2.) best position to judge how a problem can be resolved, because of the Commission’s knowledge of the nature and functioning of the EU. 3.) embedded in the internal culture and thinking of the Commission are attitudes that help to underpin the exercise of these functions.
● Mobiliser: mobilise support for initiatives. Commissioners and their representatives meet with decision-makers, opinion formers and the leader of important interests.
Tensions between functions: main tension: between beeing a promoter of integration, (dynamic and innovative leadership) and a policy administrator (dependent on more routine and bureaucratic capacities). Another tension: mediating ↔ mobilising. It can be difficult to appear to be neutral and to successfully broker a compromise on.
A central (and independent?) policy actor: it is not the final EU decision-maker on major issues, but on most matters that concern the EU it is an extremely important policy actor.
Scholars: Intergovernmentalist position: Commission = essentially as an agent of the member states, facilitating their ability to take decisions and implementing the decisions they take, but not itself acting in a manner that does anything much more than reflecting and applying the will of the member states as expressed via the European Council and Council of Ministers (best known proponent: Andrew Moravcsik). On the other end of the spectrum: supranational position: acknowledges that the member states are the EU’s main formal decision-takers but suggests that they are frequently guided and led in what they do by a Commission that is, in important respects, relatively independent (Wincott, Matlary, Sandholtz, Sweet)
Chapter 3 The President
Power and influence: Five main factors:
1.) treaties: membership of the European Council. Has to be consulted by the member states on the persons they intend to nominate as members of the Commission (Masstricht). The Amsterdam Treaty strengthened the power of the president in several ways: ● not just be consulted on the other members of the College, but positively involved in the nomination process and could veto national nominees.
● ‘Commission shall work under the political guidance of its President’ → President was authorised and expected, to take the lead in setting the Commission’s aims and objectives and guiding its activities. ● Portfolios were now to be allocated by the President and he could change them during a College’s term.
2.) custom & practice: generally accepted: he sets the overall ‘tone’ for his Commission.
3.) series of operating procedures and support mechanisms which assist the President in undertaking the duties: ● all Presidents incorporate in their portfolio responsibility for some of the key central services (chosen by themselves) ● he convenes and approves the agenda of College meetings and also chairs the meetings → strong position to influence ● the President can, in effect, require other Commissioners to see him on request and to brief him as necessary. ● larger cabinet which is in almost constant contact with key people across the Commission and in other EU institutions → President: better overall knowledge of EU developments than the EU’s other main political players. ● he attends many influential meetings and gatherings which are not open to other Commissioners (for instance: meetings with the Presidents of the Council and of the EP).
4.) personal qualities and goals of the incumbent: have been highly variable in nature
5.) the climate of the times: has important consequences for what the President of the Commission can achieve
Chapter 4 The College
Three-stage process in the appointment of Commissioners:
1st stage: President = consultative role → did not prevent governments from having the upper hand over ‘their’ nominees. 2nd stage: The nominees for Commission posts + President as a body: vote of approval by the EP (Maastricht Treaty). 3rd stage: shortly after beeing approved by the EP, the nominees are formally appointed by unanimous approval of the governments of the member states → term: five years
Removal from office: the only formal way for removal against its will is under Article 201: the members of the Commission must resign as a body if the EP passes a motion of censure by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, representing an absolute majority of its members.
Fact: the Commission = far from beeing a wholly cohesive and united institution. Plurality and heterogeneity characterise much of its nature and activities.
The College in operation: It deals with its business in one of three main ways:
1.) The delegation procedure (habilitation procedure): allows for certain types of measures to be dealt with by individual Commissioners acting under powers that have been delegated to them by the College.
2.) The written procedure: commonly used for proposals where no delegation procedure applies but where discussions or deliberations in College meetings do not seem to be necessary because all points have been agreed by the relevant DGs and approval has been given by the Legal Service.
3.) College meetings: all matters not dealt with on of the above mentioned are referred to a full College meeting.
● Preparation of College meetings: all issues on the College’s agenda have always been extensively discussed at pre-meetings of the Commissioners’ staff. Most important pre-meeting: chefs de cabinet (chaired by the Secretary General, main purpose: review and examination of the proposed agenda of the College meeting so as to try and ensure that it proceeds as smoothly and efficiently as possible).
● Agendas of College meetings: prepared by the Secretary General and his staff in consultation with the President and his staff. Can be very diverse: - Proposals for the development of policies need to be discussed or formally adopted (reviewed). General purpose of all proposals: providing a framework for EU activities in the policy spheres. - Approval is required for some types of proposed Commission executive action and/or legislation. – Proposals for Council or for EP and Council legislation often require the approval of a College meeting. – Preliminary Draft Budget (PDB). First draft of the EU budget. – agricultural Annual Price Review. – Commission’s annual work programme has to be approved by a College meeting (general aims and priorities for the year). – single policy debate each year to set out policy and budgetary priorities.
● The conduct of College meetings: where matters are discussed, the Commissioner whose portfolio includes responsibility for the matter under consideration takes the lead. In theory: all commissioners are of the same standing. In practise, some Commissioners are more important and some are more influential than others.
● Taking decisions: It prefers to operate on the basis of consensus.
If not possible → majority vote
Chapter 5 Commissioners’ Cabinets
President: nine A-grade staff in his office + support staff of fifteen. Commissioners: six A-grade staff + administrative and secretarial support staff of ten.
Functions and functioning: the role of the Commissioner’s Offices is:
● to contribute to proper operation by keeping the Commissioners informed
● to assist Commissioners with the content and the prioritising of their policy area, implementation of the policy beeing the responsibility of Directorates-General
● to act where necessary as the interface between Commissioners and the departments
Four main functions:
● Supporting and assisting the day-to-day work of Commissioners
Most obvious function: to provide support and assistance for the day-to-day work of Commissioners. Key component element of the support function: providing information and advice. A buffer and a filter for Commissioners in relation to lobbyists. Cabinet members must also exercise a representative role on behalf of their Commissioner.
● A link between Commissioners an the services: Key links between Commissioners and the DG(s) and special services for which they have responsibility. Most of the day-to-day contacts and routine contacts are between the political and administrative arms of the Commission are channelled via cabinets.
● Promoter of the coordination of Commission activities: Before disputes beeing considered by a College meeting they are examined, discussed and negotiated at cabinet level. 1st way: via informal exchanges between members of relevant cabinets. 2nd way: via meetings of all cabinet members (special chefs’ meetings). 3rd: The President’s cabinet attempts to monitor the activities of all services and of all Commissioners’ portfolio and to broke between different views and interests. 4th: chef de cabinet level: relevant chefs dealing directly with another on an informal basis on particular issues. Weekly chefs de cabinet meeting (the last decision-making stage before College meetings)
● Preparer of College meetings: most of the administrative preparations = undertaken by the Secretariat General. “political and policy preparation” = undertaken largely via cabinets. This preparations is focused mainly on trying to ensure that as far as possible the contents of College agenda items are agreed in advance.
Chapter 6 The Services
Organised into departments, much as national civil services are organised into ministries.
Most of them: DGs, remainder: ‘special services’.
Structure: key components:
● headed by directors general (A1). Principle responsibilities: to see to the good running of their DGs, to represent their DGs in dealings with outside agencies (inside + outside the Commission) and to be the main channels of communication between their DGs and ‘their ‘ Commissioners + particular responsibilities. All directors general have senior staff to support and assist them
● DGs are divided into directorates, headed by directors (A2-grade). Most DGs contain between 3 and 6 directorates
● Directorates are divided into units/divisions. A typical directorate contains between 3 and 6 units. Headed by heads of unit (A3-grade, but can be at A4 or even A5)
Responsibilities: type of work is wide ranging. For example: - preparing policy papers ,
- drafting legislative proposals, - drawing up action and work programmes,
- implementing EU legislation, - overseeing the implementation of EU legislation undertaken by national agencies, - assessing the impact of EU policies and legislation,
- gathering information and writing report.
The Secretariat General: Responsibilities: essentially the secretariat of the Commission and more particularly the secretariat of the College of Commissioners. Charge: ensuring that the Commission is working efficiently and effectively. In more specific terms it has five main tasks:
● Memory bank: closely monitoring and keeping abreast of activities and developments throughout the services, in the College and in the other EU institutions as they affect the Commission.
● Watchdog and facilitator of coordination: seeks to ensure that the many different facets of Commission activities are properly coordinated and are pulling in the same direction.
● Procedural monitor: it sees that internal Commission procedures are observed. Whenever the Commission takes a decision – the relevant procedures laid down in the Commission’s Rules of Procedure must be followed.
● Promoter of a organisational efficiency: it concerns itself with whether the structure and operating practices of the Commission services could be improved
● Manager of relations with other EU institutions: regular direct contact with officials of other institutions and to be represented at many of the key forums of these institutions.
Role: filtering agency for approaches to the Commission for action of some kind. For example, requests from the Council for a Commission report or proposal are not sent directly to DGs or to special services but are sent to the Secretariat General.
The Secretary General: Commission’s most senior official. He reports directly to the President of the Commission and chairs the meeting of the chefs de cabinet + the meeting of the directorates general. Recognised as having a general responsibility for seeing that the Commission services are well organised and function efficiently. He also carries responsibilities for the relations of the Commission services with other EU institutions.
Other services: some of the most important:
● The Legal Service: responsible for ensuring that actions and proposals of the Commission are correct in legal terms. Most actions and proposals have to be referred to the Legal Service before a final decision, for example: proposals for legislation. Another important responsibility: to represent the Commission in any actions in which it is involved in the Court of Justice. Staff: 200 employees
● The Joint Interpreting and Conference Service: providing interpreters for meetings
● The Translation Service: meaning of documents = the same in all languages.
● The Joint Research Centre (JRC): Most work: sponsoring research undertaken by outside organisations on a shared-cost or contract basis.
Conflicts within the services: 3 general sorts of inter-service conflicts:
● Territorial conflict for influence and control over and within policy areas, for example: many issues cutting across internal organisational boundaries → ‘turf wars’ between DGs
● Ideological conflict over policy approaches and solutions
● Conflict over resources: For example, staffing and operational budgets
Inter-service coordination:
Informal manner + established mechanisms. The main mechanisms are:
● ‘horizontal’ services, especially the Secretariat General
● weekly meetings of directors general + assistants
● requirement in the Commission’s Rules of Procedure that all services with a potential interest in an initiative or proposal be given the opportunity to make observations before reference is made upwards to the College
● Inter-service meetings
Chapter 7 Personnel
Size: 21 703 Commission staff (2000 EU budget)
Established staff: The Commission employs around three-quarters of all EU staff on establishment. 16 409 permanent posts.
Non-established staff: A number of different types of non-established staff: Two broad types are of particular importance: Second officials or detached national experts and temporary agents
The staff grading system: Five separate grades: A-, LA-, B-, C- and D-grade.
Most important: A-grade: policy-making and policy management grade. Grade is divided in eight points: A1 – director general or equivalent, A2 – deputy director general, … A6 – A8 – assistant administrator
The multi-national staffing policy: to ensure that there is a balanced representation of nationals from all member states throughout the services.