Relationship between Different European Institutions - Essay Example

Discuss the relationship between the different European s. How have they evolved over time? At present there are five s that together constitute the governing body of the European Union. These five institutions as outlined in the treatise of European Union are the European Parliament, The Council of the European Union, the European Commission, The Court of Justice of European Communities and the European Court of Auditors. Background: Long back in 1950 when the European Coal and Steel Community was created then it became the first institutions within the European Union. European Economic Community and Euratom through the Merger Treaty later joined European Coal and Steel Community on 8th April 1965 and in effect from 1st July 1967. At that point of time there were six participating nations and the European Parliament which was founded as the Common Assembly was only consultative, not an elected one. When the first election was held in 1979, the Parliament gained more and more power followed by several treaties and so did the Commission. At this juncture there was a prominent shift of power from the Council to the Parliament and the Commission was actually managing a balance through the mediation between these two bodies (the Council and the Parliament). The Commission was becoming more and more accountable to the Parliament. The Parliament was becoming so strong that it forced a resignation of Jacques Santer the head of European Commission in 1999. The parliament also formed a reorientation of the Barroso Commission (Jose Manuel Barroso). Political Institutions: The Council, the Parliament and The Commission, these three institutions can be regarded as the political institutions of the European Union. The Council represents the governments; the Parliament stands for the citizens and the Commission looks after the European interests. When the Council, the Parliament or any other institutions place a request to the commission then the commission prepares a draft of that request and presents it to the parliament for their approval. In most of the cases both the parliament and the council forward their assent to that proposal. After it gets approved from both the houses (Parliament and Council), then it no more remains a proposal rather transforms into a law. So, as a whole the Commission looks after the daily business of the Union, makes sure of the implementation of the formed law and if some one fails to comply with that law the Commission takes it to the court. The Parliament: The legislative and the budgetary powers of the Union is shared by the Parliament and the Council. The members of the Parliament elect the Presedent or the Speaker of the Parliament. The Common Suffrage elects the members of the Parliament and they share the chair according to their political alignment. The Seven Eighty Five members (Currently) of the Parliament are the only directly elected body of the Union. Though the Parliament is one of the two legislative chambers of the Union, in some aspects it enjoys weaker power than the council. The Parliament is also bereft of any legislative initiatives. The only supremacy that the Parliament enjoys over the Council is that the Parliament can over powers the Commission, which the Council cannot. The democratic nature and the ever-growing power of the Parliament have transformed it into one of the most powerful legislatures of the world. The Council: Along with the Parliament, the Council shares the legislative and budgetary authority. The foremost powers rest with the Council, that is the legislative and executive power and is at the disposal of the Council. So, it is the main decision making body of the Union. The Presidency of the Council is at rotational basis among the participatory states. After every six months the Presidency changes. Though every three presidency joins hands on a common program nowadays. The Council or the Council of the European Union is a separate body from the European Council. The European Council is a similar body but participated by the national leaders. The meetings of the Council represented by one national level minister from each state. It has become customary that the minister of a sector will participate in a meeting of the Council that relates to that particular sector. In a Council meeting ministers represents their concerned governments and are loyal to their national political system. The voting power or the weight of a vote is not homogeneous among the nations. The population of a state determines it. A state with a larger population will have more vote than one with a lesser population. Maintaining cooperation between the second and the third pillar of the European Union, namely, Common Foreign and Security Policy (Second pillar) and Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (Third Pillar), is one of the most important functions of the Council of the European Union. The Commission: The Commission can be called as the executive component of the European Union. The Commission is a body that comprises of one individual representative from each participatory state. At present there are twenty-seven members in the European Commission. The European Commission is unique with regard to its neutrality towards the national interests of the participating members. The main function of the European Commission is to draft the laws of the European Union. It is almost a monopoly power regarding the legislative initiatives that falls within the European Community. The day to day business that have to be taken care of in order to ensure the well functioning of the Union are supervised by the Commission. The Commission also protects the law and treaties. The head of the Commission is nominated by the Council and approved by the Parliament. The participating nations propose the names of the other Commissioners. Though however only after the approval of the Parliament the proposed Commissioners can take charge of their respective offices. The judicial institutions The Court of Justice: The Court of Justice is regarded as the highest legislative body of the EUROPEAN union. Whenever it comes to anything regarding the Union law the word of the Court of Justice is final. The Court of Justice comprises of 27 judges, one from each participating nations. The head of the judges or the president is elected from these 27 judges. The main function of the Court of Justice is to maintain the Union law in a homogenous manner among all the states and to settle any dispute among nations/ institutions regarding the compliance of the Union law. In recent times the power of the Court of Justice has raised to that extent that if a conflict appears between the Union law and the national law then the Union law prevails over the national law. As an example, when the conflict of law came with the ban of women participating in military combat that was documented in German constitution, the Union law lead to the amendment of that part of the Constitution. The Court of Auditors: The main function of The Court of Auditors is to ensure that what the taxpayers provide to the budget of the European Union gets spent in a proper way and in the right direction. Its mission is to audit the “revenues and expenditure of the European Union. It aims to contribute to improving the financial management of European Union funds, so as to ensure maximum value for money for all citizens of the Union” (http://www.eca.europa.eu/index_en.htm). The Court of Auditors was set up in the year 1975 and was not mentioned in the original treaty (The Budgetary Treaty). As it has to deal with a very sensitive issue of fraud within the Union, it was therefore built independently. Other Institutional Bodies: Apart from the formal institutions there are a number of other bodies that are a part of the institutional framework of the European Union. Among them two ordinary committees are very important- the Economic and Social Committee provides advises on economic and social policy formation. These policies are mainly concerned with the relation between the workers and the employers. The 344 members of Economic and Social Committee comprises of representatives of various industries and work sectors from all the participating nations. The council appoints the members of the committee for a term of four years. The other committee, Committee of the Regions is made up of representatives of regional and local authorities with an electoral mandate. Its main function is to provide advises on regional issues. The council for a four-year tenure appoints the 344 members of the Committee of the Regions. All these members are organized in political groups. The next institutions to name is the European Investment Bank that provides long term loans with a view to foster growth and development and also promotes integration among the participating nations. Among the other specialized and decentralized agencies European Environment Agency, Office for Official Publication, European Personnel Selection Office, European Administrative School, and European Anti Fraud Office (OLAF) are noteworthy. Treaties leading to European Institutions After the end of the Second World War the war-devastated Europe felt the need for a common platform to compete with the flourishing USA. They needed a platform that would provide them economic prosperity, social stability as well as political power in international arena. This need or desire, starting from a very nascent stage, after years of evolution, formed today’s European Union culminating several institutional bodies those have been formed through several treaties over this time period. Treaty of Paris: The Treaty of Paris was signed on the 18th April; 1951.the participating nations were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. The treaty led to the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community. It began operation on the 23rd July 1952 and was regarded as a building stance towards establishing a peaceful Europe after the Second World War. The most distinctive feature of this treaty was that some of the archrival during wartime was now sharing their steel and coal to reach economic development and prosperity. The European Community of Steel and Coal introduced a free market for the mentioned products with the market force determining the prices. The community was bereft of any import export duties or subsidies. However a certain period was allowed for the participating nations to attain this situation as the level of their economic development were at different heights. The Treaty of Rome: The Treaty of Rome was signed on 25th March 1957. The participating nations in the signing ceremony were France, West Germany, Italy and Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg). The Treaty of Rome led to the establishment of the European Economic Community. The treaty came into effect on 1st January 1958. On the same day, a second treaty was signed at the same place and established the European Atomic Energy Community. The European Economic Community, soon after its establishment gained more importance than the European Community of Steel and Coal and European Atomic Energy Community. European Economic Community had its aim towards an economic integration of its member nations and also dreamt of a political unification of them. Within the community, free movement of goods, services, labor and capital, abolition of tariffs and cartels and abolition of joint and reciprocal policies on issues like labor, social welfare, agriculture, transport and foreign trade have been nurtured. Merger Treaty: The Merger Treaty was signed on 8th April 1965 and came into effect from 1st July 1967. The Economic community and the Council of European Union were created through this treaty, which also made the existing three committees share a single budget. Many have regarded the Merger Treaty as the beginning of the modern European Union. The Maastricht Treaty: The Maastricht Treaty was signed on February 7, 1992. It has been signed in Maastricht, Netherlands. The negotiation between the members of the treaty went on till December and all the members accepted the treaty on 9th December 1991. The treaty came into effect from November 1, 1993. The treaty led to the creation of the “Euro” and also the three pillar of the European Union, namely, the European Commission’s pillar, the Common Foreign and Security Policy pillar and the Justice of Home Affairs pillar. The Maastricht Treaty carried negotiations on both the front about the possibility of a monetary and a political union. This finally led to the creation of the European Union. The Amsterdam Treaty: The Amsterdam Treaty made substantial changes to the Maastricht Treaty. The treaty was signed on October 2nd, 1997 and came into force on May 1, 1999. The Amsterdam Treaty comprised of 13 protocols, 51 declarations adopted by the conference and 8 declarations adopted by the member states and amendments to the existing treaties set out in the 15 articles. The treaty awards the general provisions of the Maastricht treaty covering Common Foreign and Security Policy and Cooperation in Criminal and Police Matters. The Amsterdam Treaty also amended the European Community Treaty, the European Coal and Steel Treaty, the Eurotan Treaty and the Act concerning the election of the European Parliament. It also simplified the community treaties. The treaty proposed that the European Union will now be able to legislate on immigration, civil laws or civil procedures as it is necessary for free movement of people within the European Union. Special emphasis was given to strengthen the intergovernmental cooperation in the field of police and criminal justice. These responsibilities were entrusted on the union. Regarding Common Foreign and Security Policy, the treaty points on projecting the European Union’s values to the outside world and protecting the interests of the Union. The treaty entrusted the responsibilities of forming common policies and strategies on the European Council. The treaty also proposed that President of the Council, the Commission and the high representatives for the Common Foreign and Security Policy will jointly form the policies and also act as a spokesman to the outside world on European Union policies. The institutions also underwent many major reforms under the Treaty of Amsterdam. Between the Parliament and the Council, in case of any decision-making, the Parliament was provided the upper hand. The president of the Council also had to earn the Parliament’s good will and these made the Council more and more politically accountable. The Amsterdam Treaty is quite significant in regulating close cooperation among the parliament states. The treaty states close participation is allowed only to that extent so that the interests of the Union as a whole cannot be undermined. Treaty of Nice: The Treaty of Nice was signed on 26th February 2001 and came into effect on 1st February 2003. The motive of the treaty was to reorient the structure of the European Union such that it can manage its expanding size. The treaty determines the nature of voting weights of the European Union. Regarding the enlargement, the treaty made provision for 732 seats in the European Parliament. The treaty also ensured that the size of the European Commission would be reduced and the number of commissioners will be below 27. In order to achieve that, it marked that Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain will sacrifice their second commissioner. The treaty of Nice also made provisions for subsidiary courts under the European Court of Justice and also the Court of First instance for settling issues on special areas like intellectual property rights. Closer cooperation was also a distinctive feature of the treaty. The financial complexities that arose after the abolition of the European Coal and Steel Community was also addressed in the treaty. Reform Treaty: The Nice treaty was considered as a complex one and a need for reform was soon felt. The reform treaty is suppose to address general amendments of the treaty of European Union, and the treaty to establish the European Community. The reform treaty or the Lisbon treaty is proposed to be signed in October 2007. Till at the womb of future the need of reform treaty was approved on 21st June 2007 in Brussels and is expected to bring several path breaking changes to the institutions of the European Union. Conclusion: The European Union, as it stands now, is a result of years of in-depth analysis and statesmanship. One may find the process to be very complex and the institutional interactions quite conflicting. To bring all the nations of a continent together and to carry a mutual cooperative system dedicated towards mutual prosperity is not an easy task to accomplish. In days to come, as European Union expands more and more, with several other countries joining the group, the policy law, and institutions of the Union might undergo several changes. However, all the changes that bring a prosperous future for the mankind fostering peaceful growth and development are welcome. References: 1. Dinan, D. (2005) Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration (European Union), Paperback: Palgrave Macmillan. 2. Duff, A. 1998, Maastricht and Beyond, London: Routledge. 3. Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, Mette, 2006, Debates on European Integration. A Reader, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. 4. Galloway, D. 2001, The Treaty of Nice and Beyond, Sheffield: Sheffield University Press. 5. George, S. 1999. An Awkward partner. Britain in the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 6. 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