The nation states which comprise the Member States share sovereignty through European institutions. The European Union has an international presence and identity and so it is more than the sum of its parts.
Inter Governmental Conference (IGC) negotiations for a new Constitution failed in December 2003 but will continue. The Constitution had a tidying up aim regarding previous treaties and to make clearer the competencies of the EU alone, the EU with Member States, and Member States alone.
There are two dynamics of European integration. The first is "realism" and was observed in negotiations for the Nice Treaty (because of the shift towards power in the larger member states regarding qualified majority voting and selecting commissioners), where sovereign states chose to enter into cooperative organisations of one sort or another because it is in their interests to do so.
The second dynamic is "functionalism", which has been the predominant ideal and institutional reality, where integration gains its dynamic from the common institutions set up producing ever more demands for powers and activities.
The main treaties and acts between the nation states (member states) are principally:
The Treaties are the basis of the European Union. They produce obligations for the Member States and also rights for individuals.
The treaties are getting more complicated, as they follow on from each other, and Nice is the seventh European treaty since 1951. As each treaty becomes law, it is incorporated into the existing treaties, which together form the consolidated Treaty on European Union.
Both the European Union and Member States make binding law and policy:
These are the main institutions:
The Council is the main place where decisions are made (there is further consultation, checking, co-decision making and possible delay). Members of the executive in the various nations come in their different roles and they meet and decide.
This system from the nation state up has levels. So it is the case that in Britain we elect members of the House of Commons with its party system, and it is these members, with members of the House of Lords, who provide and produce members of the executive. They are the Queen's ministers, giving strong focus and executive powers. However, normally, the executive has to go to Parliament (even if the Party system controls it) to get law made.
Yet in the European Union members of the executive in their various roles directly form the legislature of the European Union, along with the executives of other states, in the Council of Ministers. The laws they make do not have to be approved by their parliaments.
The question is whether this is too remote in its democracy, because the European Parliament cannot block legislation (it may examine and send it back, but is inferior). There is said to be a "democratic deficit" in the European Union. The Council of Ministers is the only legislature in the world which meets in secret!
The Council meets in different compositions: finance, foreign affairs, education, telecommunications, etc. The General Affairs Council is made up of foreign ministers of member states and handles internal and external affairs. The extent of qualified majority voting (where abstentions count) or unanimity (eg where required or after the European Parliament has blocked a measure on third reading according to its powers) depends on the decision area and obviously the role of the ministers who meet.
Of the three "pillars" of the European Union, the Council of Ministers is dominant in two...
The Council has a number of key responsibilities of...
The Council of Ministers is supported by COREPER which consists of professional diplomats supplied by Member States. Members...
The Council of Ministers is also supported by the Secretariat General, appointed unanimously by member states for a five year term of office, who heads the civil service. The Secretariat General...
The Council of Ministers has a co-ordinating Presidency. It is...
This maintains the European focus as a grouping although the President and Members of the Commission are appointed by the Member States (after general approval by the European Parliament). Each commissioner who may cover a number of Directorates General (functions) keeps a small cabinet of advisors.
The Commission...
The Union does not have a parliament in the sense of a nation state, as this would certainly be federalism, but adds a representative democratic element to sharing the process of making and scrutiny over of European decisions. The European Union Parliament may want more powers but nation states have been reluctant to it grant more. Nevertheless, it has slowly acquired more powers and will probably continue to do so.
The question is whether the nation state is still in decline, as decisions are decided at a European level or, on the principle of subsidiarity (Maastricht), pass down not just to the member States but to the regions.
The European Parliament is...
Its powers and duties include...
- free movement of workers
- creation of the internal market
- research and technological development
- the environment
- consumer protection
- education
- culture
- health
The Parliamant is supported by...
This is an example of proceedure to adopt legislation...
The European Court of Justice has...
Types of law which the European Court deals with are...
It makes law from...
The European Court of Justice itself consists of a structure of...
As regards judges...
The President...
A Court of First Instance has been attached to it since 1989. It has one judge appointed from each member state but no more, and just takes some of the workload from the ECJ.
The Court of Auditors...
Note that the European Court of Human Rights is not an EU body.
The work of capitalism seems to require the confidence that politicians are not going to interfere in the day to day operational decisions of the European currency, the euro. The European Union has never been purely a free trade area but one of intervention particularly for balanced development and investment.
So the European Investment Bank (EIB)...
Whilst the European Central Bank...
The technical term for the overview of economic policy is "dirigiste" which differs from the Anglo-American emphasis on free trade and market conditions for all industries. Social and economic policy go hand in hand.
The Economic and Social Committee...
It has three groupings...
There are...
The Union is all too aware that some parts of it are well developed and others, particularly the south and fringes, and increasingly the east, are underdeveloped economically. In the past Germany has held its high growth within the highly valued Mark, being the most soundly based economy (there are now structural problems) and variable currencies have carried out a role in regulating the variations in the Europe wide economy (whether this is of any effect in the long run is debatable, though in the long run structural problems come into play). Now with the single currency, investment interventions and regional intervention may be all the more important.
The Stability and Growth Pact was meant to retain confidence in the Euro regarding restraining national debts incurred by governments spending, but it has proved to be too rigid for economies in the doldrums and in effect has been overpowered by France and Germany in 2003.
The Committee of the Regions...
The European Union is decision making focus and has a bureaucracy under the commission (though some British county councils have more staff), so there needs to be a place to go when there are serious grievances.
The European Ombudsman...
Basics...
Regarding Britain...
For Europe, the Treaty of Rome was designed basically to...
The Luxembourg Agreement of 1966 (with major French backing) allowed a national veto where national interests were adversely affected. This was not in the Treaty or put into it. Developments in 1986 and 1993 reduced the scope of the veto.
Under the Treaty of Rome the Court of Justice could only issue declaratory judgments against countries. The UK was in breach 20 times until the end of 1991, Italy was in breach 136 times, France was 44 times Germany was 36 times.
1986: Single European Act...
1992: Treaty on European Union, Maastricht...
The European Union has three aspects (the pillars)...
Economic and social matters...
International identity is...
Common citizenship means:
There was a stress on decentralisation...
Some time back the Schengen Agreement was an early treaty by France, Germany and the Benelux countries to abolish frontier controls. There was an inadequate database and criminal knowledge to enact this. Much later there was the Treaty of Amsterdam
1997: Treaty of Amsterdam...
Ten countries join the European Union in May 2004. The Treaty of Nice produces
Ireland at first rejected the treaty by 54% No to 46% Yes in the referendum of 7 June 2001. In October 19 2002 they voted Yes by 62.89% on a turnout of 48.45%. 906,318 voted Yes and 534,887 No. The Republic of Ireland was the only Member State required to hold a referendum on the Treaty.
The process producing the Treaty of Nice developed into the Convention, which led to the Draft Constitution.
The Treaty of Nice follows the format of previous Treaties (the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Amsterdam) in being set out as amendments and additions to the Treaty of Rome.
The Nice treaty comes into force at the start of 2004 and can itself handle EU enlargement.
Then came (or didn't) the European Constitution...
The 15 Member States, plus the ten due to join on May 1st 2004, have been negotiating in an 'Inter Governmental Conference' (IGC) to agree the draft of the new European Constitution. It is better to see this as a treaty to bring together all the previous treaties. It failed in Brussels on December 12th and 13th. Talks will certainly continue in 2004.
The constitution is about what is the functioning of the Union, what is for Member States and what is shared. Exclusive competency of the EU includes the customs union, monetary policy and conservation of marine resources. Shared competency includes the internal market, agriculture with fisheries and the environment. Energy and space exploration would be two new fields for the EU. Home affairs and justice (including immigration and asylum) would have more of an EU emphasis due to more Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). QMV would be used across the board unless the constitution stated otherwise (beginning 2009). A Member State could not block agreement by declaring a vital national interest as it can now. Subsidiarity is reinforced so that the EU only acts when it is more logical than national governments separately. "Competences not conferred upon the Union in the Constitution remain with the member-states." Companies and individuals could appeal directly to the European Court of Justice to enforce subsidiarity. If one third of national parliaments took a view that a Commission proposal breached subsidiarity, they could ask it to think again (though it might not change anything). Proportionality for the EU (doing no more than necessary) would have its own clause. The principle is also established that the Union derives its powers from the member states. Thus the EU is at best confederal, not federal.
Nevertheless the EU would have a legal personality of its own and its laws would continue to be superior over those of national parliaments. "The Constitution and law adopted by the Union institutions in exercising competences conferred upon it by the Constitution, shall have primacy over the law of the member states." The restriction here - its competencies only - should be noted.
The most difficult issues in negotiation became:
The votes of Member States is the big issue. Spain and Poland became determined to keep the votes allocated in the Nice Treaty. The Nice treaty prodced a 'triple majority' system so that a measure needs a simple majority of the Member States, it must carry 62 per cent of the EU's population, and there must be at least 232 out of 321 votes. Britain, France, Germany and Italy have 29 each, Spain and Poland have 27 each, and others drop down until Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovenia, each have four, and Malta has three. Nice made the Council less efficient representative of the population of the Union after enlargement. The Constitution proposed 13 of the 25 countries and 60 per cent of the EU's total population for a measure to pass, so QMV would need a double not triple majority. Thus small countries cannot outvote fewer countries representing most of the EU's people. It is a double majority system.
On virtually every issue, those who wanted to extend qualified Majority Voting in the EU had opposers and so the British red lines were never in doubt.
The Council of Ministers should debate and vote on laws in public, according to the Constitution.
Each member state would offer a list of three commissioners "of which at least one must be a woman" for one to be selected. This would start in 2009. There would be one commissioner each (25 from 25 countries) with only 15 entitled to vote on proposals (including the president and the new 'foreign minister') at any one time. The voting posts would be appointed on a strict rotation, to ensure that each member-state occupies a voting post at least every five years. The EUs smaller Member States were opposed as was the Commission President Romano Prodi. EU citizens could petition the Commission to introduce new laws.
The European Parliament would play a greater part in producing laws. It would gain "co-decision" (requirement of its agreement with the Council of Ministers) over much more policy including energy, the environment and transport as well as areas of social security, home affairs and justice.
A number of countries objected giving the EU a stronger role in economic policy-making. The UK objected to the EU's 'competence to co-ordinate the economic and employment policies of the member-states'. There are questions over powers to the European Parliament over the budget. The breaking of the Stability and Growth Pact by France and Germany in the Euro zone has thrown much into doubt.
The Draft argues that "The Union shall have competence to define and implement a common foreign and security policy, including the progressive framing of a common defence policy." Member states "shall support the Union's common foreign and security policy actively and unreservedly in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity." In this aim, a new 'foreign minister' is planned, chosen by the qualified majority voting of the Council, and this office joins together the External Relations Commissioner and the High Representative for Foreign Policy. This person would chair Council meetings of foreign ministers and represent the Union as well as sit on the Commission. Foreign policy would have more focus but still require unanimity. A new 'EU President' would chair the European Council and speak for the EU to world leaders. Small countries oppose the chairing and representational powers of the new President (say a former big country prime minister) within the Council. The UK supports a revised presidency. The Commission could be weaker; the Commission with a representational role and its EU focus would continue to take smaller countries more into account.
The Council of Ministers should debate and vote on laws in public according to the Constitution. The draft constitutional treaty proposes that each sectoral Council should elect its own chair from among the 25 ministers, the exceptions being the new EU foreign minister to chair the foreign ministers' council and the euro group appoints a chair to serve for 2.5 years. There is a lack of detail in proposals.
Defence was sorted out when Britain, France and Germany decided on an EU military planning cell that will work within NATO.
The God and Christianity issue faded somewhat under the difficulty of Frances's state secularism and possible Turkey's need to add Judaism and Islam if Christianity is mentioned. There is respect for national identities and human rights (adding to social justice and the environment). The draft has main objectives of peace, "the well-being of peoples", competitiveness and the "discovery of space".
People will continue to have EU citizenship as well as a national citizenship that is so not reduced. It means continued economic and political particpation throughout the EU by its citizens.
An EU Prosecutor would be limited to fraud and what affects the EU institutions. The UK, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden oppose the creation of an EU Public Prosecutor in case there was a harmonising of criminal law. Legal systems are very diverse.
The constitution's incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights contains a number of 'social' rights such as:
The charter applies only to the EU rather than national law and does not go beyond the competences of the EU, and must take into account national laws and practices.
A legal method would be provided for leaving the European Union. "A member state which decides to withdraw shall notify the Council of its intention... The Union shall negotiate and conclude an agreement with that state, setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal." This is new; previously it was uncertain whether a Member State was able to leave and some argued that indeed no Member State could leave the EU.