The Committee for the European Affairs includes 41 senators (fr), who are - by the way - necessarily members of one of the seven standing committees of the Senate.
The Committee for the European Affairs has the duty to follow the work done by the institutions of the European Union.
Its main task is to systematically review European texts before they are adopted by the EU institutions.
Since September 2006 a dialogue with the European Commission on the respect of the subsidiarity and proportionality principles complements the monitoring action of the Committee.
The Committee regularly hears members of the government, representatives of the EU institutions and other people with particular European competencies. E.g. the Committee frequently organises hearings with the Minister in charge of European Affairs.
The task of the Committee is to inform the Senate about the activities of the European Union. It fulfils its mission by drafting and circulating a specific publication titled "Latest News of the Committee to the European Union", which introduces the Committee's work, and it publishes information reports. All the information is also available on the " Europe " web page of the Senate (fr).
Several times a year, the Committee also takes the initiative to provoke a public debate on any particular European issue with the minister in charge; to this end, the Committee is using a specific process called "oral questions before the debate on European affairs.".
