European Political and Administrative Studies Academic Year 2015-2016 Professors: Daniel GUEGUEN & Vicky MARISSEN Academic Assistant: Umur AKANSEL
OPTIONAL COURSE
SECONDARY LEGISLATION
Course Overview
The course will last 30 hours, involving five sessions: Four 6-•‐hour sessions in Bruges One 6-•‐hour day trip to Brussels.
1. Introduction
1h30: Why is secondary legislation important? -•‐ Programme of the course -•‐ Student introductions -•‐ General overview & terminology -•‐ How does secondary legislation fit into the broader decision-•‐making process? -•‐ What do the commentators and experts say?
2h00: History of comitology -•‐ Origin of comitology: CAP -•‐ Single European Act -•‐ 1999 reform -•‐ Constitutional Treaty + 2006 reform -•‐ Lisbon Treaty Case Study: 2h30: Regulatory Procedure with Scrutiny Fuel quality Directive -•‐ Decision 1999/468 -•‐ EP and Council veto
2. The post-•‐Lisbon system: definitions and procedures
2h30: Delegated acts -•‐ Article 290 TFEU -•‐ Common Understanding Case Study: -•‐ Mandate CAP Reform -•‐ Upstream drafting (expert groups) -•‐ EP and Council veto/revocation
2h30: Implementing acts -•‐ Article 291 TFEU -•‐ Regulation 182/2011 -•‐ Examination procedure -•‐ Advisory procedure -•‐ EP and Council non-•‐binding right of scrutiny
1h00: Alignment -•‐ Concept (previous 2006-•‐2009) -•‐ Two approaches: case-•‐by-•‐case vs. automatic (omnibus) -•‐ State of play
3. Inter-•‐institutional dynamics & practical aspects
2h00: Delegated and implementing acts in EU legislation -•‐ A political power struggle -•‐ EP own-•‐initiative report -•‐ Amendments to the Common Understanding -•‐ New inter-•‐institutional agreement: can it resolve the issue?
1h30: Financial services system -•‐ Lamfalussy to Larosière -•‐ Three European Supervisory authorities -•‐ General overview of regulatory technical standards and implementing technical standards
1h30: Growth of litigation on secondary legislation -•‐ Past and pending cases -•‐ Case study: Biocides
+ 0h30 Guest speaker from the European Parliament Maria Gomez Leal, Head of Legal Service at the European Parliament
0h30: Homework exercise
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4. Day trip to Brussels
Meetings with 3-•‐4 secondary legislation experts & practical aspects
Secondary legislation: tools for practitioners
1h30: Procedural analysis -•‐ How to identify secondary legislation in a basic act -•‐ Working in small groups on concrete examples -•‐ pre and post Lisbon legislative texts or proposals -•‐ Presentation of worksheets
1h: Monitoring -•‐ General introduction -•‐ Comitology Register -•‐ TBT Register & Expert Group Register -•‐ Roadmaps & Impact Assessments
5. Business dimension of secondary legislation & exercise feedback
3h: Correction of homework exercise (student presentations)
1h: Practical dimension of secondary legislation: -•‐ Business life and secondary legislation -•‐ Secondary legislation: a career accelerator?
1h: Media, communication techniques and lobbying -•‐ How to communicate on secondary legislation -•‐ Importance of “story-•‐telling” and adapting the message to your audience
1h: Exam tips
Assessment
Grading 2-hour written exam at the end of the course: 50% of the final grade Active participation during the sessions and debates: 50% of the final grade
Penalties 0,5 taken for each 2 absences from the course
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Preliminary Bibliography
Books
GUEGUEN, Daniel, Comitology: hijacking European power?, Bruxelles : Europolitics, 2014. 01.06.01 004 GUEN
GUEGUEN, Daniel & MARISSEN, Vicky, Handbook on EU Secondary Legislation, Brussels : PACT European Affairs, 2013. 01.11.00 005 GUEG
GUEGUEN, Daniel & MARISSEN, Vicky, The new practical guide to the EU labyrinth, Brussels : Europolitics, 2008. DIRE EU GUEG
Articles
“Concerns over the EU legal order by Daniel Guéguen (link)
“To veto or not to veto” by Daniel Guéguen (link)
“Holding the European Commission to account: the promise of delegated acts”, Gijs Jan Brandsma (link)
“Is There a Hierarchy of Legislative, Delegated and Implementing Acts”, Jurgën Bast (link)
“Controlling delegated powers in the post-Lisbon European Union”, Gijs Jan Brandsma and Jens Blom-Hansen (link)
“The comitology game: European policymaking with parliamentary involvement”, Bernard Steunenberg and Dieter Schmidtchen (link)
“Clarifying the Divide between Delegated and Implementing Acts?”, Merijn Chamon (link)
“Preparing Comitology in Commission Expert Groups: Reducing Duration or Minimizing Contestation?”, Bart Van Ballaert and Tom Delreux (link)
Other
“The Orphacol saga” by Daniel Guéguen (link)
“Better regulation: 10 graphs to help you understand and act” by PACT European Affairs (link)
Europolitics’ special edition’ Shedding light on new comitology’, February 2012 (link)
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