Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

On 18 January 2023, the Conference of Presidents (CoP) set up the Working Group ‘Parliament 2024’ with a mandate to develop concrete and actionable reform proposals to strengthen Parliament’s internal working methods as well as its institutional role and capacity to act. Members of the Working Group unanimously underlined the need for reforms since Parliament has to ensure that it is and remains well-equipped to fulfil its tasks under the Treaties and to live up to the expectations of citizens. Not least in view of the many challenges and crises the EU is and has been facing, the credibility of the European Parliament also rests in its ability to reform and modernise.

The Working Group identified problems encountered along the five areas defined in its mandate, namely legislation, scrutiny, budgetary functions and budgetary control, plenary, and external relations. After ten months of analysis and sharing views, the Working Group put forward a comprehensive package of reform proposals covering the five areas.

The reform package was endorsed by the CoP on 7 December 2023 with the objective of full implementation by the end of the parliamentary term. This requires a coordinated follow-up by several parliamentary bodies. For a number of reform measures, the Rules of Procedure have to be amended and for others, additionally, implementing decisions have to be adopted by Parliament’s governing bodies.

At its meeting on 31 January 2024, with a view to facilitating the work of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO), the CoP endorsed proposed amendments to the Rules of Procedure based on its decision of 7 December 2023 and decided to forward them to AFCO. The CoP invited the AFCO Committee to act swiftly and to submit the amendments to plenary in a timely manner for adoption before the end of the parliamentary term.