Week 2: Institutions and Decision Making Flashcards
EU law and its main principles
*So many different legal systems –> united legal system to some extent.
*Extremely supernational.
*Court of Justice sees EU law as a basis point open to interpretation–>case law.
Main principles of EU law:
*Primacy- supernational as a supreme court, has the final say
*Autonomy- independent from member’s legal orders
*Direct effect- creates rights that every EU citizen can relay upon before going to domestic court.
EU Budget- characteristics and composition
*Largest part of revenues come from EU countries national budgets–>0.75% of GNI
*Common EU debt as component
*Rest from own resources; example:
- customs duties
- small % of VAT from each member state
- fines
- new source: non recyclable plastic plastic waste contribution by each country.
*Has an upper limit
*Balanced every year, but decided every 7 y, already hard to get a unanimous vote (Council and Parliament).
Multi-annual Financial Framework and Next Generation EU
Support the modernisation of the European Union through research and innovation; fair climate
and digital transitions; preparedness, recovery and resilience.
Biodiversity and gender-related issues.
Big 5 EU institutions
- European Council (heads of state and governments);
- Council of the European Union (member nations’ ministers), [still often called by its old name,
the Council of Ministers]; - European Commission (appointed eurocrats);
- European Parliament (directly elected);
- EU Court (appointed judges).
See figure on slide 14.
The European Council
*Highest political-level body in the EU: it provides political guidance
at the highest level (i.e., it initiates the most important EU initiatives and policies).
*All major strategic choices
*National leaders + president of European Council (QMV elected)
*No formal role in law making
*most important decisions-> “Conclusion of the Presidency”
Council of the European Union
*EU’s main formal decision-making body. It was called the Council
of Ministers for most of the EU’s history today is often just called ‘the Council’.
*Almost every piece of legislation is subject to its approval.
*Council members are the government ministers responsible for the relevant area.
it has the following powers:
* to pass European laws (jointly with the European Parliament)
* to coordinate the general economic policies of the Member States in the context of the EMU
* to pass final judgment on international agreements between the EU and other countries or international organizations (a power it shares with the European Parliament); e.g., WTO issues.
* to approve the EU’s budget (jointly with the European Parliament).
2 main decison rules:
1. Unanimity- most important issues
2. QMV- most issues
European Commission
*Executive branch of EU
*It enforces the Treaties and is driving forward European integration:
* it proposes legislation to the Council and Parliament (main law making duty);
* it administers and implements EU policies;
* it provides surveillance and enforcement of EU law in coordination with the EU Court.
*It represents the EU at some international negotiations (e.g., WTO)
Commissioners are not supposed to act as national representatives!!
Decisions made on the basis of a simple majority: almost all of its
decision are on the basis of consensus.
Power most obvious in competition policy!
European Parliament
2 main tasks:
1. Sharing legislative powers with the Council of Ministers and the Commission.
2. Overseeing EU institutions, especially the Commission.
The Lisbon Treaty boosted the power of the European Parliament substantially, making it equal to the
Council on most types of EU legislation (i.e., noteworthy are the Parliament’s new powers over the
budget)
Elected by EU voters
The Members of the European Parliament sit in political groups (some non-attached political reppresentatives)
EU Court
EU laws and decisions are open to interpretation that cannot be settled by negotiation:
* Court settles these disputes, especially disputes between Member States, between the EU and Member States, between EU institutions, and between individuals and the EU;
* It has had a major impact on European integration via case-law.
Judges are appointed by common accord of the Member States’ governments.
Legislative Process in EU institutions
The European Commission has a near-monopoly on initiating the EU decision-making process.
Procedures:
* ‘ordinary legislative procedure’: main one (but complex) and gives the Parliament and the Council equal power in terms of approval/rejection and amendment;
* ‘consultation procedure’: Parliament only gives opinion;
* ‘consent procedure’: Council adopts legislation (proposed by the Commission) after obtaining the consent (without amendments) of Parliament.
See slide 29 figure.
Yellow and orange cards: concern about subsidiarity
- yellow card’ procedure-
any parliament can submit an opinion that the law violates the principle of subsidiarity. - The ‘orange card’-
applies to the ordinary legislative procedure. If a majority of available
parliaments votes against a proposed law, the Commission must review the law as before, but in addition to the Commission providing justification, the European Parliament and
Council must also consider the national parliaments’ objections.
Enhanced Cooperation
The tension between the ‘vanguard’ members, who wish to broaden the scope of EU activities, and the ‘doubters’, who do not, led to the introduction of a new type of integration process called–>
enhanced cooperation.
Cooperation in specific areas keeping in general framework of EU.
Task Allocation: 2 principles
The allocation tasks is guided by two principles:
* Subsidiarity: keep decisions as close to the citizens as possible without jeopardizing win–win cooperation at the EU level (i.e., EU action is required only if it is more effective than action at national, regional, or local level).
* Proportionality: the EU should undertake only the minimum necessary actions.
Principle of conferral- competencies remain within members.
Flexibility clause: there are situations when a new challenge – one not foreseen in the Treaties –
arises that requires action at the EU level.
Optimal allocation of tasks depends on trade-offs…
(1) diversity and local informational advantages: if people have different preferences, centralized decisions create inefficiencies;
(2) scale economies: cost savings from centralization;
(3) spillovers: negative and positive externalities of local decisions argue for centralization (or, at least, cooperation);
(4) democracy: control mechanism that favours decentralization;
(5) jurisdictional competition: ‘exit’ option is a way to influence governments.
EU Decision Making principle
QMV rules governing council–> double majority:
(1) pass a threshold in terms of the number of nations voting ‘yes’, and;
(2) have the population share of the yes voters.
European Parliament has simple majority.
Lisbon Treaty’s ‘double majority voting rules’ achieve a balance between the ‘union of states’
and ‘union of peoples’ perspective.
