Internal Market Committee could disappear in European Parliament Shake-Up

I'm getting word that the all-powerful Internal Market and Consumer protection Committee, IMCO, could be disbanded as part of a radical shake-up of the European Parliament's committee system. There is a powerful lobby within parliament that wants to see the legal aspects of the committee go to the JURI Committee (legal affairs) while the responsibility for economic and industrial aspects of the internal market would go to ITRE (industry, research and energy).

ITRE would lose energy to Environment (ENVI) which in turn would lose responsibility for public health and food safety. A new committee would be formed for health issues.

A dedicated health committee is long over-due, in my opinion. The suggested reforms gives greater weight to health policy at EU level as initiatives such as the Health services directive pushes the sector higher up the EU agenda. Likewise, energy policy should, to some degree, be considered as part of the environmental agenda (although the Industry Committee must too play an important role in promoting the interests of the energy sector). IMCO has been showing some signs of dysfunctionality with consumer protection issues not being given the prominence that it might perhaps deserve. Although, given the sketchy information we have so far, its not entirely clear whether consumer protection policy is better served elsewhere in the parliament.

The idea is for health and consumer affairs to be dealt with in a single committee - effectively mirroring the responsibilities of the Commission's DG SANCO (health and consumer). Like Energy and Environment, it may seem like a natural fit but it could in fact be a recipe for constant conflict - the new committee would have to deal with the complexities of the pharmaceutical package, which includes directives on information to patients. The interests of the big pharma companies will not always be palatable to powerful consumer groups in Brussels. Again, the Industry committee would need to play a supportive role in forming a coherent parliamentary response to Commission initiatives that affect the sector.

None of this is a done deal and there will be some gnashing of teeth before any overhaul of the committee system is completed. Nonetheless, we can expect some big changes being put in place for the 2009-14 Parliament.