EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT/COMMISSION FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT PASSED.

The European Parliament's Conference of President's 8 June meeting was attended by the European Commission President, Romano Prodi, and the Vice-President in charge of Relations with the Parliament, Loyola de Palacio. The encounter saw the final touches put to a compromise worked out for the Framework Agreement on Parliament/Commission relations for the rest of the former institution's term of office. The Agreement is supposed to replace a 1995 code of conduct and is due to be approved during the 13-16 plenary session by means of a mere approval in the session minutes.The compromise failed to get adopted last month owing to a sport of guerrilla warfare being waged by members of the EPP, and more particularly the CDU/CSU members of the Parliament's Committee on Budgets. The final version is still very close to the one agreed in early May, apart from two major changes. The one may not call into cause the principle of a Budget being established on a yearly basis, but it will enable the Committee to use the annual discharge procedure to call for further documents...