The European Law - Report Example

of the of the of the European Law QUESTION ONE In a democracy elections compel the government to be accountable for its actions to the people, and to represent the interests of the voters. This in turn legalizes the exercise of power by the government. However, these characteristics are absent in the case of the European Union or EU; because elections to the European Parliament do not bring about these results. As such, the European elections differ vastly from the elections conducted in individual nations (Richardson). In the Member States elections set in motion the process of forming the government in their country. The contesting parties and their candidates in European elections, propose policies that contain a modicum of European matter.Most of their policies and strategies relate to their national interests and politics. In general, the policies proposed by the European candidates address their country of origin. The national political parties utilize European elections to evaluate their popularity with the populace of their nations. They use these elections to review their political standing in their nations. These European elections do not influence national governments. Furthermore, the voters in European elections are less interested in these elections than they are in the national elections. Consequently, voter participation is much lower than the turnout for local elections (Richardson). The EU, carries out only a few of the functions of a true parliament in a democracy. There is no elected government in the European Parliament, on account of the nonexistence of a controlling government at the EU level. All the functions of the EU are carried out by the Council and the Commission, which share these functions between themselves. All the same, the European Parliament is bestowed with legislative, budgetary and supervisory powers, which constitute the fundamental powers of any government (European Parliament - Role, Competences and Working Methods). The various Treaties of the European Community define the legislative procedure to be adopted by the European Parliament. However, this procedure changes in accordance with the subject matter being dealt with. Moreover, the European Parliament dons various roles that vary from the advisory to that of modifying or rejecting legal instruments. The European Parliament and the Council follow a procedure that bestow upon them equal status. This is termed as the co – decision procedure (European Parliament - Role, Competences and Working Methods). EC legislation is generally implemented by adopting the co-decision procedure. National parliaments have extensive legislative powers; but this is not the case with the European Parliament, which suffers from a dearth of extensive powers, in respect of legislation (European Parliament - Role, Competences and Working Methods). The European Parliament cannot proffer proposals, and it can only request the Commission to prepare proposals and forward them to it. However, the succeeding revisions to the Treaties have improved the powers of the European Parliament. Despite these initiatives, it is generally accepted that the EU suffers from a democratic deficit. In order to overcome this, the powers of the European Parliament over the legislature and the executive have to be further enhanced (European Parliament - Role, Competences and Working Methods). QUESTION TWO The European Community was formed by the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Committee. In fact, until the year 1993, these three Communities had operated as the European Community. They used to share institutions and adopted the same legislative processes. The Maastricht Treaty of 1993, which is also known as the Treaty on EU, brought about the formation of the EU (The University of Sheffield). The Maastricht Treaty founded the EU on three fundamental pillars. The first of these pillars is the European Communities, which is dominated by the former European Economic Communities. The second pillar is that of cooperation on Foreign and Security policy; and the last pillar deals with cooperation on matters pertaining to Justice and Home Affairs. The second and third pillars relate to inter – governmental negotiation. These two pillars do not fall under the purview of internal European legislation. The EU, as an implicit body, is not a participant in the legislative process. The task of legislating is the preserve of the European Communities (The University of Sheffield). Initially, the EU consisted of France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Gradually, the EU has expanded, on account of new nations joining it. In 1973, the first expansion occurred. In that year Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark became members of the EEC. Subsequently, in 1981, Greece joined the EEC. In 1986, the third enlargement took place, with the inclusion of Spain and Portugal in the EEC (Reitz). Thereupon, the EEC was renamed as the EU, and in 1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden became member of this EU. By the year 2004, the EU depicted tremendous expansion. The number of Member States had increased to twenty – five from fifteen. Ten new European nations had joined in that very year. This constituted the fifth enlargement, and the new Member States were Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia (Reitz). After the end of the Second World War, most of the European nations felt the need for an organization that would promote peace in Europe. The outcome was the formation of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The countries that created the Treaty of Rome were known as the European Economic Community, which subsequently, came to be known as the European Community. The European Community consisted of the European Coal and Steel Community, which was established by the Treaty of Paris of 1951; the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, which were established by the 1957 Treaties of Rome. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992, implemented intergovernmental arrangements to establish foreign and security policy, and improved cooperation between Member States on issues relating to justice and home affairs. This Treaty transformed the EC into the EU in 1993 (The European Union. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide). Chronologically, the important agreements in the EU are as follows. In 1986, the Single European Act was enacted. In 1997, the Amsterdam Treaty and in 2000, the Treaty of Nice were formed. Their fundamental objective was to enhance trade in the common market; eliminate restrictive trade practices by undertakings in Member States, promote the free movement of goods, labor and capital among the Member States, and establish a closer union among the people of Europe (The European Union. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide). The principal decision makers in the EU are the European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors. There are other important institutions in the EU, like the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. The EU’s financing institution, the European Investment Bank, addresses long term capital investment needs (The European Union. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide). The EU concerns itself with a number of important policy matters, such as the Common Agricultural Policy, Economic and Monetary Union, the Single European Market, further enlargement of the Union, Security, and cooperation for Judicial and Home affairs among the Member States. It also created the single European currency unit the Euro (The European Union. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide). In addition, it supports measures relating to environmental protection, regional development, research, employment and social affairs, transport, and energy production. Furthermore, the EU provides structural funds to the Member States to achieve regional development (The European Union. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide). The multifarious nature of the EU owes its origin to intricate nature of its founding Treaties and its asymmetrical institutional background. EU competencies have shown considerable development, on account of legislation, escalation of international pressure groups and the formation of policy domains (Sandholtz and Sweet). Works Cited European Parliament - Role, Competences and Working Methods. 15 January 2009 . Reitz, Anders Etgen. Labor and Employment Law in the New EU Member and Candidate States. ISBN 1590319028, 9781590319024: American Bar Association Section of International Law, American Bar Association, 2006,P.7. Richardson, Jeremy John. European Union: Power and Policy-making. ISBN 0415358132, 9780415358132: Routledge, 2006,P. 228. Sandholtz, Wayne and Alec Stone Sweet. European Integration and Supranational Governance. Oxford University Press, 1998, P.88. The European Union. In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. 2008. 15 January 2009 . The University of Sheffield. Sources of European Union Law. 15 January 2009 . Read More