European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee Adopts "Rome II"

Initial reports this morning suggested that the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) had adopted the second reading report (as amended) of the proposed “Rome II” Regulation on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations, and this has subsequently been confirmed on the MEP Rapporteur’s website. Diana Wallis states:

On Wednesday 20 December 2006, the Legal Affairs Committee adopted the second reading report, reinserting the Articles relating to defamation and road traffic accidents which had been excluded in the Council Common Position. The report will be adopted in plenary session on 18 January 2006.

The original draft second report of the European Parliament was produced on 8th November 2006 (see our news item on the substance of the report here), with the amendments to the draft report being published on 30th Novmber 2006.

Once the report has been adopted by the European Parliament, the likelihood is that the conciliation phase of the codecision procedure will go ahead (on the basis that the Council will not be best pleased with the reappearance of provisions that they rejected on first reading, and several new amendments put forth by JURI.) Twenty-five members of the Council and an equal number of EP representatives will have to sit down and, over a period of 6 to 8 weeks, devise a “joint text” on Rome II. If they fail, or the joint text is not approved by Parliament or Council, then Rome II will not make it any further. Details on the conciliation phase can be found here.

(Many thanks to Andrew Dickinson for the tip-off.)