Halfway house: The 2006 comitology reforms and the European parliament (in Special Issue: Towards a New Executive Order in Europe?)

Abstract: Although rejecting it in principle, the European Parliament has implicitly accepted the comitology system. In 2001, it agreed with the other institutions that financial services legislation adopted under co-decision could be limited to basic principles, with the adoption of detailed rules being delegated to the Commission, the so-called 'Lamfalussy arrangements'. In return, the Commission proposed a reform of the comitology system, though Parliament had to resort to different tactics to overcome the Council's reluctance to take a decision. Notwithstanding significant legal and political constraints, in July 2006 the institutions agreed on a new scrutiny procedure which gives both Parliament and the Council the possibility to block the adoption of draft implementing measures of general scope which amend basic legislation. The new procedure improves the democratic control over an important category of secondary legislation, though it leaves this question open as regards the other procedures.