THE IEEP ‘ROUGH GUIDE’ TO THE EU INSTITUTIONS & DECISION‐ MAKING

CONTENTS

− What are the main EU institutions? − What other European Institutions are there? − The − The − The Council of the − How are decisions made? − What is ‘Codecision’ and how does it work? − What is the Consultation procedure and how does it work? − What is the Assent procedure and how does it work? − What is and how does it work? What are the main EU institutions?

EU policy is developed and agreed by three main institutions: • The Council of the European Union‐ Represents the EU Member States and is comprised of national Ministers. It has its seat in Brussels, where it meets several times a month in its different ‘formations’, depending on the policy area in question. (Some meetings are also held in ). • The European Parliament– Comprised of Members of European Parliament (MEPs), who are directly elected to represent EU citizens. Its meetings, or ‘plenary sessions’ are held in Brussels or Strasbourg. • The European Commission ‐ Based in Brussels, this is a politically independent body which represents the European interest common to all Member States. It is the ‘civil service’ of the Community.

What other European Institutions are there?

• The European Court of Justice ‐ The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is based in Luxembourg and employs one judge from each Member State. The ECJ makes sure that EU legislation is interpreted and applied in the same way in all EU countries, and overlooks its implementation in EU Member States and Institutions

1 • The Court of First Instance ‐ The Court of First Instance, which is attached to the Court of Justice, was created to help the Court of Justice cope with the large number of cases brought before it, and to offer citizens better legal protection. This Court is responsible for giving rulings on certain kinds of case, particularly actions brought by private individuals, companies and some organisations, and cases relating to competition law. • The Court of Auditors ‐ The Court of Auditors checks that EU funds are properly collected and that they are spent legally, economically and for the intended purpose. • The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) ‐ an advisory body to the Council and the Commission, representing employers, trade unions, farmers, consumers and the other interest groups. • The Committee of the Regions (CoR) ‐ a body composed of representatives of Europe’s regional and local authorities, which advises the Council and the Commission in matters relevant to the regions. • The (EIB) ‐ based in Luxembourg, it finances projects to help the EU’s less developed regions and to help make small businesses more competitive. • The (ECB) ‐ based in Frankfurt, it is responsible for managing the and the EU’s monetary policy.

The European Commission

The European Commission is the EU's executive body and its main roles are: • to initiate Community policy; • to represent the general interest of the European Union; • to act as the guardian of the EU treaties to ensure that European legislation is applied correctly in Member States; • to be the executive body of the Union responsible for implementing and managing policy – including managing the Union's annual budget; and • to negotiate international trade and cooperation agreements.

How is the Commission Organised? The European Commission is led by a group of 27 Commissioners – at the moment 1 per Member State. They are appointed for a 5 year term. This group formally constitutes ‘the Commission’. However, ‘the Commission’ is also frequently used to refer to the European institution itself and its entire staff. Normally Commissioners are politicians or high‐ranking officials from Member States. Candidates are put forward by their respective Member State and must be approved by all the Member States together, and by the European Parliament. Commissioners are supported by his or her ‘cabinet’.

The Commission is chaired by the President of the Commission whose role is to guide and advance the Commissioners’ work and the European Commission as a whole. The President can assign responsibility for specific activities to the Commissioners, and has the power to reallocate responsibilities to Members of the Commission or to ask them to resign. The President also represents the Commission

2 to other European institutions, for instance in the , the Council of Ministers, and in major debates in the European Parliament. In addition, the President is the face of the European Commission in meetings outside the EU, for instance in G8 meetings. The President of the Commission is appointed by the governments of the Member States, and must then be approved by the European Parliament. Like the Commissioners, the President of the Commission serves a five‐ year term.

Directorate‐Generals (DGs) The services of the Commission are divided into Directorate‐Generals (DGs), which are further split into Directorates and Units. Desk Officers in the Units deal with implementation and policy development. Desk Officers come from all 27 EU Member States but do not officially represent their country’s interest.

DGs with particular relevance to the environment are: • DG Environment • DG Agriculture and Rural Development • DG Fisheries and Maritime Affairs • DG Regional Policy • DG Research • DG TREN (Transport and Energy)

The Secretariat General is responsible for the practical organisation of the Commission's work and its relations with the other institutions, as well as for coordination between the various Commission departments.

The European Parliament The European Parliament is the democratic arm of the EU as its members are directly elected by the people of the Member States. Through the Members of Parliament (MEPs) the EU’s citizens can be involved in the making of Community policies and laws affecting their daily life. Each revision of the Treaties has seen an increase in the power of the European Parliament in relation to the other institutions. Today the European Parliament is firmly established as a co‐legislator and is involved in finalising Community Directives, Regulations and other policy. The powers of the Parliament depend on the decision‐making procedure being used. Most importantly, the Parliament:

• can ask the Commission to present legislative proposals for laws to the Council and Parliament; • plays an important role in creating new laws, especially through the codecision procedure where it has equal power to the Council. It also examines the Commission’s annual programme of work. • has power of dismissal over the Commission by an absolute majority; • approves Commissioner appointments; and • amends and can reject entirely the EU’s annual budget.

3 How is the European Parliament organised?

The European Parliament currently has 736 Members (MEPs) who are directly elected by the citizens of Member States every five years, in the only international elections in the world. The number of MEPs per Member State is allocated roughly in proportion to its population. The President represents the European Parliament externally and is elected for a renewable term of two and a half years. The Parliament normally meets twice a month – once in Strasbourg and once in Brussels. The meetings are open to the public.

The European Parliament has a special structure where MEPs are grouped by political group rather than nationality. The European Parliament is assisted by a Secretariat located in Luxembourg and Brussels. The political groups also have their own staff, and MEPs have parliamentary assistants.

The preparatory work for Parliament’s plenary sittings is carried out in 20 specialised standing committees of MEPs. Each MEP is a member of at least one Committee. Committees of special interest to the environment include: • ENVI: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety • AGRI: Agriculture and Rural Development • PECH: Fisheries • REGI: Regional Development • TRAN: Transport and Tourism • BUDG: Budgets

How do the Parliamentary Committees work?

The Parliamentary Committees advise the Parliament as a whole on issues relating to their specialist area. Their main activity is to consider Commission legislative proposals and Council amendments to them, and, where necessary, draw up reports with recommendations and amendments to be presented to the plenary assembly. The Committees can also set up sub‐committees and temporary committees to deal with specific issues. The Committee with the lead role on a proposal provides a Rapporteur, who coordinates the Parliament’s response and drafts the report. The committees meet once or twice per month in Brussels and the debates are held in public.

The European Parliament also has delegations in countries outside the European Union which help with developing Europe’s influence abroad.

The Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union directly represents the Member States in negotiations and has a central role in the EU legislative process.

The Council meets in nine different ‘formations’ depending on the subject and is attended by appropriate national Ministers and the European Commissioners responsible for the areas concerned. Each formation meets around four times a year.

4 In addition, there are normally a couple of informal meetings. Council formations with particular relevance to the environment are: • Agriculture and Fisheries Council • Environment Council • Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (TTE)

In addition to the nine formations, there is the European Council, which brings together the Heads of State or Government from each of the Member States, and the President of the Commission. The European Council meets four times a year to give strategic direction to the EU institutions and contributes to the general political direction of the European Union as a whole. There are two meetings during each Presidency term, one of which takes place in the host country, and one in Brussels.

The Presidency, or chair, of the Council rotates every six months between Member States (new Presidencies starting in January and July). The Presidency can to some extent influence the agenda of the Council. Since 2004, the Council also has a Multi Annual Strategic Programme which outlines the challenges facing the Union and suggests instruments and policies, which the Union should use in achieving its objectives. A list of past and future Presidencies can be seen below. Member States tend to use their Presidency as an opportunity to promote particular priorities and interests, often using informal Council meetings as an opportunity to focus upon these. To some extent as Chair of the Council’s meetings, the country officials from Presidency can dictate the speed and nature of discussions.

Member States holding the Presidency of the Council, 2006 ‐ 2018

Year 1st half 2nd half 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Ireland 2014 2015 Luxembourg 2016 2017 UK 2018

How does the Council of the European Union work? Before decisions are taken in the Council formations the dossier is prepared by the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER), supported by some 250 technical working groups comprising experts from the Member States. COREPER meets in two different formations: COREPER II is made up of the Member States' ambassadors to the European Union, and considers external and financial affairs.

5 COREPER I consists of their Deputy Representatives, and covers for instance agriculture, fisheries, and the environment.

Voting in the Council Each Member State has a certain number of votes, roughly depending on its population. The UK, Germany, France and Italy, for example, each have 29 votes, Sweden and Austria have 10, and Malta has 3.

Different voting systems apply according to the decision‐making procedure being followed. For the codecision procedure, voting in the Council is by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV). A qualified majority is 255 votes out of the total 345 (73.9%) cast by a simple majority of Member States. In addition this number of votes must represent a majority of Member States ie 14 out of 27 as well as representing more that 62% of the EU’s total population.

QMV has become the standard procedure for environmental measures, with the requirement for unanimity retained only for provisions primarily of a fiscal nature; town and country planning; land‐use (with the exception of waste management and measures of a general nature); the management of water resources; and measures significantly affecting a Member State’s choice between different energy sources and the structure of its energy supply.

How are decisions made?

The main EU decision‐making bodies are the Commission, the Parliament and the Council. The Commission is the only institution that can table a formal legislative proposal, but the Parliament and Council can try to initiate the process, for example through own‐initiative reports or Presidency conclusions. The Council and the Parliament vote on the Commission’s proposals and their powers vary according to the different procedures for decision‐making. The procedure to be used for a certain area of policy is set out in the Treaty.

There are three main legislative procedures, each beginning with a proposal from the European Commission: • Codecision – applies eg to most environmental measures • Consultation – applies eg to agricultural and financial measures • Assent ‐ applies eg to Structural and Cohesion Funds

In addition, detailed Commission implementing Decisions are agreed in a network of committees of Member State representatives, chaired by the Commission. Various committee procedures – known as ‘Comitology’ – apply eg to proposals relating to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), (CFP), water, nature and biodiversity, and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Increasingly discussions are being progressed more quickly through codecision, meaning that larger volumes and more fundamental aspects of legislation are now being left to be dealt with under the comitology process.

6 What is ‘Codecision’ and how does it work?

Under the codecision procedure, the European Parliament and the Council have equal weight in deciding how the final piece of legislation will look. The European Parliament and Council take it in turns to issue their formal opinion on the proposal – a ‘Resolution’ in the case of the Parliament, and a ‘Common Position’ for the Council. If the proposal is straight‐forward and there are no major areas of disagreement, the Act (Directive, Regulation or Decision) can be adopted after one reading. If – as is normally the case – there are certain points of contention, the European Parliament and Council hold second readings. The second reading is based on the Council’s Common Position. If at the end of these two readings the European Parliament and Council still disagree, a ‘Conciliation Committee’ is convened. This is a meeting involving representatives from both institutions and the Commission. It is held behind closed doors and discusses only the matters where the European Parliament and Council have been unable to agree. If, after this often long meeting, the two parties are able to reach an agreement, the outcome is a ‘joint text’. The joint text must then pass back to individual meetings of the European Parliament and Council for formal adoption. Even at this stage, however, it can still be rejected – in which case the whole process is scrapped and it is left to the Commission to bring forward a new proposal. At any stage in the process the Commission can table an amended proposal.

With this in mind, you may wonder how any policy gets adopted at all! However, both the European Parliament and Council work hard behind the scenes in Committees and Working Groups in order to formulate their positions before the item goes to the main plenary or Council meeting.

Trilogues between the Council and European Parliament with someone from the Commission acting as facilitator, are becoming increasingly common after first reading in an attempt to reach early agreements on key policies. During a trilogue each parties’ amendments to the text are discussed. This was an important feature of discussions on the recent climate and energy package to ensure its adoption in 2008, securing the grounding for an EU position at the UNFCCC negotiations in Copenhagen.

Codecision applies to most environmental measures, except those relating to taxation or land‐use planning, for example. It is an often lengthy process ‐ lasting around 2 years from the time a proposal is issued to when it is agreed – and there are many opportunities to

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The Codecision Procedure

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What is the Consultation procedure and how does it work?

Under the Consultation procedure, the Council is obliged to consult the European Parliament but is not bound by its opinion. The powers of the Parliament are therefore fairly limited. The Consultation procedure applies most notably to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) measures. Decisions taken by the Council must be unanimous.

The Consultation procedure

Consult EESC & CoR Commission proposal Council Must consult European Parliament

Approve proposal Reject Proposal Ask Commission for amendments

Council adopts or Commission considers changes; amends further may issue amended proposal

What is the Assent procedure and how does it work?

The assent procedure requires the Council to obtain the European Parliament’s assent (or consent) before decisions can be made. The European Parliament may accept or reject a proposal, but it cannot amend it. The procedure mainly applies to the accession of new Member States, the appointment of the President of the Commission, and Structural and Cohesion Funds.

The Assent procedure

EUROPEAN COUNCIL PARLIAMENT COUNCIL Adopts position Approves or does not Adopts act only if (unanimity approve proposal (simple Parliament has required) majority required) approved it

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What is Comitology and how does it work?

The Treaty gives the Commission implementing powers for certain items of legislation. When a measure eg the renewable energy Directive, is agreed in codecision certain aspects deemed focused on technical or implementation matters can be left to be determined, after the measures approval, by committees. Committees are formally established within legislation to ‘assist’ the Commission in the exercising of its power of implementation. These are composed of Member State representatives and chaired by Commission officials. The process that sees the use of these committees and the establishment supporting legislation is known as comitology.

While a highly technical and at times convoluted process, comitology is becoming an increasingly important decision making process at EU level. A larger number of decisions are being left to be dealt with under comitology. While historically comitology has been used to agree technical aspects, the scope of coverage is also increasing with issues fundamental to the effectiveness of policy measures now being determined using these procedures.

Comitology is designed to allow Member States to participate in the exercising of the Commission’s implementing powers (and increasingly the European Parliament). Initially this concept developed ad hoc but the Council’s role was later formalised, with concessions gradually made to European Parliament engagement. There are three different procedures (based on Decision 1999/468/EC amended by 2006/512/EC) under comitology. The procedure adopted importantly determines the level of engagement of the Member States and Parliament in the decision making process.

• Advisory procedure – under this the Commission has the final decision making powers and any committee is purely advisory. Committees deliver a simple majority. • Management procedure – under this the Commission still has the predominant role. The committee delivers and opinion on draft measures by qualified majority vote. Subsequently the Commission adopts measures, if these are not in accordance with the committees opinion the Council is informed and has a fixed time period to respond. • Regulator procedure – Under this the Commission still has the predominant role, putting forward proposals to committee. If the committee votes to approve the measure by qualified majority vote it will be action. If an unfavourable opinion (or no opinion) is delivered then the decision will be referred to the Council and the Parliament. The Council then has 3 months to adopt an opinion on or amend the Commission’s proposals (adopting or opposing the draft is by qualified majority vote, but any amendments must be approved by unanimity). Under the procedure the Parliament can consider whether the proposed measure exceeds the Commission’s powers and offer an opinion to the Council, however, Member States do not have to take account of this. • Regulatory procedure with scrutiny – This evolution from 2006 substantially increased the Parliament’s powers under comitology. While the Commission still has right of initiative the Council and Parliament can veto proposals under certain conditions. Under this procedure the committee (still only

10 made up of Member State representatives) delivers an opinion on the proposed measures under qualified majority voting rules. After consultation with the committee the measure is referred to the Council and Parliament. The subsequent procedure will then vary depending on the position of the committee. − A favourable committee opinion – in this case the draft opinion is referred simultaneously to the Council and the Parliament. Within 3 months the Council (by QMV) and the Parliament (by absolute majority) may veto measures prevention adoption by the Commission. If there is no opposition in this time period the Commission will proceed with implementation. − An unfavourable committee opinion – in the event of an unfavourable opinion this is passed to the Council and Parliament. Within 2 months the Council shall vote (under QMV) to either adopt or oppose the measure. If the Council wishes to adopt the measure it is referred to the Parliament, whi