Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds

The Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds is one of the 17 standing committees in the 41th National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Tasks

The Committee has the task of the effective implementation of EU law in the Bulgarian legislation, to examine draft EU legislation, as well as political control over the issue of coming from European funds and programs means exercise. The activities of the Committee allows the Bulgarian National Assembly, participate in important issues of the European agenda in the political dialogue with the European institutions and to exercise its new powers under the Lisbon Treaty. The activities of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of EU funds is in accordance with Article 18, para. 2, point 17 and Article 23, para. 1 of the organization and rules of procedure of the Bulgarian National Assembly executed. Every Wednesday held regular meetings of the Committee in the National Assembly, Alexander I Square in Sofia, Bulgaria. In order to ensure full transparency, the Commission meetings are open and there are published news, full transcripts of meetings, reports of conducted hearings and opinions on the issues draft legislation on its web site.

In addition to the associated with the defined parliamentary functions and tasks activities, the Committee sought to bring the current issues in the European agenda closer to the citizens. Expression of this is undertaken various initiatives, such as the creation of a European area in the National Assembly, the start of the discussion forum " European discussions in Parliament ," the formation of a " Council for public consultation", which supports the work of the Committee, and the participation of members of the Commission in seminars, panel discussions and conferences.

History

The Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the EU funds has been with the organization and rules of procedure of the 38th Bulgarian National Assembly as specialized parliamentary structure Council for European Affairs in the negotiations on the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union, was founded. It consisted of a chairman, a deputy chairman, three representatives from each fraction, as well as members of the Bureau of the Joint Parliamentary Committee "Bulgaria - European Union " together. Chairman of the Council for European Affairs was the chairman of the National Assembly Yordan Sokolov.

While the mandate of the 39th National Assembly, the Committee was established under the name of the Committee for European Integration. During this time, its main features were associated with the formation and implementation of pre-accession of Bulgaria to the European Union. The main task was to assess the compatibility of draft legislation with European law, which the government has supported in the implementation of no small magnitude of the acquis communautaire. Chairman of the committee Daniel Valchev was chosen. During the 40th National Assembly, after the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007 is the focus of the work of the Committee, which has now been renamed the Committee for European Affairs, has been shifted towards Bulgaria's participation in decision-making processes at European level. Chairman of the Committee at this time were Atanas Paparizov ( August 24, 2005 to May 20, 2007) and Mladen Chervenyakov (28 September 2007 to 25 June 2009). With the organization and rules of procedure of the 41st National Assembly of the Committee from 2009 gets the additional function of control over the management of the funds and programs of the European Union in Bulgaria. He is renamed Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds. Its first chairman was Svetlin Tanchev, which was replaced by Monika Panayotova in July 2010 - both are members of the political party GERB.

Composition of the Committee

The Committee consists of 18 members and a secretariat, which is composed of a team of five experts and trainees from universities at home and abroad.

Functions

The functions of the Committee are divided into the following main areas:

Monitoring the implementation of EU legislation;
Monitoring of subsidiarity and proportionality under the Treaty of Lisbon - the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009, the role of the Bulgarian Parliament in the entire decision-making process changed and strengthened by the ability is perceived to be more active in the so at EU level called " early warning system" to participate and to express objections to certain European legislative proposals if they contradict the principle of subsidiarity. In this context, the National Assembly has the procedure for dealing with draft EU introduced to carry out the checks on subsidiarity within the period from the Treaty of Lisbon period of 8 weeks.
Political dialogue with the European institutions.

Annual work program of the National Assembly on EU matters

The powers of the Committee in relation to EU matters are discussed in Chapter 10 of the Rules of Organization and Procedure of the National Assembly - " Parliamentary oversight and control over the affairs of the European Union " described, in detail, the most important points in the annual work program of the National Assembly on the EU matters are set out.

After the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the National Assembly has established an innovative approach to the development of the annual work program on EU affairs involving all stakeholders actors (European Commission, European Parliament, European Council, National Assembly and Council of Ministers). The annual work program of the Bulgarian National Assembly is based on the key priorities of the work program of the European Commission, as well as on the priorities of the EU Trio Presidency and thus exposing a greater strategic focus in the work of the National Assembly on important national and European issues. Guiding principle in the design of the annual work program is to primarily integrate projects from the new files or files as mentioned, in which the National Assembly can exercise control in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. Thus, the annual work program of the National Assembly is in addition to a strategic document, the Bulgarian Parliament participated by which the legislative process at the EU level.

Following this new approach, the annual work programs of the National Assembly in 2011 and 2012 have been completely worked out in accordance with the work program of the EC and with broad participation of leaders of EK. In preparing the annual work program of the National Assembly in 2011, the EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva, on the initiative of the Committee of the Bulgarian people's representatives, the main priorities of the work program of the EC for 2011. This tradition was continued in the preparation of the annual work program of the National Assembly in 2012, with the Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration Maroš Šefčovič the Bulgarian people's representatives announced for 2012 made with the priorities of the work program of the EC.

Council for public consultation at the Committee

The Council for public consultation was founded on the basis of Article 13 of the rules on the organization and operation of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds in March 2010 as a supportive advisory body. The objective of this Council is to consult the Committee in the exercise of its functions and in terms of the exercise of parliamentary oversight and control of EU affairs and the use of funds from the EU funds and programs. Member of the Council are more than 60 organizations: employers, trade unions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs ), academic institutions, among others In this form the Council to deliver on the one hand valuable support for the Committee and the other hand creates foundations for achieving a constructive dialogue between the representatives of civil society, the legislature and the executive. Destined for the work of the Council shall be the rules on the organization and operation. "Europe 2020" - - According to the efforts to improve the knowledge of civil society in a wide range relating to the EU - the Council for public consultation meetings membership of Bulgaria leads to current topics of the European agenda through strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, European semester, the Single European Act (SEA), the future of cohesion policy 2014-2020, the youth unemployment and the prospect of creating jobs for young people.

Europe - discussions in Parliament

Guided by the idea of the citizens of Europe - to make the issues understandable and to bring them closer, started in 2011 on the initiative of the Committee and under the auspices of the Chairman of the National Assembly, Ms Tsetska Tsatscheva, the action " European discussions in Parliament " - a forum which is the guarantee of publicity dedicated and the call for discussion on the emblematic events and processes of the European agenda. The effort of the Committee is to deepen by means of public debates in the context of this initiative, the active and direct dialogue with civil society, the private sector, non -governmental organizations and the academic community on current and strategic issues of European development. The discussions are carried out in the plenary hall of the National Assembly and are provided online and in real time on the WEB - transmit side of the House.

The first public debate a series of discussions on the topic of " European discussions in Parliament " was conducted on 19 December 2011 and was dedicated to " Two years after Lisbon - where, Europe?" Dedicated. The debate praised the second anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Outstanding were lecturers and panelists such as Jean -Dominique Giuliani - President of the Foundation " Robert Schumann " and Elmar Brok, MEP and member of the EPP.

The second public debate was conducted on March 12, 2012, and was dedicated to the theme " Europe of solidarity and / or Europe of selfishness? ". Special guests of the event are Kristalina Georgieva EU - Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Daniel Gros - Director of the Centre for European Policy Research, Alexander Andreev - editor in chief of the Bulgarian redaction of the radio station " German Wave".

Community acquis Deutsche Welle

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