The Committee on Constitutional Affairs adopted the
report by Zita GURMAI (S&D, HU) on the amendment of
Parliament's Rules of Procedure with regard to parliamentary
questions.
In June 2011 the Conference of Presidents revised the
format for Question Time with the Commission, with a view to
improving its quality and liveliness. The new format was foreseen
to run for a trial period from September 2011 and be subject to an
evaluation before any changes were made definitive.
At its meeting of 17 January 2013, the Conference of
Presidents examined an evaluation report on the trial period
drafted and presented by the Vice-President responsible, Mr
Mcmillan-Scott, and decided to confirm the revised format of
Question time.
The committee proposed to introduce a number of
amendments to the Rules of Procedure. Besides Rule 116, Question
Time, the report should cover Rules 117 and 118, Questions for
Written Answer, because of the vicinity of the subjects involved
and informed the President accordingly.
The main features of the modification are:
- Question Time with the Commission shall be held at
each part-session for a duration of 90 minutes on one or more
specific horizontal themes to be decided upon by the Conference of
Presidents one month in advance of the part-session;
- the number of participating Commissioners should, as a
general rule, be limited to two per session, with the possibility
of including a third depending on the topic;
- the Conference of Presidents should in principle
decide upon the specific topic for discussion a month in advance of
the part-session concerned, with a view to ensuring the presence of
the appropriate Commissioners;
- the regular 'catch the eye' system should be replaced
by a ballot system and to evaluate this system at a later
stage;
- questions are not submitted in writing in advance and
no verification of their admissibility takes place except where
questions are not directly related to the specific horizontal theme
chosen;
- Annex II which establishes in great length guidelines
for the verification of the admissibility of questions,
supplementary questions and time-limits has been adapted to the new
ballot system.
As regards the questions for written answer, the
following clarifications have been made:
- each Member may submit a maximum of five questions per
month;
- in justified cases of urgency, the President may
request that a question be answered within three weeks;
- questions and answers shall be published on
Parliament’s website;
- any Member may put a maximum of six questions per
month for written answer to the European Central Bank;
- questions should fall exclusively within the limits of
the competences of the institutions as laid down in the relevant
Treaties and within the sphere of responsibility of the addressee,
and be of general interest.