1.
Regulation (European Union)
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A regulation is a legal act of the European Union that becomes immediately enforceable as law in all member states simultaneously. Regulations can be distinguished from directives which, at least in principle, regulations can be adopted by means of a variety of legislative procedures depending on their subject matter. The description of regulations can be found in Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 288 To exercise the Unions competences, the institutions shall adopt regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions. A regulation shall have general application and it shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. A directive shall be binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, a decision shall be binding in its entirety upon those to whom it is addressed. Recommendations and opinions shall have no binding force, the Council can delegate legislative authority to the Commission and, depending on the area and the appropriate legislative procedure, both institutions can make laws. There are Council regulations and Commission regulations, Article 288 does not clearly distinguish between legislative acts and administrative acts, as is normally done in national legal systems. Regulations are in some sense equivalent to Acts of Parliament, in the sense that what they say is law, as such, regulations constitute one of the most powerful forms of European Union law and a great deal of care is required in their drafting and formulation. EudraLex EUR-Lex European Union law Framework decision List of European Union directives UK House of Commons, Report of the EU Legislative Process and scrutiny by national parliaments
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European Economic Area
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The European Economic Area is the area in which the Agreement on the EEA provides for the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital within the European Single Market. The EEA was established on 1 January 1994 upon entry into force of the EEA Agreement, the EEA Agreement specifies that membership is open to member states of either the European Union or European Free Trade Association. EFTA states which are party to the EEA Agreement participate in the EUs internal market without being members of the EU and they adopt most EU legislation concerning the single market, however with notable exclusions including laws regarding agriculture and fisheries. The EEAs decision-shaping processes enable EEA EFTA member states to influence and contribute to new EEA policy, third country goods are excluded for these states on rules of origin. Membership has grown to 31 states as of 2016,28 EU member states, the Agreement is applied provisionally with respect to Croatia—the remaining and most recent EU member state—pending ratification of its accession by all EEA parties. One EFTA member, Switzerland, has not joined the EEA, in the late 1980s, the EFTA member states, led by Sweden, began looking at options to join the then European Communities. The reasons identified for this are manifold, many authors cite the economic downturn in the beginning of the 1980s, and the subsequent adoption by the European Union of the Europe 1992 agenda as a primary reason. Other authors point to the end of the Cold War, which joining the EU less politically controversial for neutral countries. Delors proposed a European Economic Space in January 1989, which was renamed the European Economic Area. By the time the EEA was established, however, several developments hampered its credibility, first of all, Switzerland rejected the EEA agreement in a national referendum on 6 December 1992 obstructing full EU-EFTA integration within the EEA. Furthermore, Austria had applied for full EEC membership in 1989, and was followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland between 1991 and 1992. The EEA Agreement was signed in Porto on 2 May 1992 by the seven states of the European Free Trade Association. Switzerland is instead linked to the EU by a series of bilateral agreements, liechtensteins participation in the EEA was delayed until 1 May 1995. As of 2014 the contracting parties to the EEA are 3 of the 4 EFTA member states and 27 of the 28 EU member states, after Slovenia, Croatia has recovered best from the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and is the second former Yugoslav state to join the EU. According to Eurostat, Croatia has a market economy and its GDP per capita in 2010 was 61 per cent of the EU average. EU accession negotiations were concluded on 30 June 2011, and the Treaty of Accession was signed on 9 December 2011 in Brussels, Accession negotiations were expected to be completed by the autumn of 2013, and on 20 November 2013 it was announced that an enlargement agreement was reached. As of January 2017, the agreement has been ratified by 15 out of 31 EEA member states, the agreement did not fully enter into force until 9 November 2011. On the other hand, the EEA Agreement was applied on a basis to the 10 acceding countries in May 2004 as from the date of their accession to the EU
3.
European Parliament
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The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, the Parliament is composed of 751 members, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world. It has been elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, voter turnout in 2014 stood at 42. 54% of all European voters. The Parliament is the first institution of the EU, and shares equal legislative and it likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and it can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure. The President of the European Parliament is Antonio Tajani, elected in January 2017 and he presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the European Peoples Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections, the European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels, the city of Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices, meetings of the whole Parliament take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels, the Parliament, like the other institutions, was not designed in its current form when it first met on 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and it was a consultative assembly of 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from the national parliaments of member states, having no legislative powers. Its development since its foundation shows how the European Unions structures have evolved without a master plan. Some, such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post, said of the union, nobody would have designed a government as complex. Even the Parliaments two seats, which have switched several times, are a result of various agreements or lack of agreements, the body was not mentioned in the original Schuman Declaration. It was assumed or hoped that difficulties with the British would be resolved to allow the Council of Europes Assembly to perform the task, a separate Assembly was introduced during negotiations on the Treaty as an institution which would counterbalance and monitor the executive while providing democratic legitimacy. The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated the desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by using the term representatives of the people. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task of drawing up the treaty to establish a European Political Community
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Council of the European Union
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The Council of the European Union is the third of the seven institutions of the European Union as listed in the Treaty on European Union. It is part of the essentially bicameral EU legislature and represents the governments of the EUs member states. It is based in the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, Belgium, the Council meets in 10 different configurations of 28 national ministers. The continuity between presidencies is provided by an arrangement under which three successive presidencies, known as Presidency trios, share common political programmes, the Foreign Affairs Council is however chaired by the Unions High Representative. Its decisions are made by qualified majority voting in most areas, usually where it operates unanimously, it only needs to consult the Parliament. In a few limited areas the Council may initiate new EU law itself, the Secretariat is headed by the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union. The Secretariat is divided into seven directorates-general, each administered by a director-general, the Council first appeared in the European Coal and Steel Community as the Special Council of Ministers, set up to counterbalance the High Authority. The original Council had limited powers, issues relating only to coal and steel were in the Authoritys domain, as a whole, the Council only scrutinised the High Authority. In 1957, the Treaties of Rome established two new communities, and with two new Councils, the Council of the European Atomic Energy Community and the Council of the European Economic Community. However, due to objections over the power of the Authority, their Councils had more powers. In 1965 the Council was hit by the empty chair crisis, due to disagreements between French President Charles de Gaulle and the Commissions agriculture proposals, among other things, France boycotted all meetings of the Council. This halted the Councils work until the impasse was resolved the following year by the Luxembourg compromise, although initiated by a gamble of the President of the Commission, Walter Hallstein, who later on lost the Presidency, the crisis exposed flaws in the Councils workings. In 1993, the Council adopted the name Council of the European Union and that treaty strengthened the Council, with the addition of more intergovernmental elements in the three pillars system. However, at the time the Parliament and Commission had been strengthened inside the Community pillar. The Treaty of Lisbon abolished the system and gave further powers to Parliament. It also merged the Councils High Representative with the Commissions foreign policy head, the development of the Council has been characterised by the rise in power of the Parliament, with which the Council has had to share its legislative powers. The Parliament has often provided opposition to the Councils wishes and this has in some cases led to clashes between both bodies with the Councils system of intergovernmentalism contradicting the developing parliamentary system and supranational principles. The primary purpose of the Council is to act as one of the two chambers of the EUs legislative branch, the chamber being the European Parliament
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Official Journal of the European Union
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The Official Journal of the European Union is the official gazette of record for the European Union. It is published every working day in all of the languages of the member states. Only legal acts published in the Official Journal are binding and it was first published on 30 December 1952 as the Official Journal of the European Coal and Steel Community. Since 1998 the Journal has been available online via the EUR-Lex service, as of the 1st of July 2013, the electronic version of the Official Journal bears legal value instead of the paper version. The Journal comprises two series, The L series contains EU legislation including regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations, the C series contains reports and announcements including the judgments of the European Court of Justice and the General Court. There is also a supplementary S series which contains invitations to tender, the S Series is also the only series that is not issued in every working language of the Union. Each contracting authority issues notices in the language of its choice
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European Commission
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Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, pledging to respect the treaties and to be completely independent in carrying out their duties during their mandate. The Commission operates as a government, with 28 members of the Commission. There is one member per state, but members are bound by their oath of office to represent the general interest of the EU as a whole rather than their home state. One of the 28 is the Commission President proposed by the European Council, the current Commission is the Juncker Commission, which took office in late 2014. The procedural languages of the Commission are English, French and German, the Members of the Commission and their cabinets are based in the Berlaymont building in Brussels. The first Commission originated in 1951 as the nine-member High Authority under President Jean Monnet, the High Authority was the supranational administrative executive of the new European Coal and Steel Community. It took office first on 10 August 1952 in Luxembourg, in 1958 the Treaties of Rome had established two new communities alongside the ECSC, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. However their executives were called Commissions rather than High Authorities, the reason for the change in name was the new relationship between the executives and the Council. Some states such as France expressed reservations over the power of the High Authority, louis Armand led the first Commission of Euratom. Walter Hallstein led the first Commission of the EEC, holding the first formal meeting on 16 January 1958 at the Château of Val-Duchesse, Hallstein notably began the consolidation of European law and started to have a notable impact on national legislation. The three bodies, collectively named the European Executives, co-existed until 1 July 1967 when, under the Merger Treaty, the Rey Commission completed the Communitys customs union in 1968 and campaigned for a more powerful, elected, European Parliament. Despite Rey being the first President of the communities, Hallstein is seen as the first President of the modern Commission. The Malfatti and Mansholt Commissions followed with work on monetary co-operation, with that enlargement the Commissions membership increased to thirteen under the Ortoli Commission, which dealt with the enlarged community during economic and international instability at that time. Following the Jenkins Commission, Gaston Thorns Commission oversaw the Communitys enlargement to the south, the Commission headed by Jacques Delors was seen as giving the Community a sense of direction and dynamism. Delors and his team are considered as the founding fathers of the euro. The International Herald Tribune noted the work of Delors at the end of his term in 1992. He arrived when Europessimism was at its worst, although he was a little-known former French finance minister, he breathed life and hope into the EC and into the dispirited Brussels Commission. The successor to Delors was Jacques Santer, the entire Santer Commission was forced to resign in 1999 by the Parliament as result of a fraud and corruption scandal, with a central role played by Édith Cresson
7.
European Economic and Social Committee
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The European Economic and Social Committee is a consultative body of the European Union established in 1958. It is an assembly composed of social partners, namely, employers. Its seat, which it shares with the Committee of the Regions, is the Jacques Delors building on Belliardstraat / Rue Belliard 99 in Brussels. Once known by the acronym EcoSoc, the body is now referred to as the EESC and it was established by the Treaty of Rome of 1957 in order to unite different economic interest groups to establish a Single Market. The creation of this gave them an institution to allow their voices to be heard by the European Commission, the Council. The EESC declares itself to be a bridge between Europe and organised civil society and it is mandatory for the Committee to be consulted on those issues stipulated in the Treaties and in all cases where the institutions deem it appropriate. The Treaty of Maastricht considerably enlarged the Committees domain, on certain issues the EESC works in partnership with the Committee of the Regions. As said, it is mandatory for the Committee to be consulted on those issues stipulated in the Treaties, the EESC may also be consulted on an exploratory basis by one of the other institutions, and may issue opinions on its own initiative. The Committee adopts on average 170 opinions a year on a range of subjects concerning European integration. It therefore plays an role in the processes of shaping Community policies. The number of members per EU state varies according to the population of each state, members are appointed by the Council following nominations made by the government of the respective Member State. However, once appointed, the members are independent of their governments. They have a term of office of five years. The President of the EESC, elected for a 2 1⁄2-year term, is Georges Dassis, the previous president was Henri Malosse. In a report reviewing 50 years of the EESC, C. S. Dimitrioulas cited Jacques Delors as saying that EESC contributions from 1958 to 2008 on civil and social matters were remarkable. Critics observed that while the EESC has undoubtedly performed good works in its time, it has now outlived its usefulness and should be dismantled.5 million, there are around 50 officials at each committee with a minimum salary of €123. The EESC has fought such criticism with arguments of its own, far from being sidelined as critics hoped, the EESC has been reinvigorated by the Lisbon Treaty, which has confirmed the EESCs role and influence. In this context, the EESC has a responsibility in bringing participatory democracy to life
