Institutional Balance:
Balance of Interests:
The balance of power between the institutions is a balance of interests.
EG: collective interests vs state interests vs citizens interests and engagement etc.
This is similar to, but distinct from, a rigid separation of powers model often found in domestic models. The difference is that institutional balance ensures mutual respect and cooperation, instead of separating authorities to ‘check’ one another’s power.
Balancing of Efficiency and Legitimacy:
Trade-offs between the interests are inevitable. There has to be a balance between legitimacy / democracy / accountability and efficiency – a system can never be both at the same time, so the EU must mediate these interests.
Constitutional Balance:
For the EU to have authority, there must be constitutional balance. Since implementation of EU rules relies almost exclusively with member states, it relies on their goodwill and cooperation. Taking into account the interests of the states incentivise cooperation.
Institutions of the EU:
European Commission:
The Commission is the EU’s centre of bureaucracy and its executive.
Actors:
The Commission has a President, 27 Commissioners (representative of each member state, nominated nationally). Commissioners are appointed to specific policy areas, where they become the head of a Directorate-General.
The President is chosen from the Commissioners and nominated by the European Council. They are then elected by the European Parliament. Therefore, the Commission must have the confidence of the other EU institutions.
Members of the European Commission act independently of the interests of their nation state. They are there to think European, not nationalistically. The extent to which this is possible is debatable.
Legislative Task:
The Commission have the monopoly on initiating and proposing new legislation. Therefore, every proposal is based on expert opinion. Legitimacy for this relies on the output it generates.
They also have the power to make delegated legislation. (TFEU Art 290) Much of what the EU does it too complex and technical for politicians, so it makes sense to give experts these powers. The alternative argument, however, is that this model is giving too much power to unelected people.
Supervision:
The Commission ensures that member states follow EU laws and treaties (it is the ‘Guardian of the Treaties’). They can impose sanctions against states, companies and individuals.
They have governance of the Economic Monetary Union (the Eurozone) to promote market stability.
Executive Tasks:
The Commission has powers over competition law, it forms policy and drafts budgets, as well as maintaining international relations.
European Council: (NOT Council of Europe)
The Council is the collection of politicians who represent the interests of member states to the Commission.
Actors:
Made up of the Heads of State of each member state, headed by a President.
They meet 4 times per year to discuss the broad objectives that the EU aims to meet.
Formal Roles: (TEU Art 15(1))
They do not strictly have any legislative functions but are influential upon the other institutions due to their political positions in each member state.
The Council suggests candidates for top EU positions.
Informal Roles:
At the end of each summit, the Council produce European Council Conclusions. These, over time, have become extremely detailed and influential. It could be argued that they are now a joint agenda-setter with the Commission, although this is not recognised by Treaty.
EG: a recent conclusion on the membership candidacy of Ukraine.
Meetings take place much more often than prescribed under treaty to respond to current issues and emergencies.
The Council creates a forum for international relations and cooperation. They meet with non-EU states too.
They decide and promote Treaty reform.
European Parliament:
The EP is a Parliament of directly elected members.
Actors:
751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected for 5-year terms based on national elections within each member state. Legitimacy here stems from the fact that the European Parliament is the only EU body with full political accountability to voters. However, due to low voter turnouts for elections, even this has to be questioned.
They are headed by a President who oversees and enforces the Parliament’s self-adopted rules and procedures. This role usually rotates between parties.
The allocation of seats is not equally proportionate to size of member states (‘digressive proportionality’) – actually favours smaller states.
Citizens vote for national parties, so elections are based on national politics. However, once they are elected, they divide into political groupings.
Formal Roles: (TEU Art 14(1))
The Parliament has the legislative task. MEPs form committees on current issues to draft new legislation proposed by the Commission. Voting is usually by majority voting with a quota of 1/3 of MEPs being present, but sometimes by absolute voting.
They discharge the budget, regulate and control the Commission, and elect its President.
The Parliament may request the Commission to submit a proposal. (TFEU Art 225) If the Commission chooses not to, they must provide justification.
Council of the European Union / Council of Ministers:
The Council is a collection of the ministers from each member state that acts as a co-legislator.
Actors:
The Council is comprised of Ministers and a President. These roles have rotating membership, with the Presidency moving to a different member states minister every 6 months.
There are also permanent diplomats, ambassadors and staff to keep the Council running while the ministers are back in their nation state.
10 Configurations: GA, ECOFIN etc.
Formal Roles: (TEU Art 16(1))
The Council must give their assent to legislation. In reality, the majority of decisions are made by the diplomats (not ministers themselves). Although voting rules differ depending on the issue being discussed, this is usually conducted by qualified majority voting (55% of member states vote in favour, representing 65% of EU population).
Principle legislator on sensitive policy areas – the Parliament is simply consulted.
They control delegated law-making.
Amends and passes the EU budget.
Other Institutions:
European Central Bank
European Court of Justice
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