– The report will be debated and voted this fall –

MEP Victor Negrescu has been appointed rapporteur for an important legislative file that aims to clarify conflicts of competence between the main European Union institutions, the Council, the Parliament, and the Commission.

The file is a report initiated at the level of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee, of which the Romanian MEP is a member.

The report concerns the implementation of the provisions of the European Union treaties on special legislative procedures, such as those deciding on the free movement of European citizens, border controls, European elections, the multiannual financial framework, or the composition of the European Parliament.

According to Victor Negrescu, the report aims to clarify situations where a conflict of competences arises between the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Commission, and aims to set out how these situations can be resolved through the provisions of the European treaties.

Moreover, according to the Romanian MEP, the Parliament and the Commission could also have the possibility to appeal to a faster procedure of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

According to EU treaties, the European Union only has the competences conferred on it by the treaties, and, under this principle, the EU may only act within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the EU Member States in the treaties to attain the treaties’ objectives. Competences not conferred upon the EU in the treaties remain with the Member States.

The Treaty of Lisbon clarifies the division of competences between the EU and its Member States, divided into exclusive competences of the EU, shared competences with the Member States and supporting competences.

One a particular note, the Romanian MEP underlines that if this report is approved by the European Parliament plenary in the form he will propose, then this document can be the basis for legal arguments by which the European Parliament or the European Commission can challenge the outcome of the vote on 8 December 2022, at the JHA Council level, when Austria rejected Romania’s accession to the Schengen area.

The report, initiated by the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee, will be debated and voted on this autumn.