Chapter 9 Flashcards
How is it composed the Union’s government?
It is composed by the European Council and the Commission as a dual and combined executive
What are the policy instruments of the EC?
The EC acts as initiator and coordinator and expresses its views through ‘Presidency Conclusions’ and ‘Decisions’.
Presidency Conclusions are the highest political agreement of the Heads of State/Gov and allows the EC to set the Union’s political agenda for the mid-term future
What are the policy instruments of the Commission?
‘Work programmes’ contain strategic objectives established on ‘Political Guidelines’, which are set out by the new elected President of the Commission.
Which are detailed and concrete initiatives for legislation presented to the EP and to the Council and then translated into legislative proposals over the 5 term year of the Comm.
‘Action Programmes’, ‘Communications’ and ‘White Papers’ are used by the Commission to reform specific sectors.
What is an upward cooperative process?
When many major policy initiatives come from the Commission and are then addressed to the EC.
What is a downward cooperative process?
When the EC endorsed the general policy initiative and the Commission then has to elaborate specific policy proposals
What is Art.290 TFEU about?
It is about delegation of legislative power, of non-essential aspects of legislative acts to the Commission.
The EU legislator can delegate power to the Commission to adopt delegated acts, legally binding acts that supplement or amend certain non-essential elements.
- Amending: remove or alter substantive conditions within a primary act
- Supplementing: cannot amend the primary act and must be in compliance with the whole legislative act
What are the four constitutional limits to Art.290 TFEU?
1) Only the Commission may adopt delegated acts
2) Only acts of general application
3) Only non-essential acts
4) The scope of the delegated powers must be defined explicitly
What is Art.291 TFEU about?
It is about delegation of executive power.
The EU legislator can confer implementing powers on the Commission to ensure uniformity.
Only binding acts that are necessary to implement and give effect to the provisions of legislative acts.
What are the two procedure that the Commission must follow when adopting implementing acts?
Regulated by the Comitology Regulation (2011) in which the Comm is assisted by special committees.
- Advisory procedure: the opinion of the committees is only advisory and even with a negative opinion, the Commission may still adopt the act
- Examination procedure: the committee may veto the act and the Commission may still submit the draft, but only a positive opinion of the appeal committee allows the Commission to adopt it
What is the scope of Art.290 and Art.291 TFEU?
The aim is to strike a balance between the EU institutions’ need for efficient decision-making and the democratic accountability and control mechanism of the EU legislative process
