Manual for Europe a Beginner’S Guide to the EU

Manual for Europe A Beginner’s Guide to the EU

Karl Staudinger in cooperation with Peter Steyrer and Monika Feigl-Heihs The Green European Foundation is a European-level political foundation whose mission is to contribute to a lively European sphere of debate and to foster greater involvement by citizens in European politics. GEF strives to mainstream discussions on European policies and politics both within and beyond the Green political family. The foundation acts as a laboratory for new ideas, offers cross-border political education and a platform for cooperation and exchange at the European level.

Published by the Green European Foundation, 2010 Printed in Belgium.

Project coordination and text editing: Leonore Gewessler English language editing: Andrew Rodgers

Production: Micheline Gutman

Printed on 100% recycled paper

Cover picture: © European Union PE-EP/Pietro Naj-Oleari

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Green European Foundation.

This publication has been realised with the financial support of the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not responsible for the content of this project.

This publication can be ordered at: The Green European Foundation – Brussels Office: 15 Rue d’Arlon – B-1050 Brussels – Belgium Tel: +32 2 234 65 70 I Fax: +32 2 234 65 79 E-mail: [email protected] I Web: www.gef.eu

Green European Foundation asbl 1 Rue du Fort Elisabeth – 1463 Luxembourg 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword 6

How to use this manual 7

1. History of the EU 8 1. 1. European Coal and Steel Community– ECSC 8 1. 2. Treaties of Rome – EEC, Euratom 8 1. 3. Direct election to the European Parliament 9 1. 4. Southern Expansion 9 1. 5. Single European Act (SEA) 9 1. 6. Treaty of Maastricht 10 1. 7. Treaty of Amsterdam 11 1. 8. Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union 12 1. 9. Treaty of Nice 12 1. 10. Eastward Expansion 12 1. 11. Constitutional Treaty 12 1. 12. Lisbon Treaty 13 1. 13. The Greens and Reform of EU Institutions 14

2. EU-Democracy 16 2. 1. The Democratic Model of the EU and its Evolution 16 2. 2. Charter of Fundamental Rights (Extract) 18 2. 3. European Citizens' Initiative 18

3. Legal System 22 3. 1. Primary Law/Treaties 22 3. 2. Secondary law 22 3. 3. Primacy of EU-Law over National law 22 3. 4. Regulations 22 3. 5. Directives 22 3. 6. Decisions 23

4. EU Responsibilities and Policy Areas 24 4. 1. Competences of the EU 24 4. 2. Union Policies under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) 24 4. 3. Subsidiarity, Proportionality, Early Warning System 25

5. European Parliament 26 5. 1. Composition 26 5. 2. Tasks and Rights 26 5. 3. Distribution of Seats in the European Parliament 27 5. 4. Proportion of Women in the Parliamentary Groups in the European Parliament 28 5. 5. Formation of Political Groups in the European Parliament 28 5. 6. Committees of the European Parliament 28 5. 7. Voting Procedures in the Parliament 29 5. 8. Petitions to the Parliament 29 4

6. Council of the European Union 30 6. 1. Council Presidency 30 6. 2. Qualified Majority in the Council 30 6. 3. Weighted Votes of Member States 30 6. 4. Double Majority Voting in the Council 31 6. 5. Blocking Minority 32 6. 6. Weighted Votes vs. Double Majority 32 6. 7. Unanimity in the Council/Bridging Clauses 34 6. 8. Legal Bases for Council Decisions 34

7. European Council 35

8. European Commission 36 8. 1. Appointment of the Commission 36 8. 2. The Special Role of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign 36 Affairs and Security Policy 8. 3. Dismissal of the Commission, Removal of Commissioners 37 8. 4. Implementation of EU Law - Comitology 37

9. Court of Justice of the European Union 38

10. Economic and Social Committee (EESC) 39

11. The Committee of the Regions (CoR) 39

12. The European Court of Auditors 39

13. The Decision-making Process in the Legislative Procedure 40 13. 1. Ordinary Legislative Procedure (Co-decision Procedure) 40 13. 2. Special Legislative Procedures (Consent and Consultation Procedures) 43 13. 3. Procedures without the involvement of the European Parliament (EP) 43 13. 4. The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) 43

14. The European Union Budget 44 14. 1. EU Revenue 44 14. 2. Multiannual Financial Framework 44 14. 3. British Rebate 44 14. 4. EU Expenditure 44 14. 5. Budgetary Procedure 44 14. 5. Green Positions concerning the EU budget 45

15. Economic and Monetary Union 46 15. 1. Stages of Monetary Union 46 15. 2. Euro Convergence Criteria 46 15. 3. Euro 46 15. 4. Stability and Growth Pact 46 15. 5. European System of Central Banks and the European Central Bank 47 5

16. EU Agencies 48 16. 1. Examples of Community agencies 48 16. 2. Lists of EU agencies 49

17. Political Parties and Foundations at the European Level 51 17. 1. Political Parties at the European Level 51 17. 2. Political Foundations at the European Level 51 17. 3. European Green Party (EGP) 52 17. 4. Green European Foundation (GEF) 52

18. Europe and the Greens 54 18. 1. Why is the EU important for the Greens? 54 18. 2. Green successes 54

19. Green Visions for Europe 56

20. Information, contacts 59

21. Websites of Civil Society Initiatives on EU Policies 60

22. Table of links 62

Acknowledgement 68 Index 69

Diagrams

Diagram 1: EU Democray 17 Diagram 2: Ordinary Legislative Procedure 42

Tables

Table 1: Accession History 9 Table 2: Treaties and Reforms 10 Table 3: ECI - minimum number of signatories per Member State 20 Table 4: Weighted votes in the Council 31 Table 5: Population, Proportional Population and Number of Votes 33 Table 6: EU Expenditure 2011 44 Table 7: Community agencies 49 Table 8: Agencies for the Community security and defence policy 50 Table 9: Agencies for political and judicial cooperation in criminal cases 50 Table 10: Executive agencies 50 6

FOREWORD

Dear reader, a unique multilevel political system, which in its decision-making process provides for The past couple of years have shown in a quite national, regional and even local political ac- dramatic manner that politics at a national tors to be involved in one way or another. This level alone cannot provide the solutions we publication will attempt to be your guide to need for the most challenging problems of this system. To facilitate your navigation, it our time. provides links to documents and websites that illustrate the practical functioning and actual This is true especially for the issues Greens are work of the EU and the necessary information fighting for: environmental protection, an effi- about how to get involved. cient use and a sustainable production of energy, a reorientation of our economy to guarantee so- We were lucky as the Regulation on the cial inclusion and social security and – on the European Citizens' Initiative was adopted just world stage – peace, development and the con- before we printed this manual, so this book solidation of democracy and fundamental rights. contains detailed information about the rules to observe when citizens intend to set the agenda The problems we face and the goals we are of the institutions of the EU. fighting for need people who engage in public issues on the European level. This engagement The manual was first written for an Austrian - like any democratic political activity – needs a green audience when Ulrike Lunacek (today knowledge base: who decides about what, how a Member of the Greens/EFA group) and her are decisions made, what are the powers and team wanted to provide their campaigners with what are the responsibilities of the various in- a better knowledge of the Union ahead of the stitutions and bodies of the European Union and 2009 European Parliament election campaign. – most importantly – how can citizens interact After the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on with them and get involved in agenda setting at 1 December 2009, the manual was updated and the European level. printed as a book.

GEF's mission is to contribute to the emer- We are happy to present it now in English gence of a better understanding and a deeper language, supplemented and adapted for the awareness of the tools the European Union European level. provides to shape our common future and to tackle the challenges of our time together. Read, debate, engage!

Pierre Jonckheer This book is part of this effort as it tries to ex- Co-President Green European Foundation plain the institutional set up of the EU in an easy to comprehend manner and help over- Daniela Graf come the feeling that the EU is simply too Member of the Board, complex to be understood. Indeed: the EU is Grüne Bildungswerkstatt Austria 7

HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL

This manual attempts to provide easily read- url provider. The path of the links after www.bit. able quick access to knowledge about the ly is customised, e.g. www.bit.ly/eu-treaties-en European Union. There is no need to read it taking you to the consolidated versions of the from the beginning to the end, just jump to the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the parts you are interested in. Functioning of the European Union or www.bit. ly/gs-novel-food, pointing to the procedure file The manual intends to provide you with basic of the Novel Foods Regulation. The customisa- knowledge of bodies, powers and procedures tion of the shortened URL should make it easier of the Union – but be prepared that on many to remember. occasions you are confronted with the specific view of the Greens on Europe, with their To navigate through this book, make use of visions and with their successes. On the one the table of contents and the index on the last hand, this serves as a demonstration of how pages. the institutional set up of the Union can be used to achieve political goals. On the other To support your involvement, the manual hand, the manual wants to let you know what gives detailed information about the European Greens do for you at the European level. Citizen's Initiative, provides contact information of the EU institutions and contains a link list to Throughout the book you find links that point you the most important civil society actors on the to webpages with examples of topics you have European level. Good luck in your efforts to un- just read or with illustrating documents. Since derstand the Union and to get involved! many webdocuments have horribly long URLs, the manual makes heavy use of bit.ly, a short- Karl Staudinger 8

1. History of the EU one – the Lisbon Treaty – marks a new level of a supranational democracy, providing the Ideas on how to overcome the limitations and European Union with means proportionate to dangers of the nation state system in Europe the challenges of today. have risen again and again throughout history. The most important of these steps, from the The need to realise these ideas was never felt Schuman Declaration to the Lisbon Treaty, are more urgently than after World War II. On 9 May described in the following sections. 1950, the Foreign Minister of France, Robert Schuman, delivered a speech, in which he stated: 1. 1. European Coal and Steel Community – ECSC "World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to From 1952 to 2002, the ECSC was responsible the dangers which threaten it. for the implementation of a common market for coal and steel, both of which are essential The contribution which an organised and living for the production of goods necessary for war. Europe can bring to civilization is indispensable The purpose of the ECSC Treaty was to inte- to the maintenance of peaceful relations. ... grate the markets for these raw materials to such an extent that they could never again Europe will not be made all at once, or according be accessed by ECSC countries to wage war to a single plan. It will be built through concrete against each other. In particular, this would achievements which first create a de facto soli- make war between France and Germany im- darity. The coming together of the nations of possible in the long term. The ECSC Treaty Europe requires the elimination of the age-old transferred state powers in this area to the opposition of France and Germany. ... “High Authority” (the predecessor of the Commission). Legislative power was exercised The solidarity in production (of coal and steel) by the Council of Ministers of the Member thus established will make it plain that any war States, while the Parliamentary Assembly per- between France and Germany becomes not formed advisory functions. The ECSC Treaty merely unthinkable, but materially impossible. expired in 2002, and the ECSC activities were The setting up of this powerful productive unit, transferred to the European Union. open to all countries willing to take part and bound ultimately to provide all the member 1. 2. Treaties of Rome – EEC, Euratom countries with the basic elements of industrial production on the same terms, will lay a true In 1958, the Treaty on the European Economic foundation for their economic unification. ... Community (also referred to as the EEC Treaty or the Treaty of Rome; later renamed as the By pooling basic production and by instituting a EC Treaty and subsequently as the Treaty new High Authority, whose decisions will bind on the Functioning of the EU) and the Treaty France, Germany and other member coun- establishing the European Atomic Energy tries, this proposal will lead to the realisation Community (often referred to as the Euratom of the first concrete foundation of a European Treaty) came into force. The aim was to estab- federation indispensable to the preservation of lish the "foundations of an ever closer union peace." among the peoples of Europe" (preamble to the Treaty of Rome) and to extend suprana- Europe was not made all at once, indeed, but tional cooperation between Member States, as in many subsequent steps, the most recent was practiced in the ECSC, to new areas. 9

The most important objective of the EEC Treaty direct universal suffrage was signed. Until was the establishment of the four fundamen- then, national parliaments of the individual tal freedoms of movement for: Member States had been represented in the so-called “Parliamentary Assembly”. In 1979 Goods the first direct elections to the European Persons Parliament took place. Services Capital 1. 4. Southern Expansion

Provisions for the achievement of these The accession of Greece (1981), Spain and goals initially had to be adopted unani- Portugal (1986) brought the issue of re- mously by the Council on proposals of the dressing economic disparities between Commission. The Parliamentary Assembly richer and poorer Member States to the was established as a mere advisory body. EU’s attention and eventually led to the in- The impending increase in the use of quali- troduction of Structural Funds in the EEC ﬁed majority voting in the Council led France Treaty (see Single European Act below). to boycott the Council in 1966. This im- passe was eventually resolved through the 1. 5. Single European Act (SEA) Luxembourg compromise, as a result of which the Council continued to decide unani- The Single European Act was the first major mously even in cases where the Treaties revision of the 1957 EEC Treaty and extend- would have allowed qualiﬁed majority voting. ed the use of qualified majority voting in the Council considerably. The capacity of the 1. 3. Direct election to the European European Communities to act (European Parliament Economic Community (EEC), European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the Euro- In 1976, the Act concerning the election of pean Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)) the Members of the European Parliament by was therefore improved, particularly in the Table 1: Accession History

Signing of Number of Foundation /Accession Took effect Treaty members Foundation: ECSC: Belgium, Germany, France, 18/4/1951 23/7/1952 6 Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands Formation: EC and EURATOM; Belgium, 25/3/1957 1/1/1958 6 Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands Accession: Great Britain, Denmark, Ireland 22/1/1972 1/1/1973 9 Accession: Greece 28/5/1979 1/1/1981 10 Accession: Spain, Portugal 12/6/1985 1/1/1986 12

Accession: Finland, Austria, Sweden 24/6/1994 1/1/1995 15 Accession: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, 16/4/2003 1/5/2004 25 Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Cyprus Accession: Bulgaria, Romania 25/4/2005 1/1/2007 27 10

Table 2: Treaties and Reforms

Treaty Signing Took effect ECSC-Founding Treaty 18/4/1951 24/7/1952 Treaties of Rome 25/3/1957 1/1/1958 (the EEC Treaty and the Euratom Treaty) Treaty of Maastricht (formally the Treaty on European Union 7/2/1992 1/11/1993 or TEU). The EEC Treaty was renamed EC Treaty Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union 2/10/1997 1/5/1999 and the EC Treaty Treaty of Nice amending the Treaty on European Union 26/2/2001 1/2/2003 and the EC Treaty Constitutional Treaty, which would have replaced the existing 29/10/2004 failed European Union treaties with a single text Treaty of Lisbon which amended the Treaty on European Union 13/12/2007 1/12/2009 and the EC Treaty. The EC Treaty was renamed Treaty on the functioning of the European Union areas necessary for the implementation of the ropean Economic Community to simply "the single market. However, unanimous decisions European Community”, and hence the EEC were still required in many areas, for example Treaty was renamed the EC Treaty when the in the areas of fiscal policy, the free move- TEU came into force. The Treaty established the ment of persons and the rights and interests European Union under its current name and of employees. The position of the European summarised the various forms of cooperation Parliament (EP) was strengthened by the in- between Member States in the so-called three- troduction of the cooperation procedure. In pillar model: this procedure, unanimity in the Council was required instead of qualified majority voting “Common” Policy areas (The Single Market, in all instances where the EP had rejected a agricultural policy, etc.) common position of the Council or proposed Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) amendments to it. Cooperation in the areas of justice and home affairs Additional powers in the domains of social and environmental policies were vested in In the first pillar, the decision-taking proce- the European Economic Community. In or- dure involved the Parliament, Council and der to offset some of the impacts from the Commission (supranational level). In the sec- increase of competition in the single market, ond and third pillars, governments agreed to funds for the promotion of economic and so- work together. cial cohesion were incorporated in the EEC Treaty (European Agricultural Guidance and The EU's powers were expanded to include the Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), European Social areas of vocational training, culture, young peo- Fund (ESF), European Regional Development ple, consumer protection and trans-European Fund (ERDF)). networks.

1. 6. Treaty of Maastricht Through the Maastricht Treaty, European Un- ion citizenship was introduced. The European The Treaty on European Union (TEU) was signed Parliament's role was further enhanced (by in Maastricht. It changed the name of the Eu- the introduction of the co-decision procedure, 11

extension of the cooperation procedure and the implementing the Common Foreign and Se- involvement of the EP in the appointment of curity Policy. The so-called Petersberg tasks Commissioners). (peacekeeping, crisis management, etc.) were included in the foreign policy of the EU. The areas where decisions could be made by a qualified majority in the Council were ex- The requirements on environmental protec- tended to include additional policy areas. The tion as set out in the Amsterdam Treaty and “in Committee of the Regions was established. particular, the promotion of sustainable development”, were integrated into community policy. The Maastricht Treaty contained a three-stage In the context of the “area of freedom, security plan designed to achieve economic and mon- and justice”, cooperation in the fields of the free etary union as well as the (controversial) euro circulation of people, external border controls, convergence criteria (Maastricht criteria) which asylum, immigration, etc. was expanded. Member States have to fulfil before they can join the single currency. Legally enforceable: Equal pay for equal work 1. 7. Treaty of Amsterdam Background: Overtime in the state of Berlin The Treaty of Amsterdam amended the Treaty was paid at a lower rate than regular work on European Union and the EC Treaty. It ex- hours were. Overtime worked by part-time panded the principle of non-discrimination in employees was also paid at a lower rate, even the EC Treaty and legally required Member when the total number of hours worked by States to act against discrimination on grounds these workers amounted to less than stand- of nationality, sex, race, ethnic origin, religion, ard full-time working hours. This meant that beliefs, disability, age or sexual orientation. part-time employees – most of them women The re-written Article 141 of the EC Treaty re- – could work a similar number of hours as quired compliance with the principle of “equal their full-time colleagues but be paid less. pay for equal work” in all Member States and made this principle legally enforceable. It also The European Court of Justice determined empowered the Council to adopt guidelines to that the situation was incompatible with the ensure its enforcement. The public was given principle of equal pay for men and women, the right of access to Council documents in the and ruled: context of its activity as an EU lawmaker. “Article 141 ECJ (now Art.157 TFEU) is to be The co-decision procedure was extended to interpreted as precluding [such] national almost all areas in which the Council made legislation ... where: decisions by qualified majority (with the exception of agriculture). in the group of workers subject to that legislation, a considerably higher percentage The Amsterdam Treaty extended the principle of women is affected as compared with of subsidiarity (the principle by which actions the percentage of men so affected; and are only taken by the EU if they cannot be better the difference in treatment is not justi- achieved at a lower administrative level) to all fied by objective factors wholly unrelated policies, which do not fall within the exclusive to discrimination based on sex.” competence of the EU. ECJ Judgement Dec.6, 2007 C-300/06 . The Treaty created the position of High Rep- www.bit.ly/ejc-equal-pay-en resentative to assist the Council Presidency in 12

1.8. Charter of Fundamental Rights EU reached 27 members. The right of nomi- of the European Union nation of commissioners would be assigned to Member States by way of an equal rotation. In 1999 the European Council convened a con- The corresponding Council decision was never vention to draft a Charter of Fundamental Rights taken however, and in the Treaty of Lisbon, of the European Union, called the European the decision on the reduction of the number of Convention. The Convention produced a draft commissioners was postponed until 2014 (be- document which was adopted in October 2000, fore the second Irish referendum on the Lisbon and was solemnly proclaimed by the President Treaty the Irish were promised that there of the European Parliament, the Presidency of would be no reduction of the Commission). the Council and the President of the Commission in December 2000 (see page 18). The Treaty of Nice altered the distribution of voting weights in the Council and the condi- The Charter contains the following sections: tions required for a qualified majority decision. It also determined a new distribution of seats Human dignity in the European Parliament. Freedom (e.g. freedom of expression, the right to asylum) The Eurojust agency was set up in order to Equality (e.g. cultural diversity, integration combat organised crime. of people with disabilities) Solidarity (e.g. right to information and con- 1. 10. Eastward Expansion sultation of workers in companies, social security and social assistance) In 1994 at the Copenhagen Summit, follow- Civil rights (e.g. right to vote for the ing the collapse of the socialist regimes in European Parliament, right of petition, dip- Eastern Europe, the offered some Central lomatic protection) and Eastern European countries the option to Justice (e.g. right to an effective legal rem- become members of the European Union. The edy and a fair trial) criteria established for membership were an General provisions (e.g. field of application acceptance of the European values (democ- of the Charter, level of protection) racy, constitutional state, and human rights), a functioning market economy and the adop- The legal status of the Charter was initially tion of the EU acquis communautaire (existing unclear. It was subsequently included in the directives and regulations, jurisdiction of the Constitutional Treaty and was made legally ECJ, etc.). binding by the Treaty of Lisbon (conditionally for www.bit.ly/copenhagen-criteria Poland and the UK). www.bit.ly/eu-charta-en 1. 11. Constitutional Treaty 1. 9. Treaty of Nice The need for further reform of the European The Treaty of Nice amended the Treaty on Union after Nice was undisputed between European Union and the EC Treaty, and was Member States. In order to prepare the nec- mainly intended to establish the foundations essary changes, a constitutional convention for cooperation in an enlarged EU. Among (the Convention on the Future of Europe) was other changes the Treaty aimed to reduce convened in which 105 members (government the size of the Commission and obliged the representatives, members of national parlia- Council (by means of a unanimous decision) to ments and the European Parliament, as well as set the number of commissioners to be less members of the Commission) prepared a draft than the number of Member States once the constitution. The Greens were represented in 13

the Convention by Johannes Voggenhuber and The meetings of the Council must be public Joschka Fischer (substitute members were when the Council is acting as legislator. The Neil MacCormick and Eva Lichtenberger). The co-decision procedure has again been extend- Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe ed and functions as the “ordinary legislative was signed in October 2004, but failed in the procedure” of the EU. ratification process as a result of the negative outcome of national referenda in France and Through so-called “bridging” clauses, the the Netherlands. European Council is granted the power to decide that a legal act which – according to the treaties The contents of the Constitutional Treaty were - requires a unanimous vote in the Council of mostly integrated into the Treaty of Lisbon. Ministers, can be adopted by qualified major- Certain symbolic aspects of the Constitutional ity vote. The bridging clauses can similarly be Treaty were not adopted such as a European used to allow an act which – according to the anthem, a European flag, Europe Day, and the treaties – has to be passed through a special designation of directives and regulations as legislative procedure, to be passed using the “framework laws” or “laws” of the EU. ordinary legislative procedure. In either case, www.bit.ly/eu-constitution-treaty the decision to make use of this bridging clause must be adopted unanimously by the European 1. 12. Lisbon Treaty Council, requires the consent of the European Parliament and must not have been rejected by The Lisbon Treaty contains far-reaching chang- any of the national parliaments. es to both the Treaty on European Union and the EC Treaty, which was renamed the Treaty on the The “triple-shared presidency” of the Council, Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) as whereby groups of three member states co- part of this process. operate for their combined eighteen month terms on a common agenda, gained a legal Under the Lisbon Treaty, the Charter of basis in the Lisbon Treaty. Fundamental Rights of the European Union became part of the founding treaties of the EU. It The High Representative of the Union for also contains the legal basis for EU accession Foreign Affairs and Security Policy now serves to the European Convention on Human Rights. as both Vice-President of the Commission With the European Citizens' Initiative, the and Commissioner for External Relations and Lisbon Treaty granted one million EU citizens presides over the Council on Foreign Affairs from a significant number of Member States the (“double hat”, see page 36). right to request that the Commission initiates a legislative process based on their concerns. Police and judicial cooperation (formerly the (See the "European Citizens' Initiative" page 18) “third pillar”) is absorbed into the normal European Community Procedures (formerly The introduction of an early warning mecha- called "first pillar"). The three-pillar model is nism gives the national parliaments of the thus abolished. Member States the opportunity to raise objections to the Commission's proposals if they are As in the Treaty of Nice, the Lisbon Treaty aims deemed to violate the subsidiarity principle, to reduce the number of Commissioners. As (see page 25). From November 2014, the dou- mentioned above, it was agreed, in the context ble majority system will be used as the voting of the second Irish referendum on the ratifi- system in the Council (a majority vote which cation of the Lisbon Treaty, that the planned requires 55% of the member countries, repre- downsizing of the Commission would be re- senting 65% of the EU population). versed in a future amendment to the Treaty or 14

as part of an accession treaty to accept new 1. 13. The Greens and Reform members. of EU Institutions

The number of the Members of the European For the Greens, a robust European Union will Parliament (MEPs) is set at 751, with a min- be vital if we are to overcome the challenges of imum number of 6 and a maximum number of the 21st Century – especially climate change – 96 members per state. As a result of the tran- and ensure sustainable energy supply, social sition to the Lisbon Treaty (which entered into welfare and economic stability. force after the 2009 elections), the Parliament will have 754 members until the next European For this reason they have been closely involved, Parliament elections in 2014, because the lim- at all levels of political activity, in the discus- itation of 96 did not apply in 2009 and Germany sion on the reform of the European Union with elected 99 MEPs. the aim of developing the rights of the citizens and strengthening democracy in the European The Lisbon Treaty provides the European Union in order to overcome the nation-state Council with its own president, elected for a mentality in transnational challenges, and in period of two and a half years, who will man- order to improve the capacity of the Union to age the work of the European Council (not to act in addressing the great challenges of our be confused with the Council of Ministers) time. and will represent the Union as President of the European Council in matters of Common The drafting of the Constitutional Treaty by the Foreign and Security Policy. Convention on the Future of Europe (officially known as the European Convention), from the As part of the Common Foreign and Security Green's perspective, brought about many fun- Policy, the Treaty of Lisbon specifies cer- damental advances: the Parliament received tain mandatory aspects of defence policy for increased rights in the legislative process as Member States with the aim of “gradually well as in budget planning and monitoring, improving their military capabilities” and ob- the parliaments of the Member States were ligates them, in the event of an armed attack, provided with an appeal mechanism against to provide the Member State which has come excessive EU legislation, the sensitive areas of under attack with all available assistance and internal security, judicial and police coopera- support, with “the specific nature of the se- tion, border control, asylum and immigration curity and defence policy of certain Member were transferred from the (democratically States” not being affected (referring to the precarious) intergovernmental cooperation neutrality of Austria and Ireland). Decisions in system to the ordinary legislative procedure, this area require unanimity in the Council. and became subject to judicial review. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Changes in the area of EU Policies (Part III Union was made legally binding, and the EU of the TFEU), the overall long-term policies accessed to the European Convention on and objectives of the EU, may be adopted in a Human Rights. Bringing about a competitive simplified Treaty amendment procedure by a social market economy was included in the unanimous European Council decision after the Union’s objectives. The fact that the goal of full Parliament has been consulted. These treaty employment is part of the Treaty on European modifications can only enter into force once Union is due to the endeavours of the Greens they have been ratified by all Member States. in the European Convention. The requirement for gender equality was reinforced, as was the commitment to combating social exclusion and discrimination. 15

Civilian and military resources are, for the first European Greens decidedly campaigned for time, attributed equal importance in the area the reforms achieved within the Treaty. Most of defence policy, and conflict prevention and of the Lisbon Treaty reforms were developed peace building are defined as constitutional by the European Convention, and were for duties. a large part transposed to the Lisbon Treaty; not to make use of them would have indefinite- Despite this progress, many goals remain un- ly postponed fundamental democratic reform attained: the Greens did not prevail in their of the EU. A look at the current political land- attempt to define the European Union as an scape confirms this assessment: apart from area of social security, justice and solidarity, the fact that the economy is almost completely the tools required to develop a “social Europe” occupying the attention of politicians at this remain incomplete, European referenda were moment, today most of them just would not not permitted, the parliament has no inde- be willing to go ahead with such far-reaching pendent right of initiative in the legislative reforms in any case. process, and the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy continues to have democratic The Greens called for a pan-European referen- and citizenship deficits. dum to confirm the Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty; unfortunately they were not In the frenzied controversy surrounding the able to have this proposal enacted. A referen- (unsuccessful) ratification of the Constitutional dum on the same day throughout Europe could Treaty and the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, have created significant momentum towards the vast majority of the member parties of the a European public sphere. 16

2. EU-Democracy gotiating mandate from the EU committees in their national parliaments ahead of Council 2. 1. The Democratic Model of negotiations. the EU and its Evolution The EU has been accused – and rightly so for The power of the European Union has mostly many years – of having a democratic deficit, as been transferred to three institutions: the the powers of the European Parliament were European Parliament, the Council and the designed to be far too weak, and the separa- Commission. tion of powers principle was undermined by the strong position of the Council in the legis- EU democracy is based on the direct elec- lative process. tion of members of the European Parliament and the democratic legitimacy of the Council That has changed substantially in recent members who, as members of government in years: the Parliament‘s position has gradu- their respective countries, are politically ac- ally become stronger and it is able to assert countable to their national parliament. its strength in political reality. The co-decision procedure, in which the Parliament shares Because appointments to the Commission in- legislative power equally with the Council, volve the European Council and the European became the ordinary legislative procedure Parliament, and the Commission is some- as a result of the Lisbon Treaty, and is now what accountable to Parliament following applicable in most legislative matters. In ap- its appointment (e.g. through no-confidence pointments to the Commission, the Parliament votes and Parliamentary questions), the is able to make its power felt through hear- Commission can be seen to be also inte- ings with prospective commissioners; and in grated into this model of democracy (see the both 2004 and 2010 candidates proposed by Democracy Diagram on page 17). Member States were changed as result of the actions of Parliament. The EU Treaties transfer an abundance of legislative duties to the Union, as a result of In addition to formal improvements, EU de- which, the powers of the national parliaments mocracy has benefited from the specially have been decreased. For this reason the con- designed structure of the EU institutions: the stitutions of all Member States provide tools to Parliament - unlike the national parliaments allow national parliaments to exert influence – is not obliged to support a government. on their government's position in the Council. This eliminates much of the political party These instruments have been designed in very squabbling, which characterises day-to-day different ways, some even go as far as requir- politics at the national level and thus provides ing a mandate from parliament, to which the a comparatively large arena for constructive relevant member of the government is bound cooperation. According to many of its mem- in Council negotiations. The rights of the bers, this makes the work carried out in the Danish Parliament (Folketing) are particularly European Parliament more exciting and ob- strong, as the government is required, prior to jective in comparison to national parliaments. Council meetings on important matters, to ob- Nevertheless, party politics do play a deci- tain a negotiating mandate from the European sive role in the European Parliament and it is Affairs Committee of the Folketing (www.bit. a big challenge for the Greens to prevail, espe- ly/eu-committee-dk). In a similar way, gov- cially when the two big groups – the European ernments of other Member States such as People’s Party and the Progressive Alliance Finland (www.bit.ly/eu-affairs-fi) and Austria of Socialists and Democrats in the European (www.bit.ly/eu-affairs-at) must obtain a ne- Parliament – are acting as a “grand coalition”. 17

A major weakness of EU democracy, however, Tasks for further democratic reform in the is the poor voter turnout in the election of rep- European Union are: resentatives to the European Parliament, and the fact that the reasons why candidates are the introduction of plebiscites and referenda elected are often more linked to national poli- at EU level; tics than to European issues. the extension of decision-making using both the co-decision procedure and qualified One approach to improving these problems majority voting in the Council to all policy is the proposal of the Greens to elect a cer- areas - particularly in Common Foreign and tain proportion of members of the European Security Policy; Parliament through a pan-European (transna- the introduction of the right of Parliament to tional) list, and thus complement the election initiate legislation; and, of nationally elected individuals with members allowing Parliament to cast a vote of no con- mandated by a pan-European public. fidence against individual members of the Commission (rather than just against the Commission as a whole).

Diagram 1: EU Democray

EU-DEMOCRACY

Grafik: Dr Karl Staudingre, politiktraining.at 18

2. 2. Charter of Fundamental Rights From 2012, after the necessary national legis- (Extract) lation has been adopted, this instrument will be available for citizens to have a direct say in Prohibition of the death penalty EU affairs - and it will hopefully be first used Prohibition of torture and inhuman or de- not long after this date (see Chapter 21 of this grading treatment manual on the addresses of European NGOs). Prohibition of forced and compulsory labour Active and passive voting rights for EU Possible Subjects for a Citizens’ Initiative citizens in local elections in the area of resi- A European Citizens’ Initiative must be ad- dence dressed to an area in which the Union is able The right to freedom of expression, includ- to issue a legal act (a regulation, a directive or ing the right to hold opinions and to receive a decision) within the framework of the EU trea- and impart information without interfer- ties. In addition, the Commission must have the ence from public authority and regardless ability to legislate on these subjects. A strict of frontiers interpretation could mean that initiatives to The right to found political and labour un- amend the treaties would be deemed to be in- ions and civil society groups and the right to admissible. The Greens are in favour of a wider join such associations interpretation in this regard. The right to education, particularly the right to free compulsory education Formulation of the Citizens’ Initiative Prohibition of discrimination on the basis of European Citizens' Initiatives must clearly sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, ge- describe their subject matter. A finalised formu- netic features, language, religion or belief, lation of the legal act requested is not necessary. political ideology or other opinions, membership of a national minority, property, Citizens’ Committee birth, disability, age or sexual orientation The registration of a European Citizens' The obligation to ensure equality between Initiative requires the formation of a commit- women and men in all areas, including em- tee which must consist of at least 7 members ployment, work and remuneration residing in at least 7 different Member States Respect for the rights of older people to and which must appoint a spokesperson and a lead dignified and independent lives and to deputy spokesperson. participate in social and cultural activities The right of workers to the collective de- Filing of Registration fence of their interests, including strikes Before the collection of signatures takes place, The right to healthy, dignified and safe the citizens' initiative must register with the working conditions Commission. The registration must include The right of access to social security ben- the following details: efits and to social services Recognition of and respect for access to title (maximum 100 characters), subject services of general economic interest (maximum 200 characters) and description of the objectives (maximum 500 characters) 2. 3. European Citizens' Initiative of the initiative; name of the treaty article/articles which are In order to implement the European Citizens' relevant to the action being requested by the Initiative (ECI), which was introduced by the initiative; Treaty of Lisbon, the European Parliament and names, postal addresses, nationality and the Council adopted a regulation detailing how date of birth of the members of the citizens’ the ECI will be implemented. committee, and designation of the spokesperson and deputy spokesperson; and, 19

information on sources of financial assist- online register of the Commission. Signatures ance and support for the initiative at the can be collected from all EU citizens (nationals time of registration. of a Member State), who have reached the age required to vote in European Parliament elec- In order to provide information and support tions (at present 16 years of age in Austria, 18 the Commission shall establish a contact years in the other Member States). point, from which the necessary information and assistance can be requested. The following details must be included with the signature: Public registration of initiatives by the commission First name The Commission must decide, within a period Family name of two months, whether an initiative submitted Residence for registration meets the criteria mentioned. Date and place of birth Nationality The rejection of a registration request because Date of signing of an incorrectly chosen subject area is only Number of passport or ID card possible: The requirement to provide passport or ID if the initiative manifestly falls “outside the card number varies according to the Member framework of the Commission’s powers State. It is not currently necessary in Ireland, to submit a proposal for a legal act of the the Netherlands, the UK, Slovakia, Estonia, Union for the purpose of implementing the Finland, Belgium, Germany and Denmark. The Treaties”; list of Member States which require passport or if the initiative was manifestly introduced ID card number may change in the future. with abusive, frivolous or deliberately damaging intent; or, The information required may vary slightly if the initiative manifestly violates the values from one Member State to another. The forms of the Union (Article 2 EU Treaty). which are to be used for collecting signatures are provided in Annex III of the Regulation. Should a registration request be rejected, the Commission must disclose the reasons for From the date of its publication in the on- the rejection and must inform the Citizens' line registration system, the initiative has 12 Committee about all possible judicial and ex- months in which to achieve the one million trajudicial remedies available to them. These signatures required. remedies include an action for annulment of the Commission’s decision before the European The signatures must come from at least one Court of Justice and the submission of the quarter of the Member States (currently 7), initiative in the form of a petition for the consid- and in each of these Member States a certain eration of the Parliament. minimum number of signatures must be collected. This minimum number is calculated by Collection of Signatures multiplying the number of the Members of the The collection of signatures may only take European Parliament (MEPs) of each Member place after registration of the initiative has State by 750 (see table 3). been completed, i.e. after its publication in the 20

Table 3: ECI - minimum number of Supporting signatures may be collected in signatories per Member State paper form, through an "advanced electronic signature" or through an online collection sys- Austria (19 MEPs) 14,250 tem (see below). Belgium (22 MEPs) 16,500 Online Collection of Declarations of Support Bulgaria (18 MEPs) 13,500 Online systems for collecting declarations of Cyprus (6 MEPs) 4,500 support for European citizens' groups must Czech republic (22 MEPs) 16,500 guarantee, from a technical perspective, that Denmark (13 MEPs) 9,750 only real persons can submit an online declaration of support, that the person's identity Estonia (6 MEPs) 4,500 can be verified, and that the data can be stored Finland (13 MEPs) 9,750 securely and protected against deletion, loss France (74 MEPs) 55,500 and unauthorised use. Germany (99*/96 MEPs) 74,250*/72,000 The appropriate authority of the Member State Greece (22 MEPs) 16,500 in which the statements are stored online must, Hungary (22 MEPs) 16,500 upon the request of the organisers of the initia- Ireland (12 MEPs) 9,000 tive, confirm the suitability of the system. From autumn 2011 (9 months after the entry into Italy (73 MEPs) 54,750 force of the regulation) the Commission will Latvia (9 MEPs) 6,750 provide open source software free of charge. Lithuania (12 MEPs) 9,000 This open source software may be used to col- Luxembourg (6 MEPs) 4,500 lect signatures in all Member States. Malta (6 MEPs) 4,500 Certification of the Number of Valid The Netherlands (26 MEPs) 19,500 Declarations of Support Poland (51 MEPs) 38,250 Each Member State has to notify the Commis- Portugal (22 MEPs) 16,500 sion which national authority is responsible for issuing the certificate of the number of Romania (33 MEPs) 24,750 valid signatures. This authority shall approve Slovakia (13 MEPs) 9,750 the declarations of support collected in a Slovenia (8 MEPs) 6,000 Member State. The organisers of the initiative must send the declarations of support to Spain (54 MEPs) 40,500 the relevant national authority, and based on Sweden (20 MEPs) 15,000 a random check, the national authority shall United Kingdom (73 MEPs) 54,750 validate the number of filed declarations of support within a period of 3 months.

* As a result of the particularities of the transi- Submission of a Citizens’ Initiative tion to the Lisbon Treaty, Germany will have 99 to the Commission MEPs until the next EP election in 2014, after To submit their initiative to the Commission which it will have 96 members in the European after collecting the necessary number of Parliament. signatures, the organisers have to use the specific form contained in the regulation. The The table is based on the composition of the actual declarations of support are not sent to European Parliament in accordance with the the Commission, rather, the submission must Lisbon Treaty. include the certificates from the competent 21

national authorities validating the number of Statement of the Commission signatures. Within three months the Commission must issue a statement on the initiative, setting out At the same time, the Commission must be its legal and political conclusions, and stating informed on the financing of and support for which – if any – measures it intends to take. the initiative. This information must conform This statement must be made available to the to the standard that applies to European politi- public, and sent to the organisers of the initia- cal parties regarding the information which is tive, the European Parliament and the Council. required on their finances. Under the current regulations the names of donors who annually Personal data protection donate more than €500 are disclosed in the When processing personal data in connection annual financial report. with the initiative, the organiser of the citizens' initiative and the relevant national authorities Inspection of the Initiative through the must observe the Data Protection Directive Commission/Public Hearing and the relevant national data protection laws. All valid initiatives are published on the website In particular, they are responsible for ensuring of the Commission. The Commission is re- that the data will be used exclusively to dem- quired to receive and listen to the organisers of onstrate support for the initiative. the initiative at an appropriate level. In addition, the organisers of the initiative The declarations of support submitted and have the opportunity to present their initia- any copies made of them must be destroyed tive at a public hearing. The Commission and no later than one month after the certificates the Parliament are jointly responsible for the of signatures have been registered with the organisation of this hearing, which has to take Commission or 18 months after registration of place in the European Parliament. Other in- the initiative, whichever occurs earlier. stitutions and bodies of the European Union, whose presence at this hearing is deemed ap- Liability and penalties propriate, will be allowed to participate in the Under the law of their Member States, the hearing on request. organisers are liable for damage caused in organising the initiative. Member States must The Commission must participate at this hear- ensure that should organisers of initiatives use ing by sending an appropriate representative fake data or misuse data in the declarations of – for example the Commissioner in charge of support they will be penalised appropriately the policy area to which the initiative is ad- and effectively in order to provide a sufficient dressed. deterrent. 22

3. Legal System 3. 3. Primacy of EU-Law over National law 3. 1. Primary Law/Treaties European acts with binding force have primacy In establishing the European Community, over all national law. Member States may not EURATOM and the European Union, the take action which contradicts European law. Member States of the Union concluded trea- In principle, the primacy of EU law – also re- ties , which were amended by the Treaties of ferred to as "supremacy" or "precedence" of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon and EU law – also applies to national constitutional the Treaties of Accession (see history of the law. Some decisions by national constitutional EU, page 8). These treaties, comparable to na- courts (e.g. of France, Poland and Germany) tional constitutions, form the basis of the EU deny this precedence in instances where EU legal system and are designated as primary law conflicts with fundamental principles of na- law. The most important issues contained tional constitutional law. in the treaties are the EU’s competencies, the institutions of the EU, the decision mak- 3. 4. Regulations ing procedures, citizens’ rights and judicial control. The fundamental rights guaranteed Regulations are legislative acts which apply under the European Convention on Human immediately. They do not need to be trans- Rights (ECHR) are expressly incorporated into posed into national law. They are executed by EU primary law by the Treaty on European the administrative authorities and courts of Union. The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Member States. the European Union also became part of EU primary law. Examples: - Regulation (EU) No 995/2010 of the European The most important treaties are: Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 laying down the obligations of operators who The Treaty on European Union (TEU) place timber and timber products on the market. The Treaty on the Functioning of the www.bit.ly/regulation-timber European Union (TFEU) - Regulation (EU) No 439/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 Consolidated version of both treaties: establishing a European Asylum Support Office. www.bit.ly/eu-treaties-en www.bit.ly/regulation-asylum-support - Regulation (EU) No 994/2010 of the European 3. 2. Secondary law Parliament and of the Council of 20 October 2010 concerning measures to safeguard secu- In order to achieve the objectives of the Union, rity of gas supply. EU institutions have the right, under the trea- www.bit.ly/regulation-gas-supply ties, to pass legally binding acts. These acts are referred to as secondary law. 3. 5. Directives

The most important types of acts of the EU directives are legislative acts which require Secondary law are: Member States to achieve a particular result without dictating the means by which they are Regulations to do this. In order to comply with directives, Directives Member States might have to make changes Decisions to national laws to achieve the required objectives. Member States are free to decide as to 23

the manner and methods of their implementa- assessment of the effects of certain plans and tion, however, the objectives of directives are programmes on the environment , implement- mandatory. Directives often include deadlines ed through spatial planning acts by the Member for their implementation by Member States. States. www.bit.ly/directive-environmental- Should directives not be implemented by the impact-assessment deadline, they can, in certain circumstances, have direct legal effects. In particular, citizens 3. 6. Decisions are entitled to any rights which they are granted by the directive from the implementation dead- Decisions are aimed at specific target groups, line. Any national law which contravenes parts which are referred to specifically or individual- of a directive will be overridden by EU law. ly in the decision. Decisions frequently attract much public attention. They are best illustrat- Examples: ed using examples. - Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parlia- ment and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on Examples: the coordination of procedures for the award - Commission decision on the imposition of a of public works contracts, public supply fine against Microsoft of €497 Million for the contracts and public service contracts, im- abuse of their dominant market position. plemented through procurement acts by the www.bit.ly/decision-microsoft Member States. - Decision of the European Parliament and www.bit.ly/directive-procurement of the Council concerning a mechanism for - Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 monitoring greenhouse gas emissions in the implementing the principle of equal treatment Community and for implementing the Kyoto between persons irrespective of racial or eth- Protocol. nic origin, implemented through equality acts www.bit.ly/decision-kyoto by the Member States. - Commission Decision on establishing harmo- www.bit.ly/directive-equal-treatment nised efficiency reference values for separate - Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parlia- production of electricity and heat. ment and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the www.bit.ly/decision-heat-power 24

4. EU Responsibilities act without overriding Member States’ com- and Policy Areas petencies and with little direct involvement. The Union adopts measures (e.g. to support 4. 1. Competences of the EU the coordination of the economic policies of the Member States), defines guidelines for The competences of the EU are strictly limited the coordination of employment policies, to areas explicitly transferred to the Union by takes initiatives to ensure the coordination of the Treaties. social policies and carries out actions to support, coordinate or supplement the actions of They are divided in three main types: the Member States in the fields of protection of human health, industry, culture, tourism, Exclusive competences, where only the education, vocational training, youth and European Union is able to legislate and sport, civil protection and administrative co- adopt legally binding acts. Areas in which operation. the Union has exclusive competences are the customs union, competition rules nec- 4. 2. Union Policies under essary for the functioning of the internal the Treaty on the Functioning of market, monetary policy for the Member the European Union (TFEU) States whose currency is the euro, the conservation of marine biological resources Part three of the Treaty on the Functioning under the common fisheries policy and the of the European Union (TFEU) sets out the common commercial policy. policies of the European Union and specifies which legal procedures and requirements are Shared competences, in which the Member to be applied by the Council when legal acts States and the Union both have the power are to be adopted. to adopt legally binding acts. The Member States can exercise their powers only in so The following table of contents from this part of far as the Union has not exercised, or has the Treaty gives a good overview of the policies decided to stop exercising, its competence. of the European Union. Please keep in mind Most policies of the EU fall under this cat- that this list contains competences of all differ- egory. Examples are the internal market, ent categories explained above. certain aspects of social policy, economic, social and territorial cohesion, agriculture Internal market and fisheries (excluding the conservation Free movement of goods of marine biological resources which is Agriculture and fisheries an exclusive competence), environment, Free movement of persons, services and capital consumer protection, transport, trans- Area of freedom, security justice European networks, energy, the area of Border controls freedom, security and justice, and certain Asylum common safety concerns in public health Immigration matters. Some shared competences al- Judicial cooperation low parallel actions of the Union and the Police cooperation Member States, e.g. the areas of research, Transport technological development, development Common rules on competition, taxation and cooperation and humanitarian aid. approximation of laws Economic and monetary policy Supporting, coordinating or complementary Employment competences, in which the Union is able to Social policy 25

The European Social Fund raise objections if they believe that they con- Education, vocational training, youth and sport travene the principle of subsidiarity (referred Culture to as the “early warning mechanism”). In order Public health to enable this scrutiny the Commission com- Consumer protection municates its proposals simultaneously to Trans-European networks the Council, the Parliament and the national Industry parliaments. National parliaments have eight Economic, social and territorial cohesion weeks in which to submit reasoned opinions Research, technological development and why they deem the proposal to violate the prin- space exploration ciple of subsidiarity. Environment Energy Every parliament has two votes in the early Tourism warning mechanism. If the parliament of a Civil protection Member State consists of two chambers, each Administrative cooperation of them has one vote.

In addition to this are polices under the area of If the number of objections reaches a third of Common Foreign and Security Policy, which are the possible number of votes, the Commission subject to special rules (principle of unanimity, must review its proposal and reach a well- weaker role of Commission and Parliament, not founded decision on whether to retract the within the jurisdiction of the European Court of proposal, change it or stand by it. If the pro- Justice). posal concerns the area of freedom, security and justice, a quarter of the national parlia- The eur-lex search engine (www.bit.ly/search- mentary votes is sufficient to trigger a review. eu-law) is a good way to find EU guidelines, Objections of this strength are referred to as a regulations and decisions in the various policy “yellow card”. areas, via a subject area search. If, however, the number of objections reaches 4. 3. Subsidiarity, Proportionality, a simple majority of the votes of the national Early Warning System parliaments, any decision by the Commission to stand by the proposal must be put before In areas where the EU does not have exclusive the Council and the European Parliament. If responsibility, the principles of subsidiarity 55% of the members of the Council or a (sim- and proportionality apply. ple) majority of votes in Parliament decide that the proposal contravenes the principle of The principle of subsidiarity states that EU subsidiarity, the legislative process is taken no measures may only be undertaken if objectives further. Objections of this strength from the cannot be sufficiently achieved at national, re- national parliaments are referred to as an “or- gional or local level. ange card”.

The principle of proportionality requires that The interparliamentary exchange of informa- that any action by the Union should not go tion on www.ipex.eu is an excellent resource, beyond what is necessary to achieve the objec- showing the current status of proposals, in- tives of the Treaties. cluding any opinions and objections from the national parliaments, which have been com- At the beginning of the EU legislative process, municated to the Commission. the national parliaments have the opportunity to scrutinise Commission proposals and to 26

5. European Parliament ly/cig-mep), and at the time of writing is in the process of being ratified by the national par- 5. 1. Composition liaments of the Member States. The additional 18 MEPs will become full-right MEPs once the The Treaty of the European Union (Lisbon) ratification round has been finalised and there states that: is no timetable for this.

"The European Parliament shall be composed 5. 2. Tasks and Rights of representatives of the Union’s citizens. They shall not exceed seven hundred and fifty in The European Parliament has a large number of number, plus the President. Representation tasks and rights. The most important of these are: of citizens shall be degressively proportional, with a minimum threshold of six members per Together with the Council, the Parliament Member State. No Member State shall be al- passes EU legislation, usually using the located more than ninety-six seats." (Article “ordinary legislative procedure“ (formerly “co- 14 para.2 TEU) decision procedure“, see diagram page 42), according to which the Parliament can block a The actual allocation of seats among the legislative proposal of the Commission, or can Member States is decided by the Council and negotiate amendments to it with the Council. the Parliament. The principle of 'degressive In special legislative procedures the position proportionality' is a deviation from the principle of the Parliament is weaker (approval and of "one man one vote", and ensures that small consultation procedures, see decision-mak- Member States can elect representatives to the ing processes, page 40). European Parliament. Degressive proportional- Together with the Council, the Parliament ity is illustrated by the fact that a German MEP adopts the budget of the European Union represents around 800,000 citizens, whereas a (see page 44). Maltese MEP represents just 80,000. The Parliament may request that the Com- mission submit a proposal for a regulation Transition to the Lisbon Treaty or guideline on issues it considers a Un- At the time of the European elections in June ion act to be required for the purpose of 2009, the Lisbon Treaty was not yet in effect; implementing the Treaties (example: 736 representatives were elected in line with www.bit.ly/ep-initiative-eci). Nice Treaty, 99 of which in Germany. The European Parliament votes for the President of the Commission and, follow- Under the Lisbon Treaty, which came into ef- ing a number of public hearings, votes on fect on 1 December 2009, however, the total whether or not to approve the entire group seats in the Parliament is set at 751, with of Commissioners as a whole (debate on the a minimum number of 6 and a maximum appointment of the Barroso II Commission number of 96 members per state. In order www.bit.ly/ep-barroso-2). The Parliament that no elected member is forced to leave the can also hold a vote of no confidence on the Parliament when it increases to 751 members, entire Commission – not, however, on indi- the three surplus German representatives will vidual Commission members. remain and the Parliament will consist of 754 The Parliament can set up inquiry committees members until the next elections. The increase to examine EU institutions, public adminis- in the number of MEPs necessitated a Treaty trative bodies of Member States or persons amendment, which was agreed at the June responsible for the application of EU law (e.g. 2010 Conference of the Representatives of the "Equitable Life Assurance Society" commit- Governments of the Member States (www.bit. tee, report www.bit.ly/ep-inquiry-elas). 27

The Parliament audits the Commission and resolutions in Parliament on subjects within the Council via parliamentary questions (e.g. their remit (e.g. www.bit.ly/ep-report-sus- www.bit.ly/ep-oral-question-ex01). tainable-jobs). It is incumbent on the President of the Eu- In the area of foreign policy, although the ropean Council to inform the European Parliament has few rights to participate Parliament of the results achieved by the Eu- in decision-making, it is informed of the ropean Council. decisions of the European Council and influ- The committees of the Parliament can draw ences the Council via committee hearings, up own-initiative reports and contribute to reports, resolutions and recommendations.

5. 3. Distribution of Seats in the European Parliament

Citi- EPP SPE ALDE Greens/ ECR GUE/ EFD NA Total per zens EFA NGL Member State

(mil- A* B* C* lions)

Belgium 10.7 55 5 4 1 222 22 22 Bulgaria 7.6 64 5 217 18 18 Czech Republic 10.5 27 9 4 22 22 22 Denmark 5.5 14 3 2 1 2 13 13 13 Germany 82.1 42 23 12 14 8 99 96 99 Estonia 1.3 11 3 1 666 Ireland 4.5 43 4 1 12 12 12 Greece 11.3 88 1 3 2 22 22 22 Spain 45.6 23 21 2 2 1 1 50 54 54 France 64.1 29 14 6 14 5 1 3 72 74 74 Italy 60.1 35 22 6 9 72 73 73 Cyprus 0.8 22 2 666 Latvia 2.3 31 1 1 1 1 899 Lithuania 3.4 43 2 1 2 12 12 12 Luxembourg 0.5 31 1 1 666 Hungary 10.0 14 4 1 3 22 22 22 Malta 0.4 23 566 The Netherlands 16.5 53 6 3 1 2 1425 26 26 Austria 8.4 64 2 517 19 19 Poland 38.1 28 7 15 50 51 51 Portugal 10.6 10 7 5 22 22 22 Romania 21.5 14 12 5 2 33 33 33 Slovenia 2.0 32 2 788 Slovakia 5.4 65 1 1 13 13 13 Finland 5.3 42 4 2 1 13 13 13 Sweden 9.3 55 4 3 1 18 20 20 UK 61.6 13 12 5 25 1 11 5 72 73 73 Total 500 265 186 84 55 54 35 30 27 736 751 754

Source: www.europarl.europa.eu and Eurostat 2010 www.bit.ly/eu-population * A: 2009 elections – B: Lisbon Treaty allocation – C: Transitional allocation until 2014 28

Parliamentary Group Titles 5. 5. Formation of Political Groups in in the 7th Legislative Term the European Parliament

EPP European People’s Party A political group in the European Parliament (Christian Democrats) must consist of at least 25 members, who must be elected in at least a quarter of the S&D Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Member States (currently seven). Democrats in the European Parliament In the European Parliament, the Greens together ALDE Alliance of Liberals and Democrats with the European Free Alliance (representatives for Europe of regionalist parties) have built a group which consists of 55 members (gaining 12 at the 2009 GREENS/EFA The Greens/European Free European Parliament elections). The represent- Alliance atives of the group were elected in 15 different Member States (see distribution of seats above). ECR European Conservatives and Reformists 5. 6. Committees of GUE/NGL European United Left/Nordic the European Parliament Green Left AFET ...... Foreign Affairs EFD Europe of Freedom and Democracy DROI ...... Human Rights (subcommittee) NA Non-attached SEDE ...... Security and Defence (subcommittee) 5. 4. Proportion of Women in DEVE ...... Development the Parliamentary Groups in the INTA ...... International Trade European Parliament BUDG ...... Budgets CONT ...... Budgetary Control Wom- Men Total Propor- ECON ...... Economic and Monetary en tion of women Affairs Greens/EFA 30 25 55 54.55% EMPL ...... Employment and Social Affairs ALDE 38 46 84 45.24% ENVI...... Environment, Public Health S & D 74 110 184 40.22% and Food Safety EPP/CD 88 177 265 33.21% ITRE ...... Industry, Research and

GUE/NGL 10 25 35 28.57% Energy IMCO ...... Internal Market and NI 5 22 27 18.52% Consumer Protection EFD 5 27 32 15.36% TRAN ...... Transport and Tourism ECR 7 47 54 12.96% REGI ...... Regional Development AGRI ...... Agriculture and Rural Total 257 479 736 34.92% Development PECH ...... Fisheries The proportion of women increased by 4.6% at CULT ...... Culture and Education the 2009 European Parliament elections. JURI ...... Legal Affairs LIBE ...... Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs 29

AFCO ...... Constitutional Affairs (absolute majority); in other cases a two-thirds FEMM ...... Women’s Rights and Gender majority is needed, such as, for example, for a Equality vote of no confidence against the Commission. PETI ...... Committee on Petitions (www.bit.ly/ep-rules-of-procedure) SURE ...... Policy Challenges Committee CRIS...... Financial, Economic and 5. 8. Petitions to the Parliament Social Crisis Citizens of the Union have the right to re- 5. 7. Voting Procedures quest support from the European Parliament in the Parliament regarding matters within the remit of the European Union. Petitions may be submitted Parliamentary resolutions are usually passed in writing or online (www.bit.ly/ep-online- by a majority of votes cast (simple majority); petition). The Committee on Petitions looks the presence of a third of the members is re- into possible human rights violations, may quired for a quorum (the minimum number of take up concerns with national, regional and members which must be present in order for a local authorities and reports back to the ple- vote to take place). Some decisions – such as nary session. The objective is to resolve the amendments to the position of the Council in issue using existing non-judicial remedies, as the Second Reading – require a majority of all long as the petition is well-founded. members of the Parliament to vote in favour 30

6. Council of In accordance with the Lisbon Treaty, a double the European Union majority system will be applied starting from November 2014. An explanation of the two In the Council of the European Union (officially methods follows. the Council, and commonly referred to as the Council of Ministers), government representa- 6. 3. Weighted Votes of Member States tives from the Member States decide on actual EU policy in the various subject areas. The Under the weighted voting system, the votes composition changes according to the topic of Council members are weighted accord- (e.g. Council of Environment Ministers, Welfare ing to the population of the Member States. Ministers, Transport Ministers, Finance Minis- A Council decision, which requires a qualified ters, etc., www.bit.ly/council-configurations). majority, is adopted if: The Council of the European Union should not be confused with the European Council, where it gains the approval of the majority of heads of state and government meet. Member States; and, the total of the weighted votes of these The most important task of the Council is – to- Member States reaches 255 (out of a maxi- gether with the European Parliament – to adopt mum of 345). directives and regulations (EU legislation), in most areas using the "ordinary legislative pro- Conversely, 91 weighted votes, or half of the cedure". In some policy areas (such as social Member States, are required in order to block security and taxation), the Council only has to a decision (blocking minority, see page 32). consult the Parliament (consultation process). The Common Foreign and Security Policy is If a Member State demands to check whether set out by the Council, the Parliament has only those voting in favour represent 62% of the limited influence. EU population, and the result of this check is negative, the decision is not adopted. The Council sets the European Union budget in collaboration with the European Parliament. On the Council web server there is an excellent tool available which calculates the qualified 6. 1. Council Presidency majority: www.bit.ly/council-qualified-majority The presidency of the Council rotates between the Member States every six months. The Example: order of rotation is set out in a Council deci- Council vote (First Reading) on the amend- sion (www.bit.ly/council-presidencies), which ment of the Working Time Directive. also establishes 18-month cooperation pro- www.bit.ly/council-working-time-1 grammes for three Member States holding consecutive presidencies. The essential task In the following table, the number of weighted of the presidency is to find common ground for votes per Member State is shown on the left. the different positions of Member States in the The second column lists the Member States in Council and to work out compromises. each size category; the population is shown in brackets. The third column shows the number 6. 2. Qualified Majority in the Council of Member States in each size category; the last column lists the total number of weighted Most Council decisions require a so-called votes by size category. qualified majority. Until 2014, this has to be calculated using a system of weighted votes. 31

Table 4: Weighted votes in the Council

Number Member States (Population) Number of Total of votes Member States

29 Germany (81.8 million), France (64.7 million), 4 116 United Kingdom (62 million) and Italy (60.4 million) 27 Poland (38.2 million) and Spain (46.1 million) 2 54 14 Romania (21.5 million) 1 14 13 The Netherlands (16.6 million) 1 13

12 Belgium (10.8 million), Greece (11.3 million), Portugal 560 (10.6 million), Czech Republic (10.5 million) and Hungary (10.0 million)

10 Bulgaria (7.6 million), Austria (8.4 million) and Sweden 330 (9.3 million) 7 Denmark (5.5 million), Finland (5.4 million), Ireland 535 (4.5 million), Lithuania (3.3 million) and Slovakia (5.4 million)

4 Estonia (1.3 million), Latvia (2.2 million), Luxembourg 520 (0.5 million), Slovenia (2.1 million) and Cyprus (0.8 million)

3 Malta (0.4 million) 1 3 Total 27 345

6. 4. Double Majority Voting The six largest Member States represent 65% in the Council of the population; however, for a qualified majority to be reached, a further nine states must According to the Treaty of Lisbon, a qualified vote with them in order to achieve the required majority is reached if: approval of at least fifteen states.

at least 55% of the Member States vote in A double majority may be reached, for example, favour of a proposal; and, if the five largest and the ten smallest Member the Member States voting in favour repre- States approve a legislative proposal – one of sent a total of at least 65% of the population many possible combinations for a majority. of the European Union. Although qualified voting with double majority will be introduced only from 1 November 2014, In order that the proposal be blocked, how- in accordance with the Lisbon Treaty, beyond ever, the votes against must represent more this any member can demand that the weight- than 35% of the EU population and come from ed voting system be used instead of the double at least four Member States (see Blocking majority until 31 March 2017. Minority below). At www.bit.ly/council-double-majority (German There are currently 27 Member States, and website eu-info.de) there is a majority calculator, 55% of 27 is 14.85. Therefore, at least fifteen which can be used to see which combinations states must vote in favour, in order to fulfil the will achieve a double majority. first requirement. 32

6. 5. Blocking Minority Under the weighted voting system, the 10 smallest Member States have 51 votes, which Under the weighted voting system (applica- is a fifth of the necessary 255 votes required ble until 2014), in addition to the majority of for the vote to pass. These same 10 Member Member States (14 of 27) approving a proposal, States however only represent about 5% of the a total of 255 out of 345 votes must be cast in EU population, and under the double majority favour of a proposal. In this system, a blocking system this is only around one-thirteenth of minority of 91 votes can only mathematically the required 65% of EU population (necessary occur if it comes from 4 Member States (see for the vote to pass). Table 4 page 31). Under the double majority system, it is rela- In double majority voting, a blocking minority tively easy for the larger states to combine is achieved if at least 13 Member States vote to make more than the 35% required for a against a proposal, or if all the votes against blocking minority, as the population of the together represent more than 35% of the three largest states already total more than EU population and originate from at least 4 this amount. If the three largest states vote Member States. against, only one more Member State would be needed to trigger a blocking minority (as Should only 3 Member States represent- four Member States in total are required for ing more than 35% of the EU population vote this). Under the weighted votes model, the against a proposal, the threshold of a blocking three largest states together with the smallest minority will not be reached and the decision would still only amass 90 votes, which is not will be passed if all other Member States vote enough for a blocking minority. in favour of the proposal. This is an exception to the above stipulation that the votes in favour On the other hand, in terms of how the two must represent 65% of the EU population. systems treat the state criterion, the double majority system favours the smaller states. 6. 6. Weighted Votes vs. According to the weighted votes model, the 13 Double Majority largest states have more than the necessary voting power (257, two more than needed). An assessment of the two models is difficult The required majority of Member States is because of the many possible combinations. achieved in this system if they gain just one In terms of how the two systems treat popu- more Member State. In the case of a double lation, the double majority system is clearly majority, this would not in fact be sufficient, advantageous to the larger countries. since 55% of the Member States must vote in favour, which is 15 out of 27 members. 33

Table 5: Population, Proportional Population and Number of Votes

Number of Proportion of Inhabitants Votes (weighted EU population voting system) Belgium 10,827,519 2.16% 12 Bulgaria 7,576,751 1.51% 10 Czech Republic 10,512,397 2.10% 12 Denmark 5,547,088 1.11% 7 Germany 81,757,595 16.31% 29 Estonia 1,340,274 0.27% 4 Ireland 4,450,878 0.89% 7 Greece 11,306,183 2.26% 12 Spain 46,087,170 9.19% 27 France 64,709,480 12.91% 29 Italy 60,397,353 12.05% 29 Cyprus 801,851 0.16% 4 Latvia 2,248,961 0.45% 4 Lithuania 3,329,227 0.66% 7 Luxembourg 502,207 0.10% 4 Hungary 10,013,628 2.00% 12 Malta 416,333 0.08% 3 The Netherlands 16,576,800 3.31% 13 Austria 8,372,930 1.67% 10 Poland 38,163,895 7.61% 27 Portugal 10,636,888 2.12% 12 Romania 21,466,174 4.28% 14 Slovenia 2,054,119 0.41% 4 Slovakia 5,424,057 1.08% 7 Finland 5,350,475 1.07% 7 Sweden 9,347,899 1.86% 10 United Kingdom 62,041,708 12.38% 29 Total population 501,259,840 of the EU

Source: Eurostat Total population 2010 www.bit.ly/eu-population

6. 7. Unanimity in the Council/ majority in a given area or a case where the Bridging Clauses Treaty on the Functioning of European Union would usually require a unanimous vote. If a certain legal act requires unanimity in the Council, any Member State is able to impede Before adopting a decision of this kind, the it (veto). The capacity of the Council to act in European Council has to notify the national such cases is considerably weaker than in parliaments of its intention. Should one of the majority decisions. The cases where the trea- national parliaments raise an objection within ties have required unanimous decisions in the six months of being notified, the decision can- Council have been lessened over the course not be adopted. The European Council must of the EU’s history. Unanimity is, for example, obtain the consent of the European Parliament still required for the issuance of regulations (absolute majority), and it must adopt the deci- on taxation, freedom of movement of goods, sion unanimously. social policy, labour rights, linguistic rules for intellectual property, water resources, spa- Similarly, the European Council may resolve tial planning and decision-making under the to change from a special legislative procedure Common Foreign and Security Policy. to the ordinary legislative procedure, however, this is not possible in the areas of military or The Lisbon Treaty introduced so-called bridg- defence. ing clauses to switch from unanimity to majority voting in the Council or to switch from 6. 8. Legal Bases for Council Decisions a special legislative procedure to the ordinary legislative procedure. On the web server of the Commission there is a document which lists the legal bases of According to the general bridging clause, the legislation for the various EU policies, and European Council may adopt a decision allow- the Council majority required for measures in ing the Council of Ministers to act by qualified each policy area (www.bit.ly/legal-bases-en). 35

7. European Council defines general political goals and stimulates action on this subject. It is not active in leg- The European Council meets twice every six islative processes, as this is reserved for the months and is made up by the heads of State Ministerial Councils. and Government of the Member States, along with the President of the Commission and the The European Council (www.european-coun- High Representative of the Union for Foreign cil.europa.eu) should not be confused with the Affairs and Security Policy. Council of the European Union (see page 30) or the Council of Europe (www.coe.int). In the The European Council is chaired by the Council of Europe, states come together with President of the European Council, who is the aim of protecting human rights under the elected by the European Council by qualified European Convention on Human Rights. The majority for a term of two and a half years. Council of Europe also contains many mem- The European Council establishes the over- bers which are not Member States of the all direction for the development of the European Union. European Union, and formulates guidelines, 36

8. European Commission change this number (the Irish were, in connection with the second referendum on the Lisbon The Commission is tasked with safeguard- Treaty, promised that the number of commis- ing the interests of the European Union as sioners would not be reduced). a whole. Commission members are appointed by nomination from their home country, At the beginning of the appointment procedure, but they do not act as their countries repre- the European Council nominates a candidate for sentatives, rather – on the contrary – they are President of the Commission, and the European required to be completely independent whilst Parliament votes on whether or not to approve carrying out their duties. the appointment. Members of the Commission – including the High Representative of the The Commission is, on the one hand, a body Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy tasked with the execution of policy; however, it – are nominated by Member States in collabo- also plays an important role in the legislative ration with the President of the Commission. process. For example, legislative procedures Each candidate must participate in a hearing can only be initiated by the Commission (the before the relevant committee of the European Commission has sole right of initiative). The Parliament in which his/her professional Commission participates in the entire legisla- capacity and his/her independence will be tive process, and the statements it makes may carefully assessed. The Parliament votes on exert significant influence (see ordinary legis- whether or not to approve the Commission as lative procedure, page 40). a whole, and following this, the Council must approve the Commission by qualified majority. The Commission has the task of ensuring compliance with EU law throughout the Example: Member States (as the "guardian of the At the hearing of candidates for the ap- Treaties"). For this purpose, the Commission pointment to the Commission after the 2009 may sometimes take a Member State or other European elections (Barroso II), Rumiana Jel- institution to the European Court of Justice to eva, the Bulgarian candidate for commissioner resolve the dispute. for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, was accused of incon- In addition, the Commission is responsible for sistencies regarding her declaration of financial the implementation of the EU budget. interests. She was deemed, particularly from the perspective of the Greens and the Social It negotiates agreements between the EU and Democrats, to have not satisfactorily explained third parties, and represents the Union in in- these inconsistencies. In order to avoid ternational organisations. disruption to the appointment of the entire Com- mission, her candidacy was withdrawn (www. 8. 1. Appointment of the Commission bit.ly/jeleva-hearing) and Bulgaria put Krista- lina Georgieva forward in her place, who went Each Member State is entitled to nominate a on to have a very positive hearing before the commissioner. According to the Lisbon Treaty, Committee on Development. it is intended that, from November 2014, the number of members of the Commission 8. 2. The Special Role of the High will not exceed two thirds of the number of Representative of the Union for Member States and that the right to nominate Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Commissioners will be assigned to Member States on the basis of equal rotation. The The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Council can, however, unanimously decide to Affairs and Security Policy is at the same time 37

the Commissioner for External Relations and they no longer fulfil the conditions required for Vice-President of the Commission, and pre- the performance of their duties or in cases of sides the Council of Foreign Affairs. serious misconduct.

For this combination of offices – one, in the 8. 4. Implementation Commission, and the other, in the Council – of EU Law - Comitology the term “double hat“ is used. Regulations and directives often specify the 8. 3. Dismissal of the Commission, scope of the Commission’s implementing Removal of Commissioners powers. This scope can occasionally have important and far-reaching implications (for The European Parliament can recall the entire example, the attempt to repeal the bans on Commission through a motion of no confi- growing genetically modified maize in Austria dence. In order for the motion to carry, two and Hungary by the Commission www.bit.ly/ thirds of all votes cast must be in favour, and comitology-gmo-austria). The Council was in- a majority of all members of Parliament must volved in these decisions through committees have voted this way. (comitology), the Parliament, however, had a very limited ability to impact on the process. Individual commissioners may be relieved of As a result of the Lisbon Treaty, the process office by the European Court of Justice at the of executing implementing powers has been request of the Council or the Commission if changed (www.bit.ly/implementing-powers). 38

9. Court of Justice of the a question over how EU legislation should be European Union interpreted in a case pending before a court or tribunal of last resort under national law, The Court of Justice of the European Union it is obliged to refer the matter to the Court is the EU institution comprising the Court of Justice, and thus also obliged to initiate a of Justice, the General Court and the Civil preliminary ruling procedure. Service Tribunal. An important lever for the implementation of The task of the Court of Justice of the European European Union law in Member States is the Union is to ensure "compliance with the law" authority of the Commission to bring Member in the interpretation and implementation of States before the Court of Justice for viola- the Treaties, but also in directives, regulations tion of treaties (not fulfilling their obligation). and other EU legislation. The Court of Justice Before this takes place, an investigative proce- of the European Union has been a major im- dure is carried out in which the Member State petus for European integration through its can justify its actions and is given the opportu- rulings, especially through its interpretations nity to remedy its treaty violation, in order that of the founding treaties of the EU. no action be brought against it.

The Court of Justice and the General Court are The General Court (previously known as the both made up of one judge per Member State. “Court of First Instance”) hears disputes, and The judges are appointed by the governments appeals against its decisions on points of law of the Member States by mutual agreement, are made to the Court of Justice. The most for six years. Re-appointment is permitted. The important parts of its jurisdiction are direct Court of Justice is assisted by eight Advocates- actions brought by natural or legal persons General. against acts of the institutions of the EU and against regulatory acts, actions brought by The Court of Justice rules on references for Member States against the Commission and preliminary rulings (see below), on actions actions brought by Member States against the against Member States for not fulfilling their Council e.g. in the field of State aid. obligations (see below), on actions for annulment, on actions for failure to act, appeals and The Civil Service Tribunal deals with disputes reviews. between the European Union and its civil servants. The courts of the Member States may make a request for a preliminary ruling from the Court Website with a search engine of the judicature of Justice, asking how EU legislation should of the ECJ: www.curia.europa.eu be interpreted in a given situation. If there is 39

10. Economic and Social 12. The European Court Committee (EESC) of Auditors

The Economic and Social Committee is an The European Court of Auditors has one mem- advisory body which is consulted on specific ber per Member State (currently 27). The Court areas of European Union legislation. These ar- is responsible for reviewing the accounts de- eas are set out in the Treaty on the Functioning tailing all revenue and expenditure of the of the European Union. Community and assessing the legality, regular- ity and efficiency of budget management. The Committee is made up of various economic and social representatives (especially Website: www.eca.europa.eu employer and employee representatives). Its members are appointed by the Council on the basis of nominations from the Member States.

Website: www.eesc.europa.eu

11. The Committee of the Regions (CoR) The Committee of the Regions is an assembly of local and regional authority representatives and provides sub-national authorities with a voice in the EU. The Committee must be consulted during the legislative process on issues that affect the regions. These issues are set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The members of the Committee are appointed by the Council on the basis of nominations from the Member States.

Website: www.cor.europa.eu 40

13. The Decision-making Preliminary Procedure An important stage of the legislative proc- Process in the Legislative ess takes place before the Commission even Procedure presents a proposal: during its preparation. The stimulus for the proposal may come from For each policy area - and often for specific the Commission itself, from conclusions drawn tasks within policy areas - the treaties estab- at meetings of the European Council, from lish the different ways in which the Council can European Parliament resolutions, from lobby- reach a decision (unanimously or by qualified ists – or, in the future - it may also come from majority) and the way in which the European European Citizens' Initiatives. At this stage, the Parliament participates in the legislative pro- Commission regularly carries out public consul- cedure. Under the Treaty of Lisbon, previously tations (www.bit.ly/ec-consultations). Important existing procedures have been affirmed, ex- legislative projects are also prepared by Green tended and reformed. Papers (basic information, alternative actions and ideas, the framework for discussion) and A list of the legal basis for legislation in the White Papers (concrete proposals and the basis various policy areas can be found on the web for their further development). server of the Commission: www.bit.ly/legal- bases-en Commission’s Proposal At the beginning there is – as with any EU legisla- 13. 1. Ordinary Legislative Procedure tive process – a proposal from the Commission, (Co-decision Procedure) which is forwarded to the European Parliament, the Council and the national parliaments. National The most fundamental aspects of the ordi- parliaments may raise an objection to the propos- nary legislative procedure are given below. A al within 8 weeks of notification, if they consider very detailed step-by-step guide to the ordi- there to be an infringement of subsidiarity (see nary legislative procedure is available on the description of “Subsidiarity, Proportionality, Early Commission's website, with information includ- warning mechanism” page 25). ing the average duration of individual steps, the concrete practice of compromise and the points In certain cases, the Economic and Social of order, etc. www.bit.ly/cod-step-by-step Committee and/or the Committee of the Regions will also be consulted, and their state- In most cases, EU legislation is made using ments will be brought to the attention of the the so-called co-decision procedure, which, Parliament and the Council. since the Lisbon treaty, has been called the “ordinary legislative procedure”. In this proc- First Reading ess, the European Parliament can propose The Parliament carries out the first reading modifications to a legislative proposal of the of the proposal during which it determines Commission over the course of several read- its position, which may suggest a number of ings. It is not possible to pass legislation amendments to the proposal. The first reading without the consent of Parliament using the is concluded by a vote on the proposal (sim- co-decision procedure. ple majority). The position of the Parliament, including any amendments, will be forwarded The co-decision procedure has been estab- to the Council. The legislation is adopted if the lished as the standard legislative procedure for Council approves this position as it stands in its EU directives and regulations (hereinafter re- first reading. If not, it adopts its own position ferred to as legal acts) (see diagram 2 page 42). and communicates it to the Parliament with explanations. 41

Second Reading process fail, the act has failed. If it succeeds, At this stage, the act is adopted if Parliament the joint text is sent to the Council and the approves the Council's position or fails to Parliament for approval. reach a decision within three months. The Parliament may, however, reject the Council's Third Reading position or request amendments to it. Both The Council and the Parliament must both ap- resolutions require a high level of approval, prove the joint text for the act at this point if it namely the majority of all members of the is to succeed. A qualified majority is required Parliament (absolute majority). in the Council and a majority of votes cast (simple majority) is required in the Parliament. If the decision is made to reject the position of the Council, the process comes to an end and the Extension of Time Periods act is not adopted; requests for amendments, The three month long time periods mentioned however, are referred back to the Council. above may each be extended by one month, while the 6 week period may be extended by Should all of Parliament’s amendments be two weeks. approved, the act is adopted. At each point when Parliament requests amendments from Example: the Council the Commission gives its posi- A vivid example of a stormy political debate tion. Any amendments which are rejected by during a legislative process was the attempt to the Commission can only be approved by the amend the Working Time Directive (www.bit. Council through a unanimous decision. If the ly/cod-working-time). In 2008, the Council at- Council rejects the requested amendments, or tempted to amend the Working Time Directive has not approved all the amendments within to allow a maximum working week of up to three months, a conciliation committee must 65 hours, and to remove the requirement for be convened within six weeks from this date. inactive on-call working time to mandatorily count as working time. This was against the Conciliation Committee position of the Parliament, who insisted on a The Conciliation Committee is made up of maximum working week of 48 hours, includ- all members of the Council and an equal ing on-call time. In the conciliation committee number of members of the Parliament. The between the Council and the Parliament no Commission is also represented and is con- agreement was reached. The amendment of sulted throughout the process. The task of the the Working Time Directive failed, and any Conciliation Committee is to develop, within future amendment will have to be initiated by six weeks, a joint text for the act. Should this a completely new Commission proposal. 42

Diagram 2: Ordinary Legislative Procedure 43

13. 2. Special Legislative Procedures on most issues without the participation of the (Consent and Consultation Procedures) European Parliament. The European Parliament participates in this policy area only in a restricted Special legislative procedures are charac- number of issues (including the organisation terised by the fact that the Council adopts a and functioning of the European External Action legislative act, but the European Parliament Service, procedures for the urgent financing of does not participate on an equal footing. initiatives in the context of the CFSP, association agreements, agreements with specific financial 13. 2. 1. Consent procedure implications, etc.). In the consent procedure, the Council adopts legislation based on the Commission’s propos- The High Representative of the Union for Foreign al after having received Parliament’s approval Affairs and Security Policy has the duty to inform (by absolute majority in the EP). The Council's Parliament about the development of Union poli- decision is normally made by unanimous vote. cies in this area and has to listen to the views Where provided for in the treaties, the opinion of Parliament on a regular basis. Websites: of the Economic and Social Committee and the www.bit.ly/council-gasp Committee of the Regions will be sought. www.bit.ly/ec-gasp

Example: 13. 4. The Open Method Council Decision on the multi-annual financial of Coordination (OMC) framework (www.bit.ly/multiannual-ffw) The open method of coordination is designated as 13. 2. 2. Consultation Procedure "soft law". It does not set any binding rules; rather In the consultation procedure, the Council adopts it serves to coordinate national policies by com- legal acts on the Commission’s proposal after paring the achievements of Member States. Best consulting the European Parliament. In some practices are highlighted and practices deemed policy areas, the Economic and Social Committee conflicting to the achievement of common goals (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR) are criticised. The method can be effective as are also consulted. The Council is not bound by competition between Member States is encour- the positions of the EESC, CoR or the European aged and their ambition to be better than others Parliament. The Council must come to its deci- (or at least to not be among the worse) is fostered. sion unanimously. For cross-border family law regulations and certain areas of social policy, the The OMC was first established in the treaties Council may, following approval of the Parliament, for the area of employment policy, and was lat- unanimously decide to transfer these policy areas er extended to other areas, particularly social to the ordinary legislative procedure. policy. The criteria for comparing the policies of Member States should, in general, be set Example: by guidelines (for example: the guidelines for Council Decision on guidelines for the employ- the employment policies of the Member States ment policies of the Member States (www.bit. www.bit.ly/employment-policies-2010). ly/employment-policies-2010) The Greens have repeatedly pointed out that the 13. 3. Procedures without the involve- European Union requires regulatory powers in ment of the European Parliament (EP) key policy areas such as social and economic policy and that the open method of coordination In the area of Common Foreign and Security is not suitable to address major challenges in Policy (CFSP), the Council decides unanimously these areas. 44

14. The European Union in this sector, Margaret Thatcher demanded a Budget reduction in the UK's payment of contributions to the EU in 1984 ("I want my money back!" 14. 1. EU Revenue Margaret Thatcher at the 1984 EU Summit in Fontainebleau). Negotiations to end the British The most important sources of EU revenue are: rebate in conjunction with EU budgetary reform have taken place several times in recent Customs duties and sugar levies. Revenue years, so far without success. 2011: € 18.2 billion Value added tax (VAT) based resources lev- 14. 4. EU Expenditure ied on the VAT bases of the Member States. In most Member States the same percent- In 2011, the budget of the Union foresees age (0.3%) is levied on the harmonised base, € 126.5 billion in payments and a total of € 141.9 for the period 2007-2013 this rate is reduced billion including commitments. (Commitments for Austria (0.225%), Germany (0.15%), refer to the right to sign contracts and to call The Netherlands (0.1%) and Sweden (0.1%). for tenders. The difference between payments Revenue 2011: € 13.8 billion and commitments shows that the commission Gross national income (GNI) based resourc- is entitled to commit to more than it will actu- es. Revenue 2011: € 95 billion ally pay in 2011.)

The EU must not accumulate debt. Making Table 6: EU Expenditure 2011 loans in order to generate revenue is out of the question. Therefore, to date, there has been no Sustainable growth (including € 53.3 euro bond. competitiveness and cohesion) billion Preservation and management € 56.4 Detailed information can be found at www.bit. of natural resources (including billion ... ly/current-eu-budget (This webpage always direct aids & market related refers to the EU budget of the current year). ...expenditures and rural develop- ...ment, environment & fisheries) 14. 2. Multiannual Financial Citizenship, freedom, security € 1.5 Framework and justice billion

The multiannual financial framework is a reg- EU as global player € 7.2 ulation on the main budgetary priorities for the billion next few years which is adopted by the Council Total administration costs € 8.2 after obtaining the consent of the Parliament. (€ 3.3 billion of which is for the billion The current financial framework corresponds Commission) to the years 2007-2013 and encompasses a total of € 864 billion for that period. 14. 5. Budgetary Procedure

14. 3. British Rebate The Commission produces a draft of the EU budget for the following year on or before The British agriculture sector is, in compari- 1 September. The Council decides on its posi- son to the agriculture sectors of other EU tion by 1 October. If the Parliament approves Member States – especially in comparison to the Council’s position, or does not come to a the French sector – small. With this argument decision within 42 days, the budget plan is ap- and considering the significant EU expenditure proved. If the EP requests amendments to the 45

budget in this period, a conciliation committee would contribute a great deal to the financing of is convened. If the Council however accepts the Union whilst reducing the need for contri- the EP amendments within 10 days, the budg- butions of the Member States. The financing of et is approved and the Committee will not be the Union could thus become more transparent convened. If the Council does not accept the and more ecological, while at the same time, EP amendments, and the conciliation com- this tax could contribute to the regulation of the mittee is able to produce a compromise text financial markets. within 21 days, this text must be approved by the EP and the Council within another 14 days. In the debate prior to the adoption of the budget The budget is approved if at least one of the 2011, Helga Trüpel, Member of the Greens/ two institutions adopts the entire compromise EFA group and the group’s coordinator for the text and the other institution does not come to budget committee, called for an ambitious a decision within 14 days. If one of the two bod- budget, arguing that in times of financial cri- ies rejects the entire compromise text and the ses, a strong Union is urgently needed and the other institution does not come to a decision, new EU competences in the fields of climate the Commission must propose a new draft. protection, foreign policy and energy have to The same applies if the Council approves be financed. the compromise text, but it is rejected by the Parliament. The Greens call for a “Green New Deal“, which would lead to a reallocation of spending in the On the other hand, if the Parliament approves budget: cuts in the funding of non-sustain- the compromise text and it is rejected by the able policies, an end to funding for ITER (the Council, the Parliament may decide to keep International Thermonuclear Experimental all or some of the original amendments it pro- Reactor) and cuts in the subsidisation of agri- posed in the first reading. The budget is then cultural exports, airports and highways. considered to be approved in the form of the compromise text, including these amendments. On the other hand an alternative budget as demanded by the Greens would invest heavily 14. 5. Green Positions concerning in sustainable policies such as, for example, the EU budget a sustainable fisheries policy, innovative transport policy and a modernisation of build- Greens maintain that the introduction of an en- ing insulation. Helga Trüpel also called for vironmental and financial transaction tax could better funding of research and development serve as an own resource of the Union and and a clear focus on renewable energies. 46

15. Economic and national budget deficit must be no more Monetary Union than 3% of gross domestic product (GDP); total national debt must not exceed 60% of 15. 1. Stages of Monetary Union GDP; exchange rates: observance of the nor- The goal of a common economic and mon- mal fluctuation margins provided for by the etary union was achieved in three stages. The exchange-rate mechanism of the European first stage was the unrestricted movement of Monetary System, for at least two years, capital between the Member States and in- without devaluing against the euro; creased cooperation among the central banks. long-term interest rates: the nominal long- In the second stage, cooperation between cen- term interest rate (e.g. government bonds) tral banks and the coordination of monetary must be no more than 2% higher than the policy was further strengthened. In the third average of the interest rates of the three stage, the exchange rates of the participating best performing Member States. Member States (see 15.2. below) were perma- nently fixed. 15. 3. Euro

The European Central Bank (see below) and The euro was introduced on 1 January 2002 the national central banks of all Member in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, States (including non-euro Member States) Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, cooperate within the European System of Austria, Portugal and Finland. Since then, Central Banks on matters pertaining to mon- Slovenia (2007) Cyprus and Malta (2008), etary policy within the EU. Slovakia (2009) and Estonia (2011) have adopted the euro. The euro is, after the dollar, the As the sovereign debt crises in several euro- world's second most important currency. The zone countries have demonstrated, more total value of the currency in circulation even effective European economic governance is exceeds the corresponding dollar value. required to keep the euro stable. However, the Union is lacking certain necessary in- 15. 4. Stability and Growth Pact struments for that purpose at present. The requirement of unanimity in the Council for In order to monitor the budget deficits and na- adopting measures in this area prevents de- tional debt of the Member States within the cisions that could stabilise the eurozone. The eurozone, the Stability and Growth Pact was open method of coordination which is used in agreed on, on the initiative of Germany. The main this area is not sufficient to meet the challeng- features of the Stability and Growth Pact were es single currency is facing. incorporated into the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Article 126 TFEU). 15. 2. Euro Convergence Criteria On this basis, the budgetary policies of the As a prerequisite for adopting the single cur- Member States are under constant review by rency, criteria were set in the Maastricht Treaty the Commission, and the Commission is able that must be met before a Member State can to impose substantial fines on Member States adopt the euro. The criteria (also known as the which violate the criteria. Maastricht criteria) are as follows: Verification of compliance with the criteria in price stability: the inflation rate must not each Member State focuses on the financial exceed the average of the three best per- position of the government (all public sector forming Member States by more than 1.5%; budgets). This obligation on Member States 47

requires that, within each state, all public sec- The decision-making bodies of the European tor budgets are coordinated so that the state Central Bank (ECB) are in charge of the Eu- as a whole meets the deficit and debt criteria. ropean System of Central Banks. The ECB’s This coordination is generally regulated by two main decision-making bodies are the specific legislation or by agreements between Executive Board, made up by a President, the different political levels (regions, munici- Vice-President and four other members of palities) in the Member States. recognised standing and experience, and the Governing Council, which comprises the 15.5. European System of Central members of the Executive Board and the Banks and the European Central Bank governors of the national central banks of eurozone states. The members of the Executive In the European System of Central Banks Board are appointed by the European Council (ESCB), the national central banks of all by qualified majority on the recommendation 27 Member States work together with the of the Council of Ministers after consultation European Central Bank: with the European Parliament and the ECB Governing Council. The members serve for a to ensure price stability in the European term of 8 years. Union; and, to support the general economic policy objec- Website: www.ecb.int tives of the Union (in particular a high level of employment and balanced economic growth) to the greatest extent possible without caus- ing an adverse effect on price stability. 48

16. EU Agencies European Environment Agency The European Environment Agency provides The EU has established a number of agencies independent information on the environment to fulfil certain tasks. With the exception of the to aid decision-making on environmental executive agencies and the European Defence policy in the Union and Member States, and Agency, their head offices are distributed supports them in integrating of environmental amongst Member States and are decentralised. considerations into economic policy. Its main offices are in Copenhagen, Denmark. These agencies can be grouped as follows: www.eea.europa.eu

Community agencies established by a It furthermore coordinates the European Envi- regulation from the Council or from the ronment Information and Observation network. European Parliament and the Council to- www.eionet.europa.eu gether Agencies for community security and de- Example: fence policy established by the Council The European environment – state and out- using joint actions look 2010(SOER 2010) with comprehensive Agencies for police and judicial cooperation individual assessments (e.g. on the state of established by a Council decision or under the environment in different Member States) the Europol Convention between Member www.eea.europa.eu/soer States (Europol) Executive agencies established for a fixed European Food Safety Authority period of time by the Commission The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as- sesses risks regarding food and animal feed 16. 1. Examples of Community agencies safety in the European Union. Its head offices are in Parma, Italy. European Union Agency for www.efsa.europa.eu Fundamental Rights (FRA) This agency collects and analyses data on fun- Examples: damental rights in Member States, develops - Scientific opinion on Transmissible Spongiform methods and standards for comparing data Encephalopathy (TSE)[1] infectivity in the tissues on fundamental rights, conducts research and of small ruminants such as goats and sheep publishes reports on its own initiative or on www.bit.ly/efsa-bse the initiative of the European Parliament, the - Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Genetically Council or the Commission. Its head offices Modified Organisms on a request from the are in Vienna, Austria. Commission related to the Austrian invoke of www.fra.europa.eu Article 23 of Directive 2001/18/EC ... (unsuc- cessfully) backing the Commissions attempt The agency is not authorised to analyse indi- to repeal the Austrian ban on genetically mod- vidual complaints or issue legal opinions. ified maize MON810. www.bit.ly/efsa-gmo Example: Understanding and preventing discriminatory Greens are very sceptical about the work ethnic profiling: A guide of EFSA. In October 2010, it became pub- www.bit.ly/prevent-ethnic-profiling lic that the chair of EFSA, Diana Banati, had failed to disclose her seat on the board of the International Life Science Institute (ILSI), 49

which advises biotech corporations like patriation and deportation activities. The head Monsanto, Bayer and BASF. Banati quit her offices of the agency are in Warsaw, Poland. job at ILSI but the impartiality of the European www.frontex.europa.eu Food Safety Authority remains questionable. Activities of Frontex are often questionable European Agency for Operative Cooperation from a human rights perspective. The Greens at the External Borders in the EP argue that the EU should pay greater The European Agency for the Management of attention to freedom and human rights in its Operative Cooperation at the External Borders interior and border policy, and that this should of the European Union (FRONTEX) coordinates be stated more clearly in Frontex’s mandate. operational cooperation between Member States and supports them in securing the ex- Example: ternal borders of the EU. Its tasks include risk RABIT 2010: Deployment of Rapid Border analysis, coordination, assistance in the train- Intervention Teams on the Greek-Turkish border ing of border guards, technical support, the www.bit.ly/frontex-rabit2010 provision of rapid border intervention teams in unforeseen crisis situations, and support in re- 16.2. Lists of EU agencies

Table 7: Community agencies

Year of Ofﬁcial name Abbreviation Location foundation Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators ACER Ljubljana 2009 European GNSS Supervisory Authority GSA Brussels 2004 European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights FRA Vienna 2007 European Marine Safety Agency EMSA Lisbon 2002 European Railway Agency – promoting safe and ERA Valenciennes 2004 compatible railway systems European Agency for Operative Cooperation FRONTEX Warsaw 2005 at the external borders European Aviation Safety Agency EASA Cologne 2003 European Network and Information ENISA Heraklion 2005 Security Agency European Agency for Safety and Health at Work EU-OSHA Bilbao 1996 European Medicines Agency EMEA London 1995 European Food Safety Authority EFSA Parma 2002 European Monitoring Centre for Drugs EMCDDA Lisbon 1993 and Drug Addiction European Chemicals Agency ECHA Helsinki 2007 Community Fisheries Control Agency CFCA Vigo 2005 European Institute for Gender Equality EIGE Vilnius 2006 European Training Foundation ETF Turin 1994 50

Year of Official name Abbreviation Location foundation European Foundation for the Improvement EUROFOUND Dublin 1975 of Living and Working Conditions European Centre for the Development Cedefop Thessaloniki 1975 of Vocational Training European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control ECDC Stockholm 2005 European Environment Agency EEA Copenhagen 1994 Community Plant Variety Office CPVO Anger 1995 Office for Harmonization in the Internal OHIM Alicante 1999 Market – trademarks and design Translation Centre for the Bodies of the CdT Luxembourg 1994 European Union

Note: The websites of the agencies can generally be found by replacing the letters LLL with the agency’s abbreviation in the following sample URL. www.LLL.europa.eu

Table 8: Agencies for the Community security and defence policy

Year of Ofﬁcial name Abbreviation Location foundation European Defence Agency EDA Brussels 2004 European Institute for Security Studies ISS Paris 2001 European Union Satellite Centre EUSC Torrejon de Ardoz 2002

Table 9: Agencies for political and judicial cooperation in criminal cases

Year of Ofﬁcial name Abbreviation Location foundation European Union’s Judicial Cooperation Unit EUROJUST The Hague 2002 European Police College CEPOL Hampshire 2005 European Police Ofﬁce EUROPOL The Hague 2002

Table 10: Executive agencies

Years Ofﬁcial name Abbreviation Location active Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency EACEA Brussels 2006-2015 ERC Executive European Research Council Executive Agency Brussels 2007-2017 Agency Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency TEN-T EA Brussels 2006-2015 Research Executive Agency REA Brussels 2009-2017 Executive Agency for Health and Consumers EAHC Brussels 2005-2015 Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation EACI Brussels 2004-2015 51

17. Political Parties European level: the European Green Party and Foundations at the www.europeangreens.eu (see below) and the European Free Alliance Party www.e-f-a.org. European Level The latter is an affiliation of regional parties 17. 1. Political Parties advocating democracy, human rights, region- at the European Level alism and decentralisation.

Article 10 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) 17. 2. Political Foundations says: at the European Level “Political parties at the European level contribute to forming European political awareness Political foundations at the European level are and to expressing the will of citizens of the affiliated with a political party at the European Union.” level and complement its objectives by performing, in particular, the following tasks: A regulation of the European Parliament and the Council establishes how political parties contributing to the debate on European are defined at the European level and how they issues and on the process of European in- are financed. www.bit.ly/regulation-eu-parties tegration; organising and supporting seminars, train- A political party at the European level must ing, conferences and studies; and, meet one or both of the following conditions: serving as a framework for national political foundations, academics, and other relevant it must either be represented by members actors to work together at European level. of the European Parliament or members of national parliaments, regional parliaments Parties and foundations at the European level or regional assemblies in at least one quar- receive financial contributions out of the ter of the Member States; or, budget of the European Parliament. In 2010, have received at least three per cent of the ten political parties and nine political founda- votes cast in at least one quarter of the tions at the European level received grants Member States at the most recent European from the European Parliament. Parliament elections. www.bit.ly/grants-european-parties www.bit.ly/grants-european-foundations In addition to the above, it must also: Parties and foundations at the European level respect, in its programme and activities, the are obliged to publish their income and ex- principles of freedom, democracy, human penses, as well as their assets and liabilities rights and fundamental freedoms, as well on an annual basis, and publish a list of their as the rule of law; and, donors and the amount they donated for all have participated in elections to the European donations above € 500. They must not accept Parliament or have expressed an intention to anonymous donations, donations from the do so. budgets of political groups in the European Parliament, donations from any company over The Greens/European Free Alliance politi- which public authorities exercise a dominant cal group in the European Parliament www. influence, donations of more than € 12,000 per greens-efa.eu is an affiliation of members of year per donor, or donations from a public au- parliament from two political parties at the thority from a non-EU country. 52

17. 3. European Green Party (EGP) Member parties of the European Green Party Albania: Partia e Gjelber, Andorra: Verds In the European Green Party (EGP), 37 green d’Andorra, Austria: Die Grünen, Belgium: member parties and 10 green observer par- Ecolo, Groen!, Bulgaria: Bulgarian Green Party/ ties from European countries (not only from Bulgarian Greens, Cyprus: Cyprus Green EU Member States) are united in one transna- Party, Czech Republic: Strana Zelenych, Es- tional party. tonia: Eestimaa Rohelised, Finland: Vihreät, France: Les Verts, Georgia: Sakartvelo's In their charter, the European Greens refer to mtsvaneta partia, Germany: Bündnis90/Die their roots in environmental and anti-nuclear Grünen, Greece: Ecologoi-Prasinoi, Hungary: movements, peace movements, feminist move- Zöld Demokraták Szövetsége, Ireland: ments, human rights movements, movements Comhaontas Glas, Italy: Federazione dei Verdi, for Third World solidarity and movements Latvia: Latvijas Zala Partija, Luxembourg: déi against poverty and for social justice within our gréng, Malta: Alternattiva Demokratika, Moldo- own societies. va: Partidul Ecologist din Moldova "Aliante Verde" (PEM AVE), Netherlands: De Groenen, The charter also says: GroenLinks, Norway: Miljøpartiet De Grønne, Poland: Zieloni 2004, Portugal: Partido Ecolo- From these origins, European Greens have gista "Os Verdes", Romania: The Green Party, come together to form our own political fam- Russia: Zelenaya Alternativa (GROZA), Slova- ily. We stand for a free, democratic and social kia: Strana Zelenych (SZ), Slovenia: Stranka Europe in a peaceful, equitable and environ- mladih Slovenije (SMS), Spain: Los Verdes, mentally sustainable world. We defend values Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV), Sweden: like justice, human and citizens’ rights, solidar- Miljöpartiet de Gröna, Switzerland: Grüne/Les ity, sustainability and the right of each individual Verts, Ukraine: Partija Zelenykh Ukrainy (PZU), to lead their own lives, free from fear. United Kingdom: The Green Party of England & Wales, Scottish Green Party. The bodies of the European Greens are: 17. 4. Green European Foundation The Congress, with 400 representatives of (GEF) the member parties, which decides on the common policy of the European Green Party. The Green European Foundation is one of The representatives are allocated to the nine newly created European-level politi- member parties proportionately according cal foundations. European-level political to their share of the vote at the most re- foundations were established with the aim cent European or national elections. Green of facilitating the engagement of citizens in members of the European Parliament are European debates and enabling informed also members of the Congress. political participation in the European Union. The Council, which is comprised of repre- GEF strives to mainstream discussions on sentatives of the member parties and Green European policies and politics both within and members of the European Parliament. It is outside the Green political family. responsible for the policy of the European Green Party between party congresses. GEF’s goals are: The Committee, comprising nine people, to contribute to the development of a lively two of which act as spokespersons for the European sphere of public debate by engag- European Green Party. ing citizens in political dialogue; to contribute to the ‘Europeanisation’ of Green Website: www.europeangreens.eu political debate; 53

to provide a platform for networking between with the results disseminated either through Green actors at the European level; and, its own publications or the translation and to develop and disseminate expertise on publication of existing studies or surveys. key European issues within and beyond the Green political family. Education and training: GEF promotes Green capacity-building across Europe. Training GEF is a not-for-profit organisation which has and political education – provided through two main decision-making bodies: the Board of transnational workshops, panel debates and Directors and the General Assembly. Members conferences – help to raise citizens’ awareness of the General Assembly represent GEF’s three of Green political solutions to the challenges main stakeholders: national Green founda- Europe faces. It furthermore enhances the abil- tions from around Europe (currently 12 national ity of Green actors to work on European issues. foundations are represented in the General Assembly), the European Green Party and the Networking Green Europe: GEF acts as Green Group in the European Parliament. a framework for cooperation between Green actors on the European level. Contributions from a GEF focuses on three mutually interlinked diverse range of European partners are vital to axes of work. create and encourage European debate, and this helps to ensure the sustainability of GEF's work. Study and debate: GEF carries out and invests in research on a variety of European topics, Website: www.gef.eu 54

18. Europe and 18.2. Green successes the Greens Examples of green successes in the European Parliament include: 18. 1. Why is the EU important for the Greens? Renewable Energy Directive The energy requirements of the European The history of the European Union shows how Union are planned to be met by at least 20% war as a means of deciding conflicts can be renewable energy by 2020, a great success for overcome. This history of success brings re- the Parliament – and above all for the green sponsibility in its wake: Europe can and must rapporteur Claude Turmes on this directive. make its own contribution to world peace. www.bit.ly/gs-renewable-energy

Our world is interlinked: transport and com- Active inclusion of people excluded munication networks led to a degree of from the labour market globalisation of the economy which was With the report by the green rapporteur Jean unthinkable only a few decades ago. This de- Lambert on the active inclusion of people ex- velopment was fostered and exploited mainly cluded from the labour market, the European by multinational corporations. Parliament committed itself to the right to a minimum income to enable people to live in dignity. What we need is a political framework on the www.bit.ly/gs-active-inclusion transnational level to defend the common good. Politics needs to face up to major corpo- Peace Building Partnership rations and determine the conditions for their In negotiations between the Parliament, activities. Council and Commission, the Greens were able to introduce the Peace Building Partnership as The European Union provides a platform for a new EU instrument for foreign policy. action to execute this task. The European www.bit.ly/gs-peace-building Commission, Council and Parliament consti- tute an institutional framework within which European Financial Markets Supervisory political responses to the challenges of our Authority can prohibit dangerous time can be democratically developed and im- financial products plemented under the rule of law. In the discussion about the reform of the European System of Financial Supervisors the The question of how the EU should use its Greens argued for tighter regulation than that powers is the subject of political discussions which was proposed by the Commission, and within and between the EU institutions. The many of their positions were eventually adopted Greens have recognised the need for European by the European Parliament. The ability of the solutions, and thus, cooperate closely and ef- Supervisory Authority (Securities and Markets) to fectively at the European level themselves, prohibit the trade of risky financial products on more so than any other political party. As the single market was based on a green initiative. a result of their unity and consistency, the www.bit.ly/gs-esma Greens manage again and again to signifi- cantly influence the decisions of the European Prevention of the Via Baltica with the support Parliament. The Greens/EFA group is the of the Committee on Petitions fourth largest group in the Parliament, yet In collaboration with Polish NGOs and thanks their political weight is even greater than this. to their petition against the Via Baltica, it was 55

possible to prevent the construction of a mo- Recognition of on-call time in the torway through the Rospuda valley in Poland. Working Time Directive www.bit.ly/gs-rospuda-valley As part of the attempt to amend the Working Time Directive, the Greens decided to take a Exterior policy resolutions of the EP position against the Council, which did not Upon an initiative of the Greens, the European want to recognise on-call time as working Parliament passed resolutions on, e.g. time. The Parliament supported this attitude Guantanamo, the status of the untoucha- and rejected the position of the Council; how- bles (dalits) in India, the status of refugees in ever, the amendment of the directive failed Lampedusa and the anti-ballistic missile sys- due to the Council’s refusal to compromise. tem of the USA. Example: www.bit.ly/gs-working-time www.bit.ly/gs-guantanamo-resolution Novel Food – labelling obligations Protection of human rights The Greens enforced labelling obligations for Following a green initiative, the European food stuff produced from animals bred with Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights genetically modified feed in the first reading was introduced to protect and safeguard peo- of the Novel Foods regulation. (At time of the ple lobbying for the defence of human rights. publication conciliation was ongoing). www.bit.ly/gs-eidhr www.bit.ly/gs-novel-food

Creation of the Global Fund for Accession to the Alpine Convention Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy As a result of a massive lobbying effort by the The Greens initiated the creation of the Global Greens, and especially Eva Lichtenberger, the Fund for Energy Efficiency and Renewable EU signed the transport protocol of the Alpine Energy, which, between 2007 and 2010, had Convention, focusing in particular on reduc- € 80 million available for the development and ing emissions from intra-alpine transport, and promotion of projects in third countries. a reduction of the threat to the ecological and www.bit.ly/gs-geeref cultural heritage of the Alps by means of a coordinated transport policy. AGORA – Improvement of the Dialogue www.bit.ly/gs-alpine-convention with Civil Societies The Greens lobbied for an improvement in the dialogue between the European Parliament and civil society, and pushed for Parliament to hold the AGORA conferences. www.bit.ly/gs-agora 56

19. Green Visions To consolidate this role, the Parliament needs for Europe to have an independent right of legislative initiative (which is currently a monopoly of the The most important components of the Green Commission). Vision for Europe are: To promote the European dimension in European A Europe of the Citizens Parliament elections, the Greens are campaign- The European Union is a political platform ing for the establishment of pan-European lists, open to outside influences. Interest groups where a certain number of members (for exam- and lobbies have known this for a long time ple 10%) of the European Parliament are elected and act accordingly. The Greens want to sup- using pan-European lists (complementing port the citizens of the EU Member States in members elected at the national level). their endeavour to turn the Union into a union of the citizens, who are able to fully participate The Greens seek a major overhaul of the lob- and face up to powerful business lobbies. This bying register for the European Commission, requires time, information and serious oppor- with mandatory registration and detailed dis- tunities for citizens to help shape Europe. The closure requirements for funding, as well as Greens called for a pan-European referendum comprehensive reporting requirements. to endorse the constitutional treaty and the Lisbon Treaty. Unfortunately, this proposal The Greens advocate the principle of public was rejected. access to the documents of EU institutions. In cases of dispute, the European Ombudsman The introduction of the European Citizens’ will decide on applications for the access to Initiative is an important step towards direct documents. democracy at European level, which still has to be developed further and put into practice. Energy turnaround, green jobs, European Community for Renewable Energy Furthermore, citizens should have the possibil- The Greens call for the enormous potential of ity to directly express their desires on important renewable energy to be used extensively with- pan-European topics in referenda. out any further delay. They advocate that in 2030, at least 50% of electricity generated in The hard-won rights and liberties of citizens Europe should come from renewable sources. must not be sacrificed in the fight against terror- ism and alleged security threats. Digital rights A serious commitment to an energy revolution must be equal to civil rights. Governmental and could create millions of jobs in Europe in the economic interests must not have priority over area of renewable energy and related fields. the citizens’ private sphere. The Greens call for the creation of a European More democracy Community for Renewable Energy (ERENE), Over the course of the history of the EU, which would lay the foundations for a tran- governments in Member States have shame- sition to an energy supply system based on lessly used the opportunity to implement 100% renewables energy. policies without effective parliamentary control. The European Parliament has become the Transport turnaround in Europe engine of the fight for more democracy in the The structure of transport in the Union must Union and has made important progress. become fit for the future. The direct and indirect subsidies of inefficient and environ- mentally damaging forms of transport, such 57

as air and road transport, must be abandoned. regulated by collective agreements, as well as Goods traffic must be moved from road to rail a minimum income above the poverty line for to a much larger extent. those receiving social security.

Organic farming, a Europe free of genetic Europe’s role in the world engineering, animal protection Europe’s bitter experience of war and totalitar- The future of agriculture lies in the area of ian systems, and the difficult reconstruction organic farming and fair trade. The forthcom- period which followed, made possible by ing review of the Common Agricultural Policy outside support (the Marshall plan), is an in- should be used to support farmers in the sus- centive to stand up for a peaceful Europe; a tainable production of high-quality food stuff Europe committed to non-violent conflict so- within the framework of a new European ag- lutions, to disarmament and arms control, and ricultural policy. to support for developing countries.

A prerequisite for this is the creation of a zone The Greens support a Europe that uses its free from genetically engineered foodstuff en- strong position in international trade not for compassing the entire European Union. the exploitation of resources in underde- veloped countries, but for supporting their The Greens call for the prohibition of animal development in solidarity. transport over long distances, they support the prohibition of the fur trade and advocate that In the same manner, economic interests must animal tests should be gradually replaced by not interfere with the Union’s commitment to other methods. human rights.

The End of Deregulation, effective control The EU and its Member States together are of financial markets the largest contributors to global development The EU requires a systemic change from funds - more than half of all development careless deregulation to efficient control of funds world-wide come from the EU. It is financial markets. The three recently founded therefore important that help is given where European Supervisory Authorities must also it is truly needed, and that it is processed as be free from interference from the Council. effectively and economically as possible – for example, by means of improving coordination Financial speculation must be curbed by the amongst donors. Furthermore, the Greens as- introduction of a financial transaction tax, sert that the development plans of developing which would also be an important source of countries should be taken into consideration funds for the European Union. when distributing funds, and that donors do not solely implement projects according to Reinforcement of social rights of EU citizens their own concepts of development. The Greens do not want a Europe that permits social dumping and exploitation of people. Of particular concern is not only the quality Workers’ rights must be raised; the Greens but also the quantity of support: the current strictly oppose a levelling of the standards of crises (the food, energy and economic crises, labour rights. not to mention the climate crisis) hit people in the poorest countries the hardest, despite In the European Union, nobody should have that fact they did not cause these crises. We to suffer from the humiliation of having to require many more billions of euros to tackle live in poverty. Governments should introduce the effects of the climate crisis, which is no- minimum salaries that are legally binding and ticeable already today (expansion of deserts, 58

storms, floods, desertification of fertile land, Migration etc.). At present, donors are not providing the Europe has always been a continent of migra- necessary funds to tackle these problems. The tion. People who want to live in the EU should Greens therefore call for an increase to de- be given a fair chance. The siege mentality of velopment funds up to 0.7% of gross national “Fortress Europe” must be overcome. income – a UN target for more than 40 years! The attraction of Europe to immigrants is a Asylum and protection from prosecution chance for both sides - for the migrants and The protection from prosecution is a human for the EU. Europe requires political concepts right. Our vision is for a Europe that recognis- which take advantage of the benefits of immi- es this right in its entirety. All Member States gration, so that people can come to the EU in a share responsibility for guaranteeing this pro- legal and controlled way. tection. Refugees must not be sent back at the exterior borders of the Union before their need In the EU, immigrants must have equal rights, for protection has been assessed. equal pay and the opportunity to gain European Union citizenship and participate in political life. Instead, it is necessary to establish a binding and transparent European-wide system to process asylum claims. The human right to asylum must not be undermined and refused to a persecuted person. 59

20. Information, contacts European Union Commission Rue de la Loi 200, B-1048 Brussels, Europe direct Tel.: +32 (2) 29 91111 Toll-free telephone number to call Brussels: www.ec.europa.eu 00800 6 7 8 9 10 11 from all Member States. European Communities Court of Justice (ECJ) EU Information Offices in the Member States With a search engine for the database on the The Commission and the European Parliament jurisdiction of the Court. maintain representation and information of- L-2925 Luxembourg, Tel.: +352 4303 –1 fices in all Member States. Postal addresses, www.curia.europa.eu e-mail addresses, websites and telephone numbers are listed on this site: Online Hearings www.bit.ly/eu-local-offices http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/consultations/ index_de.htm European Parliament Allée du Printemps B.P. 1024/F, F-67070 Online Petitions to the European Parliament Strasbourg, Tel.: +33 3 8817 4001 European Parliament webpage on EU citizens’ Rue Wiertz, B.P. 1047, B-1047 Brussels, right to petition, with an online form for sub- Tel.: +32 (2) 284 DW 2111 mitting petitions to the European Parliament. www.europarl.europa.eu www.bit.ly/ep-online-petition

The Legislative Observatory with up-to-date European Ombudsman agendas and information on current legisla- Nikiforos Diamandouros, B.P. 4031, tive procedures. Avenue du Président Robert Schumann, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/ F-67001 Strasbourg, Tel.: +33 (3) 8817 2313 www.ombudsman.europa.eu WebTV channel of the European Parliament: www.europarltv.europa.eu European Commission Transparency Initiative http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/eti/index_ Council of the European Union de.htm Rue de la Loi 175, B-1048 Brussels, Tel.: +32 (2) 285 6111 Register of interest representatives: www.consilium.europa.eu https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/transparency/ regrin/welcome.do 60

21. Websites of Civil European federations and networks of NGOs Society Initiatives active in the social sector. on EU Policies European Network of Political Foundations Below is a list of websites of organisations www.european-network-of-political- which try to influence the EU through liaison foundations.eu offices in Brussels and by working in collabo- The “European Network of Political Foundations ration with lobbying and campaign initiatives. – independent actors in democracy promotion, development cooperation and political European Movement dialogue”, established in 2006, is a cooperation www.europeanmovement.eu structure, serving as a communication and dia- The European Movement is an international logue instrument between European political organisation open to all political, economic, foundations and the Institutions of the Euro- social and cultural trends in civil society. pean Union, as well as civil society actors in the fields of democracy promotion and develop- European Youth Forum ment cooperation. www.youthforum.org Independently established by youth organi- EU-Lobby-Control sations, the European Youth Forum is made www.corporateeurope.org up of more than 90 National Youth Councils The Transparency Initiative Corporate Europe and International Non-Governmental Youth Observatory observes and documents the Organisations, which are federations of youth actions of large economic and political or- organisations in themselves. Its goal is to ganisations trying to influence EU policy in organise young people in order to represent Brussels. See also their German partner or- their common interests. ganisation Lobbycontrol – www.lobbycontrol.de. EU-Lobby-Control offers virtual tours to the European Women’s Lobby offices of large industrial lobbyists in Brussels: www.womenlobby.org www.eulobbytours.org Founded in 1990 with 12 national member organisations, the European Women’s Lobby ALTER = Alliance for Lobbying Transparency is one of the oldest and best established & Ethics Regulation European-level civil society NGOs. Over the www.alter-eu.org last 20 years, EWL membership has grown The “Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and steadily to reach more than 2500 organisations Ethics Regulations“ (ALTER-EU) is a coalition of across 30 European countries. more than 160 civil society groups, unions and academic and political institutions that try to Age Platform Europe fight the growing influence of business lobbyists www.age-platform.eu/en on the agenda of the EU. AGE Platform Europe is a European network of around 150 organisations of and for people European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) aged 50 or over, representing directly over 28 www.ecas.org million older people in Europe. ECAS, with an office in Brussels manned with 12 members of staff, wants to strengthen civil European Social Platform society lobbying elements relative to better www.socialplatform.org financed lobbies by means of information, The Platform of European Social NGOs (Social advice and action. They describe themselves Platform) is the alliance of representative as follows: “ECAS was created in 1990 as 61

an international non-profit organization, in- www.eu-koordination.de/index.php?page=48 dependent of political parties, commercial The EU coordination office of Deutscher interests and the EU Institutions. Our mission Naturschutzring, the German League for is to enable NGOs and individuals to make Nature and Environment, lists a number of their voice heard with the EU by providing ad- NGOs with representative offices in Brussels vice on how to lobby, fundraise, and defend that are mainly active in environmental areas. European citizenship rights.” CONCORD - European NGO Confederation Climate Alliance for Relief and Development www.klimabuendnis.org www.concordeurope.org The Climate Alliance of European cities with CONCORD has 22 national platforms and 18 Indigenous People of the rainforest / Alianza international networks as members. This um- del Clima e.V., is Europe’s largest network of brella organisation represents more than 1,600 cities and local communities for climate pro- development NGOs vis-à-vis the political insti- tection. Its purpose is the preservation of the tutions of the EU. global climate. EU Civil Society Contact Group EU-Agricultural Transparency-Initiative http://act4europe.horus.be www.farmsubsidy.org “The EU Civil Society Contact Group brings to- This is the website of the transparency gether eight large rights and value based NGO initiative for EU agricultural policy. This web- sectors – culture, environment, education, de- site contains detailed country overviews on velopment, human rights, public health, social agricultural subsidies and their (uneven) dis- and women. tribution. It makes more interesting reading than many detective stories. The members of these sectoral platforms are European NGO networks. They bring together Environmental and other NGOs in Brussels the voices of hundreds of thousands of asso- European Environmental Bureau ciations across the Union, linking the national www.eeb.org with the European level, representing a large The EEB, set up in 1974, is Europe's largest range of organised interests.” coalition of grass-roots environmental organisations. 62

22. Table of links

The table below lists the links used throughout the manual which point you to specific webpages illustrating the work of the EU institutions, the Greens, NGOs etc.

The links are grouped according to where the information is provided or whose work is illustrated by it.

European Union

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (OJ 2000, PDF) – www.bit.ly/eu-charta-en

Consolidated Versions of the Treaty on European Union/TEU and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union/TFEU (OJ 2010, PDF) – www.bit.ly/eu-treaties-en

EU population data (Eurostat) – www.bit.ly/eu-population-en

Legal bases and voting procedures for the various EU policy areas – www.bit.ly/legal-bases-en

A directory for Commission representation offices, Parliament information offices, EU delegations and offices around the world and European Public Spaces – www.bit.ly/eu-local-offices

Search engine interface for EU law (Eur-Lex) – www.bit.ly/search-eu-law

Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (Council, PDF. NOTE: This treaty failed to be ratified and is not in force, but still is an important and interesting document illustrating the democratic development of the EU) – www.bit.ly/eu-constitution-treaty

Presidency Conclusions, which discusses EU enlargement, Dec.2001 (PDF) - www.bit.ly/laeken-declaration

Copenhagen Criteria as preconditions for enlargement – www.bit.ly/copenhagen-criteria

European Parliament

EP Rules of Procedure (EP 2010, PDF) – www.bit.ly/ep-rules-of-procedure

EP Website on Citizens' AGORA (EP) – www.bit.ly/gs-agora

European Parliament Website – www.europarl.europa.eu

Example of a parliamentary question (EP 2010) – www.bit.ly/ep-oral-question-en

Intergovernmental Conference document on Numbers of MEPs (Council, PDF) – www.bit.ly/cig-mep-en

User interface for online petitions to the Parliament (EP) – www.bit.ly/ep-online-petition

Web-TV-Channel of the European Parliament – www.europarltv.europa.eu 63

Council of the European Union

Commission proposal to repeal Austrian GMO ban (Council 2009, PDF) – www.bit.ly/comitology-gmo-austria

List of the various council configurations (Council) – www.bit.ly/council-configurations

List of presidencies until 2020 (Council) – www.bit.ly/council-presidencies-en

Voting Results on 1st Reading of the Working Times Directive (Council 2008, PDF) – www.bit.ly/council-working-time-1

The Council website information on High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (Council) – www.bit.ly/council-gasp

Website of the Council – www.consilium.europa.eu

European Council

European Council Website – www.european-council.europa.eu

European Commission

The Commission Website – www.ec.europa.eu

Debate and Vote on the appointment of the Barroso II Commission (EP 2010) – www.bit.ly/ep-barroso-2

European External Action Service’s (EEAS) Peace Building Partnership established by the European Commission – www.bit.ly/gs-peace-building

European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (Commission) – www.bit.ly/gs-eidhr

Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (Commission) – www.bit.ly/gs-geeref

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (Commission) – www.bit.ly/ec-gasp

Open consultations (Commission) – www.bit.ly/ec-consultations

Step by step guide to the ordinary legislative procedure (Commission) – www.bit.ly/cod-step-by-step

More EU related organisations

Climate Alliance – www.klimabuendnis.org

Committee of the Regions – www.cor.europa.eu 64

European Central Bank (ECB) – www.ecb.int

European Citizen Action Service – www.ecas.org

European Confederation for Relief and Development – www.concordeurope.org

European Court of Auditors – www.eca.europa.eu

European Court of Justice – www.curia.europa.eu

European Economic and Social Committee – www.bit.ly/eesc-en

European Environment Information and Observation Network – www.eionet.europa.eu

European Environmental Agency – www.eea.europa.eu

European Food Safety Agency – www.efsa.europa.eu

FRONTEX Agency – www.frontex.europa.eu

Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) – www.fra.europa.eu

Ombudsman of the European Union – www.ombudsman.europa.eu

Permanent Forum of European Civil Society – www.forum-civil-society.org

Political Parties, Parliamentary Groups

European Free Alliance (EFA) – www.e-f-a.org

European Green Party (EGP) – www.europeangreens.eu

Grants from EP to political parties at European level 2004-2010 (EP, PDF. This list details the funding to all political parties at the European level as of 2010) – www.bit.ly/grants-european-parties

Information about parties at European level (EP) – www.bit.ly/european-parties

Greens/EFA political group in the EP – www.eurogreens.eu

Regulation on European political parties including financial rules (Eur-Lex 2007) – www.bit.ly/regulation-eu-parties-en

Transparency NGOs

Alliance for Lobbying Transparency & Ethics Regulation – www.alter-eu.org

Corporate Europe Observatory – www.corporateeurope.org 65

Lobby Control (German) – www.lobbycontrol.de

Corporate Europe Observatory webpage containing a cybertour through the EU-quarter in Brussels – www.eulobbytours.org

Website providing data on EU farm subsidies – www.farmsubsidy.org

National Parliaments

Information on the Folketing (DK) EU-Committee (Folketing, PDF) – www.bit.ly/eu-committee-dk

Information on the Eduskunta (FI) EU-Committee (Finnish Parliament) – www.bit.ly/eu-affairs-fi

Information on the Austrian EU-Committee (Austrian Parliament) – www.bit.ly/eu-affairs-at

Interparliamentary EU Information Exchange website – www.ipex.eu

Decisions

Decision on anti-competitive activities by Microsoft (Eur-Lex, PDF) – www.bit.ly/decision-microsoft

Decision establishing harmonised efficiency reference values for separate production of electricity and heat (Eur-Lex, PDF) – www.bit.ly/decision-heat-power

Decision on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (Eur-Lex) – www.bit.ly/employment-policies-2010

Decision concerning a mechanism for monitoring Community greenhouse gas emissions and for implementing the Kyoto Protocol (Eur-Lex) – www.bit.ly/decision-kyoto

Directives

Directive on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (Eur-Lex) – www.bit.ly/directive-environmental-impact-assessment

Directive implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin (Eur-Lex) – www.bit.ly/directive-equal-treatment

Press releases

FRONTEX press release on Rapid Border Intervention Teams (FRONTEX 2010) – www.bit.ly/frontex-rabit2010

Press release on Rumiana Jeleva’s EU Commissioner hearing (Greens/EFA 2010) – www.bit.ly/jeleva-hearing 66

Procedure files

Procedure file amendment to Working Time Directive (EP2004-2009) – www.bit.ly/cod-working-time

Procedure file Financial Markets Authority (EP 2010) – www.bit.ly/gs-esma

Procedure file Implementing Powers/new comitology (EP) – www.bit.ly/implementing-powers

Procedure file Multiannual Framework 2007-2013 (EP) – www.bit.ly/multiannual-ffw

Procedure file Novel Foods repeal (EP 2008-2010) – www.bit.ly/gs-novel-food

Procedure file Renewable Energy Directive (EP 2008) – www.bit.ly/gs-renewable-energy

Procedure file Protocol on the Implementation of the Alpine Convention in Transport Protocol (EP 2008-2010) – www.bit.ly/gs-alpine-convention

Regulations

Regulation establishing a European Asylum Support Office (Eur-Lex) - www.bit.ly/regulation-asylum-support

Regulation on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts (Eur-Lex) – www.bit.ly/directive-procurement

Regulation concerning measures to safeguard security of gas supply (Eur-Lex) – www.bit.ly/regulation-gas-supply

Regulation on the obligations of operators for timber and timber products (Eur-Lex) – www.bit.ly/regulation-timber

Reports

Lambert (Greens/EFA) report on the active inclusion of people excluded from the labour market (EP) – www.bit.ly/gs-active-inclusion

Report on the crisis of the Equitable Life Assurance Society (EP 2007) – www.bit.ly/ep-inquiry- elas

Report of the Committee on Petitions on i.a. the activities of the committee concerning the Via Baltica and the Rospuda Valley/Poland – www.bit.ly/gs-rospuda-valley-en

Draft report on developing the job potential of a new sustainable economy, Schroedter (Greens/EFA) (EP 2010, PDF) – www.bit.ly/ep-report-sustainable-jobs 67

Resolutions

EP resolution concerning the implementation of the European Citizens' Initiative (EP 2009) – www.bit.ly/ep-initiative-eci

Motion for a resolution on the return and resettlement of the Guantánamo detention facility inmates (EP 2009) – www.bit.ly/gs-guantanamo-resolution

Statements

European Food Safety Authority review on BSE/TSE infectivity (EFSA 2010) – www.bit.ly/efsa-bse

European Court of Justice judgment on equal payment (ECJ, 2008) – www.bit.ly/ejc-equal-pay-en

Opinion of the EFSA Scientific Panel concerning Austrian ban of GMOs (EFSA 2004) – www.bit.ly/efsa-gmo

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights – Understanding and preventing discriminatory ethnic profiling: A guide (FRA) – www.bit.ly/prevent-ethnic-profiling

Vote Calculators for the Council

Double Majority Vote Calculator (eu-info.de) – www.bit.ly/council-double-majority

Qualified Majority Vote Calculator (Council) – www.bit.ly/council-qualified-majority 68

Acknowledgement The following sources were used to prepare chapter 18 “Europe and the Greens” and chap- Many people including the editorial team ter 19 “Green Visions for Europe”: supported me in the preparation of this manuscript for the brochure. I would like to thank A Green Deal for Europe. Manifesto for the Dr. Peter Steyrer in particular for his input and European election campaign 2009 contributions to the preparation of the first Green Achievements. Paper provided by the version of the brochure in Austria, and Daniela advisors of the Greens/EFA group Graf and Leonore Gewessler for their initiative The Green's Book. Policy Papers of the and support in reviewing the English version of Greens in the European Parliament the manuscript. Many thanks to everybody who made a contri- Juan Behrend supervised the text creation in a bution. competent manner. Thank you very much! Finally, I would like to thank Univ. Prof. Dr. Kurt Greussing compiled most of the list of Thomas Eilmannsberger for his critical re- NGOs in Brussels (page 60). Thank you! view of the manuscript, and the members of the Austrian office of the European Parliament The office of GEF managed and supported the (www.europarl.at) for supporting my research translation of the manual. Thanks especially work. to Leonore Gewessler for bearing with me and my preferences! Karl Staudinger 69

Index D Danish Parliament, 16 A Data Protection Directive, 21 Advocates-General, 38 Decisions, 22, 23, 25 AGORA conferences, 55 Degressive proportionality, 26 Albania, 52 Democratic deficit, 16 Alliance of Liberals and Denmark, 9, 19, 20, 27, 31, 33, 48 Democrats for Europe, 28 Directives, 12, 13, 22, 23, 30, 37, 38, 40 Alpine Convention, 55 Double majority voting in the Council, 13, 31 Austria, 6, 9, 14, 16, 19, 20, 27, 31, 33, 37, 44, 46, 48, 52 E EC Treaty, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 B Economic and monetary union, 11, 46 Belgium, 9, 19, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 Economic and Social Committee, 39, 40, 43, 64 Blocking Minority, 30, 31, 32 EEC Treaty, 8, 9, 10 Bridging clause, 13, 34 Environmental and financial transaction tax, 45 British rebate, 44 Estonia, 9, 19, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 Bulgaria, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 36 EU agencies, 48, 49 EU budget, 14, 36, 44, 45 C EU expenditure, 44 Central banks, 46, 47 Euratom, 8, 9, 10, 22 Charter of Fundamental Rights Euro convergence criteria, 11, 46 of the European Union, 12, 13, 14, 22 Eurojust, 12, 50 Citizens’ Committee, 18 Europe of Freedom and Democracy, 28 Claude Turmes, 54 European Agency for Operative Cooperation Co-decision procedure, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 26, 40 at the External Borders, 49 Comitology, 37 European Agricultural Guidance and Commissioner, 13, 21, 36, 37 Guarantee Fund, 10 Commissioners, 11, 12, 13, 16, 26, 36, 37 European Atomic Energy Community, 8, 9 Committee of the Regions, 11, 39, 40, 43 European Central Bank, 46, 47 Common Agricultural Policy, 57 European Citizens' Initiative, 6, 13, 18, 40, 56 Common Foreign and Security Policy, 11, 14, European Coal and Steel Community, 8, 9 15, 17, 25, 30, 34, 43 European Community, 10, 22 Complementary competences, 24 European Community for Renewable Energy, 56 Conciliation committee, 41, 45 European Conservatives and Reformists, 28 Consent procedure, 43 European Convention, 14, 15 Constitutional Treaty, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 56 European Convention on Human Rights, 13, Consultation procedure, 43 22, 35 Convention on the Future of Europe, 12, 14 European Council, 12, 13, 14, 16, 27, 30, 34, Cooperation procedure, 10, 11 35, 36, 40, 47 Coordinating competency, 24 European Court of Auditors, 39 Copenhagen Summit - 1994, 12 European Court of Justice, 11, 19, 25, 36, 37 Council Presidency, 11, 13, 30 European Defence Agency, 48, 50 Cyprus, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 European Economic Community, 8, 9, 10 Czech Republic, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 52 European Environment Agency, 48, 50 European External Action Service, 43 European Food Safety Authority, 48, 49 70

European Free Alliance Party, 51 J European Green Party, 51, 52, 59 Jean Lambert, 54 European Instrument for Democracy and Johannes Voggenhuber, 13 Human Rights, 55 Joschka Fischer, 13 European Ombudsman, 56, 59 European People’s Party, 16, 28 K European Regional Development Fund, 10 Kristalina Georgieva, 36 European Social Fund, 10, 25 European Supervisory Authorities, 57 L European System of Central Banks, 46, 47 Latvia, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 52 European System of Financial Supervisors, 54 Lithuania, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33 European Union Agency for Fundamental Luxembourg, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 50, 52, 59 Rights, 49 Luxembourg compromise, 9 European United Left/Nordic Green Left, 28 Eurozone, 46, 47 M Eva Lichtenberger, 13, 55 Malta, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 Exclusive competency, 24 Margaret Thatcher, 44 Moldova, 52 F Monetary policy, 24, 46 Financial transaction tax, 57 Finland, 9, 16, 19, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 N Folketing, 16 National parliaments, 9, 12, 13, 16, 25, 26, 34, Four fundamental freedoms of movement, 9 40, 51 France, 8, 9, 13, 20, 22, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 Neil MacCormick, 13 Netherlands, 9, 13, 19, 20, 27, 31, 33, 44, 46, 52 G Norway, 52 Georgia, 52 Germany, 8, 9, 14, 19, 20, 22, 26, 27, 31, 33, O 44, 46, 52 Open Method of Coordination, 43, 46 Global Fund for Energy Efficiency and Ordinary legislative procedure, 13, 14, 16, 26, Renewable Energy, 55 30, 34, 36, 40, 42, 43 Greece, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 Own-initiative reports, 27 Green European Foundation, 6, 52 Green New Deal, 45 P Pan-European lists, 17, 56 H Parliamentary Assembly, 8, 9 Helga Trüpel, 45 Peace Building Partnership, 54 High Representative of the Union for Foreign Petersberg tasks, 11 Affairs and Security Policy, 13, 35, 36, 43 Petitions to the Parliament, 29 Hungary, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 37, 52 Poland, 9, 12, 20, 22, 27, 31, 33, 49, 52, 55 Political foundations at the European level, 51 I Political parties at the European level, 51 Intergovernmental cooperation system, 14 Portugal, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 Ireland, 9, 14, 19, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 President of the Commission, 12, 13, 26, 35, Irish referendum, 12, 13, 36 36, 37 Italy, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 48, 52 President of the European Council, 14, 27, 35 71

President of the European Parliament, 12 T Progressive Alliance of Socialists and The Greens/European Free Alliance, 28, 51 Democrats in the European Parliament, 16, 28 Three-pillar model, 10, 13 Treaty of Amsterdam, 10, 11, 22 Q Treaty of Lisbon, 6, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, Qualified majority voting in the Council, 9, 10, 22, 26, 30, 31, 34, 36, 37, 40, 56 11, 12, 13, 17, 30, 31, 34, 36, 40, 41 Treaty of Maastricht, 10, 22 Quorum, 29 Treaty of Nice, 12, 13, 22 Treaty on European Union, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, R 14, 22, 51 Renewable energy, 54, 55, 56 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Renewable Energy Directive, 54 Union, 7, 8, 10, 13, 22, 24, 39, 46 Resolutions of the Parliament, 27, 29, 40, 55 Triple-shared presidency of the Council, 13, 30 Romania, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 52 Rumiana Jeleva, 36 U Russia, 52 UK, 12, 19, 27, 44 Ukraine, 52 S Unanimous voting in the Council, 9, 10, 12, 13, Separation of powers principle, 16 14, 34, 36, 40, 41, 43 Shared competency, 24 Single European Act, 9 V Single market, 10, 54 Via Baltica, 54 Slovakia, 9, 19, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 Slovenia, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 W Social Democrats, 36 Weighted voting in the Council, 30, 31, 32, 33 Social Europe, 15 Working Time Directive, 30, 41, 55 Spain,9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 46, 52 Special legislative procedure, 13, 26, 34, 43 Stability and Growth Pact, 46 Structural Funds, 9 Subsidiarity, 11, 13, 25, 40 Supporting competency, 24 Sweden, 9, 20, 27, 31, 33, 44, 52 Switzerland, 52 The past couple of years have shown that politics at a national level alone cannot provide the solutions to some of the most challenging problems of our time. In issues as diverse as environmental protection, the reorientation of our economies or migration: transnational issues require transnational political solutions. The European level – and indeed the EU-level – of policy making becomes more and more important.

People who would like to be politically active on the European level need a knowledge base. Who decides about what and how? How can citizens get involved? And what is the EU actually responsible for?

This book is part of GEF’s effort to foster greater involvement in European politics. It tries to explain the EU in an easy to under- stand manner, provides links to a wealth of documents and websites that illustrate the practical functioning of the Union and high- lights possibilities for citizens to shape the Union’s political agenda.

Read, debate, engage!

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