Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 2002 > Committee on European Affairs > Report - Annual Report of the Joint Committee on European Affairs, 2000

Appendix Four

Proposal for the Appointment of a Rapporteur - 11^th October 2001

That, in accordance with Paragraph 2 (a)(i) of its Terms of Reference, the Joint Committee on European Affairs decides to appoint a Rapporteur to prepare a report for it on the following questions which are likely to arise in the future development of the E.U. and or at the Inter-Governmental Conference and constitutional convention to be launched at Laeken in December 2001:-

(a)Whether there should be a catalogue of reserved competences of member states to go alongside the competences of the EU in the Treaties,

(b)Whether and how best to make the work of the institutions more transparent and how the Treaties might be simplified,

(c)How national parliaments might play a further role in the work of the Union

(d)How best to enhance the democratic legitimacy of the Union, and public identification with its work, including the question of giving the electorate a more direct role in the selection of the President and Members of the Commission,

(e)Whether the Charter of Fundamental Rights should be made legally binding on the Union and / or on member states,

(f)Whether the three pillar system of EU decision-making be simplified, and if so how,

(g)Whether the Union institutions should be re-formed further to cater, in particular in a practical way, for the possibility that every European state might eventually become a Union member,

(h)Whether Europol should develop into an operative European police force and whether the EU should have a joint border police to ensure effective protection against organized crime and illegal immigration,

(i)Whether the Commission should retain the exclusive power of initiative in pillar one matters or whether this power should be shared with the Parliament and the Council.