3 Amendments of Jude KIRTON-DARLING related to 2015/2041(INI)
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses that achieving progress in this respect requires a meaningful engagement of the European Commission with social partners, commensurate to the EU's obligation to "recognise and promote the role of the social partners" as expressed in article 152 TFEU; notes in the context of the TTIP negotiations that neither the Civil Society Dialogue nor the TTIP Advisory Group are sufficient means to achieve this objective;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Stresses that greater democratic scrutiny by the European Parliament and engagement by civil society and social partners is also necessary with respect to negotiating directives; regrets that Parliament, civil society and social partners are not systematically involved in the process of drafting negotiating directives by the European Commission, or even consulted prior to their adoption by the Council;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that, as pointed out by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), imperatives for transparency derive from the democratic nature of governance within the EU, and that, where confidential information is beyond the reach of public access, as in the case of trade negotiations, it must be available to parliamentarians who scrutinise trade policy on behalf of citizens; considers therefore that access to classified information is essential for scrutiny by Parliament, which in return should abide by its obligation to manage such information properly; considers that there should be clear criteria for labelling documents as ‘classified’ in order to remove any doubt as to any ambiguity over arbitrary decision making by the European Commission; notes that the case law of the ECJ makes it clear that where a document originating in an EU institution is covered by an exception with regard to the right to access, the institution must clearly explain why access to this document could specifically and effectively undermine the interest protected by the exception, and that the risk must be reasonably foreseeable and not purely hypothetical; calls on the Commission to implement the recommendations of the European Ombudsman of July 2015 with particular regard to access to documents for all negotiations, and calls on the Commission to convince EU negotiating partners to increase transparency at their end;