Session 8 : Decision-Making Processes in the EU: Principles, Actors and Procedures Flashcards
What is the legal basis?
determines the rules of decision-making, grants power to institutions and creates specific rules of decision-making. Can be either an article of the treaties, an act of secondary law.
What are the different kinds of decision-making procedure?
Ordinary legislative procedure
Special procedures
The enhanced cooperation mechanism
What is the ordinary legislative procedure?
Defined by article 289 TFEU, the OLP used to be called the “codecision procedure”. It gained an extended scope after the Lisbon Treaty has now become the rule.
Joint adoption by the EP and the Council of a regulation on a proposal from the Commission. Procedure specified in article 294.
What is the procedure of the OLP?
A legislation is proposed by the Commission, and then the EP and the Council are tasked with adopting or amending it. The approval of both institutions is required, and the law can go through 3 readings.
What are the powers of the Commission regarding the OLP?
The Commission has a monopoly over the proposal, but it may be asked to submit a proposal by the EP, the Council, 1/4 of member states or citizens
The commission has also the right to withdraw or amend its propositions
Which case grants the Commission the right to withdraw or amend in the context of the OLP?
The commission has the right to withdraw, amend the proposal → additional power of the commission to shape the EU under Case C-409/13, Macro-financial assistance to third countries [2015]
In practice how are OLP adopted?
We see a different between 1994 and 2014 whereby now most OLPs are adopted during the 1st reading, thanks to informal meetings called trilogues
Which case defines trilogues?
Case T-540/15, De Capitani v European Parliament [2018]
What is a trilogue?
A trilogue is an informal tripartite meeting in which the representatives of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission take part. The aim of such exchanges is to reach a prompt agreement on a set of amendments acceptable to the Parliament and the Council, which must subsequently be approved by those institutions in accordance with their respective internal procedures.
Why are trilogues controversial?
They hinder the democratic quality of the law-making process as it:
centralises power in those actors who represent the Council and Parliament at the trilogue which as noted by Farrell and Héritier excludes small parties and favors very well connected actors
What can a member state do in an OLP
It can activate “emergency brakes” if it considers that the legislation proposed would affect important aspects of national legal order.
What is an enhanced cooperation mechanism?
It was agreed that some Member States should not be held back from developing common laws between themselves, should they so wish, and enhanced cooperation was established to enable this. It allows EU laws to be developed by as few as nine Member States where there is not a sufficient voting threshold for general legislation.
Very little use in practice
What are the 3 basic decision-making principles in the EU?
Institutional balance and sincere cooperation
Democratic credentials
Consultation, openness and transparency
What is the institutional balance?
form of separation of powers and horizontal expression of the vertical principle of conferral
Which case explicits the definition of the institutional balance?
Case C-9/56, Meroni [1958]
there can be seen in the balance of powers which is characteristic of the institutional structure of the Community a fundamental guarantee granted by the Treaty in particular to the undertakings and associations of under takings to which it applies
