José Ramón Canedo E-mail: [email protected] … · José Ramón Canedo. E-mail: [email protected]. European Master in Transnational Trade Law & Finance. University of Deusto

José Ramón CanedoE-mail: [email protected]

European Master in Transnational Trade Law & FinanceUniversity of Deusto

José Ramón CanedoUniversidad de Deusto

Main points to coverI. EU’s Main FeaturesII. The competences of the EUIII. The institutional systemIV. The types of normsV. The relationship between EU norms and national norms



The European Union:50 years of evolution

• Since the creation of the EU 50 years ago, Europe has enjoyed the longest period of peace in its history.

• European political integration has no precedent in history.

• EU successive enlargements have helped overcome the divisions of Europe –contributing to peace, prosperity, and stability across the continent.

• We have created a single market and established a common currency, conditions for companies and consumers.

• EU has united the citizens of Europe (?)–while preserving Europe’s diversity.

European UnionUnited in diversity

http://europa.eu/abc/symbols/emblem/index_es.htm


EU Fundamentals

• Shared values: liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

• Largest economic entity in the world.

• Successful model for advancing peace and democracy.

• A unique organization – Member States voluntarily hand over their national sovereignty in many fields to carry out common policies and governance.

• Not a super-state to replace existing states, nor just a classical international organization for cooperation.

27

7

30

501million

Member States

Combined population of

EU Member States

Percent of world’spopulation

Percent of global GDP

55Percent of combinedworldwide OfficialDevelopment Assistance

35.000Servants


23 official languages and 3 alphabets


The enlargements


First, what it is not: • It is not a nation-state• It is not a traditional international

organization

What is it then? • U.P.O.• It is a political system that combines

elements of both

What does it do? • It makes policy (and legislates) in

specified areas

What is the European Union?


• Customs Union and Single market

• Common Agricultural Policy • Common Fisheries Policy • EU competition law • Economic and monetary union • EU-Citizenship • Education and Culture • Trans-European Networks • Consumer protection • Healthcare • Research• Environmental law • Social policy • Asylum policy • Schengen treaty• Immigration policy

Foreign policy:

• Human rights

• Democracy • Foreign aid

Security policy:

• European Security and Defense Policy

• EU battle groups • European Rapid Reaction Force

• Peacekeeping

• Drug trafficking and weapons smuggling

• Terrorism • Trafficking in human beings • Organized crime

• Bribery and fraud

OLD EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES

EUROPEAN FOREIGN ANDSECURITY POLICY

POLICE AND JUDICIAL COOPERATION IN CRIMINALMATTERS

The Policies of the European Union

DIVISION OF COMPETENCES EU-MS

Principle of conferral (art. 5 EU). To be read in connection with arts. 352 (example) and art. 114 TFEU (example)The exercise by the EU of its competences is governed by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality (art. 5 UE and Protocol on those principles)


http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Notice.do?val=485618:cs&lang=en&list=485864:cs,485618:cs,480815:cs,474794:cs,462770:cs,462690:cs,460475:cs,447995:cs,447982:cs,444982:cs,&pos=2&page=2&nbl=79&pgs=10&hwords=and in particular Article 308~&checktexte=checkbox

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32007R0717:EN:NOT

DIVISION OF COMPETENCES EU-MS(art. 2 TFEU)

EU exclusive competences. Only the EU may legislate, except if MS are empowered by it or in order to implement EU acts.Shared competences. Both can legislate but pre-emption in favor of the EU (with exceptions). Most of the activities of the EU are included here.Supporting, coordinating or complementary competences. The EU support will essentially by financial.Outside this classification, we find coordination of economic and employment policies and common foreign and security policy.



The Institutions of the European Union

Court of Auditors27 members

Committee of the Regions344 members

Econ. & Social Committee344 members

European Council27 Heads of State or

government + its president +

President of the Commission

Council of the EU27 ministers

EU Court of Justice3 courts - 27 judges

European Parliament736 members

European Commission27 Commissioners

European Central Bank

Consultative organs


EU Main Institutions (Overview)European Commission

• 27 Commissioners, representing the European perspective, each responsible for a specific policy area.

• EU’s executive branch proposes legislation, manages Union’s day-to-day business and budget, and enforces rules.

• Negotiates trade agreements and manages Europe’s multilateral development cooperation.

Council of the European Union

• EU’s main decision-making body, composed of ministers of 27 Member States, representing governments’ point of view.

• Decides also on foreign policy issues.

European Commission President José Manuel Durao Barroso


EU Main Institutions (Overview)

European Parliament

• Voice of European citizens – members elected for five-year terms.

• With the Council, passes EU laws and adopts EU budget.

• Exercises democratic supervision over the other European institutions in several ways.

European Court of Justice

• Highest EU judicial authority.

• Ensures all EU laws are interpreted and applied correctly and uniformly.

• Can act as an independent policy maker but unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, the ECJ can only deal with matters covered by the Treaties.

European Parliament in session


EU Main Institutions (Overview)

European Central Bank

• The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central bank for Europe's single currency, the euro.

• The ECB’s main task is to maintain the euro's purchasing power and thus price stability in the euro area.

• The ECB operates independently from Member State governments.

• The euro area comprises the 15 European Union countries that have introduced the euro since 1999.

The euro was introduced in 1999

How EU laws are made


Citizens, interests groups, experts: discuss, consult

Commission: makes formal proposal

Parliament and Council of Ministers: decide jointly

Commission and Court of Justice: monitor implementation

National or local authorities: implement

Commission and Court of Justice: monitor implementation



The functions and influence of the Commission

• Promotes the general interest of the Union in total independence from the Member States.

• Major powers of the Commission– (Almost) the monopoly of

legislative proposal (reinforced by art. 293 TFUE)

– Monitoring of policy implementation– Executes the EU budget– Management of European

programmes– External relations role– Mediator amongst 27 member

states & between the Council and the EP


The functions and influence of the Commission

• Limited role of the Commission– Common Foreign and Security

Policy (CFSP)• Gathers elements of both

supranationalism (a European dimension, due to its tasks) and intergovernmentalism (as a consequence of its composition).

• Commission influence– Relatively insignificant

(intergovernmentalists)– Having an independent impact on

policy outcomes (supranationalists / institutionalists)

• It is not a government, but some sort of federal administration.


The structure of the Commission• The President and the Commissioners

– College of Commissioners: 27 Commissioners, including its President and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (one of its Vice-Presidents)

– The College operates on the basis of the principle of collegiality

– Nominated by national governments and approved by the EP for 5 years (read art. 17.7 EU)

• The Commission Services– 26 Directorates-General (DGs):

sectoral and functional (horizontal) departments

– Recruitment of officials (approx. 25.000): a merit basis with a view to an appropriate geographical balance among member states


Connection with national administrations: Committees and networks

• Roles of expert committees and standing advisory groups– Assist the Commission in its

preparatory work on new legislation and in other forms of policy-making

• Comitology committees (Implementation committees)– Monitoring the Commission when

delivering delegated legislation– The Commission: calls and chairs

the meetings, sets the agenda, submits the proposals requiring discussion.



National Interests and Collective Action in the EU

• Composition: shall consist of a representative of each Member State at ministerial level, who may commit the government of the Member State in question and cast its vote.

• Member states in the Council– Protecting national interests in the

EU– Ensuring collective EU action

• The governance of the Council– Consensual culture– A mixture between

intergovernmentalism and supranationalism


The Institutional Status of the Council

• At the centre of the EU power– The most important EU institution– Representing the Governments of Member

States– A legislative and executive body – An arena for inter-state diplomacy and

negotiation (bargaining)

• The institutional settings of the Council– Ministerial level: the Council of Ministers– Committee level: COREPER– Working group level– Ten sectorally specialised formations

• E.g., GAERC, ECOFIN, Agriculture…


Decision-Making in the Council

• Hierarchical structure, and network relationship – The ministerial Councils, the COREPER, the

working groups, the General Secretariat– Significant variation of the decision-making

process across different issue areas

• The Council Presidency– The six-month rotation, with the exception

of the Foreign Affairs one (art. 18.3 EU)– Planning and chairing meetings

• Relationship with other EU institutions– The Commission holds ‘the 28th seat’ in the

Council– Co-decision and the European Parliament

•


The Evolution of the Council System

• Decision-making capability of the Council– Growing membership– Increasing issue areas

• The democratic deficit of the Council– Remains remote and non-

transparent– When the meetings are broadcasted,

not real ones.• Enlargement and the Council

– The consequences of new voting weights


Decision-making process in the Council

• Unanimity – Abstentions by Members present in person or represented shall not prevent the adoption by the Council of acts which require unanimity (art. 238.4 TFUE).

• Majority of members• Qualified Majority voting (weighted

votes)


Number of votes for each country in the Council (QMV)

A minimum of 255 votes out of 345 (73.9%) is required to reach a qualified majority. In addition:

• a majority of member states (in some cases two thirds) must approve the decision, and

• any member state may ask for confirmation that the votes cast in favour represent at least 62% of the EU’s total population

345Total:

3Malta

4Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovenia

7Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Finland

10Austria, Bulgaria and Sweden

12Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Portugal

13Netherlands

14Romania

27Spain and Poland

29Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom

VOTES IN THE COUNCIL


COUNTRY POPULATION VOTES NUM. OF INHABS. PER VOTE

GERMANY 82.200.162 29 2.834.488

FRANCE 63.779.059 29 2.199.277

UK 61.270.283 29 2.112.768

ITALIE 59.578.359 29 2.054.426

SPAIN 45.257.696 27 1.676.210

ESTONIA 1.338.617 4 334.654

CYPRUS 796.350 4 199.087

LUXEMBOURG 482.186 4 120.546

MALTA 410.494 3 136.831

New Qualified Majority after Lisbon“As from 1 November 2014, a qualified majority shall be defined as at least 55% of the members of the Council, comprising at least fifteen of them and representing Member States comprising at least 65% of the population of the Union.A blocking minority must include at least four Council members, failing which the qualified majority shall be deemed attained. Special regimen 2014-2017: From 1 November 2014 to 31 March 2017, if members of the Council, representing:

(a) at least three quarters of the population, or(b) at least three quarters of the number of Member States

necessary to constitute a blocking minority resulting from the application of Article 9 C(4), first subparagraph, of the Treaty on European Union or Article 205(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, indicate their opposition to the Council adopting an act by a qualified majority, the Council shall discuss the issue.




The European Council

• The European Council– Bringing together the 27 heads of

state or government of the MS, its president and the president of the Commission.

– The President is now a person (instead of a MS), elected for 2,5 years (renewable once) by the European Council by QM.

• The legal status of the European Council– Informally institutionalised in 1974– Recognised in the SEA of 1986


The European Council

• The most influential institution• Provides The Union with the necessary

impetus and defines the broad political guidelines for EU policy. It works for the establishment of compromises:– Reform of the major EU policies– Treaty changes– Final terms of enlargement…

• Meets twice every six months• Has no formal role in EU law-making:

its political decisions must be transformed into “law” by other actors.

• It adopts its decisions by consensus (save where otherwise provided: art. 14.2, 15.5, 17 EU...).

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/App/NewsRoom/galleryViewer.aspx?command=PIC&pic=3&bid=76&lang=EN&rubrique=3087&dateEvent=25/03/2010&id=818&picid=a6f0acf4-a60a-4b4b-addc-120266cd5aaa



A Historical Overview of the EP

• 1952 the Common Assembly of the ECSC– Members were members of the

national parliaments– Very limited powers

• 1962 renamed as the European Parliament

• 1979 direct election to the EP– Increasing the number of MEPs


The Institutional Power of the EP

• The EU is founded on representative democracy and citizens are directly represented in the EP (art. 10 EU)

• The increasing power of the EP• The community budget

– 1970s Rights of modification and rejection

– The EP twice excised vetoes in 1979 and 1984

– 1980s Parliamentary approval for budgetary increase

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/president/transform/thumb-view/ep_president_homepage_step3/static/images/press-release/14-07-09_Vote_President-10.jpg


The Institutional Power of the EP

• Executive oversight– Right to dismiss the Commission: the

motion of censure (art. 234 TFUE)– Veto power over the Commission

nomination– Day-to-day scrutiny of the

Commission activities (oral and written questions, investigation committees, EU Ombudsman, iusstandi before the EUCJ…)

• EU law-making– From consultation to co-legislation– The ordinary legislative procedure

(art. 294 TFUE) and the special legislative procedure (art. 289.2 TFUE).


The EP and Its Internal Politics

• The MEPs– From different national political parties– Including Euro-enthusiastic and Euro-

sceptic members• The party groups

– Broadly cohesive ideological collectives

– Internal politics: compromises within the party groups


The EP and Its Internal Politics

• The EP committees– Well-established system of permanent

committees– Undertaking legislative work and

oversight activity• The EP plenary sessions

– Politically significant events– Logistical difficulties of managing the

plenary sessions


Number of seats, as at 8 June 2009

Number of seats, as at 8 June 2009



EP Elections

• The members of the European Parliament shall be elected for a term of five years by direct universal suffrage in a free and secret ballot (art. 14.3 EU) in accordance with a uniform procedure in all Member States or in accordance with principles common to all Member States (art. 223 TFUE).

• Link between the people and the EU– Providing political legitimacy to the

EU– EP elections and the democratic

deficit

• Problems of EP elections– Continuously declining turnout– Campaign on national political

issues– Disconnection with the voters

• The growing gap between increasing EP powers and declining public interest in EP elections


EP Elections


EP Elections

Austria 17 (+2) Belgium 22

Bulgaria 17 (+1) Cyprus 6

Czech Republic 22 Denmark 13

Estonia 6 Finland 13

France 72 (+2) Germany 99

Greece 22 Hungary 22

Ireland 12 Italy 72 (+1)

Latvia 8 (+1) Luxembourg 6

Lithuania 12 Netherlands 25 (+1)

Malta 5 (+1) Portugal 22

Poland 50 (+1) Slovakia 13

Romania 33 Spain 50 (+4)

Slovenia 7 (+1) United Kingdom 72 (+1)

Sweden 18 (+2)

Total 736 (+18)


Number of seats in the EP

SEATS IN THE EP (AS FROM 2009)


COUNTRY POPULATION SEATS NUM. OF INHABS. PER

SEAT

GERMANY 82.200.162 99 830.304

FRANCE 63.779.059 72 885.820

UK 61.270.283 72 850.976

ITALIE 59.578.359 72 827.477

SPAIN 45.257.696 50 905.153

ESTONIA 1.338.617 6 223.102

CYPRUS 796.350 6 132.725

LUXEMBOURG 482.186 6 80.364

MALTA 410.494 5 82.098



Composition & structure

• The Court of Justice, the General Court, the Civil Service Tribunal

• The Court of Justice– 27 Judges (one judge per member

state) and 8 Advocates General (AG)– Perform the tasks assigned to the

Court by the Treaties– The appointment of all judges must

be ‘by common accord of the governments of the member states’ after consultation of a panel responsible for giving an opinion on prospective candidates' suitability


Composition & structure

• The General Court (former Court of First Instance)– Initially created to lessen the

workload of the ECJ (body ‘attached’ to the ECJ), but following the Treaty of Nice, more cases transferred to the CFI

– 27 judges, but no permanent AGs

• The European Civil Service Tribunal– Created in 2004 as a result of the

entry into force of the Treaty of Niceto lessen the workload of the CFI.

– 7 judges – It has jurisdiction to hear and determine at

first instance disputes between the European Union and its servants.


Mission & jurisdiction

Its mission has been to ensure that "the law is observed" "in the interpretation and application" of the Treaties.As part of that mission, the Court of Justice:• reviews the legality of the acts of the institutions of the European Union (Actions for annulment, Actions for failure to act)• ensures that the Member States comply with their obligations under Community law (Actions for failure to fulfil obligations),• interprets Community law at the request of the national courts and tribunals (References for preliminary rulings).

The Court constitutes the judicial authority of the European Union and, in cooperation with the courts and tribunals of the Member States, it ensures the application and uniform interpretation of Community law.


The ‘Judicial Activism’ Debate

• Judicial Activism– In the ’60 and ’70, the ECJ used the

lack of precision of some Treaty provisions to expand the Communities powers

Criticism: Court’s activism exceeds its judicial powers and falls in the area of policy-making and legislation

• Interpreting Treaty provisions– In order to guarantee the spirit and

aims of the Treaties

Conclusion

Complex institutional system for a complex polity of peoples and States


Documents

José Ramón Canedo E-mail: [email protected] … · José Ramón Canedo. E-mail: [email protected]. European Master in Transnational Trade Law & Finance. University of Deusto