Institutions of the European Union

1. Institutionsof the European Union

2. Meetingwith Jan Olbrycht • On April we met with Jan Olbracht. He is a Polishpolitician and themember of the European Parliament. He toldusmoreabouttheInstitutions of the European Union.

3. The European Union (EU) is governed by seven institutions. Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union lists them in the following order: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors.

4. Parliament • The European Parliament shares the legislative and budgetary authority of the Union with the Council. The Parliament's President is Jerzy Buzek ,who was elected from the Parliament's members in 2009.Its 736 members are elected every five years by universal suffrage and sit according to political allegiance. They represent nearly 500 million citizens and form the only directly elected body in the Union. Despite forming one of the two legislative chambers of the Union, it has weaker powers than the Council in some sensitive areas, and does not have legislative initiative. It does, however, have powers over the Commission which the Council does not. It has been said that its democratic nature and growing powers have made it one of the most powerful legislatures in the world.

5. Commission TheEuropean Commissionistheexecutivearm of the Union. Itis a body composed of one appointeefromeach state, currentlytwenty-seven, but isdesigned to be independent of national interests. The body isresponsible for draftingall law of the European Union and has a monopolyoverlegislativeinitiative. Italsodealswiththeday-to-dayrunning of the Union and has a duty to upholdthe law and treaties(in this role itisknown as the "Guardian of theTreaties"). TheCommissionisled by a Presidentwhoisnominated by theCouncil(in practicethe European Council) and approved by Parliament. Theremaining 26 Commissionersarenominated by member-states, inconsultationwiththePresident, and havetheirportfoliosassigned by thePresident. TheCouncilthenadoptsthis list of nominee-Commissioners. TheCouncil’sadoption of theCommissionis not an areawhichrequiresthedecision to be unanimous, theiracceptanceisarrivedataccording to therules for qualifiedmajorityvoting. The European Parliamenttheninterviews and castsitsvote upon theCommissioners. Theinterviews of individualnomineesareconductedseparately, incontrast to Parliament’svote of approvalwhichmust be cast on theCommission as a wholewithouttheability to acceptorrejectindividualCommissioners. OnceapprovalhasbeenobtainedfromtheParliamenttheCommissionerscantakeoffice. ThecurrentPresidentisJosé Manuel Barroso (EPP); his commission was electedin 2004 and re-electedin 2010.

6. Acts and procedures • The codecision procedure is most common, and means the Council and Parliament jointly consider law proposals from the Commission • There are a number of types of legislation which can be passed. The strongest is a regulation, an act or law which is directly applicable in its entirety. Then there are directives which bind members to certain goals which they must achieve. They do this through their own laws and hence have room to manoeuvre in deciding upon them. A decision is an instrument which is focused at a particular person/group and is directly applicable. Institutions may also issue recommendations and opinions which are merely non-binding declarations. • The ordinary legislative procedure is used in nearly all policy areas and provides an equal footing between the two bodies. Under the procedure, the Commission presents a proposal to Parliament and the Council. They then send amendments to the Council which can either adopt the text with those amendments or send back a "common position". That proposal may either be approved or further amendments may be tabled by the Parliament. If the Council does not approve those, then a "Conciliation Committee" is formed. The Committee is composed of the Council members plus an equal number of MEPs who seek to agree a common position. Once a position is agreed, it has to be approved by Parliament again by an absolute majority.There are other special procedures used in sensitive areas which reduce the power of Parliament.

7. Non-politicalinstitutions

8. European Central Bank • TheEuropean Central Bankisthe central bank for theeurozone (thestateswhichhaveadoptedthe euro) and thus controls monetarypolicyinthatareawith an agenda to maintainpricestability. Itisatthecentre of the European System of Central Banks whichcomprisesall EU national banks. The bank isgoverned by a board of national bank governors and a President, currently Mario Draghi.

9. Court of Justice of the European Union • TheCourt of Justice of the European Union istheEU'sjudicialbranch. Itisresponsible for interpreting EU law and treaties. Itcomprisesthemainchamber: Court of Justice, the General Court and theCivil Service Tribunal. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg

10. Court of Auditors • ThefinalinstitutionistheEuropean Court of Auditors, whichdespiteitsnamehas no judicialpowers. Instead, itensuresthattaxpayerfundsfromthebudget of the European Union havebeencorrectlyspent. Thecourtprovides an audit report for each financial year to theCouncil and Parliament. TheParliamentusesthis to decidewhether to approvetheCommission'shandling of thebudget. TheCourtalsogivesopinions and proposals on financial legislation and anti-fraudactions. TheCourt of Auditors was set upin 1975. It was created as an independent institutiondue to thesensitivity of theissue of fraud inthe Union (theanti-fraudagency, OLAF, isalsobuilt on itsindependence). Itiscomposed of one memberfromeach state appointed by theCouncileverysixyears. Everythreeyears one of themiselected to be thepresident of thecourt, whoiscurrentlyVítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira.

11. Locations • Theinstitutionsare not concentratedin a single capital city: theyareinsteadbasedacrossthreecities, Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Thecurrentarrangement was agreedin 1992 and attached to theTreaty of Amsterdam.ThetreatystatesthattheCommission and Councilwould be basedinBrussels, theCourtsinLuxembourg and theParliamentinStrasbourg. Howeversomedepartments of theCommission and meetings of theCounciltake place inLuxembourg, whiletheParliamenthasitscommittees and somesessionsinBrussels and itssecretariatinLuxembourg. Of thenewinstitutions, the Central Bank isbasedinFrankfurtwhilethe European CouncilisbasedinBrussels (but hassomeextraordinarymeetingselsewhere). • Brussels' hosting of institutionshasmadeit a major centre for the EU. Togetherwith NATO ithasattractedmorejournalists and ambassadorsthan Washington D.C. Howeverthethree-cityagreementhascome under somecriticism, notablyinregards to theParliamentdue to thelargenumber of peoplethatmovebetweenthecities. The European Green Party estimatedthatthearrangementcosts 200 million euro and 20,268 tonnes of carbondioxide.Brusselsispreferred by somedue to thepresence of otherinstitutions and othergroupswhileStrasbourgissupporteddue to itshistoricalimportance to European unity.

12. Other bodies and agencies • TheEESandCoRadvisetheotherinstitutions • Thereare a number of otherbodies and agencies of notethatare not formalinstitutions. Therearetwoadvisorycommittees to theinstitutionswhichinsomecasesmust be consulted: theEconomic and SocialCommittee (EESC) advises on economic and socialpolicy (principallyrelationsbetweenworkers and employers) beingmadeup of representatives of various industries and worksectors. Its 344 members, appointed by theCouncil for four-yearterms, areorganisedintothreefairlyequalgroupsrepresentingemployers, employees and othervariousinterests;[whiletheCommittee of the Regions (CoR) iscomposed of representative of regional and localauthoritieswhohold an electoralmandate. Itadvises on regionalissues. Ithas 344 members, organisedinpoliticalgroups, appointedeveryfouryears by theCouncil.Thereisalsothe European Investment Bank, whichprovides long term loans to help development and integration. • Thereare a number of specialised and decentralisedagenciesoperated by theCommission, orsometimestheCouncil. Theyare set up by legislationor a treaty to dealwithspecificproblemsorareas. Theseincludethe European Environment Agency and Europol.Inaddition to thesetherearealsothreeinter-institutionalbodies: thePublications Office, theoldest one, whichpublishes and distributesofficialpublicationsfromthe European Union bodies; and thetworelativelynew: the European PersonnelSelection Office (EPSO), a recruitment body whichorganisescompetitions for postswithin Union institutions; and the European AdministrativeSchool, whichprovidesspecifictraining for thestaff of Union institutions. Another body istheanti-fraudoffice OLAF whosemissionis to protectthe financial interests of the European Union. Twofurtherpostsare: the European Ombudsman dealswithcitizensgrievancesagainsttheUnion'sinstitutions and iselected for five-yearterms by theParliament; the European Data ProtectionSupervisorensurestheinstitutionsrespectcitizens' privacyrightsinrelation to data processing.

13. Comparisons • TheEU'sinstitutionbears a resemblance to the Swiss government • WhiletheEU's system of governanceislargelyunique, elementscan be compared to othermodels. One general observation on thenature of thedistribution of powerswould be thatthe EU resemblesthefederalism of Germany. There, powersarepredominantlyshared (statescanexercise federal powerswherethefederationhas not alreadyexercisedthem) betweenthelevels of government, and thestatesparticipatestronglywithdecisionmakingatthe federal level. Thisisincontrastwithotherfederations, for examplethe United States, wherepowersareclearlydividedbetweenthelevels of government, and thestateshavelittlesayin federal decisionmaking. • TheEU'sinstitutional set upisalsosomewhatsimilar to thegovernment of Switzerland (whichis not a member state). The Swiss consensus-driven system isseen as successfullyuniting a state divided by language and religion, althoughthe EU was not directlymodelled on the Swiss system despitebearing a number of similarities. The European Commissionhassimilarities to the Swiss Federal Councilinthatbothhaveall-partyrepresentation and areappointed on thebasis of nationalityratherthanpopularity. ThePresident of the Federal Councilrotatesbetweenitsmemberseachyear, in a fashionsimilar to that of theEU'sCouncilPresidency. Due to this system of presidency Swiss leaders, likethose of the EU, arerelativelyunknownwith national politicsviewed as somewhattechnocraticresultinginlowvoterturnout, in a similarfashion to that of the European Parliament. Otherparallelsincludethejealouslyguardedpowers of states, theconsiderablelevel of translation and thechoice of a lesser city as the capital.

14. The European Parliamentisbettercomparedwiththe U. S. House of Representativesthanwiththe national parliaments. • Furthermore, executivepowerinthe EU isn'tconcentratedin a single institution. Itbecomesclearer under theLisbonTreatywiththedivision of the European Council as a distinctinstitutionwith a fixedPresident. Thisarrangementhasbeencompared to the dual executive system foundintheFrench republic wherethereis a President (theCouncilPresident) and Prime Minister (theCommissionPresident). However, unliketheFrench model, theCouncilPresidentdoes not holdformalpowerssuch as theability to directlyappoint and sacktheother, ortheability to dissolveParliament. HencewhiletheCouncilPresidentmayhaveprestige, itwouldlackpower and whiletheCommissionPresidentwouldhavepower, itwouldlacktheprestige of theformer. Thenature of the European Parliamentisbettercomparedwiththe United States House of Representativesthanwiththe national parliaments of the European Union. Thisis notable interms of thecommitteesbeing of greatersize and power, politicalpartiesbeingverydecentralised and itbeingseparatedfromtheexecutivebranch (most national governmentsoperate a parliamentary system). A differencefromallotherparliamentsistheabsence of a Parliamentarylegislativeinitiative. However, giventhatin most national parliamentsinitiatives not backed by theexecutiverarelysucceedthevalue of thisdifferenceisinquestion. Equally, itsindependence and powermeansthatthe European Parliamenthas an unusually high successrate for itsamendmentsincomparison to national parliaments; 80% average and 30% for controversialproposals.

15. TheCouncil and the German Bundesrat, arebothcomposed by representatives of thestatesgovernments • Thecomposition of thecouncilcanonly be comparedwiththequiteunique and unusualcomposition of the German upper house, the Bundesrat. Membership of the Bundesrat is limited to members of thegovernments of thestates of Germany and can be recalled by thosegovernmentsinthe same manner as theEU'sCouncil. Theyretaintheir state role whilesittinginthe Bundesrat and iftheir term endswhentheyarerecalled by their state governments (whoaresolelyresponsible for theirappointment) ortheycease to sit intheir state government. Hencetheyalsoare not electedatthe same time and the body as a wholecannot be dissolvedlike most parliaments. As governmentrepresentatives, members do not vote as individualmembers but in state blocks, ratherthanpoliticalalignment, to their state governments' agreedline. Each state hasunequalvotingpowersbased on population, with an absolutemajorityrequired for decisions. Likewise, thepresidencyrotatesequallybetweenmembers, thougheachyearratherthaneverysixmonthslikeinthe EU Council.However, unliketheEU'sCouncil, the Bundesrat does not varyitscompositiondepending on thetopicbeingdiscussed.Theybothbearsimilarcriticisms, because of theinterference, of executivesinthelegislativeprocess.