Parliament made a number of amendments to the common position. MEPs did not approve proposals to transfer from the Commission to the Council the implementation of the Eurodac system for collecting and comparing asylum seekers' fingerprints. The Eurodac database is used to determine which EU country has been the point of entry for an asylum seeker and must thus process his or her asylum application.
In a resolution drafted by Hubert PIRKER (EPP-ED/A), Parliament pointed out that, according to Article 202 of the EC Treaty, the Council in principle confers powers of implementation on the Commission. Only in 'specific cases' can the Council reserve the right to exercise implementing powers itself, and this is clearly not such a case. Moreover, Parliament would lose its right to information and be utterly dependent on the Council's goodwill. The proposed new wording of Articles 22 and 23 of the Eurodac Regulation - over which Parliament is now being consulted § was therefore rejected and replaced by an amendment conferring the implementing powers unreservedly on the Commission.�