N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Last month, the parliament’s agriculture and environment committees rejected the draft law citing ‘excessive bureaucracy’ and a power grab from Brussels. This week the European People’s Party (EPP), the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) and far-right groups joined forces in the plenary to vote down the proposed law on forest monitoring, calling on the Commission to withdraw the proposal entirely. Following this vote the Commission proposed to withdraw the law from its upcoming legislative work plan.
The majority underlined that the proposed law imposed excessive bureaucracy and transferred key responsibilities from member states to Brussel. It failed the test of proportionality, risked disclosing sensitive geo-referenced data and offered no clear financial or practical benefits. Even though the rejection was anticipated, the supporters - Socialists (S&D), Liberals (Renew) and Greens – were disappointed. One of the co-rapporteurs attempted to send the text back to the committees, but the parliament voted against it.
It looks like the centre-right EP majority is anticipating on a letter of 19 EU leaders (including Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron, Giorgia Meloni and Donald Tusk) demanding a ‘systematic review’ of all EU laws. The letter written to Antonio Costa, the EU Council President, asks ‘for a systematic review of all EU regulations to identify rules that are superfluous, excessive or unbalanced. We must examine the entire acquis of EU rules to determine whether they are still fit for purpose’.
The EU leaders want to do the job ‘in-house’, under the umbrella of the Council. This looks like they don’t trust the Commission for it. Well, that’s understandable for ‘Brussels-watchers’.
