APPOINTMENT
At the head of the Commission are the President and one or two Vice-Presidents (at the present two). The President holds office for a two-year renewable term and is nominated and chosen by the Head of State of the Member States after a consultation with the European Parliament. The other Commissioners are then nominated by the 15 governments in consultation with the incoming President. The Commissioners are appointed for a five-year term, which is the same as the European Parliament, only that the Commission starts its work 6 months later. After the five-year term, the Commissioners can be re-appointed for another five-year period. The Commissioners, often being members of their national Parliaments or of the European Parliament and having held senior ministerial offices in their home countries, bring a wide range of political experience to help them complete their task within the Commission. However, once appointed they are obliged to be completely independent of their national governments and to act only in the interest of the European Union. This impartiality in their execution of their duties enables the Commission to act as an affective and honest broker, mediating conflicts of interest between Member States when needed.
The present President for the Commission is Romano Prodi, a 60-year old man from Scandiano, Italy. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1996 and is since 1999 the President of the European Commission.
WORK OF THE COMMISSION
The Commission may seem to be a strong and too powerful institution but the fact is that all it’s proposals, actions and decisions are in extensive ways checked and judged by almost all of the other institutions within the European Union. The Commissions legitimacy is also highly monitored by the European Parliament. For instance, a full Commission must be approved by the Parliament before its members can take office and the Commissioners can also be required to resign on quick notice by a Parliament “Vote of Censure” (2/3 of the Parliament votes), although this has never happened yet.
The Commissions main job is to ensure that the European Union can attain its goal of creating a closer union for its members. One of the principal tasks here is to secure the free movement of goods, services, capital and persons throughout the Union. The Commissions role identifies three major functions in doing this:
- Initiating proposals for legislation
- Guardian of the Treaties
- Manager and executor of Union policies and of International trade relationships
INITIATING PROPOSALS FOR LEGISLATION
The whole creating of a law within the European Union begins with a proposal from the Commission; Community law can not be made without one. The only time when the Commission doesn’t have exclusive right of initiative is under the two areas of intergovernmental cooperation (as covered by the Treaty on European Union): “Common Foreign & Security Policy” and “Justice and Home Affairs”. It also never takes any decision on European Union policies. Decisions in the Commission are made by a majority vote and when adopted by the majority, the Commissioners are expected to give full support to the policy.
When drafting a proposal, the Commission has three major objectives to follow; the European interest (what is best for the Citizens and the Union as a whole, rather than sectorial interests or individual countries), to consult as widely as necessary (this means listen to governments, industries, trade unions and technical experts before completing a final draft of the proposal) and to respect the principle of subsidiarity (ensure that the European Union takes action only when it will be more effective than if left to individual Member States).
After a formal proposal has been sent for legislation to the Council and the Parliament, the EU’s law-making process is heavily dependent on the effective cooperation between these three institutions (see chart on next page).
First a formulation of the proposal is made in the Commission. A working group within the Commission is then established, which only has advisory powers though. The group’s work is then sent back to the Commission (2) for a final decision of the proposed draft. The proposal is then sent to the Council (3), which in turn sends it to the Parliament (4) and possibly also the Economic and Social Committee, ECOSOC (8) for their opinions (consultation). After these opinions have been received, the proposal is sent to the Committee of Permanent Representatives, COREPER (12). Here a working group runs over the proposal again and presents a report on the matter, which is then sent to the Council (15), in addition to the proposal. Commission staff attends meetings at all levels in order to be able to clarify any points that may come up.
If a full agreement was reached in COREPER, the proposal will be adopted by the council without debate, unless a last minute objection is made. If no agreement was reached in COREPER, the matter will then be discussed in the Council. Sometimes these discussions takes a long time and in the end, an agreement can be reached on a basis of a package deal in which several decisions are combined and where compromises are met. In this situation the Commission plays a crucial role in suggesting possible compromises.
By including all these institutions in the legislation-process, this strengthens the actual legislation and decreases the risk that the legislation is not in favor for the Community as a whole.
GUARDIAN OF THE TREATIES
It is the Commissions job to ensure that the European Unions legislation is applied correctly by the Member States. If breaking or failing to fulfill a treaty obligation, Member States will face action from the Commission, which can lead to legal proceedings in the Court of Justice. In addition to this, in some cases the Commission even fine individuals, firms and organizations, often in cases of illegal price-fixing or market-rigging cartels.
MANAGER AND EXECUTOR OF UNION POLICIES
A main managing of the Commission is the matter of the European Unions annual budgets and with that the distribution of funds in accordance to the budget. Among the other executive responsibilities for the Commission lies introducing preventive measures, for a limited period only, to protect the Community market, strengthen the Treaty’s competition rules and regulate mergers and acquisitions above a certain size.
CRITICISMS OF THE COMMISSION
In viewing the Commission three major issues has risen that I think need further investigation. First is the matter of the Commission really being an elective body with democratic legitimacy. It can be argued that it really is not this but rather a un-elected body without democratic legitimacy, because of its composition and that it’s not really the citizens of the European Union that appoint the Commissioners but rather the members of the European Parliament. It can been seen as a process where the citizens has little or no influence on the selection of the candidates and the election of these. To answer this question I can only see the appointment of Commissioners as a long chain of actions, for which every citizen has an initial opportunity to make a change. It is when we nominate and choose the members of the European Parliament and also when we elect our Head of State that we have an influence. It is therefor crucial that we elect these people in a democratic and fair matter so that the work of those whom we choose is reflected on with respect and acceptance.
The second issue that lies with the European Commission is its question of independence. Can it be judged that a person nominated by his or her native government, a citizen of their country could act in an independent and impartial way from their native countries and only look at the situation in the eyes of the Union? Will interests not undermine that persons mind and in that way influence her/him to make decisions or in the long rung strive for questions that are more concerned on a national basis? I think that we will always have these kind of biased Commissioners, it is unavoidable. Our only hope is that they can still perform in a matter that will follow under Union policies and not work against the greater goals of the Union, i.e. to create a closer union for its members and to secure the free movement of goods, services, capital and persons throughout the European Union. Together with this goes the question of fraud and scrutiny. Since the Commissioners only can be elected 2 times (total of 10 years), it is a fact that a commissioner on his 2nd and last term, in a larger extent, can be target for bribery or even blackmail. They know they can’t get elected again and that they have 5 years before it’s all over. We have seen proof of such things already within the Commission and therefor it is a point that should be looked on very closely.
The last issue is mainly a reflection of the age of the Commissioners. A quick count showed that the average age for the present Commissioners is 52 years (52.35). With ages up to even 66 years and the youngest person being only 40 years clearly states that the organization suffer somewhat from an age problem. The difference becomes even more clear if you divide it up among male and female (average age for women Commissioners is 46 years while the average age for men is 54.5 years). It’s hard though to suggest that the European Union try to lower the average age in the Commission because of the political experience needed to be a good Commissioner. But with the growing interest among young people to become more involved in the Community, this will influence the institutions and in the long rung even out the age differences.
REFERENCES
Printed material:
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Hitiris, T., 1998, European Union Economics, 4th edition.Prentice Hall, U.K.
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Cuthbert, M., 1997, Nutshells, European Union Law, 2nd edition. Sween & Maxwell, U.K.
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Lasok, D. & Bridge, J.W., 1991, Law & Institutions of the European Communities, 5th edition. Butterworths & Co, London, U.K.
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Hartley, T.C., 1988, The Foundations of European Community Law, 2nd edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, U.S.
Other sources
Internet:
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