Paliament and Public Law - Essay Example

The parliament consists of democratically elected legislators and it is responsible for making laws pertaining to the running of a particular government or organization. Different countries have different number of members of parliament, but their common role is legislative. The legislators in any parliament are mandated by their electorate to present their grievances and concerns, with the objective of formulating the relevant laws to address them. In this regard, it is a common practice for all legislators to be open for public scrutiny and demonstrate high integrity standards in order to play the legislative role effectively (IPU, 2009). This paper discusses the role of European parliament in respect to European public law. In every democratic organization or country, the role of parliament is to legislate, examine policies and activities of the executive and put the executive into the task to account for its actions. In addition, the parliament provides a democratic platform for the participation of all members of the society. In this regard, parliament is mandated to conduct legislative, executive oversight, and provide a representational forum for public debate. Moreover, it acts as Electoral College for the office of the president in case the office becomes vacant (IPU, 2009). The European Parliament (EP) consists of directly elected members from European Union member states. The European parliament in conjunction with the Council of the European Union and the Commission are solely responsible for legislative functions. The European Parliament consists of a 736 Members of European Parliament, who are democratically elected all the members states of the union. The members in the European Parliament are elected after serving for a period of five years. However, unlike the parliaments of the member states of the European Union, the parliament does not possess legislative authority of the countries (EP, 2007). The European Parliament shares legislative and budgetary roles of the European Union budget with the council of European Union. The European Parliament examines the policies and activities of the European commission, which is the sole executive body of the European Union. In this regard, the European Commission reports to the European Parliament and it can veto the president who is the Speaker of the assembly and other elected officials to quit the office. The president of the European parliament chairs chamber a multiparty organ consisting of EPP (European Peoples Party) and S&D (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) (EP, 2007). The European Parliament embodies the principle for representative democracy, which controls its functioning and execution of its duties. The proposal for representative democracy in the European Parliament is well documented several provision of the parliament’s constitution. These are provided in the international Treaty of the European Union which ensures that citizens from the member states are directly represented in the chamber by the elected members of European parliament (MEP) (Lousewies, 2003). Similarly, individual member states of the European Union are represented in the European council by the heads of the government or state (Lousewies, 2003). In this case, the rule of representative democracy is preserved because the citizens of European Union and their respective national parliaments elect all the members in the parliament democratically. In this case, the European Parliament consists of two types of democratically elected members, including those elected by the citizens from the region and those elected by the Members of European Parliament. However, the representative democracy practiced in the European Parliament has come under heavy criticism because of the different electoral procedures practiced by the individual members of the European Union. This raises the concerns on whether the wishes of the citizens are effectively represented in the chamber because of the unanimous nature of elections, which suppresses rather than project the voice of the citizens (IPU, 2009). The principle of representative democracy in the European Parliament ensures that there is adequate political representation of the electoral bodies in addition to promoting the real control of power through political representation of all member countries. The legislative powers of the European Parliament are distributed equally between the two chambers in the assembly. The parliament has immense indirect authority, enforced through the committee hearing as and non-binding resolutions. These powers are greatly enhanced by the presence of strong media located in the headquarters of the European Parliament. In addition, the parliament has an indirect influence of the foreign policies of countries outside the jurisdiction of the European Union. The foreign policies include approving grants to various projects of interests around the world including reconstruction of countries devastated by war and civil strife, supporting projects of global importance such as the minimizing carbon emissions and formulating policies of effective environment management in developed and developing worlds (EP, 2007). In this respect, all foreign policy initiatives including sharing of intelligence information between the union and other countries such as United States to counter terrorism must be approved by the European Parliament. The legislative procedures in the European parliament have been expanded and the ordinary legislative procedure is the widely practiced method, because it offers the parliament and the council equal opportunities in the chamber. Generally, the European Commission begins legislation process by presenting a proposal to the parliament and the council. The proposal becomes law if both parties approve it after being read in the chamber for a maximum of three times. These readings provide opportunities for making amendments, which requires an absolute majority for approval. In case the council does not approve the proposal, a conciliatory committee formed from the members of the council and an equal number from members of European parliament. This committee is obligated to reach for a consensus, which is then approved by the parliament (EP, 2007). Controlling the budget of the European Union is another role of the European Parliament a role empowered by Budgetary and Lisbon treaties (Lousewies, 2003). The budget proposal is normally subjected to the ordinary legislative procedure for approval or rejection. Besides the powers to approve the budget, the parliament is empowered to implement budgets approved in the chamber (Lousewies, 2003). The control of the executive is another important role of the European parliament. One of the major defining characteristics of the parliament is clear differentiation of powers between the executive and the legislature (EP, 2007. In this case, election and approval of the European commission president is undertaken by the parliament through the documented treaties. After the approval of the President, he/she proposes the names of members into the Commission, who are chosen from the member countries. Each member country is supposed to contribute a specified number of commissioners. The president and the Commission are then presented before the house for approval or rejection(IPU, 2009). The European Parliament is also entitled to conduct general supervisory roles where it can set up commission of inquiry to investigate a particular issue of concern (EP, 2007). References EP ( European Parliament). (2007). Policy department, structural and cohesion policies. European Parliament Directorate General for Internal Policies of the Union. Accessed on April,29, 2011. From; http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/committees/studies/download.do?file=22408 IPU (Inter Parliamentary Union).(2009).Parliamentary role in developmental agenda. Accessed on 28 April 2011: from http://www.ipu.org/un-e/case09.pdf Lousewies, V.L. (2003). The Case for a stronger European Parliament. London: Centre for European Reform. Read More