EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT/COMMISSION: MEPS CLOSE TO DEAL WITH BARROSO ON MUTUAL RELATIONS.

The negotiations involved the so-called "framework agreement" which sets out a series of commitments by both institutions on how they will deal with each other during their mandate. The agreement, which largely continues commitments made by former Commission President Romano Prodi with the previous Parliament, covers a wide range of areas including transparency and access to documents. But the key sticking point in negotiations which have been ongoing since November 2004 has been on the issue of whether new members of the Commission who join the team during the mandate (rather than at the beginning) have to undergo a hearing by the relevant parliamentary committee and win approval by a majority of MEPs.

Following a political battle between the EP and Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso over controversial members of his team, the EP has been insisting that newcomers would also have to go through the hearings process. But this would conflict with the Treaty which reserves the right to appoint the Commission for the Council alone. The latest compromise worked out does not specifically mention a hearing. But it commits the Parliament to ensure that "its procedures" (i.e. the hearing and following approvals process) are carried out quickly to ensure that the President of the Commission "has been...