Compromising is time consuming business, that’s for sure. And sometimes it’s not easy to reach compromises.

Apparently the ENVI Committee members were not able to reach compromises timely, because the postponed vote on the medical devices regulation proposals that was scheduled for 18 September has now been … postponed, again. The discussion of the regulation proposals is not on the current 18 September agenda anymore and has now been placed on the 25 September meeting’s agenda.

Good news?

This seems very tentatively good news for industry, because it looks like the ENVI members have taken more time to avoid ending up with compromises that will not work for anyone, which is the current rumor. What is really going on is difficult to say because we have no idea what is happening within the committee, who requested the extension and how this extra time may affect the outcome. In any event, if you thought you knew where things were – start rethinking.  Politics are at work here, and the positions seems to be very volatile. It is really difficult to predict which Parliamentary group will support what compromise, and that in a situation where we can only speculate about what’s on the table.

Member states and elections

Compromising is further complicated by the fact that member states have their connections to ‘their’ MEPs and may throw their weight around that way. The compromises I was speculating about push fully on the sore points of the member states, making it doubtful if the dossier will make it in the Parliament in the first reading, which adds considerably to the duration. The late date of the Council meeting on this point (10 December) doesn’t help things, and it seems to become even less likely that the dossier will be finalized before the EU elections.

Stay tuned

Where will we end up? No way to tell at this moment with all the permutations possible. Let’s just hope that the wings are not actually on fire and this dossier makes a nasty crash landing in a compromise that will not help stakeholders except for the politically involved ones.