EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 256: Høring af nationale parlamenter om mandat til fællesparlamentarisk følgegruppe til Europol

Europaudvalget 2016-17
EUU Alm.del Bilag 256
Offentligt

Courtesy Translation

His Excellency

Dr Andrej Danko

Speaker of the National Council

of the Slovak Republic

BRATISLAVA

SLOVAKIA

Dear colleague,

Following the European Parliament’s Interparliamentary Meeting on 28 November 2016

concerning the modalities of joint parliamentary scrutiny of Europol, I would like to

thank you, on behalf of the German Bundestag, for your initiative to move forward with

the JPSG’s establishment. By consulting the national parliaments on key issues and

putting forward its own proposal, the Slovak Parliament, in the framework of the Troika,

made an important initial contribution to reaching agreement on the functioning of the

future JPSG and laid the foundations for the constructive dialogue at the conference.

From what I have heard, the meeting showed that there is still a need for

interparliamentary discussion. The reflections put forward by my colleagues from the

German Bundestag met with great interest, and various aspects were taken up during the

discussion. I would like to follow up on this by underlining several issues where I

believe it would be desirable for clarification to take place and a consensus to be reached

before the Conference of Speakers is held in April 2017.

One fundamental question is the JPSG’s numerical composition. The national

parliaments’ responses to the Troika’s questionnaire already showed a majority in favour

of at least four members per national parliament. The greater the extent to which the

composition of the national parliaments and the European Parliament is taken into

account, the greater the democratic scrutiny and legitimacy. Particularly in the case of

bicameral parliaments, there are therefore some grounds for having more than one

representative per chamber. If there is support for increasing the number of members

from the national parliaments, which I would warmly welcome, a proportional increase

in the number of European Parliament representatives would also be logical.

In light of the scrutiny and hearing rights to be exercised, the German Bundestag also

favours at least two meetings being held each year.

We expressly welcome the Troika’s aim of attaching high importance to the JPSG’s

workability and efficiency. Efficiency depends, in particular, on workable structures

being in place from the outset. Like a number of other national parliaments, the German

Bundestag is therefore calling for further modalities relating to the functioning of the

EUU, Alm.del - 2016-17 - Bilag 256: Høring af nationale parlamenter om mandat til fællesparlamentarisk følgegruppe til Europol

JPSG to be clarified at an early stage. The issues which should be examined include, in

particular, the establishment of subcommittees on specific subjects, voting procedures

and quorums for decisions, the possibility of a right to put questions to the Europol

Management Board, and the establishment of a secretariat. My colleagues would be

willing to submit some thoughts on these issues to the Troika as an initial basis for

discussion.

We are all keen for the JPSG to be able to fulfil its function as soon as possible after the

Europol Regulation’s entry into force in May 2017. It would therefore seem useful for a

further interparliamentary meeting to be held at expert level before the Conference of

Speakers, so that we can reach as broad a consensus as possible there on all of the main

modalities of the JPSG’s functioning. Should you decide to move in this direction, please

allow me to underline, on behalf of the German Bundestag, our willingness to play an

active part.

Yours sincerely,

Sgd. Professor Norbert Lammert

President of the German Bundestag