Rule 48 : Referral of legally binding acts and questions of competence

1.   The President shall refer proposals for legally binding acts received from other institutions or Member States to the committee responsible, or to the committees responsible pursuant to Rule 59, for consideration. The President may at the same time refer proposals to one or more committees for them to deliver an opinion pursuant to Rule 57. The other committees and the political groups shall be informed of the referral at the same time.

2.   Within two weeks of the referral, a committee or a political group may challenge the President’s referral to the committee or committees responsible. In such a case, that committee or political group shall provide a detailed written justification and a substantiated alternative based on Annex VI at least one week before the next meeting of the Conference of Presidents.

The Conference of Presidents may request a recommendation on the matter from the Conference of Committee Chairs. The Conference of Committee Chairs or its Chair shall adopt that recommendation at its next meeting. The Conference of Presidents shall take a decision on the final referral at its next meeting, provided that the transmission by the Conference of Committee Chairs of its recommendation has taken place at least one week before.

If no committee or political group challenges the President’s referral to the committee or committees responsible within the deadline laid down in the first subparagraph, the President’s referral shall be final.

3.   In cases of doubt, the President may, before the referral provided for in paragraph 1, request a recommendation on the question of competence from the Conference of Committee Chairs. The Conference of Committee Chairs or its Chair shall adopt that recommendation at its next meeting. After receiving the recommendation, the President shall make the referral. Political groups shall be informed of the referral at the same time. Within two weeks of the referral, a political group may challenge the President’s referral to the committee or committees responsible. In such a case, that group shall provide a detailed written justification and a substantiated alternative based on Annex VI at least two weeks before the next meeting of the Conference of Presidents. The Conference of Presidents shall take a decision on the final referral at its next meeting.

If no political group challenges the President’s referral to the committee or committees responsible within the deadline laid down in the first subparagraph, the President’s referral shall be final.

4.   Within two weeks of the referral, a committee to which the President has not referred the proposal for an opinion pursuant to paragraph 1 may request an authorisation from the Conference of Committee Chairs to deliver such an opinion. That request shall be based on a written statement of reasons justifying that the matter falls to a substantial extent within its competence pursuant to Annex VI. The Conference of Committee Chairs or its Chair shall take a decision at its next meeting and inform the President thereof.

5.   The President shall announce the referral in Parliament after receiving the proposal in all official languages of the European Union and, except in cases of requests for the application of the urgent procedure pursuant to Rule 170, after, where relevant, any question of competence between committees has been settled. Once it has been announced in Parliament, the referral shall be made public on Parliament’s website.

6.   For the purpose of calculating the deadlines referred to in this Rule, weeks without parliamentary activities and weeks set aside for external parliamentary activities shall not be taken into account.