The Commission also has the power to introduce onto national government policies that a government may not have included in their election manifesto – but that national government has to introduce them as the European Commission has passed them. A recent example to impact Britain on January 1st 2002, has been the Commission’s ruling that old refrigerators cannot be dumped by shops because of their impact on the environment. They have to be specially disposed of, which Britain does not have the facilities to do. Therefore Britain has taken onboard this ruling but has had to resort to simply storing old refrigerators while facilities are built to dispose of them. However, if Britain had failed to introduce this ruling, there is not a great deal the Commission could do to enforce its authority except fine Britain via the European Court. In this sense, the Commission only works if the member states in the European Union are compliant regarding Commission decisions.
The Council of Ministers is the main legislative and decision-making institution in the EU. The Council is composed of ministers who represent the national governments of the 25 Member States. It provides a forum for the Member States to legislate for the Union, set its political objectives and co-ordinate national policies. Council members are politically accountable to their national parliaments, and the Council is where they assert their interests and reach compromises. The Council is central to the EU's legislative process. The Commission may initiate legislation, but its proposals don't become law until they have been passed by the Council. Each country is assigned a number of votes in proportion to its share of population, this is called quality majority voting (QMV).
The Council has two formations such as the 23 Specialised Councils, whose membership changes according to the subject being discussed, such as “Environment”, “Transport”, “Industry”, and “Economics and Finance”. The General Council, consisting of foreign national ministers, deals with general co-ordination of the EU and foreign policy. While the Council has equal power to the European Parliament for some issues, for many others (taxation for example) it retains exclusive power to adopt Community policy. In those issues that the European Parliament has equity, the Council can adopt a position on the basis of majority vote; whereas where it has exclusive power it must adopt its position unanimously.
The Council also has supervisory powers as they oversee the work of the of the other EU institutions and can take them before the ECJ if they fail to uphold Community law. They also hold the power of delegation where they have chosen to delegate many important tasks to the Commission, to increase efficiency and legitimacy. Council is reluctant to give the Commission more power than necessary as they are worried they will follow their own agenda. Therefore they have institutionalised a system of supervisory committees composed of national representatives, called the comitology system.
They have the supporting institutions of COREPER, which is responsible for overseeing the adoption of Commission proposals, and the comitology committees, which controls the implementation of these proposals.
When the Council has to decide on major policy guidelines, the heads of state or government (HOSG) assisted by their Foreign Ministers and the President of the Commission meet as the European Council known as Summits to the media. The European Council meets at least twice a year in Brussels under the Presidency, which is held by a member state and changes every six months. They meet primarily to define general policy guidelines. While not established by the Treaties of Rome, it was informally introduced at the Paris Summit 1974. The European Council was formally recognised as an official body of the EU in the TEU.
There are three main tasks for the European Council. Firstly to provide a forum for discussing topics and policies that fall outside of the Treaty, usually relating to the future development of the Union. Secondly to facilitate the legislative process, by removing barriers in the Council of Ministers. The HOSG have the authority to resolve problematic issues that have been blocked by a lack of consensus; they are also able to construct package deals covering several policy areas. They also create policy and guidelines for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
Over the years the European Council has risen to the top of the EU's decision making hierarchy and is now a major agenda setter. Direct elections to the Parliament, monetary union, and the initiative of an EU rapid reaction force have all been launched at European Council level. Major Treaty reform also is agreed at this level.
The European Parliament is the only democratically elected body of the EU. The current Parliament, elected in June 2004 for a five-year period, has 732 members who represent 25 countries. "The members of the European Parliament (MEPs) sit not in national blocks but in Europe-wide political groups that bring together all the main political parties operating in the EU member states" (europa.eu). The European Parliament is not so much of a legislative body. It is consulted on issues and can influence changes to suggested policies under the co-operation procedure, established by the SEA, and the co-decision procedure, developed in the Treaty on the European Union (TEU 1992). However, it cannot introduce them, this is only done by the Commission and it is the Commission that initiates the whole process. In this sense it is not so much a parliament but an assembly and so what power does the European Parliament have?
Parliament has budgetary powers where they must approve or reject the entire budget, which the Commission prepares and then negotiates with the Council. However, now with a centralised currency, this would bring to a halt all the work the European Union does and brings the whole concept of a Europe working together into disrepute. The two bodies clashing would fundamentally weaken the whole fabric of the Union and give added ammunition to those anti the European Union. Nevertheless, the European Parliament only has jurisdiction over non-compulsory expenditures (e.g. environmental, regional policies), which is only about 40% of the EU budget, while the Council has control over all compulsory expenditures (e.g. agriculture).
The Parliament is responsible for selecting and appointing the European Commission but more importantly the EP can dismiss the Commission on a vote of censure by a two-thirds majority. However the parliament has never used this power and unlikely to as this would cause huge chaos and simply will not happen. As the driving force behind policy initiative is the Commission, such an act would deprive the European Union, in many senses, of its modus operandi. Nevertheless, it was pressure from the Parliament that led to the resignation of the Santer commissioners in 1999. Their power is weakened as they are not allowed to force individual commissioners to resign.
The rule of law has been a key to the success of the European Community. The European Court of Justice, located in Luxembourg consists of twenty-five judges - one from each member state chosen by national governments and appointed for six-year renewable terms. It "...serves three main functions in today's EC legal system: It helps ensure that EU institutions do not exceed their authority; it helps resolve disputes between EU institutions and between member states; and it helps to ensure national compliance with EC law. In all these roles, the ECJ is the highest authority, and its decisions are binding and final." (Dinan 1999: p192)
The ECJ can be described as a European version of the US Supreme Court. Its decisions are final, apply to both member states and individuals, and are not subject to appeal. Unlike the US Supreme Court, the decisions of the judges are reached under the principle of collegiality, and no dissenting opinions are published. While the Court originally did not have the right of judicial review in the majority of the provisions contained in the second and third Pillars of the Treaties (in the areas of CFSP and JHA), the Treaty of Amsterdam extended the Court's power, and the ECJ can now rule on all aspects of Pillar III (JHA) except the validity or proportionality of police services and measures taken to maintain law and order. While the powers of the ECJ were established by the treaties of Paris and Rome, a number of landmark cases have allowed the Court to gain sufficient power beyond the framework of the original treaties. These powers include supremacy of the EU law over national law on issues related to economic prerogatives of the Union.
However the Court's power is limited. Above all, it must rely on member states to carry out its ruling through enforcement agencies. The perception that it has tended to pursue integrationist goals has led member states to grant it only a very limited role in the justice and foreign policy pillars. In short, the precise policy making powers of the Court and how they should be wielded, remains a contested issue in EU politics.
After comparing the relative powers and responsibilities of the different EU institutions, how they relate to each other and to each of the member states, I would argue that the Council of Ministers is the more powerful EU institution. This is fundamentally on account of the fact that the Council makes the final decisions. Indeed, the Council can be considered more like the legislature of the EU rather than the European Parliament as the power to make EU laws and policies remains with the Council. Nevertheless, this is not to undermine the role of the Commission in the EU policy process. As John Pinder writes 'the Commission has been the architect, and often the initiator, of many of the community's achievements.' It would be a fair argument to say that the Commission has far more influence than the Council of Ministers. The European Parliament questions the Commission and Council, selects and able to dismiss the Commission as well as co-legislates with the Council. However it lacks the power to initiate legislation like the Commission and the Council has much more authority over decision making and greater jurisdiction. The link between politics and law is becoming greater and greater and so the European Court of Justice is gaining importance. It ensures the Community law is followed in practice and implemented in line with the Treaties. The EU institutions can be taken to Court as can member states if they are not fulfilling EU law and the Court's decisions are final, giving the Court great power and responsibility over all the institutions. However, member states have limited the Court's power in the second and third pillars. The European Council, the most recent of institutions, categorises with the Council of Ministers to make 'The Council'. However, separately it could be more powerful than the Council of Ministers because it is here where major decisions and policies are made. It guides the EU for the future and resolves problems amongst the other institutions. However I would still argue that the Council of Ministers is more powerful as the European Council meet only maybe twice a year while the decision making Council of Ministers are influencing the EU all year round with the majority of legislative.
It is clear how the member states are not willing to pass legislative powers to a supranational body such as the Commission or other EU institutions but instead pass the legislative powers to the Council which consists of national government ministers, this is characteristic of a confederal system with federalising tendencies. Moreover the EU has moved away from the limits of a neo-functionalism system and more towards liberal intergovernmentalism. This has again removed some of the powers of the Commission and given greater significance to the role of the Council of Ministers as a legislative body representing the interests of the member states. Indeed, there is no question that the member states have lost powers to the EU and have less political and economic independence than they did at the outset of the EU.
Bibliography
D. Dinan, Ever Closer Union: An introduction to European Integration, Basingstoke: Palgrave, (1999).
N. Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, London: Palgrave, (2003).
J. McCormick, Understanding the European Union: a concise introduction, Houndsmills: Palgrave (1999)
D. Dinan, Encyclopedia of the European Union, Macmillan (2000)
E. Bomberg, The European Union: How Does it Work? Oxford (2003)
The Presidency of the Council is the driving force in the legislative and political decision-making process, organising and chairing all meetings and working out compromises to resolve any difficulties. The Presidency rotates among the Member States every six months and is used as a mechanism through which Member States can advance specific priorities. The UK will next hold the Presidency in the second half of 2005.
The European Council's far reaching and dramatic decisions have helped propel their meetings into the public spotlight where they have become the focal point for media coverage of the EU, which increases their power
During the political, economic and institutional weakening of the European Community (EC) in the 1960s and 1970s the ECJ persisted and struggled on to create an extensive and powerful mass of case law that continued the process for deeper integration. The outcome of this was extremely positive. The work of the ECJ developed not just a new legal order but also assisted in the EC's resurgence during the 1980s. (Dinan 2000: p301)
