An Analysis of the Powers of the European Parliament.

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AN ANALYSIS OF THE POWERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

History of the European Parliament:

On the 18th April 1951 the Ministers representing France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg signed in Paris a treaty which established the European Coal and Steel Community, the ECSC was born. The most important feature of the ECSC was its supranational character, it was a supranational organization. It was aptly described as a ‘quasi federation in an important economic sector. The Community was endowed with five organs;

  1. An executive, called the High Authority
  2. A Consultative Committee attached to the High Authority
  3. A Special Council of Ministers
  4. An Assembly
  5. A Court of Justice

Under the ECSC Treaty the European Parliament had a modest role of supervising the High Authority. The original designation ‘Assembly’ reflected its lowly status and the French influence In order to enhance its prestige the Assembly adopted the title ‘European Parliamentary Assembly, and then renamed itself ‘European Parliament’. Although this designation was used in its working papers and the Council documents, the original title was used until it was replaced by the Single European Act

The European Parliament:

The ECSC assembly met for the first time in Strasbourg in 1952. Five years later, the six member countries signed the Treaty of Rome to create the European Economic Community, which included a European Parliament of 142 members, all of them representatives of their national Parliaments seconded to Europe. In 1973, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland joined the EEC bringing the Parliaments strength to 198. In June 1979 another vital part of Schuman’s plan fell into place when members of the EP were directly elected by voters rather than being nominated by governments. Two years later, Greece joined the EEC followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986. With the entry of Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995, the European Parliament was expanded to its present size of 626 members.  The Treaty of Nice provides that the allocation can be reweighed from 2004 to accommodate new Member States without increasing the number of MEPs beyond 732.

The size of the European Parliament has increased so has its powers. Originally, the EP was conceived as little more than a consultative assembly with limited scope in certain areas, however it has gained significant new powers and responsibilities with the signing of the Single European Act in 1986, the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1996.

Elections

Election s to the European Parliament are held on a five year fixed term basis, there is no uniform electoral procedure consequently the five sets of direct elections held to date have been contested on the basis of different national electoral arrangements. In the 1999 elections the UK did not use its standard ‘first past the post’ system, but rather proportional representation on a regional basis. This meant that for the first time a form of proportional representation was used in all Member States. As well as the differences between the electoral systems of Member States there are two other differences between the electoral arrangements of the Member States. The first is that voting does not take place on the same day. The second difference is important in terms of the democratic base of the European Parliament in that there is considerable variations in the size of the electorate per MEP. The reason for this imbalance is that EP seats are not just distributed on the grounds of national equitability but also ensure that the representations of small States are not swamped in the EP decision – making process.

Voter turn out in EP elections has been low, there are three main factors which may explain this. Firstly EP elections do not offer a change of government or policy, there is little popular interest or political excitement. Secondly the election campaigns have little coordination they are essentially national contest and European Issues have never made much of an impact. Thirdly the political parties who do much to generate interest in national elections approach the EP elections in a half hearted manner and are reluctant to commit resources to their Euro Campaigns. Some governments play down the importance of EP elections as they are often interpreted as unofficial referendums on the governments performance and media interest is limited. It has been argued that a high turn out would enhance the legitimacy and democratic base of the EP and as a consequence place the EP in a stronger position to press for increased powers.

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Political Parties

In relation to the EP party political activity takes place at three main levels; the transnational, the political groups in the EP, and the national. Political activity in the EP is mainly channelled via political groups. Under the Rules of Procedure in order for MEPs to form a political group there must be 29 if they come from the same State and 23 if they come from two Member States, 18 if they come from three Member States, and 14 if they come from four or more Member States. There are a number ...

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