How important is the European Parliament?

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How important is the European Parliament?

The European Parliament is the only directly elected part of the European Union’s central infrastructure. The EP is supranational and with the Council of the European Union makes up the EU’s legislature. There are 732 Members of the European Parliament, making it the second largest in the world after India.

The three pillars of the EU give different powers to three bodies. The first pillar concerns the European Parliament. This pillar gives EP power over some policy areas not reserved for member states. This means the EP has power over the Single Market, the CAP, the Common Fisheries Policy, EU citizenship, the environment and asylum and immigration, among other powers. However, power over foreign and security policy is under the second pillar, and criminal policy is under the third pillar; as such, the EP lacks the power of a traditional Parliament who has power over all policies.

The EP has become more important in recent years due to its increased legislative powers. Since 1997, they can reject legislation, and they have co-decision with the Council of Ministers. The new passage of laws requires that the EP can make suggestions through its two readings and the Council can accept or reject these, making their own recommendations as well. Should the Parliament and the Council of Ministers disagree over law past the EP’s or the Council’s second reading, a conciliation committee must be called, and here the EP’s amendments usually find an easier way into the legislation than through earlier stages. However, co-decision only applies to 50% of policy areas and while the EP has only three months to consider legislation in their second reading, and should they not complete the reading in time the Council’s common position is adopted. Some could see this is as a punishment for the Parliament should they not bend to the will of the Council, or take too long to complete legislation readings, and the Council of Ministers can let legislation lapse after three months without such “punishment”. Therefore, we can see that although the EP has the opportunity to make significant changes in legislation, the Council can merely ignore the legislation, and the EP has no opportunity to exercise what would otherwise be a considerable power.

The EP is imbued with increased powers of scrutinising the Commission and to some extent the Council of Ministers. The EP regularly questions Commissioners, including the President of the Commission, in EP committees. The EP can vet and approve new commissions before the commission can come to power. They can use the same powers to reject the Commission, based on even one prospective Commissioner being unsuitable in the eyes of the EP.

This is what almost happened when the EP questioned prospective Commissioner from Italy for Justice, Freedom and Security, Rocco Buttiglione. The EP took issue with Buttiglione’s strong catholic sentiments, being wary that his views on homosexuality and family life might come into conflict with his possible portfolio. The EP questioned him and despite Buttiglione saying he would not allow his personal feelings come into conflict with his role in the Commission, the EP committee took note of the “reservations” expressed by several left-wing groups in the EP. The committee threatened to reject the entire commission and voted not to support the nomination of Buttiglione. José Manuel Barroso, the Commission’s president, withdrew the proposed Commissioner before the entire Commission could be rejected, and the Italian Prime Minister withdrew Buttiglione’s nomination despite Barroso’s defence of Buttiglione.

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The EP could, here, have rejected the entire commission as they had similarly threatened to do over the Santer Commission’s fraud crisis. After a possible “vote of censure”, the Santer commission resigned. The EP represents citizen’s views and protects their civil liberties by making sure that each Commissioner does its job properly and well, but on the other hand, the EP has only the “nuclear option” to reject or dismiss entire Commissions. They cannot dismiss one Commissioner and as such, the entire Commission is at stake. This is surely not a democratic use of the EP’s power.

On the other ...

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