The European dimension

Corso di inglese giuridico

Prof.ssa C. M. Cascione

Università degli Studi di Bari ‘Aldo Moro’

Lezione n. 9

European Institutions

The European Council

The European Parliament

The European Commission

The Council of Ministers

The Court of justice

It sets the EU's overall political direction and defines the

EU's broad priorities

It deals with complex or sensitive issues that cannot be

resolved at a lower level of intergovernmental cooperation

has no powers to pass laws

it comprises national heads of state or government and the

President of the Commission

The European Council

It is mainly an advisory and consultative body

It is composed by members (members of the

EuropeanParliament -MEPs) directly elected by EU voters

every 5 years. The members sit in Parliament in political, rather

then geographical, groups

Parliament is one of the EU’s main law-making institutions,

along with the Council of the European Union.

The European Parliament

debating and passing European laws, with

the Council

scrutinising other EU institutions,

particularly the Commission, to make sure

they are working democratically

debating and adopting the EU's budget, with

the Council.

Main functions

The Council of Ministers

It is the main decision making and legislative

body in European Union

It consists of ministers from the governement of the

member States; the Precidency of the council

rotates between the member states every six

months.

The primary purpose of the Council is to act

as one of the two chambers of the EU's

legislative branch,

It also holds, jointly with the Parliament, the

budgetary power of the Union

It has control over the more intergovernmental

areas of the EU, such as foreign policy and

macroeconnomic co-ordination.

Main functions

The European Commission

The European Commission is one of the main

institutions of the European Union.

It represents and upholds the interests of the EU as

a whole.

It drafts proposals for new European laws.

The 28 Commissioners, one from each EU country,

provide the Commission’s political leadership

during their 5-year term. Each Commissioner is

assigned responsibility for specific policy areas by

the President.

Main functions:

proposing new laws to Parliament and the Council

managing the EU's budget and allocating funding

enforcing EU law (together with the Court of

Justice)

representing the EU internationally, for example, by

negotiating agreements between the EU and other

countries.

Ordinary legislative procedure

Commission

Proposes legislation

Council Parliament

Codecision

The Court of Justice

The Court of Justice interprets EU law to make sure

it is applied in the same way in all EU countries.

It also settles legal disputes between EU

governments and EU institutions.

Individuals, companies or organisations can also

bring cases before the Court if they feel their rights

have been infringed by an EU institution.

Types of cases:

requests for a preliminary ruling – when national courts

ask the Court of Justice to interpret a point of EU law

actions for failure to fulfil an obligation – brought against

EU governments for not applying EU law

actions for annulment – against EU laws thought to violate

the EU treaties or fundamental rights

actions for failure to act – against EU institutions for

failing to make decisions required of them

direct actions – brought by individuals, companies or

organisations against EU decisions or actions

How cases are heard:

A judge and an advocate general are assigned to each case

that comes before the Court.

Cases submitted to the court are processed in two stages:

- a written stage

- an oral stage

The Court's judgements are majority decisions and are read

out at public hearings.

Sources of European Law

Primary legislation

(The treaties)

Secondary legislation:

- regulations

- directives

- decisions

‘soft law’

- recommendations

- opinions

The Treaties

Treaties contain basic provisions on the European Union's

objectives and organisation.

They set the framework for the operation of the European

Union which is administered by the Union institutions.

They set up the various organs of the Unions and grant them

their powers, delineating the areas of exclusive and shared

competence between the Union and member states

Main treaties

Treaties of Rome - EEC and EURATOM treaties

Signed: 25 March 1957/Entered into force: 1 January 1958

Purpose: to set up the European Economic Community (EEC) and the

European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).

Main changes: extension of European integration to include general economic

cooperation.

Treaty on European Union - Maastricht Treaty

Signed: 7 February 1992/Entered into force: 1 November 1993

Purpose: to prepare for European Monetary Union and introduce elements of

a political union (citizenship, common foreign and internal affairs policy).

Main changes: establishment of the European Union and introduction of the

co-decision procedure, giving Parliament more say in decision-making.

New forms of cooperation between EU governments – for example on

defence and justice and home affairs.

Treaty of Amsterdam

Signed: 2 October 1997/Entered into force: 1 May 1999

Purpose: To reform the EU institutions in preparation for the arrival of

future member countries.

Main changes: amendment, renumbering and consolidation of EU and EEC

treaties. More transparent decision-making

Treaty of Nice

Signed: 26 February 2001/Entered into force: 1 February 2003

Purpose: to reform the institutions so that the EU could function efficiently

after reaching 25 member countries.

Main changes: methods for changing the composition of the Commission

and redefining the voting system in the Council.

Treaty of Lisbon

Signed: 13 December 2007/Entered into force: 1 December 2009

Purpose: to make the EU more democratic, more efficient and better able

to address global problems, such as climate change, with one voice.

Main changes: more power for the European Parliament, change of voting

procedures in the Council, citizens' initiative, a permanent president of

the European Council, a new High Representative for Foreign Affairs, a

new EU diplomatic service.

The Lisbon treaty clarifies which powers:

belong to the EU

belong to EU member countries

are shared.

The Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe (2004) – with aims similar

to the Lisbon Treaty – was signed but never ratified.

Regulations

Regulations are legislative instruments of general

application.

They apply to abstract rather than individual situations.

Regulations are binding in their entirety. This means that a

Member State has no power to apply regulations

incompletely or to apply only those provisions of which it

approves.

Regulations are also directly applicable. This means that

regulations do not need to be transposed into national law by

the respective Member States in order to take effect.

Directives

Directives are legislative instruments which reconcile the

dual objective of both securing the necessary uniformity of

Community law and respecting the diversity of national

traditions and structures.

Directives are binding on Member States as to the result to

be achieved but leave it to the respective national authorities

to decide how the Community objective set out in the

directive is to be incorporated into their domestic legal

systems before a specified date.

A directive does not acquire legal force and effect until the

date for implementation of the directive has expired.

Decisions

A decision is an individual act addressed to a specified

person or persons.

Decisions are binding only on those to whom they are

addressed without any need for implementation into national

law.