IED entre Ecuador y China

The European Parliament is the only directly elected body of the European Union. Most of Parliament's in-depth work is done in specialised committees that prepare reports that will later be voted on in the plenary. There are 20 parliament committees which meet in public, once or twice a month in Brussels. The committees draw up, amend and adopt legislative proposals and own- initiative reports. They consider Commission and Council proposals and, where necessary, draw up reports to be presented to the plenary assembly.

Under the ‘ordinary legislative procedure’ (formerly co-decision) mechanism introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament is now on an equal footing with the Council of Ministers in deciding upon the vast majority of EU legislation. The Parliament also decides on the entire European Union budget with the Council.

The Lisbon Treaty also placed a greater emphasis on the role of national Parliaments in EU affairs. While there is no direct reference to the role of regional parliaments such as the Northern Ireland Assembly, there is a clear opportunity for greater ‘legislature to legislature’ communication.

There are 754 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The UK delegation has 73 MEPs and the Irish delegation has 12 MEPs.

Once elected, the Members of the European Parliament are grouped by political affinity and not by nationality. They exercise their mandate in an independent fashion and are not accountable to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Northern Ireland has 3 MEPs as detailed below in alphabetical order:

 Martina Anderson

o Member of the Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left

o Member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

o Delegation to the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee

o Substitute member of the Committee on Regional Development and the Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council

 Diane Dodds

o Non-attached member (i.e. not a member of any political grouping)

o Member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

o Delegation for relations with Israel

o Substitute member of the Committee on Fisheries

 Jim Nicholson

o Member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group

o Vice Chair of the Delegation to the ACP (Africa Caribbean Pacific)-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly

o Member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development

o Substitute Member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

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o Substitute Member of the Committee on Regional Development

o Substitute Member of the Special Committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering

o Substitute Member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia

Currently the Committee for OFMDFM schedules briefing sessions with the MEPs as well as inviting them to meetings of the Assembly EU Advisory Panel (see Section 12.2). Attendance by all three MEPs at one session has proved difficult to arrange given scheduling issues. There has been one evidence session with the Committee during this mandate which two MEPs attended. In addition, views from MEPs were that given the wide range of stakeholders in attendance at the Advisory Panel meetings, MEPs were not afforded sufficient time to provide in-depth updates on relevant issues. Recommendation 4

A quarterly or biannual briefing from MEPs should be arranged to provide a platform solely for MEPs to brief committees or committee Chairpersons on activity at the European Parliament and for Assembly committees to feedback to MEPs on any relevant work undertaken.

The schedules for MEPs do not easily align with meetings of Assembly committees therefore careful consideration should be given to scheduling of these briefing sessions in advance to facilitate attendance of all MEPs and to provide maximum value for the session.

Recommendation 5

As part of the ‘best practice’ approach outlined above, any Assembly committee undertaking a work stream with a European focus should consider, where appropriate, seeking a view from the Northern Ireland MEPs. Committees should forward a copy of the report to the Northern Ireland MEPs in order to ensure that the Assembly viewpoint is communicated and also as a means of keeping the MEPs informed of Assembly activity.

Recommendation 6

Chairpersons may also wish to consider greater levels of legislature to legislature communications – that is, communications from the Northern Ireland Assembly directly to European Parliament committee Rapporteurs who have responsibility for drafting committee reports and amendments to European Commission proposals. There is a view that generally, connections with committee rapporteurs rather than committees themselves will be more effective in inputting a regional viewpoint. Colleagues in the National Assembly for Wales have drafted suggested amendments to Commission proposals and forwarded these amendments to European Parliament Rapporteurs and Welsh MEPs.

Recommendation 7

Similarly, subsidiarity and/or proportionality concerns with a legislative or policy proposal should be communicated to the Northern Ireland MEPs. While the concerns may or may not be relevant to a committee of which a Northern Ireland MEP is a member, there may be opportunities for local MEPs to communicate any Northern Ireland Assembly view to colleagues who do sit on the particular committees examining a proposal.

43 Recommendation 8

Consideration should be given to an annual ‘Northern Ireland in Europe’ event, possibly under the auspices of the Speaker or the Committee for OFMDFM, to which the MEPs, representatives from the Committee of the Regions and European Economic and Social Committees and all committee Chairpersons are invited. This informal event should allow for some element of briefing from the Northern Ireland representatives in Europe and then discussions with committee Chairpersons. Such an event would foster a link between the Assembly Chairpersons and the NI representatives in Europe for mutual exchange of information.

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