An historic decision taken by the European Commission, and made public by the Vice-President and Commissioner for institutional relations and communication, Margot Wallstroem, concerns the direct transmission of the Executive’s working documents to the national Parliaments. The announcement – that follows up a commitment made also by the Council of Ministers in June – took place during the meeting of the Community Affairs Commissions of the national Parliaments (COSAC), held in Helsinki last week. Commenting on the decision, Commissioner Wallstroem, emphasizing that “the Commission will inform and listen to the national Parliaments, and carefully examine their observations”, said that “taking their opinion into greater consideration means taking European citizens themselves into greater consideration”. According to the procedure of consultation that needs to be followed, new legislative proposals and working documents are transmitted directly by e-mail, giving the national Parliaments the chance to “present observations to improve the process of elaborating European policies”, without prejudice to the current discipline of the EU decision-making process that provides for obligatory intervention exclusively for the EU institutions.
