Here goes!
- The Council of the European Union, which represents the member states, is the EU’s main decision-taking body. When it meets at Heads of State or Government level, it becomes the European Council whose role is to provide the EU with political impetus on key issues.
- The European Parliament, which represents the people, shares legislative and budgetary power with the Council of the European Union.
- The European Commission, which represents the common interest of the EU, is the main executive body. It has the right to propose legislation and ensures that EU policies are properly implemented.
I. The decision-making triangle
The European Union is more than just a confederation of countries, but it is not a federal state. It is, in fact, a new type of structure that does not fall into any traditional legal category. Its political system is historically unique and has been constantly evolving over more than 50 years.
The European Parliament: his vote is your voice.
The Treaties (known as ‘primary’ legislation), are the basis for a large body of ‘secondary’ legislation which has a direct impact on the daily lives of EU citizens. The secondary legislation consists mainly of regulations, directives and recommendations adopted by the EU institutions.
These laws, along with EU policies in general, are the result of decisions taken by the institutional triangle made up of the Council (representing national governments), the European Parliament (representing the people) and the European Commission (a body independent of EU governments that upholds the collective European interest).
(a) The Council of the European Union and the European Council
The Council of the European Union (also known as the Council of Ministers) is the EU’s main decision-making body. The EU member states take it in turns to hold the Council Presidency for a six-month period. Every Council meeting is attended by one minister from each EU country. Which ministers attend a meeting depends on which topic is on the agenda: foreign affairs, agriculture, industry, transport, the environment, etc.
The Council has legislative power, which it shares with the European Parliament under the ‘co-decesion’. In addition to this, the Council and the Parliament share equal responsibility for adopting the EU budget. The Council also concludes international agreements that have been negotiated by the Commission.
According to the Treaties, the Council has to take its decisions either by a simple majority vote, a ‘qualified majority’ vote or unanimously, depending on the subject to be decided.
The Council has to agree unanimously on important questions such as amending the Treaties, launching a new common policy or allowing a new country to join the Union.
In most other cases, qualified majority voting is used. This means that a Council decision is adopted if a specified minimum number of votes are cast in its favour. The number of votes allocated to each EU country roughly reflects the size of its population.
| Number of votes for each country in the Council |
| Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom |
29 |
| Spain and Poland |
27 |
| Romania |
14 |
| Netherlands |
13 |
| Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Portugal |
12 |
| Austria, Bulgaria and Sweden |
10 |
| Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Finland |
7 |
| Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovenia |
4 |
| Malta |
3 |
| Total: |
345 |
A minimum of 255 votes out of 345 (73.9 %) is required to reach a qualified majority. In addition:
- a majority of member states (in some cases two thirds) must approve the decision, and
- any member state may ask for confirmation that the votes cast in favour represent at least 62 % of the EU’s total population
|
The European Council meets, in principle, four times a year. It is chaired by the president or prime minister of the country holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union at the time. The President of the European Commission attends as a full member.
Under the Treaty of Maastricht, the European Council officially became an initiator of the Union’s major policies and was empowered to settle difficult issues on which ministers meeting in the Council of the European Union fail to agree.
The European Council also deals with pressing international issues through the common foreign and security policy (CFSP), which is intended to allow the EU to speak with one voice on diplomatic questions.
(b) The European Parliament
The European Parliament is the elected body that represents the EU’s citizens. It exercises political supervision over the EU’s activities and takes part in the legislative process. Since 1979, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have been directly elected, by universal suffrage, every five years.
| Number of seats in the European Parliament per country 2007–09 |
| Austria |
18 |
| Belgium |
24 |
| Bulgaria |
18 |
| Cyprus |
6 |
| Czech Republic |
24 |
| Denmark |
14 |
| Estonia |
6 |
| Finland |
14 |
| France |
78 |
| Germany |
99 |
| Greece |
24 |
| Hungary |
24 |
| Ireland |
13 |
| Italy |
78 |
| Latvia |
9 |
| Lithuania |
13 |
| Luxembourg |
6 |
| Malta |
5 |
| Netherlands |
27 |
| Poland |
54 |
| Portugal |
24 |
| Romania |
35 |
| Slovakia |
14 |
| Slovenia |
7 |
| Spain |
54 |
| Sweden |
19 |
| United Kingdom |
78 |
| Total |
785 |
We have now moved on to federalism which will be discussed in next weeks tutorial. This post will merely be a sign post to discussions on the subject (the rest is up to you). There is a website dedicated to such a discussion called Federal Union and you can find it HERE. This is an interesting article by R. Daniel Keleman (from Oxford University but on Princeton’s pages) HERE. There is an article from the Telegrapah in 2003 where Gordon Brown (then the Chancellor) criticising EU federalism and was being rather eurosceptic HERE. Something more political is website called the New Federalist which also discusses other EU issues is HERE. . What does the official EUROPA site say on the subject and how is the EU system made up – see HERE. The judgement HERE of the German Constitutional Court on the Lisbon Treaty and Europe not becoming a federal state is interesting. O.k. the last one is an interesting article by Dr Thomas Schmitz from 2005 which discusses the conception of the European Union and what kind of system it might be – its HERE. Oh one more thing you maybe be wondering what the above picture is (or not)? Well it is a flag – the original EU flag in fact (it’s a big ‘E’) but is now used by activists promoting federalism in the EU.
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