The New Europe

Governing Europe: The EU’s Institutions

The European Council

Heads of State of all the Members States

Presided over by The European President

The “Permanent Presidency”

Established in the Lisbon Treaty

Serves two and a half year term

The EU’s First President: Herman van Rompuy (elected 2009)

President Donald Tusk

Meetings

Up to four times a year the presidents and/or prime ministers of the Member States meet as the European Council. These ‘summit’ meetings set overall EU policy.

David Cameron’s report back to UK Parliament on March 2015 meeting

Usually, meet at least once in Brussels, and at least once in the country that is hosting the “rotating presidency.”

2014: Greece, Italy

2015: Latvia, Luxembourg

2016: Netherlands, Slovakia

2017: Malta, UK

The “presidential triumvirate” refers to the permanent president, the current president, and the next president who must work together closely to ensure continuity, coherence.

Europe’s Three Capitals: Brussels, Strasbourg, Luxembourg City

European Commission, The Berlaymont Building, Brussels

BBC Short Film on the Commission

Roles and Responsiblities

Guarantor of the Treaties

Oath: to seek and defend Europe’s interests

“the conscience of the EU”

Execute’s budget/legislation

Initiator of legislation

Issues regulations

Rules on competition cases

President of the Commission

Jean-Claude Juncker (Luxembourg)

Criticism from Christian Dem Right

Commissioners

5-year term

Appointed by member states (28 of them; proposal to reduce)

Confirmed (dismissed) by EP as a group

Each has a portfolio (executive authority in specific area)

The Commissioners

Commissioners

5-year term

Appointed by member states (27 of them; proposed to reduce)

Confirmed (dismissed) by EP as a group

Each has a portfolio (executive authority in specific area)

Profiles of the Commissioners

The High Representative for CFSP

Kissinger quip, “When I want to talk to Europe, who do I call?

Today, Europe has an answer:

First One: Lady (Cathy) Ashton (UK)

2014-2019 Federica Mogherini

Statement on Ukraine, Feb. 2015

Decision-Making: Co-Decision

The Council of the European Union

aka Council of Ministers

BBC Short Film on the Council

Council Headquarters in Brussels

Shares with Parliament the responsibility for passing laws and taking policy decisions.

Bears the main responsibility for CFSP (Pillar II) some justice and freedom issues (border control, asylum, immigration).

Nation-State Representation:

Consists of ministers from the national governments of all the EU countries.

Each country has a number of votes in the Council broadly reflecting the size of their population, but weighted in favour of smaller countries.

Decisions Made 3 Ways: by a simple majority vote; by a qualified majority vote (QMV); unanimously.

Has to agree unanimously in order to amend the Treaties, to launch new common policies or to allow a new country to join.

In most other cases, QMV is used, in which the Council adopts a decision if a specified minimum number of votes is cast in its favor.

Qualified Majority Vote

The number of votes allocated to each EU country roughly reflects the size of its population.

Populous countries like Germany, France, Italy and the UK each have 29 votes.

Countries with a smaller populations like Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovenia only have four votes.

For a decision to pass, it has to have a minimum of 255 votes out of 345.

In addition, a few other factors have to be met:

A majority of member states (in some cases two-thirds) must approve the decision.

The votes cast in favor must represent at least 62% of the EU's total population.

Lisbon Treaty Changes/Phase In:

QMV will be extended to 40 policy areas,

including asylum, immigration, police co-operation and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.

Double Majority Rule

55% of member states and 65% of the EU's population will need to support a piece of EU legislation for it to pass by qualified majority.

This system will only be adopted in 2014,

with an extra transition period until 2017.

Council Building, Brussels

Council Chamber

Council Configurations

Meetings are attended by whichever ministers are responsible for the items to be discussed:

General Affairs and External Relations

Economic and Financial Affairs

Cooperation in the fields of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)

Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs

Competitiveness

Transport, Telecommunications and Energy

Agriculture and Fisheries

Environment

Education, Youth and Culture

The Rotating Presidency of the Council of The European Union

6-mos. Rotation

Hosts summits in-country, presides over summits in Brussels

**Can set the agenda, push the envelope

The European Parliament: Voice of the people

The Parliament Building, Strasbourg, France

BBC Short Film on the Parliament

Elected every five years by the people of Europe to represent their interests.

Present parliament, elected in June 2004, has 785 members from all 27 EU countries. Nearly one third of them are women.

The main job of Parliament is to pass European laws.

It shares this responsibility with the Council of the European Union, and the proposals for new laws come from the European Commission. Parliament and Council also share joint responsibility for approving the EU’s €100 billion annual budget.

Parliament’s Secretariat, Luxembourg City

Parliament has the power to dismiss the European Commission.

Political Group

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) do not sit in national blocks, but in seven Europe-wide political groups.

European People’s Party and European Democrats: Center-right

Christian Democrats, Conservatives

List of Parties in group

“The Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats in the European Parliament (EPP-ED Group) is a major political force in the European Union; it is the direct heir of the tradition established in the 1950s by Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and Alcide de Gasperi.

The EPP-ED Group has worked consistently and successfully to consolidate the European Union on the bases of the primacy of law and respect for fundamental rights, on the application of the principle of subsidiarity and an efficient sharing out of power, and on independent democratic institutions, in order to ensure that future progress serves the common interest of all Europeans.

As members of the EPP-ED Group, we believe in a Europe of values, united, open, more humane and embracing diversity.

We want a Europe which creates opportunity and wealth within a single market, competitive at world level, and which at the same time promotes the wellbeing of everybody, not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world, in accordance with the principle of sustainable development enshrined in the EU Treaty as one of the European Community's aims.

We wish to see the Union develop a consistent and effective common foreign and security policy and to carry out the institutional reforms necessary to make enlargement a success.

The EPP-ED Group is the political centre in Europe. Moderation and dialogue are the tools our Group deploys. Using them, all our work as members of the EPP-ED Group reflects our unstinting commitment to building a Europe of opportunity, a better Europe for all.” (http://www.epp-ed.eu/home/en/aboutus.asp)

The Socialist Group in the EP: Center-left

Socialist parties, Social Democratic parties

What it Stands For

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats: Center

3^rd largest group

Examples of some parties in group: Liberal Democrat Party (UK); Dem 66 (NL); FDP (DE); Partia Democratyczna (PL)

Parties/National Delegations

The Greens/European Free Alliance: New Left.

Identity-Tradition-Sovereignty: Far-right.

Comprised of members of:

French National Front

Greater Romania Party

Belgian Flemish Interest

Italian MEPs (post-Fascist parties; Alessandra Mussolini)

Austrian Freedom Party

Bulgarian Attack Coalition

1 Independent British MEP

BBC Story On

Who’s Who In

Operations of the Parliament

The main meetings of the Parliament are held in Strasbourg, others in Brussels.

Like all other EU institutions, it works in all 23 official EU languages.

The Parliament elects the European Ombudsman, who investigates citizens’ complaints about maladministration by the EU institutions.

Click here to go to EU’s overview of other institutions

BBC’s Inside Europe

The European Court of Justice

Place of Business: Luxembourg City

Composition:

One justice chosen from each member state; 6 year renewable terms (staggered)

Chief justice is elected by court for 3 year renewable term

The Court sits:

as a full court

cases prescribed by the Statute of the Court

including proceedings to dismiss the European Ombudsman

or a Member of the European Commission who has failed to fulfill

his or her obligations)

and where the Court considers that a case is of exceptional importance

in a Grand Chamber of 13 Judges

when a Member State or an institution which is a party to the proceedings so requests, and in particularly complex or important cases

in Chambers of three or five Judges

The Presidents of the Chambers of five Judges are elected for three years, and those of the Chambers of three Judges for one year.

Working Language of the Court: French

The judges deliberate without interpreters in French

Arguments, testimony can be heard in “the language of the case,” i.e., the language in which the case was filed, initiated

of the 23 official languages of the EU

Assisted by Advocates General

Who develop opinions on cases for them

Like law clerks do for the Supreme Court

Jurisdiction

Limited to those areas where the treaties grant competence to the EU (e.g., the Common Commercial Policy)

In these areas, EU law is supreme

over conflicting member state laws

Some areas where EU has shared competence with member states

Are trade in services and intellectual property rights

Has exclusive, unlimited, obligatory competence in cases involving EC law:

Between member states;

Between member states and EC bodies;

Between individuals and member states;

Between individuals and EC bodies.

Capacities

Ginsberg calls it a “hybrid court”

i.e., it has four different capacities

1. international

rules on disputes among member states on application of the treaties

2. administrative

to detemine if member states have infringed upon EU law

“infringement” cases

3. constitutional

to ensure the legality of the acts of EU bodies

and that EU law is observed uniformly by member states

4. tribunal

responsible for technical areas of law, e.g. taxation, intellectual property

Who can bring cases?

Under the principle of Direct Effect

Only individuals directly affected by a breach in EU law have standing to appeal to the ECJ or a national court

Individual who believes a national law which directly affects her is in violation of an EU treaty may appeal to national court which may then ask ECJ for a preliminary ruling

Or, an individual who maintains that an EC action which directly affects her violates an EC Treaty may complain to her national court

Court of First Instance

Created in the Single European Act (1987) to lighten the load on the ECJ

Est’d by council in 1988; began work in 1989

Hears most direct actions by individuals against EC bodies

And appeals of Commission rulings on competition cases and rulings of specialized panels created by Nice Treaty

Tribunal for Civil Servants

Created by the parliament to handles staff/administrative disputes of

EU civil servants

Fundamental Charter of Rights

Incorporated into the treaties with the acceptance of the Nice Treaty 2000

Seven Titles

Title 1: Dignity

Guarantees the right to life and prohibits torture, slavery and the death penalty.

Its provisions are mostly based on the ECHR, although Article 1 closely reflects Article 1 of the German Basic Law.

Title 2: Freedoms

Personal liberty and security, privacy and family life, security of personal data, to marry and found a family, thought, expression, assembly, education, work, property and asylum (according to refugee status as granted in the Geneva Accords).

Title 3: Equality

Non-discrimination:

Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic

features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority,

property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall be prohibited.

Section on equality between men and women

Title 4: Solidarity

Social and workers' rights including the right to fair working conditions, protection against unjustified dismissal, and access to health care.

Title 5: Citizens’ Rights

Right to vote in election to the European Parliament and to move freely within the EU. In also includes several administrative rights such as a right to good administration, to access documents and to petition the European Parliament.

Title 6: Justice

Right to an effective remedy, a fair trial, to the presumption of innocence, the principle of legality, non-retrospectivity and double jeopardy.

Title 7: General Provisions (scope, application, etc.)