Delegated acts

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes the proposal for a new inter-institutional agreement recently issued by the Commission and is especially pleased to note the efforts to achieve a fair balance between fundamental values and legislative simplification;
• welcomes the fact that the Commission is committed "to gathering, prior to the adoption of delegated acts, all necessary expertise". Nevertheless, the EESC is concerned that all these consultations could cause the time taken to prepare acts to be prolonged excessively and unnecessarily;
• is not wholly in favour of the case by case approach taken to distinguishing between matters that should be subject to delegated or implementing acts, as the criteria used are ambiguous and leave too much room for discretion in interpretation;
• would like the guidelines to provide explicitly for all aspects of the delegations to be clearly defined (objectives, content, scope and duration);
• considers that it should be consulted for an opinion, in the same way as for the ordinary legislative procedure;
• considers that, in the event of a treaty change, the wording of Articles 290 and 291 TFEU should be improved.

Related EESC opinions:

• Adapting RPS acts to Articles 290 and 291 TFEU
• Adapting RPS acts to article 290 TFUE / PRAC
• Better regulation: implementing acts and delegated acts
• Misleading marketing practices
• Online dispute resolution for consumer disputes

Related Commission proposals:

• COM(2013) 451 final  - 2013/0218 (COD)
• COM(2013) 452 final - 2013/0220 (COD)