Home » Bulletin 2007
Adoption by European Commission likely in near future
The first part of the revision process, in which the Euroepan Commssion adopts its proposal for the new directive, is likely to be completed in the next few months
During the lengthy process involved in the revision of Directive 86/609, observers have been watching closely to estimate when the European Commission will adopt the proposal. Once the proposal for the revision of the directive has been adopted by the Commission, it has to be sent to both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, which are responsible for its adoption through the co-decision procedure. This takes, on average, about three years. Now that the Commission is consulting the Member States about the wording of key sections (see article below), it is clear that we are only a few months away from the Commission adopting the proposal. It is widely expected that the Commission will aim for adoption during the German Presidency, which lasts until the end of June 2007.
The EU Presidency means, in reality, the presidency of the EU Council of Ministers. Each country, when it takes on the six-month presidency, sets out its manifesto of political priorities. If something is not amongst these priorities, there may not be an available space on the agenda of the Council of Ministers to introduce a new item, meaning that the formal legislative process becomes stalled. Germany is known to place animal welfare issues relatively high amongst its priorities.