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31 May 2014
EUROPEAN DEBATES IN THE SEJM
7 May 2014 - the Sejm heard current information and held a debate on the Draft Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 (verbatim record /PL).
8 May 2014 - the Sejm has accepted the information of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the principles of the Polish foreign policy in 2014 (verbatim record/PL point 17).
EU DOCUMENTS IN THE SEJM

In May 2014 the EU Affairs Committee (SUE) held 8 meetings: no. 249-256. During these meetings the Committee scrutinised 84 EU documents:

  • pursuant to Art. 7(4) of the Cooperation Act – 8 EU draft legislative acts concerning ia. activities of institutions for occupational retirement provision, touring visas and amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement or the Union Code on Visas. SUE didn't raise any objections about subsidiarity principle with regards to those 8 draft acts,
  • pursuant to Art. 151(1) of the Sejm Standing Orders and Art. 3(2) of the Cooperation Act – 38 European Commission documents (15 communicates, 21 reports, 1 recomendation and 1 draft Council decision) concerning ia. exploration of hydrocarbons (such as shale gas) in EU, European terrorist finance tracking system or policy towards Internet, and 1 draft Council regulation concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Ukraine,
  • pursuant to Art. 11(1) of the Cooperation Act – EU documents, which were to be discussed by General Affairs Council, Competitiveness Council, Justice and Home Affairs Council, Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council and Environment Council,
  • pursuant to Art. 8(2) of the Cooperation Act – 2 packages of documents on the conclusion of the Association Agreement with Moldova and Georgia, and draft Council decision concerning amendments to the Code of the Maritime Labour Convention

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In May 2014 information and documents on SUE meetings no. 249-256, provided by the EU Affairs Committee secretariat, were published in the EDL-S (European Legislative Documents in the Sejm) and IPEX databases.

WORK IN COMMITTEES

 Innovation and New Technologies Committee

  • 07.05.2014, heard the information of the Minister of Economy on National Smart Specialization as a condition for support in the areas of research, development and innovation in the operational programs for 2014-2020 (mtg no. 118);
  • 29.05.2014, took note of the information on the development of Polish electronic economy on the example of the effects of measures 8.1 and 8.2 Operational Programme Innovative Economy (mtg no. 121);

Agriculture and Rural Development Committee

  • 07.05.2014, considered the answer of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) to the desideratum no. 22 addressed to the Prime Minister regarding maximum levels for contaminants in foodstuffs in connection with the Commission regulation (EU) no. 835/2011 (mtg no. 187);
  • 08.05.2014, heard the information of the ARD Minister on the participation in the activities of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council in April 2014 (mtg no. 188);
  • 29.05.2014, heard the information of the Ministers of: Agriculture and Rural Development, Economy, Foreign Affairs and Health on the preparation for the lodging of the complaint with the Court of Justice of the EU concerning the Directive 2014/40/EU of 03.04.2014, the so-called tabacco directive; heard the information of the ARD Minister on the state of the implementation of the Regulation of the EP and of the Council (EU) no. 1307/2013 of 17.12.2013 establishing rules for direct payments to farmers (mtg no. 191).
IMPLEMENTATION OF EU LAW - UST DATABASE
 In May 2014
  • the following bill implementing EU law has been referred to the first reading [paper no.]:
  • Government bill amending the act on genetically modified organisms and some other acts [2394].
  • the following acts implementing EU law have been adopted [paper no.]:
    • Act of Act of 30 May 2014 amending the act on stocks of crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas and on the procedures applicable in circumstances of a threat to the fuel security of the state and disruptions on the petroleum market and amending some acts [2149],
    • Act of 30 May 2014 amending the act - Water law and some other acts [2106],
    • Act of 30 May 2014 on consumer rights [2076],
    • Act of 9 May 2014 amending the act the act on granting protection to aliens within the territory of the Republic of Poland and some other acts [2243],
    • Act of 9 May 2014 on some agreements concluded in connection with the performance of contracts of primary importance for security of the state [2167].
  • the following acts implementing EU law have been published [paper no.]:
    • Act of 24 April 2014 amending the act on supplementary supervision of credit institutions, insurance undertakings, reinsurance undertakings and investment firms in a financial conglomerate and some other acts [2050],
    • Act of 4 April 2014 amending the act on exercise of the legislative initiative by citizens [1990],
    • Act of 4 April 2014 amending the act - Atomic Law and some other acts [1993].
SUBSIDIARITY CHECK IN NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS

Subsidiarity scrutiny in May

(Information from IPEX database as of 03.06.2014)

Draft legislative act
Deadline for subsidiarity scrutiny
Adoption / transmission of reasoned opinion
Chamber / parliament (country)
COM(2014) 117 1.05.2014 - -
COM(2014) 171 14.05.2014 - -
COM(2014) 174 16.05.2014 - -
COM(2014) 175 19.05.2014 - -
COM(2014) 180 20.05.2014 14.05.2014 / 15.05.2014 National Council (Austria)
- / 20.05.2014 Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg)
COM(2014) 181 22.05.2014 - -
COM(2014) 186 23.05.2014 - -
COM(2014) 187 23.05.2014 - -
COM(2014) 163 28.05.2014 - -
COM(2014) 167 29.05.2014 - / 15.05.2014 Chamber of Representatives (the Netherlands)
COM(2014) 221 9.06.2014 - -
COM(2014) 212 10.06.2014 28.05.2014 / 30.05.2014 National Council (Austria)
27.05.2014 / 28.05.2014 Federal Council (Austria)
COM(2014) 213 10.06.2014 - -
COM(2014) 164 11.06.2014 - -
ALL REASONED OPINIONS OF NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS IN IPEX

In April 2014, 14 draft legislative acts were subject to subsidiarity scrutiny. As of 3 June 2014, the national parliaments submitted 5 reasoned opinions on the non-compliance of these draft acts with the subsidiarity principle.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS
New books in the Sejm Library Przegląd Sejmowy Kronika Sejmowa (EN)

ON THE OIDE WEBSITE

OIDE publications

  • EP elections 2014. New regulations, debates, information campaign (available in PL only)
    Informacja OIDE No. 2, May 2014
    The publication presents new treaty provisions, as well as implementing legal acts related to the EP 2014 elections. It describes also initiatives and recommendations of the Parliament and the European Commission aimed at enhancing current arrangements for preparing and organizing elections, as well as procedure for electing the European Commission President. The publication includes also short summary of debates on European elections in the national parliaments and of the information campaign of the EP.

In the section Legal and Systemic Issues

In the section Important Parliamentary Debates

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LATEST DEBATES - COMMENTS

Articles on the current political and economic issues in the EU from the specialist periodicals available on-line (accessed 05.06.2014)

European Parliament elections 2014

10th anniversary of the EU enlargement