure with joint committee meetings' - Legislative Matters

None

13. Application of Rule 51: 'Procedure with joint committee meetings' - Non-Legislative Matters

13.1. LIBE/Juri: Mid-term review of the Stockholm Programme

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following document:

-a letter of 13.11.2012 from Mr LEHNE, Chair of the JURI Committee.

The Conference of Committee Chairs, without debate:

• urged the two committee Chairs to meet and to try to find an agreement, if necessary with the assistance of the CCC Chair.

14. Conflicts of competence - Legislative Matters

None

15. Conflicts of competence - Non-Legislative Matters

None

16. Taking note of agreements reached and recommendations on the application of Rule 50/51 and conflicts of competence

The Conference of Committee Chairs noted the following documents:

- a table on the open requests concerning Rule 50, 51 and conflicts;

-a letter of 8.11.2012 from Ms PACK, Chair of the CULT Committee, on the withdrawal of request for application of Rule 50 as regards the legislative report of the JURI Committee on the collective management of copyright and related rights (2012/0180(COD));

-a letter of 14.11.2012 from Mr LEHNE, Chair of the JURI Committee, on the withdrawal of request for application of Rule 50 as regards the legislative report of the AFCO Committee on the statute and funding of European political parties and European political foundations (2012/0237(COD)).

The Conference of Committee Chairs, without debate:

• took note of the table concerning ongoing negotiations between committees and of the withdrawal of requests for application of Rule 50.

17. Urgent matters and any other business