§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the procedural changes set out in Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June, OJ L184 of 17 July. [94143]
§ Mr. VazCouncil Decision 1999/468/EC reforms the procedures for monitoring the exercise of implementing the powers delegated to the Commission by the Council and the European Parliament (the 'comitology' system). The Government welcome the changes that the Decision makes.
It improves the comitology system in three ways. Firstly, it increases democratic control over the process by giving an enhanced scrutiny role to the European Parliament. Secondly, it simplifies the system by reducing the number of committee types from five to three.
Thirdly, it takes an important step towards making the comitology system more transparent. For example, the Commission will for the first time be required to publish a complete list of comitology committees.
Overall, the changes should improve the efficiency, accountability and transparency of the comitology process.