In Regulation (EU) 2016/794 of 11 May 2016 (new Europol Regulation) a Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) has been set up to enable national Parliaments and the European Parliament, pursuant to Article 88 of the TFEU, to politically scrutinize Europol's activities.
The Europol Regulation states that “the rules of procedure of the JPSG shall be determined together by the European Parliament and the national parliaments in accordance with Article 9 of Protocol No 1” (Article 51) and that “the procedures to be established for the scrutiny of Europol's activities should take due account of the need to ensure that the European Parliament and the national parliaments stand on an equal footing” (Preamble). The regulation further mentions that the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) should be consulted on Europol’s multiannual programming and annual work programme to be adopted by the Management Board by 30th November each year and that the European Data Protection Supervisor shall appear before the JPSG at its request, and at least once a year.
The Regulation will enter into force on 1 May 2017.
The conclusions of the Conference of Speakers of the EU Parliaments (Luxembourg, 22 - 24 May 2016) foresee a step by step approach to define the modalities of the JPSG. They read as follows:
35. In order to define the modalities of the JPSG, the Speakers propose to adopt a step by step approach and to ask a Working Group, comprising the troika of the Conference of Speakers to consider scrutiny mechanisms and to present a draft proposal, after consulting and involving other Parliaments/Chambers. This Working Group would send this preliminary draft to all Parliaments/Chambers before the interparliamentary meeting organised by the LIBE committee at the European Parliament in autumn 2016. Thus, the Parliaments/Chambers have the chance to discuss and comment on this preliminary draft. Finally, based on the preliminary draft and the ensuing discussions, the Working Group will prepare and submit a draft text by 16 December 2016, allowing Parliaments/Chambers to amend the text until February 2017 ahead of the next Conference of Speakers of the EU Parliaments, so that it can be adopted then.
In order to ensure the consultation and involvement of all national Parliaments/Chambers, the Presidency on behalf of the Working Group is transmitting the attached questionnaire tackling the main issues at stake for the functioning of the JPSG. When deciding on the organization of the work of the JPSG, it is especially important to take the efficiency and workability of the group into account, given the fact that the JPSG will constitute a new form of parliamentary cooperation aiming at parliamentary scrutiny. The competent bodies of each Parliament/ Chamber are kindly requested to send their answers through this online questionnaire by 21 October 2016.
Identification
1.
Please provide the name of your chamber and contact details of the person responsible for filling in the survey.
Composition
2.
Members of the JPSG should be: *
3.
The numerical composition of the JPSG, bearing in mind the efficiency and the workability of the group, should be similar to: *
Meetings
4.
Who should preside the meetings and how frequently should the JPSG meet? *
Additional
5.
With this process, the national parliaments and the European Parliament are establishing a new, unprecedented scrutiny body. In addition to the above questions, the Troika Working Group would therefore be interested in receiving examples of best practices from your national experience in parliamentary scrutiny of law enforcement (such as proposals related to workability, efficiency, confidentiality and expertise). Please shortly describe.