SPICe THE EUROPEAN UNION – THE INSTITUTIONS subject IAIN MCIVER map This subject map is one of four covering various aspects of the European Union. It provides information on the five institutions of the European 21 May 2007 Union. The institutions manage the way in which the EU functions and the way in which decisions are made. Scottish Parliament The other subject maps in this series are: 07/02 The European Union – A Brief History (07/01) The European Union – The Legislative Process (07/03) The European Union – The Budget (07/04) Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) Briefings are compiled for the benefit of the Members of the Parliament and their personal staff. Authors are available to discuss the contents of these papers with MSPs and their staff who should contact Iain McIver on extension 85294 or email [email protected]. Members of the public or external organisations may comment on this briefing by emailing us at [email protected]. However, researchers are unable to enter into personal discussion in relation to SPICe Briefing Papers. If you have any general questions about the work of the Parliament you can email the Parliament’s Public Information Service at [email protected]. Every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in SPICe briefings is correct at the time of publication. Readers should be aware however that briefings are not necessarily updated or otherwise amended to reflect subsequent changes. www.scottish.parliament.uk 1 THE EU INSTITUTIONS The way the EU functions and the way decisions are made is determined by the institutions which have been established by the member states to run and oversee the EU. The five main EU institutions are the: • Council of Ministers of the European Union • European Parliament • European Commission • Court of Justice (ensuring compliance with the law) • Court of Auditors (management of the EU budget) COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION The Council of the European Union (also known as the Council of Ministers) represents the national governments of the member states and is the EU’s main decision-taking body. When it meets at Head of State or Government level it becomes the European Council whose role is to provide the EU with political impetus on key issues. The member states’ government representatives in the Council are politically responsible to their national parliament. The Presidency The Presidency of the Council is held for a period of six months by each of the Member States in turn. The current Presidency is held by Germany (January 2007-June 2007). The next Presidencies will be Portugal, Slovakia and France. Every Council meeting is attended by one minister from each EU country. Which ministers attend a meeting depends on which topic is on the agenda. The Council also meets regularly at the level of working groups and ambassadors. Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) Coreper consists of the Member States' Permanent Representatives (Ambassadors) and is responsible, at a stage involving preliminary negotiations, for assisting the Council of the European Union in dealing with proposals and drafts of instruments put forward by the Commission. It occupies a pivotal position in the Community decision-making system as a forum for dialogue and a body which exercises political control. There are nine configurations of the Council. These are: • The European Council • General Affairs and External Relations • Economic and Financial Affairs • Cooperation in the fields of Justice and Home Affairs • Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs • Competitiveness • Transport, Telecommunications and Energy • Agriculture and Fisheries • Environment • Education, Youth and Culture providing research and information services to the Scottish Parliament 2 Council Decision Making According to the Treaties1, the Council has to take its decisions either by a simple majority vote, a “qualified majority” vote or unanimously, depending on the subject to be decided: • Unanimity (right of veto) – the Council has to agree unanimously on important questions such as amending the Treaties, launching a new common policy or allowing a new country to join the Union. • Simple majority – this means that more member states need to support a proposal than oppose it. 14 member states supporting a proposal will be enough for it to be carried by a simple majority. This form of decision making is rarely used. • Qualified Majority Vote – in most cases qualified majority voting is used. This means that a Council decision is adopted if a specified minimum number of votes are cast in its favour. The number of votes allocated to each country roughly reflects the size of its population. Qualified Majority Voting Under the terms of the Nice Treaty, the number of votes each Member State can cast is as follows: Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom 29 Spain and Poland 27 Romania 14 Netherlands 13 Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Portugal 12 Austria, Bulgaria and Sweden 10 Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Finland 7 Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovenia 4 Malta 3 TOTAL 345 To ensure a proposal is agreed requires a total of 255 votes or 73.9% of all the available votes. In addition, any proposal must also be backed by a majority of Member States (at least 14) and the Member States voting in favour of the proposal must represent at least 62% of the overall EU population. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT The European Parliament is the only directly elected body in the EU. It represents the people of the EU and, shares legislative and budgetary power with the Council of the European Union. 1 The Treaties are the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community. These Treaties manage the way in which the European Union functions. providing research and information services to the Scottish Parliament 3 The European Parliament has been directly elected by the citizens of the member states since 1979. Elections by universal suffrage take place every five years. Following the most recent enlargement at the start of 2007, the Treaty of Nice increased the number of seats to 785. This will remain the case until the next European Parliament elections in 2009. The European Parliament sits in Strasbourg and Brussels and the Parliament’s Secretariat is located in Luxembourg. The Parliament meets in plenary session for twelve four- day part-sessions in Strasbourg and six additional two-day part-sessions in Brussels. Two weeks a month are devoted to meetings of parliamentary committees and inter-parliamentary delegations, whilst one week a month is set aside for political group meetings. MEPs are also allocated four weeks a year where they can concentrate exclusively on their constituency work. Scotland currently has 7 MEPs who form part of a United Kingdom total of 78 Members. The current president of the European Parliament is Hans-Gert Pottering from Germany. Number of Seats in the European Parliament per member state Austria 18 Belgium 24 Bulgaria 18 Cyprus 6 Czech Republic 24 Denmark 14 Estonia 6 Finland 14 France 78 Scotland’s 7 MEPS Germany 99 Greece 24 Elspeth Attwooll Hungary 24 Ian Hudghton Ireland 13 David Martin Italy 78 Alyn Smith Latvia 9 Struan Stevenson Lithuania 13 Catherine Stihler Luxembourg 6 John Purvis Malta 5 Netherlands 27 Poland 54 Portugal 24 Romania 35 Slovakia 14 Slovenia 7 Spain 54 Sweden 19 United Kingdom 78 Total 785 The European Parliament takes part in the legislative work of the EU at three different levels. providing research and information services to the Scottish Parliament 4 Under the “cooperation” procedure, introduced by the Single European Act in 1987, the European Parliament can give its opinion on draft directives and regulations proposed by the European Commission, which is asked to amend its proposals to take account of the Parliament’s position. Since 1987, there has also been the “assent” procedure under which the European Parliament must give its assent to international agreements negotiated by the Commission and to any proposed enlargement of the European Union. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht introduced the “co-decision” procedure, which puts the Parliament on an equal footing with the Council when legislating on a whole series of important issues including the free movement of workers, the internal market, education, research, the environment, trans-European networks, health, culture, consumer protection etc. In practice the European Parliament has the power to throw out proposed legislation if a majority of members vote against the Council’s common position. The European Parliament also shares with the Council equal responsibility for adopting the EU budget. If Parliament votes to reject the budget, the entire budget procedure has to be restarted. The European Parliament exercises democratic supervision over the European Union. It has the power to dismiss the Commission by adopting a motion of censure which requires a two thirds majority. EUROPEAN COMMISSION The European Commission is the executive of the European Union. It consists of 27 appointed members, one from each member state The Commission is headed by a President, currently José Manuel Barroso. It is a politically independent institution that represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole and is the driving force within the EU’s institutional system: it is responsible for: • proposing legislation to the Council of Ministers • the administration of EU policies, such as the Common Agricultural Policy • implementing the decisions of Parliament and the Council • taking necessary legal action against firms or member governments • representing the EU in trade negotiations with non-member countries The Commission sits in Brussels but has offices in Luxembourg and representatives in all EU member states. It also has a representative office based in Scotland. The Members of the Commission are generally known as “Commissioners”. As Members of the Commission they are committed to acting in the interests of the Union as a whole and not in the interests of their own national governments.