The EU amendments to the rules of procedure of the Chamber of Deputies and two issues for interpretation (the notion of "a representation of the Chamber of Deputies" and the question of deliberation of EU staff nominations)
Abstract
The first part of the article deals with the theoretical question of whether the Constitution of the Czech Republic and the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies allow the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies to revoke a resolution of the Committee for European Affairs which had been adopted in relation to proposed EU legislation (where the Rules of Procedure provide for the existence of a legal fiction that such a committee resolution is, under certain circumstances, considered to be a representation of the Chamber of Deputies as a whole). This is particularly important in relation to the yellow and orange flag procedures in EU law in relation to alleged breaches of the principle of subsidiarity.
The second part of the article deals with the powers of the Chamber of Deputies to deliberate staff nominations to European Union bodies. The theoretical part is devoted to the interpretation of the relevant provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies and problematic issues.
Following this, the article describes the application of these provisions using the example of the deliberation of the nomination of the candidate for General Court judge by the Committee for European Affairs, which took place in November 2012. The article further describes the procedure preceding the discussion in the Chamber of Deputies and the procedure which follows, including the response of the European Union and the future prospects.