91998E3535

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3535/98

by Richard Corbett (PSE) to the Council

(25 November 1998)

Subject: The Council's assessment of legal base of proposals

Since the entry into force of the Single European Act, on how many occasions has the Council changed the legal base proposed by the Commission?

On how many of these occasions did the proposal to change the legal base originate in the Council's own legal service and on how many occasions did the proposal come from one or more of the members of the Council?

Reply

(8 February 1999)

The examination by the Council of the legal basis for a Commission proposal is an integral part of the examination of the proposal as a whole.

It sometimes happens that the Council considers that the legal basis proposed by the Commission is not correct and decides to change it. In such cases, because the legal basis is an essential part of an act, the Council re-consults the European Parliament. When discussing the legal basis for a proposed act the Council very often asks its Legal Service for its opinion.

The Council does not have the data requested by the Honourable Member: to keep such statistics would necessitate numbers of staff which it does not currently have.