EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: MEPS AMEND RULES OF PROCEDURE.

Legislative procedure.The Amsterdam Treaty provides that the European Parliament may request the European Commission to table legislative proposals (Article 192). With this in mind, the new regulation stipulates that the Parliament will indicate the appropriate legal basis of the legislative act which is the object of the Commission's proposal, its budgetary incidence, as well as the deadline for presenting the proposal. The Amsterdam Treaty also provides legislative procedures to facilitate the adoption of an act in first reading, in particular in the framework of co-decision. This is why new measures have been introduced in the regulation, which strengthen the role of parliamentary committees in the decision-making process of the institution. The aim is to facilitate a definitive agreement with the Council of Ministers and the European Commission at the level of the relevant Parliamentary committee. Thus, the Conference of Presidents may, on its own initiative or at the request of the relevant committee, delegate to the latter the power to rule definitively on a consultation, a request for an Opinion, a legislative initiative report for matters on which Parliament is competent, as well as on a report which is a follow-up to a motion for a Resolution. In particular, if the Parliament learns that the European Commission intends to amend its proposal, the relevant committee can postpone its examination of the issue until it receives the amended proposal. It must, in all cases, and ahead of the final vote, request the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, to make known their positions on the amendments to he proposal adopted in committee. If the Commission announces its intention to reject the amendments, the committee concerned may postpone the final vote and, and the submission of the report in plenary session.CFSP and JHA.In the framework of the consultation procedure in matters of the Common Foreign and Security Policy as foreseen by the Amsterdam Treaty (Article 21), the relevant parliamentary committees ensure, according to the amended rules of procedure, that the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (foreseen in the new Treaty), the Council of Ministers and the European Commission will keep them informed at...